You're saying just make it a fair fight. If we get that we may do wonders in 2006. Saw this debate on CSPAN, rerun often lately...
Howard Dean Perfect To Revive Dems' Spirit
by Ed Garvey
It was fun watching Howard Dean, the newly elected Democratic National Committee chair, debate on C-SPAN with neocon Richard Perle.
Had it been a boxing match, the referee would have called a TKO early in the fight, but instead it went on as the students and faculty members in Oregon were thrilled at the performance of the Democratic Party spokesman articulating ideas instead of arguing that Democrats are better managers.
It was a reminder that there once was a Democratic Party that stood for something, before the Democratic Leadership Council convinced Democrats to feed from the same trough as Republicans if they hoped to win.
Because Howard Dean is a former presidential candidate who was right on the Bush invasion of Iraq and had the guts to say so, he has the stature to make people listen. He is, as Paul Krugman described, a "fighting moderate."
What is that? A moderate Democrat who is willing to take stands on issues affecting real people. The people who are unwelcome in the lobbyists' Legislature, who fight Wal-Mart sprawl, slaughterhouses in their downtown, ethanol factories near where people live, and factory farms. People who think the Public Service Commission ought to fight for the ratepayers instead of the utilities. Former Democrats who tired of watching incumbent Democrats act just like Republicans because they need the campaign contributions so they can enact social policy while going along with corporate economic policy. Those who watch Jim Doyle in sadness play the old game of "forget the progressives, they won't have a choice in 2006."
When Democrats turned to the same funding sources as Republicans, they had to craft an easy rationale, and it was, "I'm a liberal on social issues but a conservative on economic issues."
In repeating that mantra, they permitted the center on economic issues to keep moving right while some, like Joe Lieberman, galloped right to catch the wave. They made the point for the right-wingers who kept telling working people that the Democrats don't care about you, they care only about social issues, which quickly became the wedge issues. Democrats got boxed in, not because they abandoned social justice issues but because they abandoned the economic issues of living wage, national health care and job creation.
Bill Clinton and the Democratic Leadership Council boys got on the NAFTA bandwagon and rode the working people right out of the party.
There are millions of people at the bottom of the economic pile who usually do not vote. And why should they? They are people on welfare, the working homeless forced to choose between food and rent, the migrant workers, the "longnshorts". Once the center of national debate, when real Democrats developed a domestic Peace Corps as part of the war on poverty, the poor are now left out of the debate, or worse.
They were abandoned by Clinton and many Wisconsin Democrats with bumper sticker politics of "Work not welfare" and "W-2" that suggested the poor have somehow chosen their lot in life. Over cocktails at fund-raising dinners, Democrats of DLC stripe blame the poor for poverty.
These are the Democrats who seemingly could not figure out that a full-time minimum wage job brings in just over $10,000 a year - with no benefits.
It isn't just about jobs. As our friend from Iowa, U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, says, "Hell, slaves had jobs and three meals a day." No, it is about quality jobs that permit a person to support a family and dream a little.
Why does Howard Dean hold out so much promise? A headline in The Washington Post sums it up: "Democrats' grass roots shift the power:Activists energized fund raising but some worry theycould push the party to the left."
Translated, this means that a Democratic Party led by Dean, relying on little folks for money instead of the utilities, insurance companies and Wall Street funders, will start talking, acting and even voting like Democrats.
They might even recognize what Bill Moyers warned about - "The wealthy have declared class warfare, and they have won." They won without a fight while Terry McAuliffe donned his tuxedo for thousand-dollar-a-plate dinners in Washington with the victorious class warriors. One table for the funders equals a year of work for the person on minimum wage. Does that make sense?
There is an old union song, "Which side are you on?" For too long the DLC Democrats have said, "Well, I'm with you on concealed weapons but not on pocketbook issues."
The result? Eight years of George W. Bush. Time to push the fund-raisers out and bring back the hell-raisers. A few more Tim Comiskeys would sure help.
Welcome, Howard Dean |
