I see a lot of people expressing feelings of disillusionment and hopelessness over the Democratic failure to pass a climate bill, or pass a meaningful banking bill, or even to just show a little backbone to the right wing noise machine for a change. One diarist, in an absolute moment of despair, exclaimed, "we have all failed."
The truth is you didn't fail. You never had a chance in the first place. Your party had been sold out long ago. Here's a little history you may not be aware of.
It was after the 1980 election, when top Democrats like Sam Nunn and Tony Coelho went to the big corporations and said, 'OK, we'll play ball'. The reason for this surrender was they saw the future - the complete destruction of the Democratic party. All through the 1970s, big business had been building a political machine to do one thing - defeat liberalism. And the culmination of their efforts came in the form of big victories for Republicans in the 1978 midterm followed by the 1980 election of Ronald Reagan.
Top Democrats like Sam Nunn and Tony Coelho needed merely to extrapolate out a few more election cycles to realize that the Democratic party was not long for this world.
The Democratic leaders went to the new big business coalitions like the Business Roundtable and said, 'Hey, you guys need a two party system. Stop trying to destroy us and we'll get the party to play ball. And thus a new partnership was born, and a new party alliance - the DLC.
Most people to this day don't even know this deal was struck, or the profound implications it had on policy and party politics. They don't know, for example, that Bill Clinton was chosen by these big business coalitions like the Business Roundtable to serve them (NAFTA, 96 Telecommunications Act, Gramm Leach Bliley for example) while he was biting his lower lip, sticking up his thumb and feeling our pain.
The fact is, ever since the '80 election, the Democratic party, at the top, has been a charade. Throw liberals bones to keep them appeased while allowing the corporatist takeover of the country behind the scenes. Sure, you can see a grand canyon between Democrats and Republicans on scores of issues. But on one single issue, corporate profits (ie, trade policy, deregulation etc), you can barely tell them apart.
Now, due to an overwhelming overreach by the Republicans, the Democrats accidentally find themselves with huge majorities (despite the Republicans usual efforts to steal every election they could in 2008).
This created a quandary. 'Now that we have the reigns, how can we NOT do what Democrats are supposed to do (ie, represent the interests of the common people as opposed to the rich and powerful)? I mean, NOT representing the interests of the common people while pretending to really, really, really want to has become what it means to be a Democrat hasn't it? And for many years, they always had an excuse. But not anymore. So what to do?
The freak show we've seen since Jan of 09 is the answer. Stall, pretend Republicans have unprecedented power for a party that just got its ass handed to it, and become the real party of no - no to single payer. No to real banking reform. No to real climate reform. No to undoing Bush's assaults on civil rights. No to criminal prosecution of war criminals and now, corrupt US attorneys.
Basically, no to every single smart and just thing that needs to be done - which is all progressives have been calling for.
What people need to realize is that party politics sort of became obsolete after Reagan and the big deal was struck. I know that's not a popular idea on a very partisan website such as this. But the Democratic party has been captured, just like the rest of government.
I honestly don't know how or if we can take it back. But I do know this: continuing to support the lesser of two evils just makes more evil. Period.
The two party system is designed to serve only one thing - corporate power. There is no way to support part of it without supporting the other.
Sure, you can conjure up all the usual bogeymen - President Sarah Palin, Rand Paul, etc. There's a cottage industry devoted to instill such nonsensical fear into liberals. The right has its own fear machine too.
But the fact is, Sarah Palin will never have any power. Just as Barack Obama has no real power. Our government has been captured, long ago, by bankers and oil barons.
Everything else, including this never ending TV show we call partisan politics, is just to keep us fighting amongst ourselves while they slowly, quietly, take all of our wealth.
And what wealth they've taken. All across the country, the people's wealth has evaporated. Despite the appropriation of hundreds of billions in the so called stimulus bill, local schools are laying off teachers, firemen, cops. Libraries are cutting their hours. Public services are being cut back.
We are under attack. They're foreclosing on our properties, turning us into renters, stealing our natural resources and poisoning our land and water. They are literally stealing our country and our futures and no one is even putting up a fight. Why? Because no one even knows who their real enemies are.
Lately, you've been hearing a lot about Michelle Bachman. Why? Remember how she came to the limelight? Chris Matthews called her out for some absurdity on his show. What happened? Did she lose in disgrace? No, she's now more popular than ever.
It's all a TV show. Anything to distract away from the 8 or 13 or however many trillions of dollars of our children's real wealth we just handed over to a bunch of thieves and con artists.
This whole nasty world that we immerse ourselves in every day is a trick. It has almost zero impact on real policy. It is merely a puppet show. Part entertainment, a large part propaganda, and another part divide and conquer. And it's all prefabricated and market tested by the best propagandist and PR flacks in the business. Meanwhile, real power operates in secrecy (except for what is revealed by diligent journalists and bloggers).
We have a pluralist plutocracy. A variety of interests, some aligned, some not, acting on our government and other interests to achieve certain ends. To achieve those ends, leverage is applied in the form of rewards and punishments. The rewards can be enticing - unspeakable riches, memberships to clubs, jobs for major firms, reelection. The punishment is often severe - loss of job, money, lifestyle. Social exclusion. And most important, loss of power.
That's what our feckless Democrats are up against. And it's why electing more and better ones won't work. Who can stand up to such pressure? Could you?
The president is not going to save us. Congress is not going to save us. Nor is our corrupt and illegitimate Supreme Court.
By all means, keep trying to elect better people to Washington. One of them may one day make a difference. But when all is said and done, it is up to us.
We are on our own.