He asked not only "What's wrong with the Democratic Party" but he makes a distinction between the two camps; The Royals and The People camps.

There are the "People Democrats" and then there are the "Royal Democrats" who are not that far removed from the old Jim Crow Democrats who became Republicans when the Democratic Party embraced civil rights legislation.

Worth reading the full piece: It's time for Democrats to stop whining and vote their conscience, resurface as Republicans or retire to corporate boards. A real oppostition must be mounted against the White House madness

Scroll down to "DiFi and the Royal Democrats..The curious withdrawal of Cindy Sheehan"

Shame on us for discouraging the new and energetic activists.


Well, "You can't vote for war and disown the results"

Solidarity in it's truest sense rerquires that we relinquish, or otherwise overrule the impulses for selfishness that so dominate our lifestyles and world views on so many levels.

Learning to "do for others" without linking that doing to a demonstrable reward accruing to onesself is a formidable obstacle to functional solidarity in today's world.

Denial is our most dangerous adversary.

Damn.

Not sure what country or decade I'm living in but it looks like I might not have missed my chance to wave a red flag and march down the streets after all.  

Ok, that was a joke.  Maybe.  But seriously, all the smug free-marketeers and neo-cons and conservatives thought the end of the Cold War meant they won the grand prize, game over.  And it was a game for them.  But it's not a game for those of us trying to make a living, trying to access basic services, trying to maintain a decent quality of life, trying to defend basic rights, trying to create a civil, fair, healthy society and god forbid even an enlightened one.  

I think they are counting on the spectre of Communism and a healthy dose of individual greed to keep us away from exploring solutions to the problems of inequality in this country.  

But they've made it clear that spying, censoring, absence of fair elections, torture camps, propaganda and all those other bogey men aren't just for Communism anymore.  And we've come to associate greed with people like Dick Cheney, so that that's not sexy anymore.

Maybe we can get somewhere now.

•  MoveOn, MovingIdeas, Media Matters, the 70 liberal blogs on your right,  as well as the Democratic, Progressive, and Labor Parties all compete for your time, effort, and money. [Liability]

•  Each and every one of those orgs likely contain a minimum 50% shared membership.  Redundancy of effort on a massive scale. [Liability]

•  One blog (not listed) is comprised of over 900 people whose prime purpose is to gather, collate, and report information in-depth on a wide variety of subject matter.  I call it the "library", everyone else calls it ePluribus Media.  [Asset]

•  PTV is a new online only network attempting to gather information through a variety of media - video, audio, blogs - which provides an alternative to the dread "MSM".  [Questionable]

•  ActBlue has built an incredible fund-raising mechanism for virtually anyone who has the bux to set up an account (liberally).  [Asset]

•  People.  The most important element in generating a fully functioning network - on and offline - who are sympathetic to what we are calling "progressive" solutions.  [Asset]

So.  You are in a rural precinct in say, North Dakota.  You build your own blog-shell, and begin to survey and gather "assets" in your area.  "X" precincts in a region, "X" regions in a State, all States on the map.  You're having a bake sale in downtown Minot in two weeks to support your local sheriff.  That is a "localcast" with limited distribution.  OTOH, you're locally-supported candidate for the State leg needs help.  That's a "Region-Alert". [the HomeGrown Media]

Carry the concept to the '06 elections for Congress, and you move to PTV "webcasts".  ActBlue is your fundraising mechanism, the rest of the programming is up to some smart-ass 26-year-old programmer with way too much time on their hands.  Easy money:  1) survey assets; 2) map assets; 3) build network. [National Exposure]

Four:  get real.  As simple as that outline is in concept, execution is a b*tch, because one of the biggest liabilities is the fight to put it together - to weave that cloth out of whole people.  Yes, it can be done, and the last time I wrote that above outline a whole bunch of folk agreed.

That was then, this is now, and the result will likely be the same:  don't just do something, stand there.