Dr. J.'s Commentary: What do the Democrats do Now?

[Demeter]

http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/jonas/065


Dr. J.'s Commentary: What do the Democrats do Now?


At the end of my BuzzFlash Commentary last week, I said: "In my view, the Democratic Left has to take a deep breath here and remember two things: who the real enemy is and how easily can one of the most gung-ho supporters of the war put the Senate back in Republican hands. Wouldn't that be fun, my fellow lefties? Inhofe back at Environment, Specter back at Judiciary, McConnell as Majority Leader, and so on down the line. Yum. What a gas. Let's not do another Nader folks. The Congressional Democrats ain't perfect, but, please consider the alternative."

Hillary Clinton, as you might imagine is not my favorite Democratic candidate, actually said in the June 3 Democratic debate that Democrats should spend their time attacking Bush, not each other. I totally agree with her. All of the candidates would be well-served by saying, over and over again: "Primary voters, pick me. I will run best against the Republicans and whichever Bush clone they nominate." John Edwards made some good debating points. However, if the Democrats are going to win the Presidency, they must learn the lesson Kerry never did: at the same time that we run on our programs and policies, we must a) reveal what the real Bush/Republican agenda is (for they never tell us), and b) then run strongly against it.

This applies equally to the Democratic Congressional Leadership. It is not the Democrats who are condemning additional hundreds of U.S. mercenaries, thousands of U.S. troops, and ten of thousands Iraqis to their deaths. It is Bush. It is Bush who demanded the money to do so, not the Democrats. It is Bush who leads and insists upon a failed Iraq policy. It is Bush who is now talking openly about Permanent War, not the Democrats. The Democrats simply do not have the votes in Congress to not send up a military spending bill. The "Congressional Democrats," as I discussed last week, are not a unity. They are a broad-based collation. Further, as I pointed out, the Democrats are just one vote of an egomaniac away from losing the Senate and all the Committee power that goes with it. The Democratic Left needs to recognize all of this, and soon.

And so, what do the Democrats, those outside of Congress and the ranks of potential candidates, need to do now? First, they have to stop screaming at the Congressional Democrats. Rove, et al, must be in hysterics up their sleeves. Not only are they getting the money, but they are splitting the Democrats from at least some of their supporters, thus increasing their chances of getting back in 2008. And what else does that do? Provide for a further major distraction from the central issue: whose policy is this? It's BushCheney's. This is the number one ball we have to keep our eye one. Believe me, folks, this War is not going to end until Bush and the Republicans are out of the White House. It is very sad, but very true. And it is for this reason that the country simply cannot afford to have another Republican in the White House on Jan. 20, 2009.

Bob Fertik of Democrats.com has the right political strategy. For 2008, we must have a totally progressive Democratic candidate, not one who watches the polls and trims their sails according to what their consultants tell them that their focus groups tell them. We must try to get as many truly progressive Democrats as we can in the next Congress. Our side must contest the Presidential and Congressional primaries vigorously. But once the primaries are over, we must unite around the Democratic choices, and then use our influence to influence their policy and political strategies to move in our direction.

We must not pull a reverse Lieberman. Even worse, we must not pull a Nader (as apparently Cynthia McKinney is considering doing). Remember, without Nader's 90,000 votes in Florida, there never would have been a battle over a recount, there never would have been the Sweeney-Bolton lead violence as the Dade Country recount (which would have given the state to Gore) was about to begin, there never would have been the Supreme Court Presidential Selection.

In the run-up to the Nazi takeover of the German government on January 30, 1933, the second and third most powerful political parties were the Socialists (SPD) and the Communists (KPD). Together, they had more seats in the Reichstag than the Nazis (who did have the largest contingent). None had a majority. The Nazis had made it very clear that if they ever took power, as a first order of business, they were going to wipe out both the SPD and the KPD. So did these two unite to fight the Nazis? Oh no. The SPD fought the KPD as a tool of the Soviet Union, and the KPD, unfortunately playing that role very well, took its cue from Stalin and attacked the SPD as "Social Fascists" with much more venom than that which they used against the Nazis. And we all know what happened. My friends on the Democratic Left, that is a lesson we all must learn, and learn well.

Steven Jonas, MD, MPH is a Professor of Preventive Medicine at Stony Brook University (NY), a weekly contributing author for The Political Junkies, and contributing editor for The Moving Planet Blog.

[some guy]

1. yuck

" Believe me, folks, this War is not going to end until... "
" My friends on the Democratic Left... "

People who use these phrases always make me think of Rubbish Limbaugh, and I reflexively put them in the same snake-oil saleman camp.

" The Democrats simply do not have the votes in Congress to not send up a military spending bill. " The Democrats hold all the committee chairs; they seem to be doing a fine job of keeping HR333 bottled up in committee, I don't see any reason they couldn't have kept a military spending bill bottled up.

[yurbud]

2. we all rallied around Kerry in 2004, but these corporate shills want us to shut up and salute

whatever steaming pile of shit they give us even though the primaries haven't even started.

We have a right to hold democrats feet to the fire, and those who behave the worst deserve primary challengers like Lieberman got.

We will not do what the right does--vote and then just pray that our representatives do the right thing.

[yurbud]

3. trust has to be earned, and most of the Democrats definitely did not earn it by standing up to Bush

the last six years, and now that Bush is unpopular and they are in the majority in both houses, they are still holding back.

A lot of them are corporate owned whores as much as the GOP, which is another reason to hold their feet to the fire until they do the right things.