Hope Don Firth doesn't mind my starting a new thread using the link he provided in this thread:

Don's post

to this article:

How To Take Back America

which appears on a site which looks to me like a Democratic Party activism site.

The article is quite astute about the problems the US and the rest of the world faces, now that the Neo-cons have successfully taken over the Republican Party, and by so doing, conquered the nation for the neo-cons.

The author rightly points out that this takeover by the neo-cons is due to the flaw in the US constitution which mandates the authoritarian 'winner take all' electoral college structure, rather than the much more democratic power sharing proportional representation structure most modern democracies now have.

The author suggests the only way to launch a counter-revolution is for all progressives to flood the Democratic Party to take back the reins of power, which is pretty predictable, and we know won't happen anyway. I have an even better idea. Progressives everywhere, including Democrats, should flood the Republican Party and take it over. This will yield much better results, much sooner. And no, I'm not being facetious about that. I'm being perfectly serious.

Progressives can take over the Republican Party just as easily as they could the Democratic Party at this point. So I think we should go where we get the best bang for the buck. Republicans have more money, more clout, and much better access to the media. We should definitely register as Republicans, become Republican Party activists, and start running on the Republican Party tickets. Because if we do that, in 10 years, where will the neo-cons have to go? If we can't beat them at their game, we should join them. Those of us whom the neo-cons have labelled as flakes (the same way we labelled them in the past, as the article points out) should join the Republican ranks, and move that party hard to the left, and we should do it now, so that our influence in the party can be seriously felt in time for the 2004 and 2008 elections.

"Take Back the Party of Lincoln" should be the rallying cry.

In the meantime however, I do think we need to work on getting a constitutional amendment passed that changes our electoral system from the stupid electoral college, which doesn't work for shit, to a proprotional representation system.

If I can get on board for ANYTHING political nowadays, it will be to work on the three agenda items I feel are the most critical to the survival of a democratic state: 1) Repeal of the Patriot Act; 2) a constitutional amendment for proportional representation, and; 3) retaking control of the FCC for the people.

If those three things aren't on the party agenda, then I don't go to the party.