The Democratic Party will be doomed to failure if it tries to be a “big tent.” Big tents have no soul, no star to steer by. If you want my vote, stand for something and make it clear what you stand for.
Here’s a little poem they taught me at school in Jamaica:
Live for something, have a purpose. and that purpose keep in view. Drifting like a helmless vessel, thou canst ne’er to self be true. Half the wrecks that strew life’s ocean, if some star had been their guide, might by now be safely anchored. But they drifted with the tide.
Somebody should read that poem to the Democrats.
Remember the Blue Dogs who sabotaged President Obama’s health care reform? We could have had a national health insurance plan run by the government, but they wouldn’t support such a “socialist” proposal. As a result, we got Obamacare with all its vulnerabilities, and now we’re about to lose even that.
The party would have been stronger and more effective without the Blue Dogs.
Tim Ryan of Ohio, for example. He balked at Obamacare because he feared federal subsidies might pay for abortion.
And, according to a report in Yahoo News this morning, he still doesn’t like Democratic policies. He says the party is “toxic” and “worse than the Republicans.”
Yahoo quotes him as telling MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” yesterday:
We’ve got a lot of energy in our base, which is very exciting for a lot of us to see that on the ground. But you’ve got to beat the Republican and you’ve got to carry this very toxic Democratic brand on your back, too. That’s a tough thing to ask a candidate running for Congress.
And he earlier told the New York Times:
Our brand is worse than Trump.
To Ryan and the other boll weevils who are attacking their party from within, I say, get out.
If you don’t like your party’s platform, find another party more to your liking.
And if you don’t like your party’s leaders, vote for others to take their place. Or run for a leadership position yourself (as Ryan did recently). But if you lose, as Ryan did, support the candidates who win.
Ryan didn’t win Nancy Pelosi’s job as minority leader so he’s bad mouthing the Democratic Party. That’s disloyal.
He doesn’t deserve to be a party member let alone a party leader.
To carry the party’s banner, you must subscribe to the party’s ideals and objectives. You ,must also be loyal.
You don’t go on TV and call your party “toxic.”
That’s sabotage. The Republicans don’t put up with that kind of disloyalty. The Democrats shouldn’t put up with it either.
They should primary the sorry hides of malcontents like Ryan.
