Dems aren't happy with the competition
Reading on Ken Sain's blog today, a great answer from Kevin Zeese to Kos readers on why he will continue to run as a Green and not in the Democratic primary as the Kossacks are urging him to.
A few things I found in his response. . .
on whether the two parties actual represent the people:
"A survey published in the July 16 Economist asked U.S. voters whether they felt their elected officials represented their priorities. Only 17 percent said “yes.” In the greatest democracy on earth 83 percent can’t say they are represented! It is no wonder we have such low voter turnouts. (A survey of non-voters found that that a majority of non-voters felt that the candidates did not represent their concerns - even in the last election 40% of registerd voters didn’t vote, Kerry gave them no reason except not being Bush - not good enough.) It is also not surprising that Democrats are at their lowest popularity in more than 50 months while Republicans are also dropping in the polls. Neither party represents the priorities of the people."
On how trying to change the Democratic Party from within is unlikely to work:
"For years, indeed decades, people have tried to reform the Democratic Party from the inside. It always fails. When political movements go inside the Democratic Party - they weaken and disappear - look at the anti-war movement in 2004, the union movement over decades, efforts at African American equality - on and on. What ever happened to the Rainbow Coalition? What has the Democratic establishment done for those that are calling for change from within? Nothing. Even Howard Dean has stopped talking about ending the Iraq War since becoming DNC Chairman. The only way to create the politics we want is by challenging the corrupt system in place."
On it's NOT impossible to change the system, we just need to guts to do it:
"I know some of you say it is impossible - the two party system can’t be challenged. But certainly this corrupt method of governance is not as embedded as slavery, the denial of women’s rights, nor as strong as the Berlin Wall, the Soviet Union or Maoism. Yet, those have all crumbled. Change is possible. Even our founders warned against “factions” as political parties were known in their day. This corrupt two-party system is inconsistent with the vision of a robust representative democracy - with our vision for being the greatest democracy in Earth’s history. We have the power to create the future we want - but if we keep supporting candidates based on party label and not on issues we care about then we will keep getting political leaders that do not represent our interests. We will only get what we want by voting for what we want."
CORRECTION: Zeese is a Green who is running as an independent.