Oh come on. Are you expecting to pretend there is some kind of meta-philosophical reason to join a political party. If that's your idea. I pity you.
		
		
	 
	
	
		
		
			It means that there are no other parties who have a chance at doing anything at all, and it means that people who try and pretend they they are "principled" because they insist on fantasy to the detriment of us all are not people I want to be associated with.
		
		
	 
People who vote Republican are where you are not: They are voting for a party which actually advances policies which are on the right. These Republican voters are getting what they figure is wanted and needed. They are seeing them get delivered by the empowered Republican politicians they helped elect and re-elect.
The Democratic Party, when empowered, are not advancing the policies which are on the left. They campaign on them, sure, but they don't actually deliver when they're empowered. These Democrats, when empowered, deliver for big business. They are for Wall Street. They are for wars. They are not an opposition party. They are, in essence, the 
Republican Party, Part II. And, given much of your writing, they sound like the kind you want to "be associated with."
	
	
		
		
			You know what being a Democrat means, it means understanding that politicians are not saviors or demigods, but fucking people, and there are this kind and that kind, and pretending to yourself that politics isn't a HUGE exercise in compromise makes one a fucking idiot to start with.
		
		
	 
	
	
		
		
			I'm a Democrat because being a Democrat gets me the biggest chance to enact policy I agree with. I'm sorry there is no woo-woo metaphysics for you to chew on.
		
		
	 
That compromising includes the most recent Democratic Party president, Barack Obama, giving with his majority-controlled Democratic U.S. House and U.S. Senate a right wing Affordable Care Act with a mandate—and doing so while he had a same-party, 60-member U.S. Senate and a 3-to-2 majority in the U.S. House. Perhaps you agree with that policy.
	
	
		
		
			Bernie was NOT going anywhere. Anyone who thinks he was is fucking delusional, and huge shock he went fucking nowhere. Because he spent his time saying very lovely things that he had no possibility of ever providing.
		
		
	 
You can't achieve anything if you do not try. People who oppose Bernie Sanders, and you are one of them, are opposed to his ideas. They are progressive ideas. He is on the actual left. You are not. And that is precisely what is wrong with this "Democratic Party."
I don't oppose Bernie Sanders or his policy ideas. In fact, they are very popular. They're so popular that Hillary Clinton stole from him while the 2016 Democratic presidential primaries were still in progress. 
The big delusion—which is also one of arrogance—has been with Hillary Clinton primaries voters' (and her allies') thinking that, with her closet of skeletons, she was the electable Democrat who would surely defeat Donald Trump. They have no problem with the DNC rigging the primaries against Bernie Sanders; which means the DNC also did that against every person who voted to nominate Bernie Sanders (which are millions and nearly half every vote cast). After that went down, they assumed that Bernie Sanders's primaries voters were required to vote in the general election for Hillary Clinton. Post-Election 2016, this establishment Democratic Party of Hillary Clinton primaries voters (and her allies), who approved of the DNC rigging the primaries, have turned to red-baiting and are urging possible war with Russia...just to give more cover to the party's corruption.
It would help all these people, including you, TX-Beau, to take a look in a mirror. (Look into that mirror however long it will be necessary.)