Let’s abandon the Democrats: Stop blaming Fox News and stop hoping Elizabeth Warren will save us

[Maedhros]

224. I do hear you.

For my part, I see the Party holding Liberals hostage with the threat to the working class. While the Party chases Wall Street money, appoints Wall Street cabinet members and crafts Wall Street-friendly trade agreements in secret, they tell us to vote for them or else.

The TPP, all by itself, will do more damage to the working class than electing token erstwhile "Liberal" Democrats can fix. Liberals have been playing this game for 30 years now, with no appreciable improvement in our position. The first step is to stop letting the Party take our support for granted. By making them earn our votes, and by holding them accountable for following through on their promises, we will begin to fix our problems. If we buy the same old "hope" schtick that we've been sold for so long, we ensure the continuance of the status quo.

http://www.salon.com/2014/03/23/the_hope_diet_would_the_tea_party_fall_for_this/

“Hope” also sets an extremely low standard for judging Democratic politicians. Hope is, by their definition, something they bring with them, or a place they come from, or a poster they are (literally!) the illustration for; ensuring that this fanciful substance flows our way doesn’t require them actually to, you know, enact anything we’re hoping for. On the contrary, they can do things (like Clinton’s deregulations or Obama’s spying program) that actually harm their constituents, and then tell us, as Barack Obama tweeted after the 2012 election, “The definition of hope is you still believe, even when it’s hard.”

This is the opposite of accountability. It means, just keep waiting, and just keep voting. If you think good thoughts long enough, maybe someday you’ll get that million bucks, or that single-payer healthcare system.