Pondering the state of the Democratic party

[Vektor]

This interesting article appeared in a recent issue of Mother Jones, and I wanted to see what all of you thought about it, and share some ideas with fellow Dems, or anyone else who wants to participate...

http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2005/01/01_451.html

Thanks!

[Eric J in MN]

1. We need to elevate the word "liberal," make people proud to

be liberals, then Democratic candidates won't feel they need to prove they aren't liberals.

[proudbluestater]

2. Interesting indeed.

This first few paragraphs say it all, don't they? Are our candidates Democrats by accident? Was it genetic and now they are bound to the party for eternity, like it or not? Are they ashamed of being called liberal when the liberals brought us all the good things that help the elderly and the poor? Our candidates run AWAY from their own party. They are guilty of letting the OTHER SIDE frame the debate and characterize them as something they are not. Shame on US or our candidates for not articulating what it means to be a Democrat. At least several times on the stump Kerry could have said, "Yes, I'm a liberal. Do you like social security? You can thank my party for that. And continue on in that vein for 10 minutes of so. But we do not. We pretend we're more like Republicans. It's like the party does NOT have a clue. John Kerry got more votes than any presidential candidate in history, save Dubya. A little more capitalizing on the GOOD we have done and he could have sewn it up, were it not for those pesky Republican voting machines. What's your take?


"Listening to the Democratic nominees during the 2004 presidential campaign, it often seemed as if they were ashamed to belong to their own political party. In his acceptance speech, John Kerry boasted that he “broke with many in my own party” to support a balanced budget and ridiculed the idea of “Democratic values” and “Republican values.” John Edwards gave a rousing concession speech -- but didn’t even bother to invoke the party’s name."

[Vektor]

5. Right...

...and as I mentioned to another poster on this thread, the decline of the organized labor movement, which used to be the backbone of the Democratic party is a factor. We simply do not have the large number of people toiling in the fields and mines like we used to. The article talks about how there used to be a class distinction between the parties. Since there were more blue collar workers in America than wealthy elite, Dems had a chance to win. A good chance. Now, the dirt poor vote against their own interests in the name of "moral values."

Not that I am convinced Dumbya "won", but a lot of people did vote for him...

I can't imagine why.

[sandnsea]

3. "highly disciplined"

Then says:

"Certainly, the grim-faced senator lacked charisma, felt uncomfortable talking about God, and was crippled by his region and his past as a war protester."

To which I say, fuck you Michael Kazin. If you still don't get that people like you are part of the problem, with your self-important rants ripping apart the candidate, rants that are out of touch with many, many Democrats who saw the exact opposite in John Kerry; then you've got nothing I care to hear.

[Vektor]

4. I didn't like that either...

I thought the author's negative rant about Kerry was out of line. I certainly did not see Kerry that way. What I did find interesting was this concept:

"Since the 1960s, the decline of organized labor has eaten away at the Democratic Party’s populist foundation. Strong unions didn’t just furnish Democrats with an ample supply of precinct workers. They established social class, rather than faith or “moral values,” as the crucial difference between their party and the GOP. Republicans, the venerable party of big business, would surely not have carried West Virginia in 2004 (or 2000) by vowing to defend the Second Amendment and stop lesbian weddings if the United Mine Workers still reigned in the coal-fields."

There definitely has been a change in what defines the parties. The working class laborer toiling in the fields and the coal mines is becoming a dying breed. This used to be the backbone of the party, but with the decline of that demographic, we need to regroup, somehow, and approach things differently.

What to do?

[sandnsea]

7. That's true

Of course 40 years ago, I think they focused on "reefer madness" and those dope smoking nigras in the ghettos; and we lost in '52, '56, '68 and '72, which is important to remember. In fact, after the Civil War the southern Democrats became irrelevant and Democrts lost every election except Wilson and Cleveland. Until FDR. Which maybe wasn't a bad thing, the Democratic convention in 1922, I think, was called the Klanbake by the press. The north used to vote Republican, Protestants, industry and banking; along with some Teddy-type progressives. That seems to have flipped but we lost the solid south and didn't pick up the western populist, progressive. Maybe because we don't respect that western sense of independence enough; live and let live could work to our advantage socially too. Working Republicans are just convinced that if their boss has what he/she needs, they'll have a job and that's all that matters. I think we have to run a very well-crafted "socialized business costs" campaign. Go after subsidized corporations that use taxpayer money unfairly and have unfair business advantages over small business too. We have to have small business and family farmers and ranchers. That's how Bryant brought life back to the party, although he never won on it either. That are wait for another complete collapse of our economy, that always seems to do the trick. :eyes: Dumbass Republicans.

[Vektor]

8. Absolutely right -

And it boggles the mind how many small businesses still believe the Republican party looks out for their best interests.

[Lexingtonian]

6. More symptomology

Sounds rather like most Democratic selfcritiques I've heard recently. Most of them aren't written by people who should know better. But this fellow- he's a history professor, and he should be able to dig up the causes of such things much more comprehensively. A fellow like him should be able to suggest solutions.