The evolution of the Democratic Party

[kentuck]

It is my opinion that the Democratic Party needs to be rebuilt from the bottom up. After thirty years of compromising and submitting to the Republican right-wing ideas, we find ourselves with a Party that is unable to vote on its own principles. In fact, they appear to no longer know what their principles are.

The taxcuts for millionaires is a perfect example. It is no small coincidence that the Catfood Commission has come forward with a plan to cut the deficit by $4 trillion dollars and that the Bush taxcuts are costing us $4 trillion dollars per decade. Our Party knows that these tax cuts have done nothing positive for our economy. Yet, there are many in our Party that will support more of these taxcuts for millionaires. Because they have gotten themselves into quicksand and they have nothing to stand on.

Millionaires do not necessarily vote for their own interests but most of them do. There are too many millionaires in our Congress. They do not represent the average American - they represent themselves.

Also, we have always had conservatives in our Party but they had certain Democratic Party principles that made them "Democrats". They did not totally desert their Party and join the Republicans, as do some modern day "Blue Dogs" and conservatives. They are not good for our Party. Look at Joe Lieberman as the example for backstabbers. And he is not finished yet.

We cannot build a pure ideological Party but we can do better than what we have now. We have to start with a Party that is willing to fight for Democrats and working Americans over the wealthy, no exceptions. We must have a Party that fights for human rights and equal rights for all humans. We must have a Party that supports a more progressive income tax and is willing to defend the programs we have built over the last 75 years. We must build a Party that is not "pro-war" and "pro-defense" spending that is breaking our country.

We have evolved to a very unpleasant point. Much of it can be attributed to a very weak Democratic Party, with supporters willing to accept anything so long as they remained in power. Paramount above all was the need to stay in power, not what we stood for or what we were willing to fight for. We must start at the bottom to rebuild this Party. That means we might lose a few fights on the way. But we need to connect with the people once again.

[fascisthunter]

1. Agreed.... lets work within the party

we can do this

[xchrom]

2. Recommend

[kctim]

3. So us moderate Dems are

either with you or against you?

[kentuck]

4. Where do you get that interpretation??

If you are a Republican, with right-wing ideas, without a backbone for fighting, then we are against you.

[kctim]

11. Who gets to decide which ideas

we are allowed to hold our own views on and which ones we must hold your views on in order to be considered 'good enough' to be a Democrat?

[kentuck]

13. We will do it democratically, OK?

We will vote the ideas up or down. Is that OK with you?

[kctim]

15. Sure, fine with me

but it won't work.

The party platform is written to appeal to as many voters as possible and telling voters they can believe in this but not that, will only drive them away.

[LiberalEsto]

5. The Democrats have moved further and further right

and as far as I'm concerned, a "moderate" Democrat is what used to be called a Republican.

[joeybee12]

6. So, did you decide to post without even reading the OP????nt

[griffi94]

7. depends on what you mean by moderate dem

deficit hawks who support taxcuts for the top 2% while raising the retirement age
are hardly moderate dems. that's a gop position.

[kctim]

12. Is ones position on one issue

how we now determine if a person is a Republican or Democrat?

[TheKentuckian]

8. If by "moderate" you mean somewhere between Eisenhower and Demint, then yes.

[OHdem10]

9. How many times has someone(s) here at DU tell us --"We

have to take what we can get." In other words, just
roll over and accept what the Republicans hand out.

When we decided to to permit the Conservative Democrats
run the party, we changed the party from a Democratic
Party to a Moderate Republican Party. This my opinion.
When we have a group of legislators who vote with Republicans
more than with their own party, I define this as Moderate
Republican.

[kentuck]

10. You are right.

This is what needs to be changed. They have invaded the body of the Party like a virus.

[kctim]

14. So which Dems vote with Reps more than with their own party?