{"id":7303,"date":"2016-05-16T12:11:54","date_gmt":"2016-05-16T16:11:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/?p=7303"},"modified":"2016-05-21T12:27:41","modified_gmt":"2016-05-21T16:27:41","slug":"7303","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/?p=7303","title":{"rendered":"On Burning Your Democratic Party ID"},"content":{"rendered":"

So Will Bunch, the Philadelphia Inquirer columnist has burned his Democratic Party registration card <\/a>because, among other reason “the Democratic Party leadership is far too beholden to Wall Street and other corporate interests to do the real hard work of helping America’s middle class back on its feet.” \u00a0Leaving aside just how dubious that and his other claims are, how we should look at Bunch’s act?<\/p>\n

Maybe it\u2019s because my deepest political aspirations are so radical\u2014and so far from anything anyone who is running for or holding office actually says or acts on\u2014but the notion that being a \u201cregistered Democrat\u201d is a reflection of my principles or an expression of my ideals or a matter of conscience strikes me as completely and utterly bizarre. And thus so does quitting the party.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a Democrat not because the party reflects my ultimate ideals, aspirations, or principles but because in addition to dreaming and writing about my ideals, I want to work to make life a little bit better for my friends and neighbors, fellow citizens, and everyone else. I can\u2019t do that alone, but only acting with others. And I don\u2019t expect that the people with whom I act to share any, let alone all, of my ultimate ideals, aspirations, principles.<\/p>\n

I just hope that they will work with me in support of some concrete things that are good for people who deserve more than they get and that will help us come just a tiny bit closer to realizing a better if not ideal world<\/p>\n

Most of the time, my fellow Democrats do support those concrete goals. And when Democrats are in power things are a little better for the people who very much need that little bit better. And we are all slightly closer to a better world. Not as much as I would like but a bit. And over time, and sometime in bigger steps like with the ACA, we make a real difference to the lives of people. It’s not all I really want, but what we can attain here and now.<\/p>\n

So when someone tells me he is burning \u00a0his Vote ID card\u2014which, by the way, doesn\u2019t de-register him as a Democrat\u2014I can only shake my head and wonder what in the world they are carrying on about. Party registration is a means to an end\u2014to taking part in important work with fellow citizens who share some of our goals. That\u2019s all it is. If you think it goes deeper than that, you either don\u2019t understand that politics in a diverse, pluralistic, and huge political community is never more than a means to an end. Or you take yourself way too seriously. And If you think it is unimportant to work in the politics of what is always going to be an imperfect Democratic Party than you don’t really understand how positive change comes about in America.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So Will Bunch, the Philadelphia Inquirer columnist has burned his Democratic Party registration card because, among other reason “the Democratic Party leadership is far too beholden to Wall Street and other corporate interests to do the real hard work of helping America’s middle class back on its feet.” \u00a0Leaving aside just how dubious that and his other claims are, how we should look at Bunch’s act? Maybe it\u2019s because my deepest political aspirations are so radical\u2014and so far from anything anyone who is running for or holding office actually says or acts on\u2014but the notion that being a \u201cregistered Democrat\u201d is a reflection of my principles or an expression of my ideals or a matter of conscience strikes me as completely and utterly bizarre. And thus so does quitting the party. I\u2019m a Democrat not because the party reflects my ultimate ideals, aspirations, or principles but because in addition to\u2026 Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[166],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s35YuU-7303","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7303"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7303"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7307,"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7303\/revisions\/7307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}