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Edited on Thu Jul-07-05 11:11 AM by calipendence
and many more are taking an inward look at how this party is working and what the DLC role is, has been, etc. than before this election. Up until recently, they've stepped back and just tried to vote for "the blue guys" and trusted that their moves to the middle at times was compromise necessary to achieve greater goals through consensus. You asked many of us, myself included, who and what the DLC was a year or so ago or earlier, and you'd have many people shaking their heads.
I think that many are starting to realize the extent of the damage that corporate lobbying and contributions are doing to the goals and mission of those in power and how that's affected what the DLC does to affect where the party goes. And many are now feeling it is time to demand that our representatives in this party need to step back and stop being bossed by two masters, and instead be bossed by one master, and that's US, the people, their constituents.
It's one thing to do honest compromises with the opposition to help get passage of legislation and other agenda that is really more important to our party. It is another to masquerade "sellouts" to the opposition as tradeoffs for the greater good, when in fact those sellouts are more to directly pay back these contributors and nothing is received by *US* the constituents in exchange for those "compromises". The people that have been doing this aren't "moderates" but "sellouts" in my book and we should weed out the "sellouts" from the true moderates in our party. Those "compromises" are more to get more political contributions than leverage for legislation that better serves us. More people are asking "why" when they see the votes on bankruptcy bills, etc. and unless they see some other shutting down this corruption, they don't see a party that works for them, but one that is instead hijacking them to achieve others' ends.
Giving Howard Dean leadership of this party is the first step in the direction of correcting this problem. At this point a lot is still planning and talk, and the others in the party get more nervous without seeing real results that strengthen the party yet. Dean has helped many at the local level with the "Dean's Dozen" and other ways of helping local politicians get elected, which is why many state leaders now are so behind him.
What needs to happen now is to show some results of his efforts in substantive terms. Winning certain key elections without having those elections be beholden to corporate money, and having those elections won by Dems that really resonate their messages with the people that elect them and maybe in some cases really are counter to what corporate America wants.
Once this sort of success occurs, the DLC and other corporate influence peddlers in the Democratic Party will be pushed and isolated into a corner. Many politicians that have to this point been perhaps a bit scared of the changes that are coming and have looked to the DLC to help preserve the status quo that keeps them in power, will see the newer status quo can also keep them in power. Those that want to be more true to the will of the people and not compromise their agendas to corporate will, will enthusiastically jump on board.
Those politicians that truely have a vacuous set of goals in terms of serving us and are more self-serving in terms of getting power through corporate sponsorship will be the ones that will be pushed aside then.
The DLC and other parts of the Democratic Party will probably still get contributions from corporations and other groups, but hopefully at that point it will be the Dems saying to them that their contributions aren't about buying any influence to affect the corporations agenda through influencing the agenda of the Democratic Party, but that such donations should only be given to support the party's true representation of the people's wishes, and that these corporations want to keep that mission going. Some corporations that are really responsive to their employees, customers, etc. will see the value of supporting such a party that won't support their wishes directly but that will support building a healthy America. That kind of support, along with the grassroots support of Dem Party constituents is the kind of support that we want to encourage.
The key now is to help Dean get a strategy together that will allow him to have an effective way to finance effective campaigns that win elections outside of the "bribery chain". That will require a lot of grass roots work and our contributions of money, etc. Recognize that the kinds of money that we donate at some point have to be on-going and "sustained" for those others to believe that Dean's strategy will be a good long term strategy. Some of these donations won't come through until many are convinced that Dean is truely working for them, and not just trying to find additional cash to supplement the influence peddling corporation contributions. Hopefully over time that concern can also be alleviated as well, and people will feel good about making sustained contributions to our party (either through legwork or money) that will keep it strong for the long haul.
And as a parody of a Thompson Twins song that I'd like to see made would say... "Don't Mess with Dr. Dean!"
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