Posers and Party Purity

Can I rant about Bobby Bright (Poser AL) and Gene Taylor (Poser MS)? I penned a similar rant two years ago where I made some uncomfortable and accused of applying a social litmus test to dems among other crap. Different year, same stuff.

Representatives (and I use this term lightly)Bobby Bright and Gene Taylor are the epitome of republicans posing as democrats so they can take advantage of the black democratic vote to get elected then govern like republicans. Both represent districts that are 30% African American. They know they can't win on the republican ticket so they are allowed to pollute the democratic ticket. Yes I said they are allowed. Not only are they allowed but they are encouraged to pollute the democratic ticket by the democratic party leadership.

You would never hear a republican elected official saying something like this;

Conservative Democratic Rep. Gene Taylor (Miss.) said over the weekend that voted against his own party when he went to the ballot box to vote for president in 2008.

Or being rewarded for doing stuff like this;

Bright has shown his fealty to Boehner on every single contentious issue that has come before Congress in the past two years. In fact, when SCHIP came up for it's final vote only two Democrats crossed the aisle to vote against health care for needy children and Bright, of course, was one of the two. He has been sure to noisily vote against a woman's right to Choice (and, like Christine O'Donnell, he's even been against contraception), against equality for the LGBT community, against health care reform, against Wall Street reform, against energy legislation... You name it-- if Barack Obama was for it, Bobby Bright was against it. And that's been the theme of his reelection campaign, a reelection campaign that the latest polling shows he might be winning.

What DougKahn said;

It's not all about this district. It's about a couple of dozen spineless House Democrats who seem to not fear the Democratic voters in their own districts, so they pander to conservatives.

That's right (no pun), democrats fear conservatives more than they do the people who voted for them. Ain't that a dip? The question is why does democratic leadership (and I'm using that term lightly) allow, encourage and enable this phenomenon? Why do the pander to the wrong at the expense of what is right? Is the system so rigged progressives and liberals can't be elected?

I repeat, why are the Democrats the only party willing to compromise their principles and work "with those they don't agree with"? Huh?

I give republicans credit for party loyalty.Right or wrong they have courage to fight for what they believe in and are lock step. Why should Democrats listen to conservatives? Why do we let them push their agenda at our expense? Why do we continue to vote for candidates who pander to the hard right and take our votes for granted? Why?

"Voting for the lesser of two evils is still evil."~blogger jonwil

Enough of this foolishness!
That's what a lot of people don't seem to get. You allow a candidate to run and vote as a conservative election after election and he's not going to change. It's only when he sees he's losing his base that he starts getting worried and thinking more about his base.

Election cycle after election cycle, I've drank the Koolaid and voted Democratic, even when you couldn't tell the difference between the two party's candidates without a program. I've criticized people who "throw their votes away" by voting for Nader.

I no longer think that a vote for Nader is a vote thrown away. I see it as a message to future candidates, I'M now part of the undecideds. If you want my vote, you're going to have to earn it just as much as you do the conservatives vote. I'm not going to keep voting for you just because you have a "D" after your name.

I feel sorry for the Bright and Taylor's constituents. Thanks to their party's leadership they are represented by the lessor of two evils. Lord help them.

The right to vote is sacred to me. To many bleed too much, died too young and marched too far for me to compromise my convictions. I am not a "social conservative", I am a proud liberal Democrat. Candidates who do not share my values and my principles will NOT get my vote. I'm tired of being bullied by the right wing social conservatives.

Redeye Rant Over.