An encouraging trend seems to be forming that gives rise to the possibility the two party system may eventually be usurped by a more democratic and populist multiparty version. Two recent articles here and here show that in Oregon 29.4% and in California 27% of voters no longer identify with the two major parties. In blue states Oregon and California, the Republicans are seeing the greatest decline in members with the growth of parties like the Tea Party and Americans For Prosperity but progressive parties are forming as well, like the Justice Party.
This feels like good news except and until these small party and independent voters identify and support, with financial assistance and time, viable candidates for partisan and nonpartisan positions, not much will change.
It’s refreshing to read MarkM’s admission that he has no idea of what integrity is. After all he’ll be voting for Dems who are working to eliminate citizen testimony about local issues as well as lower the bar when it comes to environmental concerns that might interfere with coal or LNG export. They want to ‘streamline’ rules in favor of corporations regardless of the public good. He’s voting for candidates who will eliminate rules that might ‘interfere’ with businesses (such as a competing tugboat dealer).
He’ll be voting for a President that supports and has committed state murder without trial; as well as torture, rendition, drone killings, etc. etc.; and unilateral and unrepresented trade talks such as those happening as I write called TPP. No, integrity is not high on his list of requirements for his candidates. With his candidates it is just a slower slide down the tubes into serfdom. Follow the money, MM, it all comes from the same place and leads to the same place: Oligarchy and slavery.
Your hallowed Clinton sold us out for his trade pacts and by getting rid of Glass Steagall. His administration never saw a merger it couldn’t stomach, creating all the too big to fail corporations that failed. Obama supports the same crowd by keeping in power Geithner and the other 1 percenters who have run the country for years now.
I vote for change. No vote is wasted which does so. No major changes have ever been made in this country w/o 3rd parties pushing even if they haven’t won major races. I grew up in Bridgeport Connecticut where a Socialist, Mayor McLevy, was reelected over and over and led the town into major prosperity and, amazingly, paved the streets! He had integrity and (surprise) was not corrupt. The Dems took over after he left and looted the rich treasury he’d left behind.
So, Mark, I have to assume you don’t know what integrity is because there is so little of it showing, around this county in particular. I know you will not hear what this is saying, and that you will go on living on your little peninsula of awareness and that you will respond with paragraphs of reasons for your obtuse density. I’ll be voting progressive. I’m voting no on the status quo.
If we allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good we will get neither.
I can only quote:
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
Perfection is the first goal of our Constitution.
Big difference between “perfect” and “more perfect.” Obama even quoted it in his acceptance speech.
Regardless, congratulations on adding another independent Senator. He’s a big fillibuster reform guy. Let’s hope it makes a difference.
Kay, do you kiss your kids with that mouth?
STFU Mark.
There might be something to what Mark is saying, but you would have to have some belief that the Dems would improve. All shred of any credibility was lost when they nominated Caddy McKuen without any opposition!? You mean there was no other Dem interested in running against this Repub-lite? The fix is in. I voted for None of the above on that race and Roblan. No more voting for least of the worst for me. Vote Green Party and keep your integrity.
I have no clue what political integrity gets me if Scott Roberts and Nancy Brouhard are representing me in Salem.
There is a HUGE difference between a 31-29 Dem house and a 30-30 one. God help us if it’s 31-29 Rep with Leader Hanna telling Rep Brouhard how to vote.
What does integrity get you then?
Sorry. I’d prefer the gavel, imperfect though it might be.
How many schools have been built in Coos County under the representation of ARnie Roblan in Salem Mark?
The Port has received 42 million dollars and wants another 70 million to complete their rusted railroad. That’s in the last few years.
How much each year does Coos Bay Schools only, receive in funding, do you know Mark?
Roblan, the educator.
You really have no idea how education is funded in Oregon, do you?
But what we’re really talking about is how Scott Roberts or the Justice Party or the Green Party is going to be better than a Dem majority in Salem.
How is that exactly?
By the way, if you have problems with the Democratic Party, we meet every third Tuesday at the labor hall in North Bend. Please come by.
You really have no idea how to answer a question do you? No, but I know bullshit when I see it.
But you sure can clear a room of thoughtful posters.
So tell me, how many schools have been built, how many new bright teachers have been hired in Coos Bay’s School System, and how much money have they received versus the 42 million already gone into the rusted railroad to nowhere,and asking for another 70 million, which will never be viable, does nothing but provide a secure future for jobs inside the Port Office?
Integrity is not your forte Mark, you have no moral compass.
