I am sick and tired of being sick and tired of fickle demoCats

I can understand the gop having their underwear in a wad over DEMOCRATIC Alabama State Senator Hank Sanders robo calls to DEMOCRATIC voters, but why do those who call themselves progressive/democrats have a problem with this?

Hello this is Hank Sanders, Alabama state Senator, and I’m still mad as hell. I say hell no! I ain’t going back to the cotton fields of Jim Crow days. I’m going forward with Ron Sparks, Jim Folsom and others who would do right by all of us. I hope you are mad as hell and will not go back, and you have the power to choose. I will stand until hell freezes over for Ron Sparks for Governor and Jim Folsom for Lt. Governor on November the 2nd.

Paid for by Alabama New South.

I'll tell you what I think the problem is, feel free to disagree with me. The democratic party has been infiltrated by conservatives masquerading as progressives which resulted in an internal war between hard core liberals and hard core conservatives illustrated by the following statement:

The Democratic dream coalition this year is supposed to be African-American voters (often termed simply "Obama voters" which ignores the fact that lots of white Alabamians also voted for Obama) and rural white voters.

This statement is totally false. The majority of white Alabamians, democratic and republican, and the majority of rural white voters voted for McCain/Palin in 08. President Obama got 10% of the white vote in Alabama.

Yes, there are two different campaigns being run inside the same party.

Yep. The strategy this year (4.00 / 2)
for white Democrats running in "conservative" rural districts is to campaign as if rural white Alabamians have one foot dragging off the trailer steps and one arm in a KKK robe.

So how does Hank Sanders' robocall fit with the overall strategy? It seems insane to run two totally different campaigns inside the same party and think that neither side is going to catch on.

A huge and wonderful exception to this effort is the campaign being run by Greg Varner in SD-13.

Why the ADP isn't following his strategy statewide is beyond me. This lowest common denominator campaign is depressing as hell and an embarrassment to the state.

Why is the ADP following this strategy statewide you ask? Because the democratic party is divided that's why. The ADP party wants and needs the African American vote but they don't want the African American voters.

I have complicated reasons for wanting to call myself a Democrat. Those reasons are firm and cannot be swayed, even from within. But for all of those other moderates out there, doesn't this come across as just berating and ignorant type of campaigning? It sounds like something I would hear from a wannabe civil rights activist who has Venerable Reverend preceding their name. The black vote is very important. More important than the vote, is actually serving the black people of Alabama with meaningful representation. Does Hank Sanders represent anyone other than a small segment of the uninformed race voting blacks? This embarrass me to have some association with it. I know you guys get tired of me harping on the same old point, but if Democrats want to keep swapping power every four to eight years, then let Hank Sanders types keep preaching. I know that there will always be a extreme element of both parties. But those elements only account for very small percentages of the parties as a whole. 10% representation is not what America needs. I am so concerned that the polarization will continue due to foolish actions such as the Hank Sanders campaigning phone message above. Mad as Hell, Hell no, No way in Hell, Hell freeze over! I think Hank Sanders is caught up on words that begin with H and end with ell.

This commenter has it twisted. The Alabama African American vote was slightly more than 26% in 2008, not 10%. As a matter of fact, the 10% is the number of white voters for Obama, so I will agree with the commenter 10% representation is not what Alabama or America needs, so candidates like Artur Davis, Bobby Bright and Butch Taylor need to stop pandering to them.

AL State Senator Hank Sanders is not the problem, nor is the substance of his robo call.

There is a real dilemma in communicating with masses of people. If we speak in a way that is acceptable to everyone, we move few. If we speak in a way that effectively moves many, we offend some others. I have worked for years to effectively communicate so I move many without offending many. I don’t always succeed.

Well, I cut a second robo ad. I did not back away from the word “hell.” I said, “I will stand until hell freezes over!” I said “Hell no, I will not go back!” One of the first responses to the ad came from a woman in Mobile. She said that she had not intended to vote, but after my robo call, she not only was going to vote, but was urging others to vote. She said that she was “also mad as hell.” Our perceptions, judgments, and responses are so different.

So called super minority/partisan districts aren't the problem either. They are the solution to the problem.

Prior to the Civil War, African Americans were almost totally disenfranchised throughout the states. Latino voters faced similar barriers to voting in Texas and other parts of the Southwest., as did Native American and Asian American voters in the West. Even after enactment of the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution, in 1870, which gave all men, regardless of race, color, or previous condition of servitude the right to vote, many states continued to use various methods to prevent people of color from voting, including literacy tests, poll taxes, the disenfranchisement of former inmates, intimidation, threats, and even violence. Also, until 1965, federal laws did not challenge the authority of states and localities to establish and administer their own voting requirements.

I take issue with the following comment;

We have an amazing diversity of views for a site called "Left in Alabama." I think that's healthy and makes the site a better, more informative resource. The echo chamber effect just leads to group think and is the ticket to irrelevance. Pretty much all of us here agree 90% of the time on the basics. We diverge often on the strategies and tactics needed to achieve our goals, but that's how policies get negotiated in the real world. Why not on a blog?

In case you haven't noticed there is NO diversity in your font page viewpoint. Like the NPR/Juan Williams firing my front page privileges were rescinded because the content of my comments didn't conform to the group think mentality.

But losing his job for saying the sight of Muslims on a plane makes him a little nervous is wrong. It makes me wonder just how much any commentator, including myself, will have to go to water down his or her comments just to avoid offending some one's sensitivities.

As long as the ADP elite, progressives/democrats pander to right and take the of the base (African American voters)for granted there will be conflict within the democratic party. As long as African Americans stay in their place they are fine, but if they dare speak up and speak out they sound a nutty as the worst elements of the GOP or are told to start their own blog. As I said earlier, you can't have the African American VOTES without the African American VOTERS. You are either for the democratic party, or you are against the democratic party, a democratic party that fights for equal rights, civil rights, women's rights and human rights for ALL including African Americans.

If the cries of Montgomery politicians under indictment don’t generate sympathy, certainly the lamentation of unemployed workers in the Black Belt does. One effect of the bribe-induced Riley-Canary war on bingo in Alabama is the closure of bingo operations in Greene, Macon and Houston Counties, that employed literally thousands of workers, and brought millions of dollars annually to local government treasuries. We all wish that overwhelmingly black Greene and Macon Counties had bulldozers clearing land for new automotive and electronics plants, or for high-powered biology labs or computer engineering firms, but that’s the progress of the next generation. Right now, those counties are absolutely dependent on the entertainment and gaming business for their economic survival, and Obama’s what-me-worry attitude about Canary has placed that survival in jeopardy. Even in the white-majority Wiregrass, it’s probably safe to assume that Country Crossing employed a fair number of African-Americans in its service sector jobs. Had Bob Riley needed to worry about a U.S. Attorney with integrity in Montgomery, he would likely not have earned his Mississippi Choctaw bribes by shutting down the bingo halls, and the Legislature would probably have put a bingo referendum on this November’s ballot. As it is, there is no way to know when, or if, these businesses will reopen. At some point, even the President’s biggest supporters have to ask if he’s paying attention.

At some point I have to ask if the ADP is paying attention? It may make you feel better to call yourself a progressive because you don't want to be associated with liberals/democrats, but you're either with ALL of the democratic party of NONE of the democratic party.

Redeye Rant Over and Out.