I refuse to accept Don, your mode of thinking. It is the "Anybody But Bush" mode that I think results in us shooting the nation in both feet, AND cutting ourselves off at the knees.

The only reason I agree that Kerry will be better than Bush, is that a Kerry presidency MAY slow down the Republican machine. But I'm enough of a realist--and honest enough with myself--to admit that it may already be too late to stop the runaway train.

That is why I'm putting little effort into the presidential campaign this year, and putting my eggs in the local candidate basket, towards doing education and outreach work online and through meet-ups (it isn't just Deaniacs doing that, you know), that sort of thing.

The Democratic party will never get back into power if it doesn't take a hard turn to the left, and embrace it's progressive populist wing. It really is that simple. Going down the so-called center, and sucking up soft money instead of building a party for the future with vision, programs, legitimate small donor fund raising, etc., has resulted in the Democratic Party losing the White House, the Congress, the state houses and the governorships.

Electing Kerry will only prolong the inevitable on the national level, IMO. I would really just as soon see the national Beltway leadership self-destruct, because once that happens and they and the party rank and file know they can't win unless things change drastically, we'll keep having to do battle with the Republican right.

I do want to see the Democratic Party back in power, just not the Republicratic party. We are now, as we were at the turn of the 20th century, in an era of voter and party realignments, with a huge surge in political populism, from John Anderson to Ross Perot to Ralph Nader. Democrats have lost it all through their patronage games, their arrogance, and their courtship with corporate interests at the expense of the public trust. They have been losing, because they deserve to lose, not because Republicans deserve to win.

We all know the Republicans don't deserve anything but our contempt. But so do the Democrats right now. Just because the "Anybody But George I & II" Democrats were finally forced to wake up and smell the coffee in 2000 and 2002, doesn't mean those of us who have know the score for years have to accept their "the sky is falling" scenario for this year's election. Especially when we've heard it all before, this Democratic Party tactic of crying wolf in 1980, in 1984, in 1988, in 1992, in 1996, in 1998, in 2000, and in 2002.

So what makes this year any different? Life was pretty damn dire under Reagan. Life was pretty damn dire under George I. Life improved a bit under Clinton because of the tech boom. Life under George II has been dire too.

To working class people like myself, who never enjoyed the benefits of the 1990s boom, or had the boom dropped on us when it ended, the fact that life is dire isn't exactly news.

Clinton ran on a promise to help the middle class, and that is what he did. Kerry is running on a promise to help the middle class, and I'm sure if he is elected, that is what he'll try to do.

But not all of us in America are fortunate enough to call ourselves middle class. A lot of us are still working class. We aren't earning $80,000. Hell, we aren't even earning $50,000 in two income families! We are desperate for government services, and we are going under. The middle class is in no danger of disappearing, despite all the middle class punditry's declarations to the contrary. But the working class in this country is going under. A Kerry presidency will be too late for many of us.

So what exactly, is my incentive to vote Democratic in this year's presidential race, when it is the Democratic party that pulled the plug on the government services the working class has relied upon to stay afloat and contribute to the tax base for the last 50 years?