by William Skink

I don’t think all progressives are sadomasochists, but let’s look at the wikipedia definition and then examine a brewing story mentioned at ID. First, the definition:

Sadomasochism, a subset of BDSM, is the giving or receiving of pleasure from acts involving the receipt or infliction of pain or humiliation. Practitioners of sadomasochism may seek sexual gratification from their acts. While the terms sadist and masochist refer respectively to one who enjoys giving or receiving pain, practitioners of sadomasochism may switch between activity and passivity.

And here’s to what’s brewing in MT politics:

Brewing but not yet in the news, is the formation of the Montana Progressive Democrats. Mostly made up of Bernie supporters, some of them recent delegates to the Democratic National Convention, it hopes to become a chartered organization within the Montana Democratic Party.

After being lied to, cheated, intimidated, maligned by “objective” media, conspired against by DNC brass, put in the back of the arena and strategically shouted out of having a voice–after all that, and Hillary picking Tim Kaine, and then giving Debbie Wasserman Shultz a top job in her campaign, and then lying some more about being truthful to the FBI because she clearly is incapable of being honest. After all this (and whatever comes in the next 90 days) some progressives in Montana want to go hat-in-hand to become a chartered organization WITHIN the stinking political apparatus that pulled every dirty trick in the book to disenfranchise their candidate?

I don’t think there’s any sexual gratification to be had by asking for more betrayal and abuse from these bastards, but there has to be something I’m missing to keep people going back to a party that has established decades of well-proven service to all the things progressives claim to abhor.

And Hillary Clinton is the vile embodiment of all those decades of triangulation, capitulation and well-paid service to the plutocrats and terrorist-funding foreigners salivating to call in those favors once she hits the oval office.

I don’t know why it’s so dumbfounding that one can make an argument (a compelling one, I think, but of course I’m biased) that Hillary Clinton is a bigger threat than Donald Trump, and that the Democratic Party has been more effective at pushing war and protecting corporations than Republicans.

The reactions I get when I put forth this assertion (including from people in meat space) vary from pointing out I’m a white, heterosexual male (which I agree means I don’t see the same degree of threat represented by statements made by the bloviating puss hole that is Donald’s mouth) to suggesting I am merely influenced by Russian propaganda.

None of these reactions account for the actual substance of what Hillary has actually done to make the world a less safe place for people across the world, and even for the demographics that will turn out to vote for her because fear of Trump is a powerful motivator.

Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party that serves her can’t overtly defend her terrible votes, past policy positions, endemic corruption and chronic dependence on destruction over diplomacy during her reign of chaos at the State Department because those things are not palatable to the progressive base that must turn out to put her in the White House.

But will the progressive base, if they are aware of this reality (many of them are) choose to defend what Hillary Clinton represents out of fear-driven, lesser-evil defeatism, or will they choose instead to redirect their energies into replacing the party that replaced their voice with corporate cash decades ago?

At the end of last month, James Conner put up some information about local efforts to get Jill Stein on the ballot in Montana. Here is some of that info:

Green Party members in Montana are collecting signatures to put Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein on the ballot in November. According to the GP’s ballot access page for Montana, the signature gatherers have until 17 August to collect 5,000 signatures of registered voters.

Ryan Moore of Bozeman is the Green’s statewide coordinator. There are regional coordinators in Helena, Billings, Missoula, Great Falls, and the Flathead. The email address for Missoula coordinator Dani Breck is missoula4bernie@gmail.com, which suggests that the resurgence of the Greens is in part a consequence of Bernie Sanders’ losing the Democratic nomination to Hillary Clinton. Paul Daughtry is the coordinator for the Flathead.

I haven’t made the effort yet, but a certain smug partisan has inspired me to do this one, small little thing–futile as I think it ultimately is–to emphasize my sincere belief that the Democratic Party needs to be replaced, not reformed from within.