It is where the money comes from and how it us used
And so it begins again. Congressmen whose election campaigns I was privileged to support financially are dialing for dollars once again less than 50 days from being sworn into office. Democrats are still stuck in the entrepreneurial paradigm of raising funds for individual candidates when this is an ineffective, self-defeating and inexcusable way of doing politics at all levels.
First, Democrats will be coopted by deep pocket interests every time. No matter the enthusiasm and street cred for a particular candidate, that candidate will be influenced by his or her sources of donations. While we celebrated the small donors that lifted Obama up in 2007 and 2008, in the end it was the bundlers whom Penny Pritzker quarterbacked (and who funded lots of congressional campaigns too) who called the shots on the key policies the Democrats tackled in 2009. Banking reform was slow walked while the culprits behind the great recession were let off the hook and in fact refloated financially. Healthcare reform was hobbled and made more complicated to accommodate the interests of the pharmaceutical and insurance companies. Energy policy got mired into more subsidies and incentives without cleanly breaking from its pro-carbon slant. Bloated defense spending remained bloated as rube goldberg weapon systems continued to be funded and influence peddling continued to be rewarded. Sure there were victories at the edges, but fundamentally reform and progress got short changed in favor of the big dollar donors who were given seats at the head table, while Rahm’s so called “dirty f@cking hippies” barely got to the kids table.
Second, every Democratic candidate, and elected Democratic official gets to be a freelancer. The candidate, and hopefully elected official, is not beholden to the ideology or policy of the party because that is not where the money if coming from. Or it is only but a portion of where the money is coming from. And the party funds — from the DSCC and the DCCC — largely are influenced by the same deep pocket interests that fund individual campaigns. The party apparatus, as it is funded now, reinforces the status quo centrism — frankly conservatism — of many Democratic elected officials. And that means that there is little incentive for party discipline when laws get drafted. Individual lawmakers are leaned on by their donors, or threatened by big money interests, to stall progress while still making nice to their constituents.
Third, the big money, and people power, from unions that used to energize the Democratic Party was eclipsed decades ago by Wall Street and professional money. It is not coming back. The Democratic Party failed to defend union rights and union interests. Unions have become weaker, including public sector unions. and they are fighting for their lives. Sure, the Democratic Party should be supporting unions, and the rights of working people. Yet by kowtowing to the gig and financially-centered economy for many decades, the Democratic Party has lost credibility with working people and Democratic office holders, while still taking union money, don’t advocate for them effectively.
Fourth, the big money has corrupted what should be the people-powered engine of Democratic electoral dominance. So Democrats failed to defend Acorn, a group dedicated to empowering marginalized people and getting out their votes, against specious assaults, while spending billions of dollars in 2016 on media strategies that failed to turn out voters (though Decmoratic money did enrich the Democratic consultant class).
Finally, the stakes are now too high to accept the statement that Democrats are lovely losers because they don’t belong to an organized political party. The Republican Party is highly organized, is highly centralized and is highly disciplined. That is the competition and they are eating our lunch. They have succeeded because the money behind the Republican Party was allowed to corrupt the Democratic Party by making Democrats dependent on bundlers and the same Wall Street and corporate donors behind the Republican Party’s economic policies. Now that there is unitary power in Washington, DC those interests don’t need to play safe, they are going for broke to remake the United States into a vehicle for entrenched wealth and power. No need to play nice with Democrats, and Democratic constituencies anymore.
Contrast the dialing for dollars by individual democrats with the corporate financing and discipline of Republican lawmakers. The legislative process no longer matters. Hearings are perfunctory. Appointments are rushed through as our executive orders and laws.
The cleverness of the Republican Party is that it is the party using Alinsky techniques. No one pays much attention to its footwork destroying the broad based prosperity and empowerment that is at the heart of American life and success, because its noise machine and its stable of gutter politicians, including Trump, move the spotlight and the conflict elsewhere. Instead of addressing the imminent destruction of life on the planet by global warming caused by the capitalism practiced by these moneyed interests, our political and media culture is purposely obsessed by cultural issues crafted to defy rational resolution but which feed resentment, distrust and conflict among a large part of our public.
With the failure of Clinton to achieve the White House, and the failure of many stand out Democrats to be elected to the Senate and House, in 2016 the Democratic Party has to take genuine stock of the current landscape.
With the winnowing of blue dogs in 2010 and later — after all who needs a blue dog when you get a 100 percent Republican bitch — Democratic party officer holders and candidates have become more progressive and coherent in their policy messaging. That coherence has to gel into a genuine platform that is acted upon at all levels of government and electoral politics.
Call it a Democratic Compact with America - make it clear, coherent and concrete. Give it historical teeth — cite Jefferson — to counter the neo-liberalism & libertarian ideologies that fill the sails of the current oligarch financial capitalism that governs and is served by our government. Uncover the corruption and pay to play that underlies our government at all levels — it is insane that we still are entertained by stories of unions corrupting education and local government, when our government is being sold lock, stock and barrel to international investors who are now the leading tax harvesters in the world — they squeeze governments directly or collect the money directly by controlling and running education, infrastructure and services that used to be the province of the people.
Centralize the fund raising and insulate it from the corruption of big money. As noted above, Democratic small dollar fundraising lost a lot of credibility when the big dollars dictated the policy. National and individual state fund raising mechanisms need to be created that are aimed at communicating the Party’s message, enlarging its base and getting its voters out. Those mechanisms can accept big donations but the source of that money needs to be insulated from the policy making and governance. Democrats need to rise above pay for play, by communicating that their policies lift all boats and address genuine issues that benefit all. As a 30 year donor to Democrats, I have not once asked for a favor or an office or a particular law to be passed. I have supported the party because of its ethos and general policy — though its execution was abysmal for the most part, particularly in 2009.
