Some say a more populist Democratic Party will soon emerge. It won’t happen as long as these leaders and this system are in place.
- Bill Curry, from Salon.com via Alternet
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Virtually your entire party, the leadership, the majority of the elected officials, are in the thrall of Voldemort, under a spell of unending campaign cash. The Democratic Party, like the Malfoy family, are simply craven, they'll go in whatever direction the cash and power pulls them, flipping their loyalty from unions to Wall Street without conscience. One minute a member of the Ministry of Magic, the next, a Death Eater.
And you are Dobby.
Raise your voice and you'll be shouted down with vicious contempt. How did Cuomo treat Teachout again? What was it that Rahm called us?
Shut up you pathetic little house-elf, and get back to the phone bank.
To have an impact on the outcome of the story, Dobby had to free himself from the Malfoys. He could never heal them from within. He could not save them from themselves. He was impotent, powerless, as long as he remained loyal and enslaved to his craven masters.
Thus Progressive Reformers...
...must declare their independence from the Democratic Party...
- Bill Curry, from Salon.com via Alternet
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First, this diary is somewhat shorter than it looks, because the tables and blockquotes take up a lot of real estate.
Second, I'm going to quote liberally from this piece by Bill Curry, linked here at Alternet:
"The Democratic Party Keeps Screwing Up: Why Progressives Need to Be Independent of the Party
Progressives have no power in a corporate, focus-grouped, Wall Street-leaning party."
I
strongly recommend that you go read it. I'm just using snippets so I can embellish upon one aspect of his thesis. If you only skim this diary, you won't even come close to the depth of analysis of the current relationship between Progressives and the Democratic Party which he details.
One thing I've learned here, when a diarist says "Go read the original article", I go read the original article.
All emphasis in blockquotes is mine.
This community suffers, I believe intentionally, from one giant fallacy:
If you want Liberal social progress, you must vote for Corporate Democrats.
This is bullshit.
This is the lie that enslaves Dobby to the Malfoys.
Here's how you know you're being duped in this way. Someone presents you with two options, when in fact you're really looking at a 2x2 matrix, which has four options. One of the other two options, slyly left undeclared, will be the exact one that your deceiver desperately does not want you to become aware of, if they are to get away with whatever scam they're running. Here's our 2x2 matrix:
☆☆☆ The Four Options You Really Have ☆☆☆ |
|
Social Issues |
Liberal |
Conservative |
Economic
Issues |
99% |
Progressive
Reformer |
TeaBagger* |
1% |
Corporate
Democrat |
Establishment
Republican |
* TeaBaggers don't know that they're actually 99%ers because of the effectiveness of FOXNews propaganda, but if you ask them questions without using "Democrat", "Librul", "Socialism", or "Obama"; questions like "Should the minimum wage be raised?", "Should Social Security be cut, or maybe invested in the stock market?", "Are trade deals good for the middle class?", "Do corporations run Washington, and is this a good or a bad thing?", they'll answer exactly the same way Progressive Reformers do. 'Baggers are Populists. They just want to put their hearing protection back on, reload, and git back tuh shootin'!
Now here's what the Malfoys want you to believe:
✖︎✖︎✖︎ The False Choice Concocted To Hornswoggle You ✖︎✖︎✖︎ |
|
Social Issues |
Liberal |
Conservative |
Economic
Issues |
99% |
|
|
1% |
Corporate
Democrats |
Greedy, crazy, gay-hatin'
Republicans |
See? Someone put a strip of electrical tape on our nice chart.
On purpose.
That tape covering up the option we should have been choosing all along explains why we're fucked.
When we listen to the political discourse from any of the major outlets, or when we hear the messaging and watch the actions of the either the Democratic or the Republican Party, it becomes glaringly obvious that there is not supposed to be any home in the American body politic for Populists of any stripe.
But this is clearly bullshit, because the Progressive version of populism has long been the corrective force that rises up against the rapacious greed and lust for power of what Thom Hartmann calls the "Economic Royalists". Progressive Reformers are one big reason why our Democracy has survived to this point, and why we were able to grow the thriving middle class that is now in a free fall.
But in the 1970s progressives began to be coopted and progress ceased. Their virtual disappearance into the Democratic Party led to political stultification and a rollback of many of their greatest achievements.
This is the political reason that the middle class is collapsing and the poor are getting crushed.
This is the reason why the 'baggers are trying to go to war against the Establishment Republicans.
