The Little Party That Could: A Democratic Party Pep Talk

[McCamy Taylor]

Everybody knows the story of the Little Engine that Could. None of the big steam engines would help her get over the hill. But another "little" engine joined her and together they made history.

If you think about it, the Democratic victories in 2008 were a miracle. Karl Rove installed Republican political operatives as U.S. District Attorneys for the sole purpose of indicting Democratic candidates and suppressing get out the vote operations. In other words, it became a crime to be a Democrat. Thanks to domestic spying, Cheney had access to every phone call and email of every American---including Democratic candidates, their families and their strategists. Black Box Voting could do the work of a thousand poll watchers. Insert a phony line of code and watch those votes flip! The corporate media insisted that John McCain was a maverick---even though the man never met a lobbyist he would not accept money from. They swore up and down that Obama was a Muslim---and when asked for proof, claimed that it must be true, because “Hillary told us!” Never mind that the corporate media despised Hillary Clinton, and never missed a chance to call her a bitch, a witch and a liar. The Republicans could count upon Al Qaeda to provide distractions whenever needed. They had an entire news network---Fox---acting as their Ministry of Propaganda.

In 2008, the Democrats faced government repression, spying, propaganda, terrorism and election fraud. To say the odds were stacked against them would be an understatement. In 1972, the same dirty tricks were used by Richard Nixon to crush his opponents. A Watergate veteran, Karl Rove, was even on hand in 2008 to make sure that everything was done just as Tricky Dick would have liked it. So what went wrong? How did the Little Party That Could get over that hill?

Every Democrat did what he or she could. They opened their piggy banks, they registered to vote, they kept themselves informed by reading the real news on the internet. They plastered their cars with bumper stickers and turned up at rallies to show their support. Having a charismatic candidate at the top of the ticket helped, but it was the folks at the “bottom”, the voters, who made it all possible.

The Little Party That Could is facing another steep hill in 2010. Sometime after 2008, Karl Rove must have realized that a key ingredient to Nixon’s 1972 success was missing. I am referring to the legendary “suitcases full of cash.” CREEP accepted money from anyone and everyone. Corporate donors from home and abroad lavished the president with money. If a vote---or endorsement---could be bought, Nixon snatched it up.

Rove and the Supreme Court and a small cabal of very, very rich men decided to throw a big pile of money on the tracks in front of the Little Party That Could in hopes of derailing it. I am not talking about a wall ten or twenty feet high. I am talking a wall over three miles high . That is how big $50 million is if you stack up single dollar bills.

What is a Little Train to do?

Just keep rolling. Open those piggy banks, wear buttons, plaster your car with bumper stickers, keep reading---and spreading the real news on the internet. And get out the vote. Call up your friends and remind them to vote. Go down to your local Democratic Party headquarters and get on the phone, reminding strangers that their votes can knock down huge wall of money. Yes, Republicans will make gains this election. The party out of power always makes gains during the midterm elections, even if they do not accept “suitcases full of cash.” That does not mean that the GOP has “won” or the Democrats have “lost”. It just means that the Little Train That Could may have to slow down a bit—until the next election. But as long as we stay on track, we are unstoppable. And we should be damn proud of how far we have come with so much stacked up against us.

[Name removed]

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