an old question and an old choice to make.

It is always alluring to work with an elected official from the local official
party who might implement some of the public policies we have worked so long and
so hard to promote.

The argument sounds very practical on the surface since we do not stand much of
a chance of getting elected ourselves, a frank look at the views of those who do
hold the franchise seems like the only real way to move our agenda forward. So
we are tempted to support the lesser evil to promote, or at least protect the
greater good.

Two of the political careers that show how in practice it is the status quo that
wins out and the liberal Democrat "effecting practical change from within" who
looses out are those of Ron Dellums and Jean Quan.

When I lived in Nicaragua and Ron Dellums was the CHAIR of the armed services
committee it was obvious to all of us that nothing was holding back the CIA and
their illegal war. At the same time Ron was holding forth on Pacifica Radio and
Bill Clinton was being "practical" by having his Arkansas National Guard in
Honduras ready to help invade Nicaragua in case old Ronald Regan gave the word.
When I think of Ron Dellums I think of the time that I saw a stack of students
piled into my shop. For a shop teacher it was not a good day to be stacking
students up while we waited to ship them somewhere for coffins.

In a much less dramatic way, Jean Quan has been part of how Oakland is being run
for most of the last 20 years. Richmond gets community policing and Oakland
gets Measure Y and the broken promise of community policing.

In the real world joining the system is the practical way to be taken for
granted and only be allowed a few moments of showtime. The show is run by the
same big money that runs our public life in general. Ask an honest labor leader
what it feels like to have no choice but to support the Democrats.

In the real world it has been the outsiders who cause more change. The
mainstream parties change more to keep us out of power than they ever do once we
join them. Only the nation's only elected socialist, Bernard Sanders came close
to forcing a vote on single payer health care. The insiders did not even get
that. If that is what one Sanders can do, I want two, then I will want four ...

In the real world we get stuck with Obamacare because we let the center be
between him and the Republicans. No wonder the Republicans take them to the
cleaners all the time, bit money is defining the issues and the "progressive"
don't even get off the bench to play with a few notable marginalized exceptions.

Joining the system to create change has wasted the time and efforts of thousands
of Americans who then get to see their tiny gains swept off the table by the
back of the Republican hand.

Let us never forget that moment of sheer backwardness when Regan had the solar
cells taken off the roof of the White House. That is the real America we live
in.

New "practical" Democrats are telling us to be overjoyed at what they see as
forward motion when it is not even half of what they have lost.

Last year I went to the Truman Library with my son Rene and we saw an exhibit of
what he wanted as a domestic policy. It is way to the left of Obama and even
worse, we have wasted two generations of time not getting any of it done.

Practically speaking our country really needs a strong opposition and an
alternative. Everything else has painfully proven itself to be a waste of time.

Don