2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Who ARE you people??? [View all]johnlucas
(1,250 posts)I'm Black & grew up a Democrat. I live in Georgia.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (with Harry S. Truman) & John Fitzgerald Kennedy (with Lyndon Baines Johnson) are the reason why many Blacks became Democrats thanks to their actions on Civil Rights platforms as well as domestic economic policies.
I was born in the mid-late 1970s long after the heavy lifting for our justice was done.
Came of age in the era of Ronald Reagan then George Herbert Walker Bush in the 1980s.
Became a legal adult in the 1990s in the era of Bill Clinton.
Saw the era of George Walker Bush as a young adult in the 2000s.
And saw Barack Obama become the first Black President in 2008.
Growing up in the Reagan/Bush era I knew that everything was going backwards from what was accomplished before I was born.
My grandmother always told me about how good a man Jimmy Carter was & I knew that ever since Reagan got in Economic Justice was falling apart while we were still striving to secure Social Justice.
I knew what the Republicans were & what they stood for: Greed, Bigotry, War-lust, & just general Mean-Spiritedness.
I was dismayed at how their philosophies took over the general direction of the country.
I always hoped that the Democrats would stop the Republicans & their plans but got disappointed time & time again.
Had some hope with Bill Clinton & he did do some things but he didn't stop the nation's general march towards this wicked Republican agenda.
The election & re-election (stolen or not) of George Bush Jr. proved this.
In 2000, I was severely tempted to vote for Ralph Nader since I was getting increasingly disappointed in the Democrats for letting these wackos go so far.
The Republicans weren't hard to beat. They just appealed to people's worst nature, the lowest common denominator.
You have to out-think them & sabotage their little games.
But I voted for Al Gore anyway since as a Democrat I couldn't let Bush get in there.
Nader just didn't have enough support & now was not the time to make a point with so much at stake.
Bush got in anyway. Gore didn't fight him about that suspicious vote tally.
In 2004, still somehow calling myself a Democrat despite them following lapdog behind everything Bush did, I was hoping for somebody strong enough on an independent party to make a legitimate run.
But there was nobody so I voted for the Democrats again.
I wasn't enthusiastic about Kerry but we had to get Bush out of there before he did anymore damage.
Bush got in AGAIN anyway. And another 4 years of Democrats rolling over & playing fetch was at hand.
In 2006, I hoped that the Democrats had learned their lesson being so weak to Bush that they would finally fight back.
Nope. Gotta keep their powder dry & all that crap.
Somewhere around this time I stopped calling myself a Democrat.
Being in Georgia, Republicans run a lot of stuff in this state & it feels like it's people like me against the world.
The Great Michael Jackson said, "All I wanna say is that...they don't really care about us!"
When Obama ran in 2008, I shed all labels but thought that anybody who was for Social & Economic Justice worked WITHIN the weak Democratic Party to achieve this.
The two-party system is strong, I knew that. I was pragmatic about my votes by now. Still wanted the Republican Party to end.
By now I hated the Democrats in general but put my hopes behind Obama to be the emblem of Change not just in the obvious way but also to change that Democratic Party back into that strong force they used to be.
That force that proposed a Second Bill of Rights, that passed New Deals, that tried to make a Great Society...for ALL people not just a few.
During this time I find Democratic Underground through a web search as he & Hillary fight it out over the Democratic Nomination.
He gets in & then does business much like Clinton did.
He DID get some things accomplished but I know he could have gone much further if he & the Democrats tried.
I thought of my no-label stance while at Democratic Underground & was true to it but was willing to accept a label called "Progressive" since the meaning of that word was more direct & self-explanatory than "Liberal" was ('liberal' means 'free' but that could portrayed to mean free from responsibility, free from regulation, free market advocate).
I was about PROGRESS on this Social & Economic Justice front.
But here at Democratic Underground, I find some people more interested in the Democratic part of the name than the Underground.
To me, Democratic is the simplistic automatic "All Democrats are the good guys" kneejerk reaction.
While Underground represents any & all of those who are still fighting for what the Democratic Party SAYS it's fighting forSocial & Economic Justice for ALL.
Democratic are the party cheerleaders who make excuses for the Democratic Party's weaknesses.
They don't believe in any criticism towards the party no matter how justified.
Underground are the ones who believe in the actions of the Democratic Party not the image & may take on a host of names from 'Democrat' to 'Green' to 'Socialist' to 'Independent'.
They question the enemy within & are even willing to shuck the Democratic Party label if it will no longer serve the interests of Social & Economic Justice for All.
Democratic is the comfortable Status Quo. Safe & secure.
Underground is in the dirt, on the outside looking in, grimy in the gutter, strivers on the come up.
Democratic make for good team players & solid block support but are not as insightful.
Underground can be divisive & individualistic but improve the power of the cause.
Being here I have seen the need for both halves.
I identify in the Underground section but understand that those Democratic cheerleaders put the numbers behind the candidates.
I welcome disharmonic discussion but also know that a team of individuals can never be a team.
I see that the Democratic team players need to open up to what the Underground have to say instead of automatically covering their ears up saying "La la la".
I see that the guys in the muck, the discordant outsiders refresh the staleness of the status quo.
I will reclaim the label of Democrat once the Democratic Party reclaims its stance as THE force for Social & Economic Justice.
There is no Right & Left. There is only Backward & Forward.
PROGRESS FORWARD!
John Lucas
P.S.: Democratic Underground is a TREASURE TROVE of Knowledge like all forums. I love this place & have learned so much from people's stories here!