January 08, 2010 08:02 PM UTC

Why I Am A Democrat

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• by: MADCO

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the dominance of the two major parties. In general this duopoly  leads to some bizarre and undesirable affects. (more on that later)

But more specifically  I’ve been thinking about why I am currently a registered D. And why it matters.

The easy answer is that after an adult lifetime of being registered “U” or equivalent, I wanted to caucus in the last presidential cycle and the exclusionary, partisan caucus in CO forced me to register.  

My politics are not now nor ever have been a perfect fit for any party.  Not exactly. D fits much better, at least currently.   I think if I had been voting age back in the 50’s I’d have liked Ike – though later in that decade Abner Mikva was awesome. Likewise, if I was around a hundred years ago, I’d have gotten behind TR.

Instead of having a party that feels like a perfect fit, I have always prioritized my issues in any election and then found the candidate that went my way on my highest priorities.

In the Fall of 07 when the announcement was made that CO caucus was going to move up to Feb 08 (early is better, though in 08 later would have gotten us more national press)  I added a couple of important items to my To Do list:

– do Presidential and other political research

– understand the caucus

I made the “due date” Thanksgiving weekend and set my reminders for weekly reminders until complete.  So during Oct and Nov I researched every announced Presidential candidate of all parties and some of the big name possibilities (Bloomberg, Dean, Gore etc) to see if I wanted to change my registration to affiliate  with a party to caucus for or against any candidate.  

So I registered D that fall, organized and canvassed and stuff for caucus. Read the DNC and CO Dems delegate selection plans, caucused as one part of the record setting turnout, attended County, CD and State assemblies. Organized, canvassed and stuff again for the general and then went to DC for the inauguration.

At no time in the process did I re-evaluate my “candidate first, party second” approach.  

And I find myself asking Should I now?    I know D’s who will write me off because of this. Lunacy to think I can have a voice just now passing my 2yr anniversary with the party (when do I get the swag?) Heresy to question the value of  our party. Worse than heresy to have the apathy or to get in there and “build the party.”   I know, I know somehow showing up at “all those chicken dinners” has real and lasting value.  I value the party building, I’m just not motivated to do it.

So while there has been a fair amount of implied, inferred and even some overt defense of the D party here on CoPols.com, I remain issue and candidate driven.

I realize that the party – in this case D – is especially necessary and important in Colorado. You have to win to govern and only the major party candidates win here.  Mostly true elsewhere, but apparently always true here.

And then we get to the ideological and purity filters that I do not understand. “Big tent” metaphors aside, what is a real Democrat?  When we have a caucus or ballot primary (having both seems stoopid to me) should we be choosing the candidate most likely to win? more aligned with our priorities? best able to “build the party”?  most progressive? most Democratic? more or less anything?

And then do we agree with each other to support the nominee no matter she/he wasn’t our preference?

Because a candidate must win to govern, i.e., 85% of something is wayy better than 0% of nothing, I do prioritize electability. It’s  why I joke about candidates like Dennis Kucinich (right about everything except that he could win) or Hank Eng (“Where’s Hank ?” instantly became “Who’s Hank?” –   a great guy who couldn’t win).

I get that there is no rule, that we all get to decide for ourselves. And I also get that people make irrational choices all the time, potentially in any area of life. I also get that while I may feel I have earned the right to complain, complaining rarely solves anything even when it feels good.

So, I’m a D because I wanted to be included in the caucus and the D affiliation fits better than anything else at present.

Why are you registered the way you are?