Col, you’ve overlooked the two very liberal Dem candidates who ran in Senate District 1 and House District 1. Now I think highly of both Eldon Rollins and Jim Klahr, but they each lost handily. Would a more moderate Dem done better? Perhaps, but neither seat would have been easy to win.
However, Krieger will retire after this term leaving HD1 open. Now is the time to start lining up your candidates. What kind of a Dem could win it? Which third party could be competitive? If you want to land a PGP Rep in Salem, this could be your best opportunity for a while. Whom do you have in mind?
Democrat party sold out with Clinton, and are now nothing but, publicly at least, whining little lemmings, chasing the Republican vote. They don’t give a damn about this nation, or it’s people. Change what? There ain’t one shred of democracy left, from obama to the joke that is Roblan. How long you gonna vote for losers? Losers who can’t fight, who can’t get their agenda passed, who can’t establish democratic ideals, who can’t stack the Supreme Court, who can’t educate our children, who can’t regulate medicines which are pumped into humans’ spines with contaminated pharmaceuticals, but then obama secretly met with the head of big pharma in his first month in office, and promised him the Americans who voted for him would NEVER be allowed to access affordable pharmaceuticals in his term. How about that Mark? Quite a guy you hawk for, but then you hawk for anybody you perceive will further your credibility. Why do you come here, when you have SCDC and the Chamber of Consorts on your side? What do you want here? Someone to blow more smoke up your ass? They ain’t here Mark, the folks here know how to handle reality.
There IS no Democratic Party Mark, it’s long gone. Grow up, perhaps Mommy can explain it to you.
It’s all about the process, Kay. If you’re a progressive, you believe in progress. You want to argue that we were further along under Pres W Bush than we would have been under a Pres Gore? Or that a Pres McCain would have better guided us over the last four years? You can bang on Clinton all you like, but I’ll take him and his 23 million jobs over another go with HGWBush.
Which did you prefer: The Pelosi led Congress of 2008 or the Boehner led Congress of 2010? It takes me less than a nanosecond to see a big difference between the two.
Hey, if you want to argue that the Dems aren’t perfect, I’ll admit that you’ve got me. But politics isn’t about the perfect. It’s about the possible. If the folks here understand anything about reality, they know that much.
All of us can make a difference. The question is: How do you make that difference count? I don’t see much change at all happening because of a third party. Over my lifetime I can’t think of a single thing. Democrats, despite all their admitted shortcomings, have done some stuff.
Really, Mark, that’s your pitch? Join the democrats so you can change them. How ’bout the democrats change so people want to join them again?
Join the Democrats to change them? Absolutely. You’ve got it.
Why wait around for the perfect party to show up for you? You can show up and build a better (never perfect) party.
Democrats are people.
Probably have better luck changing the repubs than the dems
Grover Norquist would agree with you. Look at what a difference his pledge has made with the repubs. Why do you think the Dems are no less pliable? People lead parties — when enough of them show up.
Bullshit. I don’t need a lot of words.
Obviously one word is all you need. Simple, yes. Compelling? No.
What does your vote for the Justice Party accomplish? 99.9% of Americans don’t even know that the Justice Party exists. However, many of the issues it supports are alive and well in the Democratic Party. All we lack are more voices.
Careful here: Most voters in the Independent Party think they are not in any party at all, but registered as independent voters. Pretty good PR campaign by the Independent Party if you ask me. It’s like the band called Free Beer that always draws a crowd.
Why reinvent the wheel? Take over the Democratic Party. What’s so hard about that? Show up. Speak up. Take responsibility. Get involved.
The Democratic Party is no perfect by any means. But to paraphrase Winston Churchill, it’s the worst party there is — except for all the rest.
Hey, if you work really, really, really hard, maybe you can turn the Justice Party into something in 50 years. On the other hand, if you work really, really, really hard, you could turn the Democratic Party into an instrument to change the country in the next few elections. Just takes elbow grease.
I think we’d all agree that the ideological reactionary conservativism firmly embedded in the Republican Party is the problem. Let’s take it on with the most effective tool we have at our disposal.
We don’t need another “The Rent is Too Damn High” Party. We need a united front. Like it or not, that is the Democratic Party. When progressives overrun it, we’re all better off. If progressives abandon it, we all lose.
My first vote was Libertarian in 1980. What did it get me? President Reagan. Twenty years later, I voted for Nadar. Thank God I didn’t live in Florida. I’d hate to feel responsible for giving America the Bush presidency. Thirty-two years later, that story hasn’t changed a bit.
United We Stand, progressives. Vote Democratic on Tuesday.
Then show up on Wednesday and change the party.