The Democrats Disappoint (Again)

      Seven million people—perhaps the most in history—out in the streets protesting.

      An election night sweep, an utter rejection of he who was not directly on the ballot.

      Poll after poll saying the other guys are at fault for the government shutdown.

      Sinking favorability numbers for the asshole-in-chief.

      And then he is vociferously booed at, of all places, an NFL game.

      So, obviously, the time was right for the opposition party, the Democrats, my Democrats, buoyed by pretty much everything and everyone to keep fighting, to totally cave. To give up the fight without getting the one thing they said they wanted. To acquiesce. To surrender. To submit. To capitulate. To renounce what they had called the existential fight for affordable healthcare. To give in on all the things they said they were fighting for . . . for what?

      How have I, and many of us, stayed with this feckless party for so long?

      The only time I didn’t vote for a Democrat in any election in which I participated was my first presidential vote, which I cast for Eldridge Cleaver, of the Peace and Freedom Party. Or was it the Freedom and Peace Party? Whatever. It was 1968 and my choices were Vietnam War supporter Hubert Humphrey or Vietnam War supporter and general corrupt creep Richard Nixon.

      But I’ve otherwise been a Democrat all my life, following my parents who were Democrats all their lives. Because we were a lower-middle-class Jewish family in the Bronx and what other choice was there? The Democrats were the party of FDR and of the Great Society and of Medicare and Medicaid and the Civil Rights Act and much more.

      We don’t, unfortunately, have a parliamentary democracy here, where there are multiple parties and you can find an opposition more fully attuned to your actual beliefs. So, I’ve voted for Democrats, and donated money to Democrats and canvassed for Democrats and supported Democrats because for so long there’s been no viable alternative.

      But now, we’re starting to talk, in our household, about maybe registering as independents or unaffiliated or whatever they are calling it now. Alas, that may be impractical since it appears that as independents or unaffiliateds you can’t vote in partisan primaries, where real change can happen. So, consequently, we’ll probably stay with the Democrats.

      But we’ll stay damn angry.