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Ask Clancy the Agony Aunt, by Clancy Sigal

Mary a friend asks, “But what choice do we have except for the Democratic Party?”
 
Dear Mary:

I feel your dilemma. So many battered wives and husbands share your problem. Your spouse promises 
to treat you better and for a short time they’re so nice and gentle you feel hopeful for the future but then 
they revert to type and beat the living crap out of you. 

For how many years have you endured this cycle of promise and abuse only to finally realize, I have got to
 leave this terrible marriage?
 
But what then? It’s terrifying to think of being politically partyless. Out there, alone. Too much freedom, 
makes you ill even to think about it.
 
It’s not as if you’re leaving the marriage for a new or better one. Or having an affair (with Jill Stein? Libertarians? 
Working Families?) No, leaving a bad marriage is all on you, dear.
 
I wish there was a political Battered Politicals shelter for you to be taken in and cared for until your mind clears. 
Alas, your best support system is your own free desire to be unshackled from past love for your old Democratic 
spouse who practically killed you in the recent election.
 
And of course you should rely on your friends who are also Battered Democrats. Maybe all you can do 
for now is hold each other’s hand. Who knows? That could be the start of something really big.
 
Good luck, Mary. Know how you feel.
 
                                            
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