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Edited on Tue Mar-02-10 04:23 PM by Political Heretic
Republican & Democratic Parties are Both Part of the Problem. But One Could Be Part of the Solution.
by Political Heretic
Here's the painful truth. Both Democrats and Republicans ignore the sinking ship of our political and economic system. They do so willfully, in service to the wants and whims of the financial elite that own them. That's the problem.
Of course, there are of course differences between Democrats and Republicans - within a narrow spectrum of allowed difference tolerated by elite consensus. And its true, sometimes, those smaller differences can translate into meaningful benefits in real people's lives.
But the ship is still sinking.
Rearranging Furniture on a Sinking Ship
We have been on an unsustainable economic path for quite some time, with plenty of help from Democratic power brokers along the way. Leadership and national representatives in both parties are uninterested in even talking about the structural injustices intrinsic to this modern capitalist society.
When the ship is sinking, making passengers more comfortable in the short run but refusing to address the reality of the sinking ship is recklessly irresponsible. So every time someone shouts at the top of their lungs, "Dems. passed the Lilly Ledbetter Act!" there's a reason why pretending as though that or any other non-structural accomplishment removes all responsibility for the party's complicity in the sinking of our ship is obscene. There's a reason why touting the rearranging of the furniture while refusing to acknowledge our ship is sinking remains an intolerable problem. It's not that we don't care about various accomplishments that do not address structural injustices. It's that the ship is SINKING!
Whether you think capitalism itself is to blame, or whether you think there are some better and worse varieties of capitalist economies out there - we need to all agree that this particular system we have today is a system of plunder.
And neither Democratic nor Republican parties are willing to even talk seriously about the economic and political structure itself that makes this the case. Therefore, change is needed. we would prefer that we keep the name of the Democratic Party, along with the millions of registered Democrats who do in fact desire structural change even though our national party leaders do not. We'd rather keep the history - the history of a time when our party nominated a man for president who stood up at his party's convention and called out "economic royalists" who were ravaging the country and defiantly declared, "I welcome their hatred."
Why Post Here and Irritate Status-Quo Loyalists?
We post at DU for as long as we are allowed to do so because: (a) we want more people to become awakened to the reality of the social inequality and intolerable injustice of our society and reach a breaking point where they decided that issue is so important that its no longer worth their silence and inaction.
(b) because even though we know the odds are against it, we desire to state the what we believe to be the truth: the time has come for us to finish the work Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was speaking of right up until the day he was killed. It is time for a second Civil Rights Movement - really merely a continuation of the unfinished work of the first Civil Rights Movement - that is focused on the cause of economic justice, and in demand of the second bill of rights first suggested by Franklin Roosevelt.
(c) because we want people to change the Democratic party completely, not destroy or abandon the party - by voting out its corporate shills and lackeys and voting in representatives of the people, of labor, of the poor. And we are not scared off by the politics of fear that says if we ever stand up for what we know to be right and remove corporate capitulating Democrats from positions of power, then republicans will "win." Maybe there will be some short term political losses, but its the only way we can win the long term fight for our country. And we have the courage to fight that fight. We don't think we should be scared into silence or complicity by those who would use such fear-mongering to reinforce the status quo.
We (and there are many of us) post here to persuade. We post to persuade Democrats that the time has come to fight for a better Democratic Party, even if that means some hard battles ahead. We may even lose a few. But long term victory is possible and essential, because the current structure of both our society and this Democratic Party are totally unacceptable.
That's why we post here.
Not Optimism, Only Commitment
We like to trash conservative idiocy too, and expose right-wing political lies. But we make no apology for the fact that our primary interest is in persuading you that the time has come for radical action to deconstruct the modern corporatist Democratic power-house that serves as a policy arm of the financial elite. We're interested in persuading you because we believe there is hope and potential among democrats than there is anywhere else. And that's why we care more about exposing the sham of the modern Democratic establishment and changing the Party than we do about whatever Rush Limbaugh or Sara Palin said yesterday. We feel this is more important to working American families.
We're not optimists. Change is unlikely. It's more likely that things in our "empire" will eventually end badly, in collapse. We're not passionately advocating unfettered social and economic justice because we're optimists. We do it because its right. It's the right fight - win or lose. And as long as we're willing to fight, then no one can say with certainty that all is lost.
To all reading this who feel that they are counted among the "we" that I describe here, post in solidarity below! And bless you for your support, unity and strength!
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