Salon:Whose party is it anyway?

[cal04]

Harry Reid may be the Democrats' new Senate leader, but this week, blue eyes are on Howard Dean. Harry Reid says Democrats have to "swallow their pride" and move toward the middle. Harry Reid says he admires Antonin Scalia's "brilliance" and could imagine voting to confirm him as chief justice of the United States. Harry Reid says he'd rather "dance" with George W. Bush than "fight" him. Harry Reid says: "I'm the face of the Democratic Party today."

Harry Reid may be right. For a party that came within 119,000 Ohio votes of ousting a sitting president in a time of war, the Democrats are sounding awfully defeated these days. There's talk of making the most of long-term minority status, of compromising on judicial appointments and "moral issues" like the rights of gay couples and women -- Reid, the Democrats' new Senate leader, is anti-choice -- and of trying to figure out some way to outflank the Republicans from the red-state right.


There's no question that Dean can inspire the Democratic base. And as a former governor -- albeit of a tiny state -- and a presidential candidate who helped revolutionize political campaigns, Dean has a track record that suggests he has the organizational skills necessary to make the Democratic Party work. But a good résumé and the impassioned pleas of a thousand dailykossacks does not a DNC majority make. Brazile -- who may or may not have been in the race but is out now -- says Dean has only "lukewarm" support from party insiders. If Dean decides to run, she says, "You'll see the same forces that tried to derail his campaign reconstitute themselves as an anti-Dean bandwagon." It's the DNC members who have questions for Dean: Where does he want the party to go, and is he willing to put aside his own presidential aspirations to help take it there?

Dean will address the first of those questions Wednesday. He'll argue that the Democratic Party should be rebuilt from the grass roots up, that it should be driven by millions of Americans who make small contributions rather than by a handful of moneyed interests, and that the party should focus not just on presidential politics in swing states like Ohio and Florida but also on down-ballot races even in the reddest of states. On matters of substance, Dean may not resurrect his borrowed line about representing the "Democratic wing of the Democratic Party," but you can count on him to make it clear he isn't joining the "go along to get along" wing of the party, either.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/12/07/dean/index.html

[PATRICK]

1. "lukewarm support"

That misses the point for sure. They ARE lukewarm, from the Gospel of Luke, the very attitude that provoked gentle Jesus, meek and mild to say He would spit them out of His mouth. Great imagery. The use of "lukewarm" as an adjective is a bit abused. Here it more clearly applies to the failed leadership(or losership) of Dems so bad they are worse than the GOP. They BLOCK the path of the people to a REAL party.

Positions like Reid's and Brazile make any dedicated Democrat gag, but we will not BE gagged.

[Cheswick2.0]

4. You hit the nail on the head

thank you. It is true, they block the path of those of us who want a real democratic party to protect their own jobs. I would love to see some of those people collecting unemployment and wondering how they are going to pay the rent next month.

[Skidmore]

7. Hear! Hear! We need to make certain that some of these

people become unemployed--they do the nation no service now.

[Doctor Panacea]

2. Harry Reid?

Sounds like Harry Reid is in the wrong party.

[Cheswick2.0]

5. he wants to dance with bush

bah......the worst president in history.

[Skidmore]

3. Swallow our pride and move to the middle???

That's the problem, we're stuck in the middle, and the further right we move, the the more extreme the right wing gets. We need to pull this country back to middle ground (oops,, I meant to the left). Sometimes my tongue gets in the way of my eye teeth and I can't see what I say. :)

Harry Reid is wrong!

[Cheswick2.0]

6. 5 4 3 2 1...

here come the people to tell you that Dean is a centrist.

[starroute]

8. Compromise on moral issues?

That's exactly what they're doing -- but it's *our* morality they're compromising.

Our morality -- as Democrats, as liberals, and as Americans -- tells us this:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.

Just what part of that morality are people like Reid prepared to sell out?

[The Judged]

9. Is Senator Harry Reid a favorite son of the dominionist movement?

Anyone have his most recent (read 2003 or 2004) ratings from the groups that comprise the religious right, such as the Christian Coalition, the Family Research Council, and the Eagle Forum?

It is starting to seem more and more like the Democratic Party itself is the battlefield between Americans and their Democracy, in the dominionist's attempts to solidify their grasp on American politics.