For those of you who are not attentive to everything I write, this may come as a bit of a shock to you.
I am not a Democrat.
I am an Independent Progressive. I will vote for whichever candidate will move the fastest and farthest to achieve the goals most important to me - mitigating and reversing climate change, universal healthcare through a government single-payer program, student debt forgiveness and free tuition to public universities, a higher minimum wage ($15 or greater), reducing the income gap and restoring the middle class.
Under our present two-party system, there is only one party that even suggests approaching these issues, and that is the Democratic party. But I look carefully at each candidate, each race. If the Republican was clearly more progressive than the Democrat, I would consider voting for that candidate. Frankly, it's been over three decades since that has occurred.
The Democrats are divided between corporate Democrats and progressive Democrats. The corporate vary from slightly (ever so slightly) center-left to centrist moderate to center-right. The biggest thing they have in common is they like the current system, accept money from large donors representing wealthy and corporate interests, and want to make change slowly and incrementally. I can work with corporate Democrats if I have to. President Obama was a corporate Democrat, but he was also the best President of my lifetime.
Independent Progressives are much more forthright in wanting to achieve many of the goals that I want to see us achieve. They don't take big money, and they are much more explicit about the structural changes we need to make.
The media and many of the corporate interests behind the corporate Democrats have made it clear that we won't ever have a progressive for a Democratic nominee. They will pull out any stops to prevent it from happening. There has not been a progressive nominee since McGovern in 1972, and although the country has changed dramatically, centrist Democrats use that loss as a boogeyman for any progressive threats. Of course, Republicans have not been deterred by such losses. They have moved so for to the right (they now dwell beyond, into reactionary/fascist territory), and figures such as Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagen would be considered too liberal to get their nomination.
How deep is the mindset of this anti-progressive movement in the Democratic Party?
The media universally decries Progressive positions and Progressive candidates. MSNBC, the so-called left-leaning network, regularly warns us that the progressive positions are too far (even though polling proves otherwise), and will alienate voters who might otherwise vote Democratic. They slam Progressive candidates, particularly Bernie Sanders, as being unelectable, even when they poll well. Bernie ahead in a state? Well. that's a mistake, and his support will dissipate as we get closer to an election. Elizabeth Warren got a pass when she was down in the polls, with some kind things said about her, but that changed as she rose to contention. Now everything she does is savaged.
The billionaire class, even those who carry some pretense of being moderate or liberal, are terrified of Warren and Sanders. Some have even said they would abandon their moderate roots and vote for Trump over a Warren or Sanders. One billionaire (fifty times over billionaire) has entered the race, mostly due to fear of Warren's wealth tax. This candidate owns one of the largest media outlets in the country and additionally will be able to buy enough advertising to drown out everyone else.
My favorite President, Barack Obama, has privately said that if Bernie Sanders looks like he could get the nomination, he will come off the bench and come out swinging against him. Our most popular political figure has suggested that he will turn into a weapon to ensure that a Progressive does not get the nomination.
Progressives don't even have to wait for the Republicans to be attacked and demonized. The corporate Democrats will gleefully use Republican talking points to try and destroy them. Medicare For All is too expensive, costing (snatch a number out of the air) thirty trillion gazillion dollars! People want their private plans (that come from their employers and are subject to their employer's whims, not the employees)! Free college even for billionaire's kids (I guess according to Mayor Pete's plan, that includes any family that makes a combined amount greater than $100,000 - yeah that's almost like being a billionaire)*!
Now, trust me on this. If a progressive attacks a corporate Democrat on anything, the weeping and wailing begin - HOW DARE YOU HAND THE REPUBLICANS LINES OF ATTACK AND WEAKEN THINGS FOR OUR INEVITABLE CORPORATE DEMOCRATIC NOMINEE!!! But attacking a progressive Democrat? Oh, you can do that all day and all night until the cows come home.
I will always fight for and support a progressive Democrat. Things are getting dire out there, and we need them more than ever.
But, sigh, I will concede to the inevitable and vote for the corporate Democratic nominee. Because, yes, I understand the alternative is so much worse. And yes, even if the contest winds up being a corporate Democrat (Biden, Mayor Pete, Klobuchar) and a corporate Republican (Kasich, Romney), I will still vote for the corporate Democrat.
I'm not stupid.
I'm just disappointed.
*Another shocker spoiler alert for Mayor Pete and his plunge to the corporate side of the Democratic Party - billionaires don't send their kids to public universities - they go to fancy private colleges that would not be covered by anybody's plan.**
**The reason we still have a Hope Scholarship in Georgia is that it covers every student that academically qualifies. If it didn't, the moneyed interests that lobby our ultra-conservative Georgia legislature and Governor would have destroyed it.
***Can anybody tell that I am upset about Mayor Pete and his turn to the right? Spoiler alert...yes, I am.
****and do I realize I misuse the term/cliche 'spoiler alert'? Yes, I am. I just don't care.
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