Coordinate campaigns with a unitary message. Run national and state campaigns as though the United States is a parliamentary democracy. Push policy and recruit good candidates that connect with people, that are clean and that have demonstrated leadership in their communities or in their lives (in the military, public safety, nonprofits, religion, business or professions).
Don’t let every campaign be its own boat. Money is wasted when multiple campaigns run ads and voter mobilization efforts in the same metro areas. And each boat can easily be capsized by dark money and unethical politicking. Agree that it takes a party to fund, support a candidate and then keep that candidate loyal to the party.
No more naivete about the current state of civil society. Big money has corrupted it. On the good side civil society requires participation and people, so while money can control the leadership and the agenda, civil society is vulnerable to people power.
Most main line churches are owned by wealthy donors — they give lip service to Christian values but don’t want to make their voices heard in ways that are uncomfortable or effective. They need to be energized — to challenge injustice and evil writ large while still doing the every day things that make life better for the poor and afflicted. No better example of this problem is the Catholic Church. Ken Langone — a founder of Home Depot — sought in writing to intimidate Pope Francis by threatening to withhold contributions for the restoration of St. Patrick’s unless Pope Francis stopped talking about economic inequality. And a claque of reactionary American Catholics — including Bannon, Cardinal Burke and a host others — continue to undercut Jesus’ message, in favor of mysoginy, religious intolerance and patriarchy.
The same is true of Jewish institutions whose slavish devotion to Likud’s greater Israel policy caused those institutions to abandon public servants whose deviancy from Likud’s extremism was viewed as a greater problem then the anti-semiticism, racism and greed of Israel-boosters among the right .
To assure their success Democrats need to ties their message and their policies to the economic and justice principles of these religious institutions and frankly take them over. The prosperity gospel and racist based protestant churches of the south and suburbia may be a hard sell, but not those churches that cater to immigrants and to others who count a functioning social safety net.
What about universities and higher education? They too need to be energized from students, faculty, and administration. Rich donors and alumni have not been held to account for their commitment to irrational and unscientific policies that support their wealth accumulation and status in society, while they reap recognition for funding labs, buildings and professors. And those big money interests that seek to subvert knowledge and progress by funding self serving and false academics must be exposed and dislodged from our universities and institutions.
The arts and charitable institutions also need to be taken on. Those that prosper are comfortably funded by big money. While some institutions have shown courage in challenging Trump, most are keeping their heads down — in the same manner as they did when their silence in the face of big tobacco helped stall progress. And Trump is not the issue anyway — it is the corruption of our government and society by this entrenched money.
The professions need to be rattled too. While Democrats have generally received the support for litigators, the entire legal profession should be activated in the defense of the rule of law. Due process and the protection of rights are under assault by interests that do not want to be held to account or slowed down.
The legal community has been compromised, as we can see from “conservative judges” and the dominionist Federalist society whose concepts of reasoning is playing semantics in favor of the powerful. It needs to be enlisted in the Democratic effort to effort our society, if only for the legal community’s self-preservation. It is the tyrant in Shakespeare who argues to first kill all the lawyers.
The medical profession must be enlisted to the cause. Most medical groups remain corrupted by money and self dealing — so much so that members of these groups may violate the hippocratic oath in simply paying dues. While medical personnel, like a majority of lawyers, are motivated by the ideals and purpose of their professions, they have allowed their organizations and spokespeople to become mouthpieces for entrenched wealth — those who want to profit form suffering, not allay it.
Associations of industries dependent on international trade, skilled and available labor, consumers with disposable income, must be shown their fealty to the Republican Party is no longer merited.
These professions and a host of business interests are vulnerable to Democratic organization and evangelism. For most of them the policies Trump and Republicans have chosen to implement, in order to further the interests of entrenched wealth, are destructive. The fig leaf of lower taxes and self satisfied comfort should be wearing thin.
How to take back the country? Work locally and create a national Democratic party that is funded by the people (and their allies) but which stands for policies that will actually be implemented. The fact is Obama’s Hope and Change over promised and under delivered. And it did so not because the polices and world view were not there. It under delivered because the funding sources of the Democratic Party were cancerous and self defeating.
It is a question of will and organization, not resources. Positive change has always had to face overwhelming odds when it comes to power and money. And change happens despite these odds, though not usually in a straight or predictable way.
When it comes to politics most Americans treat politics as cheap episodic entertainment, not worthy of investment. They don’t contribute to politics financially — certainly not in comparison to entertainment, alcohol, pet food, cable TV — but why should they? Those who give small dollars are regularly had — whether by Democrats or by Trump.
The right approach is to present coherent policies and government and political organization people can have confidence in. Then ask people to give, based on a solid plan and execution at local, state and federal levels. For example, the three West Coast states offer a record that should earn electoral and financial support from all voters, but particularly from Democrats. Democrats need to promise and perform across the country.
Those who decry the naivete of calling for a mass of small donations in the light of Citizens United do not know their history. They don’t even know 2016, where Clinton’s big dollar donations were eclipsed by the messaging of Trump and the organizational machinery the Republican party has created to get out the vote. Money, in support of a disciplined approach toward policy and elections need not be the province of entrenched wealth.
