It’s been said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

The only thing more depressing than watching the Democratic Party cower cluelessly in a corner while the country goes to hell in a hand-basket is reading the pathetic pleas of the liberal punditocracy exhorting their party to grab the reins and forge ahead.  I hate to be the one to break the news to you, folks, but your horse is dead.  Flogging it is unlikely to lead to its revival.

What will it take for you to understand this? 

How many golden opportunities can the Democrats blow before you get a clue?

If your party can’t make hay out of illegal wire-tapping and torture, the bloody mess in Iraq, the Abramoff scandal and Hurricane Katrina, then isn’t it time to consider an alternative? 

If you really care about your country and the future of the planet, consider your options.  But understand that trying to reform a stagnant, out-of-touch, corporatized culture from within isn’t one of them.

I pity you.  I do.  But I pity our country and the people suffering in Iraq in more so.  We need you.  We need you to get a clue and jump ship.  The Democrats aren’t going to change—at least not the way you’re going about it.

You know who you remind me of?  Charlie Brown.  Poor old Charlie Brown.  He really believed that Lucy was going to hold the football still when he ran up to kick it.  He believed it each and every time.  The next time, he told himself, will be different.  You guys are the same.  You think the Democrats are going to change—they’ll get a spine, they’ll stand up to Bush, they’ll oppose the war, they’ll nominate a presidential candidate who doesn’t mimic the Republicans. Charlie Brown thought Lucy was going to change and that she wouldn’t yank the ball away at the last second.  Yet all of you wind up flat on your backs, looking like fools.

The best thing that could possibly happen to the Democrats would be for all of you progressives and liberals to bolt from the party.  That’s the only way the Democrats will change.

The Democratic Party isn’t really the place for you anyway.  They don’t share your values.  Why try to reform a party that supports the war in Iraq, the so-called Patriot Act and the corrupt, cash-drenched culture of corporate-sponsored campaigns when you have a viable alternative?

The Green Party is the place to be.  Greens support Clean Elections, publicly funded campaigns, universal health care and renewable energy.  The Green Party has consistently opposed the senseless slaughter in Iraq and the evisceration of our civil rights at home.  When the Republicans stole the 2004 presidential election in Ohio and John Kerry turned tail and ran before all the voters were counted, it was the Greens who stayed behind to demand a recount and clean up the mess.

The Greens have put hundreds of people in office from Hawaii to Maine.  Even with the decks stacked against us, we’ve elected mayors, judges, city councilors and state legislators.  As our country moves towards genuine democracy, embracing voter-owned elections and instant runoff voting among other essential electoral reforms, we’ll see more and more Greens elected to higher and higher offices.

Despite a track record of success, the Greens may still seem like a long shot to some people.  At least the Green Party is in the race and running.  That dead horse of yours isn’t getting up anytime soon.

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Blair Bobier is not now nor has he ever been a member of the Democratic Party.