Reply #78: A rousing endorsement for the Same Ole Same Ole [View All]

[MadHound]

Congratulations, you have made a fine arguement for mediocracy. However what is needed in this time and place is a real change in the Democratic Party, not just a whitewash to marginally cover past mistakes.

"The DU is a lot more left leaning and activist than the majority of the American public."

I beg to differ with you here. In poll after poll, when asked about specific issues, Americans come out looking just as liberal as we here at DU. This fact can be confirmed if you go read the last couple of chapters of Michael Moore's latest book, check out some Jim Hightower, check out various polls at the NORC website<http://www.norc.uchicago.edu/>, look at Gallup polls, etc. On issues ranging from abortion to gun control, from deficits to publicly financed election campaigns, the American people come across as very liberal. The kicker is that since the demonization of that word by the Limbaughs of the world in the past fifteen years, the American public doesn't want to be called a liberal. But if you look at their actions and opinions it becomes all to obvious that they are.

And yes, this election is about radically remaking the Democratic Party. It is about either completing the coronation of the DLC/New Democrat wing of the party or about reaffirming and reenergizing the traditional Old Democratic Party values. If you cannot see that this party is split into two diametrically opposed camps, then your political sense is far gone beyond help. With the New Democrats you find a party philosophy that is as close to the Republicans as one can be without actually being called one. More focused on winning no matter the cost, New Dems are entirely ready to slash social programs, outsource union jobs overseas and whatever else their corporate masters wish them to do, just so long as they WIN. Old Dems, the leftist base, wish to see a roll back to the traditional values that our party stood for. Working for the little guy, helping the helpless, speaking truth to power. This upcoming election will more than likely see the triumph of either one wing or the other. And quite frankly, if the New Dems win out, it will signal the end of the Democratic Party.

Think I'm over the top in this assesment? Think I simply engaging in hyperbolic rhetoric? Think again bub. Look at the numbers. As the New Dems increased their power, Old Dems and Independents fled the party. We have an increasing number of people who are so disgusted with both major parties, to the point that there is a record number of people NOT voting. Listen to the man on the street. More and more they are taking up the call of third parties, the Greens, the Socialists, the Libertarians. These people see that their needs aren't being met, nor their voices heard in the New Dem's party. This phenomenon isn't simply here at DU, it is nationwide and spreading like wildfire.

And while you are calling for moderation, saying that the Democratic party can't be changed overnight, there is one Democratic candidate who has a plan to do just that. Dennis Kucinich is calling for publicly financed election campaigns, and while he is running in this election, he is taking NO corporate campaign donations. How radical, how wonderful, how in step with the American publics' wishes. Roughly eighty percent of Americans are in favor of these changes(more info can be found here<http://www.fordfound.org/publications/ff_report/view_ff_report_detail.cfm?report_index=397---> and here<http://www.grannyd.com/>). And this quite frankly scares the New Dems as badly as the idea of a heroin drought scares an addict. New Dems are all about retaining the monetary power they have accumulated over the past fifteen years. The idea of being responsible to their actual constituents scares the shit out of them. And thus they marginalize Kucinich(a man slightly to the right of FDR) as a hopeless kook. God forbid, he'll take the money out of politics.

And this is why the Patriot Act and the IWR vote, among others, are such a big deal. It starkly shows that our represenatives ARE NOT doing their sworn duty, which is to respond to the majority wishes of their constituents. IF THEY HAD BEEN DOING THEIR SWORN DUTY THEN NEITHER ODIUS ACT WOULD HAVE MADE IT OUT OF COMMITTEE, MUCH LESS CONGRESS!! Instead Dems and 'Pugs alike responded to the wishes of their corporate masters, and sold out this country of ours like a two dollar snitch. And yes, the general public beyond DU realizes what has happened, and they are pissed.

And this anger is driving force behind the DLC/New Dem mantra of ABB. Hoping to whip up a frenzy of fear, the DLC/New Dem meme is that Bush is the devil incarnate. And yet they refuse to deal with the stark truth that they and their minions have empowered this very evil they cry against. IWR, Patriot Act, Medicare, tax cuts 1-3, all of these and more have been aided and abetted by the very Dems who now cry ABB. Gee, do you think that we wouldn't be in this mess if those self same Dems would have cried out against the very issues that they embraced? But gee Wally, that's not what their corporate masters wanted them to do, so instead they danced the corporate dance. Only now, when their jobs/power/money is on the line do they express regret, crying that they were fooled by the King of all Knaves, Bush. Now that's a hoot, being outwitted by a simpleton. How dumb does the DLC/New Dems think the American people are?

So rant and rave all you want to folks, but the American people ARE waking up to the reality of the two party/one corporate master system of government. Even the DLC senses it, hence this sudden outpouring of anti left propoganda(the DLC being against the left, in the context of the Democratic Party is in itself disturbingly telling, don't you think?). Contrary to your little rant above, the DLC/New Dems want the American people to remain sheeple, and are doing their best to maintain that status quo. But it isn't working, and a new day is dawning. And while the DLC/New Dems will most likely win this round with their ABB meme, in the long run they will lose the war, and fade into history. Because as it has been proven time and again, the American people want a party to represent THEM, not the power/money elites.