General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: I'm sorry, guys. I can't get past her vote for the Iraq "war". [View all]lostincalifornia
(3,639 posts)progressive in every Democratic primary since. However, in the end when the Democratic nominee was selected, I supported that Democratic nominee in the general election.
That cannot be said for every Democratic for sure. In the eighties the wonderful "ray gun" democrats, a lot of them who consisted of labor thought it was such a great idea to vote for reagan because then didn't like Jimmy Carter. That worked out real well for them, with republicans' long term plan to dismantle labor and the unions didn't it?
In 2000 the greens thought it really didn't matter, because there really "was no difference between the two parties", so good ole bush got in, and the supreme court is what it is today. Yeah, that worked out real well. Their rationalization was that it wasn't their fault, it was the Supreme Court. Problem with that argument is it would not have been an issue if the election wasn't so close, and that is exactly what Nader did, move the edge just enough that it was close. Not only did the greens screw themselves, but the whole country is still reeling from that fiasco, and will for many years to come.
Of course Bill Clinton did not help the situation, and facilitated the corporate take over of America with the legislation he pushed, especially with regard to deregulation, but he didn't start any new wars, and keep the balance on the Supreme Court, and that was extremely important, especially since bush senior gave us Clarence Thomas.
So even in the case of Bill Clinton, who did not help the progressive cause very much, in the overall scale of things, he was still better than the republicans, and this was more than demonstrated by the republican victory in 2000, which not only got us into multiple wars, based on lies, but stacked the court with right wing ideologues, and was instrumental in the financial meltdown due mostly the deregulation started by reagan, followed by bush senior with the S&L crisis, facilitated by Bill Clinton, and finalized by bush junior.
So yes, even comparing democratic "sell outs" verses the republicans especially today, the Democrats are still better if for nothing else then on social issues.