Be a proud Democrat. I love Democrats, their values and their resolve to make the US a better place to live.

Purity test seem Libertarian to me . The Ron and Rand Paul fans did not disappear, Bernie Sanders the obvious choice.

It's been an eye opener. I always thought that the more liberal one was, the more open and kinder a person would be to their fellow human beings. Wow, was I in for a rude awaking.

was, the more open-minded they were as well, but, sadly, they have proven to be anything but.

I agree with your posting in every aspect. As a private organization, the Democratic Party should close all future primaries to Democrats ONLY, and per your proposed guidelines. They can allow open voting during the G.E., but only Democrats should be able to vote for the Democratic Party nominee in the Democratic Party primaries to run in the General Election.

It's amazing how many of these "Independents" don't know what the primary elections are for! They don't seem to understand that there is a difference between the primary and general elections. They wail about disenfranchisement, but when I point out to them that Republicans don't even have primary elections in two States - that Cruz has been able to "steal" from Trump - they're confounded!

And, I think many of her detractors are not.

But I was too wishy-washy for them.

....when our idealism runs into reality.

I just realize you're not gonna get anything done unless you learn to compromise and pull the country slowly back to the left. The country didn't go this far to the right overnight and it's not going to go back to the left overnight either.

Ideals are one thing - reality is another.

I think of the far left as the zealots, the "true believers" who are idealists without the proper dose of pragmatism, who dream big without a proper dose of reality.

Basically most of us have the same progressive ideal.s Where we differ is how best to implement them and whether we let "perfect" become the enemy of "good enough for now".

Sorry, but by my definition, I don't count you among the zealots.

Last edited Tue Apr 26, 2016, 04:05 PM - Edit history (1)

By definition, zealots are not liberal.
It is very difficult for a zealot to be practical. It is not impossible that a zealot would be practical; but, it is unlikely.

They are zealots.
Just walk away and leave them where you found them.
They have no means, and can be forgotten.

It's usually only achieved through violent revolution, and it usually isn't the 1% who die. It's the children, those who are different, the elderly, people with physical and mental disabilities, non-neurotypical people, and so on. That's what happens when you disrupt the governmental processes in a country - and usually the abrupt change goes in the opposite direction of what you want. The French Revolution wanted to make everyone equal, but succeeded in first making an oppressive, purist age of terror, and then a dictatorship.

ut of course, we already know Bernie Sanders has no problems with violent revolution, and thinks the consequences are just ok - he had no problems with starving children in Cuba, or with violent censorship in Nicaragua, as long as it served the revolution.

People who do not vote in primaries do not have to give their affiliation.

You do not have to give an affiliation if you do not vote in a primary.

That makes you an "independent".

There are a number of people who split their ticket and vote for people from different parties.
That is a "true independent".

To me, there are two kinds, as I described above.