The Founding Fathers gave us democracy.
We have the moral responsibility to restore what was given to us, to take back what has been taken away by corrupt politicians of both major parties. If the Democratic Party won’t restore American democracy, it will be up to Progressives to restore it. If Democrats cave again and pass a travesty of a health care reform bill without a strong public option, there will no longer be any doubt that the two-party system has been corrupted beyond salvage. If that happens, I believe progressives will have no choice but to dissolve all ties with the Democratic Party, establish the Progressive Party, and ask progressive Democrats in Congress and across this country to join us.
A Netroots Declaration
When in the course of Democratic betrayals it becomes necessary for Progressives to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with the Democratic Party, and to establish ourselves as a New Party in the political system, our respect for the Constitution and the rule of law compels us to declare the causes which impel us to this separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that the Democratic Party is complicit in war crimes, that it is complicit in illegal NSA spying, that it is complicit in massive Wall Street fraud, that it no longer believes that all men are created equal, that it serves only the corporate masters of America, that it has granted them unalienable Rights, that among these are the right to plunder the Treasury, the right to control the media, the right to subvert the banking system, to corrupt the electoral system, to ravage our economy and reap the illicit profits of shock doctrine capitalism.
To enable the voices of citizens to be heard in the corridors of power, political parties have been instituted among Men, deriving their power from the support of their members. Whenever any political party becomes destructive of these ends, its supporters have the right to withdraw their support, and to establish a new party. As Progressives, we have no choice left but to establish a new party, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in accordance with our responsibility to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution and the progressive values upon which it was founded.
Present circumstances dictate that a political party long established should not be rejected for light and transient causes; but when a long train of abuses and betrayals, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce an entire nation under corporate Despotism, it is the right of Progressives, it is the duty of Progressives, to condemn that party, and to establish a new party for their future security.
We’ve been barely keeping our heads above water with the move, so I hadn’t had much time to think about what to write.