I'm not sure what "grassroots Democrat" or "progressive" means, but I have the impression that GUEST (and maybe others) mean people who are generally to the left of the New Deal when they use those terms. But then, I really don't know what Republicans and others on the right mean when they use the word "liberal" as a curse either.

I do know a lot of life-long registered Democrats, and individuals who are not party members but who usually vote that way who are pretty middle of the road. These are people who don't much care if individuals own guns (except maybe assault rifles and machine guns), but who also don't see any reason not to register them; people who don't care what somebody else does in the company of another consenting adult, of either sex, in private, and doesn't understand why they can't be married if they want; people who see a reason for laws and think they should be obeyed; and so on. My opinion is that most people are in the center.

I like Kerry, and will support him, because I see him as being in the center. Yes, he has changed his position on issues over time, and I'd say that almost everyone else has done so as well. Granted that there are some individuals who made up their minds on everything when they were eighteen and haven't had a new thought in forty years, but I've never met one of them who was worth the powder to blow them to hell.

GUEST 2:19 PM says that he/she supported Nader last time, and that a vote for Nader in 2000 wouldn't necessarily have been a vote for Gore in Nader's absence. Perhaps the same is still true, but one set of polls I saw had Kerry 4 percentage points ahead of Bush the day before Nader declared, and the two tied with 6 percent for Nader the following day. Like Nader or not (and I personally don't), all indications are that a vote for Nader is a potential vote against Bush that is thrown away.