Please help me figure this out...

I've been trying to avoid the many thousand threads about "my candidate is better than your candidate," "Hillary is a fascist," "Edwards is a fake," "OMG let's run Mondale!" (okay, I just made that last one up, but it's not unfathomable...)

Why? Why do we do this? I understand "wanting the best" truly I do. But election cycle after election cycle sees Democratic voters lining up to assail and savage every candidate except their own, and of course the supporters of all those other candidates are almost as vile and repugnant as a Republican supporter. How is this supposed to help us? It serves no purpose. While we clobber the fuck out of each other and make out candidates exhaust themselves and their treasure chests trying to win our favor, our opponents are puttering along saving it all for the primaries.

Look folks. We have a long list of Democratic candidates and wannabe Democratic candidates (I've got a gooey spot for a Gore / Clark ticket, myself) and, you know what? Every last one of them are better than anything the Republicans could conceivably put forth.

You don't like Clinton's record? I'll bet you'll like Romney even less.
Think Kucinich is a douche? You've never seen McCain, have you?
Edwards is "faking it?" Perhaps you'd rather hear about 9/11 endlessly from Giuliani?
Obama lacks experience? Well holy shit, does that make Fred Thompson the better choice?

This crap is nonsense, people. We waste time, resources, and energy trying to undermine each other and our candidate's "opponents." This self-flagellation only ends up sapping our abilities, while arming our opponents in the Publican party and the media leeches stuck to their elephantine scrotes. "Look," it is spoken on CNN and FOX and MSNBC, "this Democratic candidate can't even win the support of the Democratic base... neither can this one. Or this one. Or this one. How does this bode for our Publican overlords, Inane Talking Head #5?"

We are at a turning point in our nation's history, and it has honestly never been clearer. We can neither take a win in '08 home and swerve the nation back onto the road, or we can let the Publicans coast to victory and drive us all off the cliff. They will not "win", so much as Democrats will have defeated themselves by blowing their collective wads for the primaries. We need to throw support behind each of our candidates. Our opponents are vile, murderous criminals, folks. We cannot afford yet ANOTHER goddamned circular firing squad in the party. Our country can't afford it. Your neighbors, your friends, even the people supporting the opposition can't afford it.

This opinion is not meant as a criticism of the liberal tribe. Liberals generally think for themselves (or think they think for themselves), and are very keen on criticizing their own people. Republicans, by contrast, are insanely herdlike. It's quite a political advantage for them. They will vote for a lamppost if they're told to do so, while we always have to struggle to pull together. That's one of the main reason this pesky minority is still around.

There is a big difference between everyone lining up behind a few candidates, and everyone picking one and only one candidate and attacking all others. I am in what appears to be a minority on DU that truly supports most of our current candidates. I prefer Edwards, I made my max donation for him, and if any of the other candidates win the nomination, I will make a max donation for them as well. And as to herd instinct, maybe Republicans tend to "herd" around a single candidate, but what you are seeing on DU is "herding" around multiple candidates. If DUers were the true free thinking liberals you expect, you think we would all be confounded to make a decision as to who to follow and be actively considering all candidates.

every election we're told about the great disasters that will occur if the republicans win. what we're not told is that the country's most serious problems will not be addressed if corporate Democrats win either. and therein lies the rub.

i bought the argument you're making in 2004. bush was just too dangerous and so, although I had major disagreements with Kerry, I strongly supported him in the General Election.

the problem is, when do we stop doing this crap and start fighting for the real changes we so desperately need. take an issue like global warming as just one of many examples. with republicans, you get "free markets." that sure as hell won't help at all. in fact, it will make the situation much worse.

but what about the corporate Democrats? we just saw what they'll offer. we got a 9 mpg increase in CAFE standards and we got 15% of our energy from renewables. both of these measures are to be implemented by the year 2020. the result? a 2.5% decrease in fossil fuel burning by the year 2020 compared to what we burn today.

the problem? climate scientists are saying we need an 80% to 90% decrease! are the corporate Democrats much better than the corporate republicans? of course they are. the problem is, though, hundreds of millions are likely to die from corporate Democrat global warming policies. we need radical change and we're being appeased by "better than the republicans."

science doesn't care about politics; it does what it does. if global warming is going to needlessly kill hundreds of millions of people, how in good conscience can we continue to "just go along??????" it's time we stood up loud and clear and warned the Democratic Party to stop pushing corporate candidates. it's time for the party to criticize those who offer "politically viable but tragically inadequate solutions."

in short, it's time for the party to put country and all of humanity ahead of narrow political concerns. some like to criticize this position with the trite phrase that "the perfect is the enemy of the good." my response is that the "not as bad as the other guys" is the real enemy of the good. in fact, it's bad too ...