Reply #75: Pardon me while I rant

[RoseMead]

You know, it's hard enough being a liberal in this damned redneck paradise. I have my conservative, fundy neighbors, friends and family members to deal with, and that's a given, I've been accustomed since childhood to dealing with their brand of stupid. But lately, I've been getting into disputes with my fellow Democrats - including some of the most liberal ones - because so many of them are fed up. They do NOT want to vote for Manchin. Some are already saying they'll vote for the Mountain Party candidate, some are considering sitting the election out. I've been pushing and prodding, trying to remind them that Democrats really are better than Republicans, urging them to hold their nose and vote for Dem candidates even though they aren't liberals. The resulting tension has caused me many headaches and heartaches, but I've been soldiering on, saying Dems are better, Dems are better...

Then we get this shit.

How, please tell me how, am I supposed to go out now, less than a month before the election, and inform my friends and neighbors about this abomination, fire them up, urge them to fight against it - AND simultaneously keep telling them "Dems are better?" How do I do that? I mean, I'd like to be able to do it without looking like an idiot, I do have some pride, but I'm not sure under these circumstances that I can do it at all. I feel a responsibility toward the people I try to inform. How can I tell them that Dems are better with a straight face? At this point, it's a wonder they haven't all told me to go straight to hell.

THIS is the shit that is driving so many of us up a fucking wall. It's not that we didn't get our damn pony, it's not because we're one-issue voters, and it certainly isn't because we're trolls/freepers/teabaggers/libertarians/Republicans. It's because we really believe - or, in some cases, believed - that we're doing the right thing in always supporting Democrats, and in some cases, we've put ourselves out on a limb personally to do so, and then we are repeatedly stabbed in the back by these feckless motherfuckers who supposedly "need" our help.

We hear all the time about how politicians have to keep their constituents happy - that's always the excuse when a Democrat votes for some right-wing piece of garbage: they had to do it to keep favor with their voters. Well, here's my message to the ruling class: 1)This constituent is NOT happy, and 2)if you really "need" my help, you need to QUIT SIMULTANEOUSLY UNDERMINING MY CREDIBILITY WITH THOSE VOTERS YOU WANT ME TO WIN OVER!

Jesus.