What's the matter with Democrats

By Libby

Glenn Greenwald is a on a roll today. Hot on the heels of the post I linked to below, he explains why we need to fight against Democrats who vote like Republicans.

Perhaps most remarkable, some polls -- such as one from Fox News last month -- reveal that the Democratic-led Congress is actually more unpopular among Democrats than among Republicans, with 23 percent of Republicans approving of Congress compared with only 18 percent of Democrats. One would be hard-pressed to find a time in modern American history, if such a time exists at all, when a Congress was more unpopular among the party that controls it than among voters from the opposition party.

Thoreau concurs and speaks to my thoughts on the matter.

Given the extent of the rot in the Democratic Party, I’d be overjoyed if anybody lost an election as a consequence of voting for telecom immunity, torture, or war funding. Yes, even if it means electing a Republican. Sometimes you have to clear out some dead wood, no matter how bad their replacements might be, to teach the remainder a lesson.

Professional politicians being what they are, it's pointless to blindly support any party. The only way we're going to change the Beltway dynamic is exact a price from the entrenched pols on both sides that have come to view themselves as an entitled class who are above the petty concerns of the people who elect them.

Sure the strategy comes with risks and clearly enabling a Republican to gain the seat of a bad Democrat would be no improvement. But sometimes, the long term message is more important than the short term results. This is one of those times.