Dem Dems, Dem Dems, Dem Dry Dems

Snow Pond, NH -

Maybe its normal. Maybe Democrats are always a little bit fed up with their party fed by some psychological left-brained personality profile that deters them from really falling line with a pack mentality. But then again, maybe today's Democrats really do suck.

Here in New Hampshire, things are getting bluer with every election, and yet prominent Blue Hamster blogger Elwood has recently decided to renounce his allegiance to the Democratic party, and in so doing has relinquished his somewhat powerful position as a front pager at Blue Hampshire. In his words,

The straws that broke the back of this camel were the shameless Senators Schumer and Feinstein - members of the Senate Judiciary Committee who declared today that they will vote for Michael Mukasey as Attorney General. Schumer is in charge of the DSCC - recruiting and raising funds for future Democratic Senate candidates.

Then just yesterday in the Huffington Post, writer and director Nora Ephron felt motivated enough to write about how It's Hard to Be A Democrat.

And then there are the Democrats in the Congress. What a bunch of losers, hiding behind the fact that it takes 60 votes to shut down debate and 67 to override a presidential veto. So what? So pass a law and make Bush veto it.

When the force behind such milquetoast classics as My Blue Heaven and You've Got Mail starts to call you out for not being bold enough, something might be wrong.

It certainly doesn't help matters when the party Patriarch, Bill Clinton, whines about his wife's debate performance by comparing the act of two rivals pointing out her inability to take a stand on a fairly irrelevant issue to Swiftboat Veterans for Slime and the 2002 Osimile bin Laden attack on Max Cleland.

Both Ephron and Elwood reiterate the fact that its not like the Republicans are exactly a worthy alternative. But that may be part of the point. Bill Clinton's actions smack of entitlement. By his reckoning Hillary is entitled to the front runner role, as well as the nomination and the Presidency, because she's Hillary Clinton, dammit! She doesn't have to answer a question if she doesn't want to. Need I remind you that George W. Bush is our President?

Same goes for the schmucks in Congress. They don't have to end the war because, what are we gonna do, vote them out in favor of the Republicans that got us into this mess? Reid and Pelosi must find that laughable.

Then you have South Carolina where the Obama supporter, and 2004 Democratic Senate candidate Inez Tenenbaum, tried to strong-arm the state party into keeping Stephen Colbert off the ballot. When I was talking to my friend the Peace Czar tonight, he found the potential quite ironic that, "Obama, the 'cool, hip' candidate is actually a square."

He went on to say that the idea that young "Colbert supporters would rather go with a fake candidate than a blase one like Obama, well, that says something, lemme tell ya."

That isn't necessarily a knock on Obama. He isn't the de facto candidate for Colbert Nation. The real question is, in an election where people can potentially put an end to a war, what on earth are thousands of them doing saying they would just as soon vote for a "favorite son" satirist?

Do you think back in '68 that 2% of the youth vote in an influential primary would have gone for Dick Gregory?

There is an old saying, often among religious types, that if you don't stand for something you'll fall for anything. 2000 and 2004 seem to have proved it's truth better than any cultural phenomenon I've seen thus far in my twenty-six years.

Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of terrific Democratic politicians out there working to do good and stay true to a set of principles that their constituents can understand. But I'd say its high time that the leadership of the party toed the same line. The longer you act, and I mean actions not words, like you are merely better than the other side, the sooner that will cease to be the case.