Or is dissent no longer tolerated in the Democratic party?

Is peaceful protest no longer welcome?

What does it mean to be a Democrat?

Do Democrats delete minority voices?

GeekLove's voice was deleted....

"Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better."

 ---  Martin Luther King, Jr.

(cross-posted at Kickin it with CG)

In the summer of 1964, the "Freedom Summer" campaign was launched.  Dedicated to register to vote as many African American voters as possible in the state of Mississippi, which up to that time had almost totally excluded black voters.  The project was organized by the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO), an umbrella of four established civil rights organizations: the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).  Over 1,000 people volunteered interested in helping out the civil rights cause.

At that time, many of Mississippi's white residents deeply resented the outsiders and any attempt to change their society. State and local governments, police, the White Citizens' Council and the Ku Klux Klan used murder, arrests, beatings, arson, rape, spying, firing, evictions, and other forms of intimidation and harassment to oppose the project and prevent blacks from registering to vote or achieving social equality

On June 19, the United States Senate -- after a lengthy filibuster and vote of cloture -- passed the landmark Civil Rights Act. Two days later, three progressives James Chaney, a 21-year-old black man and local Freedom Movement activist from Meridian, Mississippi; Andrew Goodman, a 20-year-old white Jewish man, student and summer volunteer from New York; and Michael Schwerner, a 24-year-old white Jewish CORE organizer and former social worker also from New York travelled to Neshoba County, in order to inspect the ruins of the Mount Zion United Methodist Church.

The church, a meeting place for civil rights groups, had been burned just five days earlier.  Before the three left the area, they stopped by the local COFO office.  Schwerner, aware that their station wagon's license number had been given to members of the notorious local Citizens Council, told COFO workers to contact the FBI if he hadn't called them by 4:30 p.m.

At approximately 5:00, Neshoba County deputy Cecil Price stopped the blue Ford carrying the trio. He arrested Chaney for allegedly driving 35 miles per hour over the speed limit. He also booked Goodman and Schwerner, "for investigation."   All were denied telephone calls during their time at the jail. COFO workers made attempts to find the three men, but when they called the Neshoba County jail, the secretary followed her instructions to lie and told the workers the three young men were not there.

Chaney was then fined $20, and the three men were ordered to leave the county. Price followed them to the edge of town, and saw them heading toward Meridian on State Highway 19, at approximately 10:30 p.m.

That was the last time they were seen alive.

Some local officials were hardly sympathetic to their dissapearance. Neshoba County Sheriff Lawrence A. Rainey said, "They're just hiding and trying to cause a lot of bad publicity for this part of the state". Mississippi governor Paul Johnson dismissed concern by stating that "they could be in Cuba."

When the FBI offered a reward for news of the men's whereabouts, a break came in the case. The men's bodies were found on August 4.  Schwerner and Goodman had each been shot once in the heart; Chaney, the lone African-American, had been savagely beaten and shot three time

The Ku Klux Klan, aided by local police, kidnapped and brutally murdered them.  Despite overwhelming evidence and two confessions, the State refused to prosecute the killers.

The U. S. Department of Justice appointed John Doar, to bring Federal charges (of Civil Rights Violations) against the killers. Against tremendous odds, Doar's successful prosecution led to convictions against many of the conspirators.  However, after 40 years, and only in 2005, finally was one of the killers convicted of their murders.

On this hot summer night, with all the bickering over the primary and election, let us pause and remember the sacrifices of the progressives before us and continue to fight for justice in the world.

I have to say that I'm extremely proud of Hillary today---she made the correct choice on the FISA vote. Here's her statement (and an exerpt) from her Senate office:

http://clinton.senate.gov/news/statement s/details.cfm?id=300338&&

While this legislation does strengthen oversight of the administration's surveillance activities over previous drafts, in many respects, the oversight in the bill continues to come up short. For instance, while the bill nominally calls for increased oversight by the FISA Court, its ability to serve as a meaningful check on the President's power is debatable. The clearest example of this is the limited power given to the FISA Court to review the government's targeting and minimization procedures.

I've been reading the general reaction on this from the "Netroots" community, and unfortunatley, it seems that something that Sricki predicted about what would happen with Hillary's no vote came true:

(Proudly cross-posted at Clintonistas for Obama and Democratic PartyBuilder)

OK, OK, so I've been "HOUNDing" on this for a while now. Even though Hillary Clinton herself has been calling on all Democrats to unite in support for Barack Obama, we've seen these few "PUMAs" troll around the internets. They're dishonoring Hillary, trashing barack, and doing the right wing's work in mocking Democrats.

