Three things happened recently that seem to show a real message to the blue dogs and established powers of the Democratic Party (Rahm, Gov. Kaine). We will see if they can hear or will go down a blue dog path to defeat.
First, Daily Kos and several blogs have joined the boycott of the DNC and OFA pending action on GLBT equality issues like DADT.
Second, Kate Michelman expressed well this morning the warning that the Stupak amendment better be gone or Dems will face the wrath of women in the next election.
Third, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka warned Democrats about taking labor's support for granted, using Creigh Deeds as an example of what not to do.
More, after the fold.
Kos spoke on the front page about the boycott:
Now the DNC is a bit different, because I have lent my name to Americablog's Don't Ask, Don't Give pledge. This is simple: Democrats made a series of promises, DADT among them, and vowed to make change happen if only we gave them our votes. And we did, in record numbers, and Democrats have huge majorities in Congress and a White House with a national mandate.
I get that some things take time, and the legislative process isn't always as fast as we'd like. But here's the thing -- don't come begging for money when you haven't delivered on your promises.
We did our part. It's now our party's turn to deliver. Until they do, it seems ludicrous for them to ask for money, especially with whines about "Republican obstructionism". The obstructionism is coming within our own party. When it gets its house in order and delivers on their promises, then that'll be different.
p.s. Remember when we had a real DNC chair?
On Boycotts
Kate Michelman had a message this morning to the Democrats who allowed reproductive freedom to be attacked in the Stupak Amendment:
Many women — ourselves included — warned the Democratic Party in 2004 that it was a mistake to build a Congressional majority by recruiting and electing candidates opposed to the party’s commitment to legal abortion and to public financing for the procedure. Instead, the lust for power yielded to misguided, self-serving poll analysis by operatives with no experience in the fight for these principles. They mistakenly believed that giving leadership roles to a small minority of anti-abortion Democrats would solve the party’s image problems with "values voters" and answer critics who claimed Democrats were hostile to religion.
snip
This, then, is where we stand as party leaders celebrate passage of the House bill. When it comes to abortion, they seem to think all positions are of equal value so long as the party maintains a majority. But the party will eventually reap what it has sown. If Democrats do not commit themselves to defeating the amendment, then they will face an uncompromising effort by Democratic women to defeat them, regardless of the cost to the party’s precious majority.
Trading Women’s Rights for Political Power
And Richard Trumka pointed to what happens when you run from Democratic Party values:
The union leader saved his toughest political analysis, however, for a candidate that his institution endorsed. Former gubernatorial aspirant Creigh Deeds lost the race for Virginia governor because he declined to promote progressive policy points, said Trumka.
"Creigh Deeds said he would opt-out of the public option, which certainly depressed his base," said Trumka. "He was against giving workers greater collective bargaining rights."
"He really didn’t define himself in a way that people wanted to hear. People want to hear about jobs. They want to hear about how you will create jobs."
Pressed if a winning electoral message was a populist one, Trumka replied: "If you look at the last election that’s exactly what’s happened. The populist message is everything."
Trumka: Democrats Who Act Like Republicans Will Be Jobless After 2010
GLBT folks and those who support their right to equality, women, and labor all are increasingly critical of the path of the Party.
Without progressives, the Democratic Party is nothing. The blue dogs need us and they need to learn it. It it is clear that talk won't do it. They need to learn it the hard way. Until we make examples of a few blue dogs by causing their electoral defeat, they will continue to destroy progressive change.
A corporate controlled Democratic Party is no change at all.
Fired Up and Ready to Go for real change!