So what can we now do to get out the real progressive message that Hillary wants us to listen to? Follow me after the flip to find out...

(Cross-posted at Clintonistas for Obama)

Hey, everyone! We have just over 24 hours left to make a HUGE impact in this election by making sure our Democrats have enough resources to kick some Rethug behind this fall. So what can we all do to help Obama win the White House and Democrats win more seats in Congress?

Follow me after the flip for more...

(Cross-posted at Clintonistas for Obama)

Apparently, we have a new round of fighting occurring here at MyDD over "PUMA". Now I know it's easy to just become angry and scream about it... However, I'd like for us to all calm down and really think about what this "PUMA" phenomenon is supposed to be all about. Oh yes, and why don't we think about WHO this is supposed to be all about?

Please follow me after the flip for more...

Yesterday, I put forward my answer to the Obama problem:

I do not believe for one second that Obama or the Democratic party will necessarily bring all the change we need. No party stands for my bedrock principles all the time, principles like the rule of law, the balance of powers, the Constitution, civil liberties, opportunity for all, security through freedom, reduced corporate power, and responsible governance. Politicians will sell me out to get elected when they can get away with it, and I will sell them out to uphold these principles when I can get away with it.

As long as we don't stoop so low as to rationalize a candidate's political calculations, progressives can retain their authority while still supporting a center/center-left candidate.

But once Obama is elected, it's war. As I've said before, November is just the beginning.

So, what would that "war" look like? It's a complicated question, but Mike Lux has some answers [emphasis added]:

So given that I want Obama to succeed, does that give me pause about Jason's plan to be tough on Obama starting the day after he's elected? Well, not really, but I do think the progressive movement needs to have a sophisticated, multi-level strategy. I think progressives should, and very likely will, break into 3 types of players during an Obama administration.

1.    Going on the inside. I hope that the Obama team can be convinced to place as many genuine progressives in government jobs as possible.
2.    Friendly outsiders who are pushing them toward progressivism. These are the progressive organization people, bloggers, donors, and other activists who stay on the outside, and are generally friendly to, and supportive of the Obama team, who still gently push them to pick the progressive path as much as possible.
3.    Outsiders who bang away. Those organization people, bloggers, donors, and other activists who decide their best role is to aggressively bang away, who work day in and day out to hold Obama accountable.

I believe we are best served when we have lots of people in all 3 of these categories. A movement does not succeed without having all 3 kinds of people in place, each playing their part. The progressive things that did happen during the Clinton years came as a direct result of each of these 3 kinds of people playing a big role.

The key is that the folks in all these categories need to forge a constructive working relationship with each other. There will definitely be tensions between the three at times, but if they can respect each other in their different roles, good things will happen.

That's a tough balancing act, and it's going to take a lot of grit and coordination to get it done, but in my mind it's infinitely more easier than trying to pressure Obama in the general election.

With a first-past-the-post, plurality based voting system, two party tyranny rules. An activist's only real point of pressure to push candidates towards their agenda is during primaries. During the general election, unless you genuinely don't care which of the two party representatives gets elected, you have no choice but to help the "best of the worst" of your two choices.

Of course, the Democratic primary is over, so our real leverage against Obama is gone - unless you want to help McCain win.

However, if Obama is elected, working to push him towards progressive positions while he's in power allows for a much more nuanced strategy, as Mike highlights. More importantly, none of these options are winner-take-all. Progressives can hand Obama a genuine legislative defeat and not cost him the presidency or the Democrats both houses of Congress. If played correctly, progressives can flex their power and cause worried politicians to support progressive policies without severely damaging the Democratic brand to such an extent as to cause electoral problems.

To put it another way, it's war in November, but it's not indiscriminate war. It's a smart conflict calculated to bring progressive policies while maintaining electoral control.

J Ro's opinions are his own and do not represent any other organization or individual.

The primary battle during this cycle was a long, hard-fought campaign. There are still, and probably always will be, bruised egos and bitter feelings on all sides of the Democratic party. Some of the hurt will fade away or scar over given enough time, but time is not a luxury we can afford at this critical time in our country's history.

I've wondered for some time if there is any way we can all come together before the November election. Thinking about that question led me to take a hard look at our side of the political spectrum. The last word of the preceding sentence, spectrum, is what I want to talk about in this diary.

Much of the infighting on our side seems to be caused by a mistaken belief that anyone who doesn't believe the same way we do about all of the issues is a troll or a closet republican. We've fallen into the 'my way or the highway' thinking of our opponents. If this thinking is allowed to grow we will end up tearing our party apart.

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