And this is the reason why Progressive Reformers go to war roll over and do whatever Master Malfoy wants, because what is poor Dobby to do???
Here's how it looks from the Malfoy's mansion:
⚑⚑⚑ How Corporate Democrats See These Four Groups ⚑⚑⚑ |
|
Social Issues |
Liberal |
Conservative |
Economic
Issues |
99% |
Our Pathetic "Retards"* |
Their Gun Totin' Morons |
1% |
The Good Guys |
Our Secret Pals |
*Note the quotes. Be pissed at Rahm, not me...
If you don't think the Establishment Repubs are the Corporate Dems' secret pals, watch how fast TTP and TTIP, the new trade agreements the Obama administration has been "negotiating" under CIA-level security, sail through the next Congress. Liz and Bernie can make a lot of noise, but they are in a tiny minority. Without some kind of massive public outcry and a few self-interested corporations applying pressure, like happened with PIPA and SOPA, these things are a done deal. The Economic Royalists will sneak into being a new corporate government that can nullify environmental, labor, and banking regulations put in place by democratically elected officials from the signatory nations. Bye, bye democracy, Hello Rollerball.
Do any of you remember the votes on the three "free" trade deals that President Obama signed back in 2011? Remember the non-stop media coverage, the vehement dissent from the Democratic leadership? No? Exactly. Check this out:
President Barack Obama signed into law free-trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama that the administration says will support tens of thousands of American jobs.
- Roger Runningen, Bloomberg
Sweet. Sounds like a good deal. But...
He also signed a bill renewing the Trade Adjustment Assistance program for workers who lose jobs because of foreign competition.
- Runningen
Video slightly NSFW & tasteless. Hey, it's South Park.
Wait...Whut thuh??? I thought he just said... Ok, now I'm confused.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said in an Oct. 4 speech in Washington that the agreements would destroy 159,000 jobs by encouraging companies to send work overseas....
- Runningen
Hmm. Maybe these Corporate Democrats are not on our side. Nahh... they're just...
The White House had initially scheduled a public ceremony in the Rose Garden for the signing. Those plans were canceled yesterday in favor of an Oval Office signing in front of photographers only, followed by a closed Rose Garden reception. In an e-mail, Carney cited a “busy day” as a reason for the switch.
“He probably couldn’t get labor to stand by his side and standing alone, or just with business, it would be a disaster, given the growing Occupy Wall Street world and the fact that most Democrats voted against it,” Kevin P. Gallagher, a professor of international relations at Boston University, said in an e-mail.
- Runningen
Holy shit. Isn't this all you really need to know? Can't publicly stand with Labor because you just fucked them again. Can't publicly stand with Business because it will be obvious you're a turncoat.
That is what a Corporate Democrat looks like, folks.
But wait, you might say, "the fact that most Democrats voted against it"! Doesn't that mean that most Democrats are NOT Corporatists? Nope. Rotating Villain. All they needed was for enough of the Corporate Democrats to vote "Yay" with the R's and Viola! Trade deals pass, and most of the Corporate Democrats, especially the ones not in secure races, keep their hands clean by being allowed to vote "Nay". If their vote was needed to ensure passage, there is no doubt that they would have betrayed their constituency and done whatever they were told by the Democratic leadership.
There are several flavors of the Rotating Villain (See Greenwald's excellent analysis here.). This one happens to be quite delicious.
And here's the view from Voldemort's throne, surrounded by his Death Eaters:
●●● How The Oligarchs See Our Political Options ●●● |
|
Social Issues |
Liberal |
Conservative |
Economic
Issues |
99% |
|
1% |
$$$$$$
$$$ FUCK YOU. WE WON. $$$
$$$$$$ |
How many election cycles followed by heart-wrenching betrayals is it going to take for Progressive Reformers to come to the realization that Corporate Democrats have been your enemies since Bill Clinton won his first Presidential primary with piles of corporate cash? Back then I remember furious union leaders swearing that they would never support another Democrat after Clinton flagrantly fucked them on NAFTA.
But ultimately they only had TWO (2) options, right?
Progressives traded their independence for a seat on the far end of the Democratic bench. Progressives turned their movements into mailing lists.
- Curry
And ineffectual diaries and comments.
Functionally, DKos has become an orange pacifier for Progressives, cathartic sucking sans nutrition.
Progressives can come here and vent their angst as if this was a Purity Troll 12-step program. We take turns "sharing". Then your establishment Democratic sponsor can shake your hand and proudly bestow upon you your 1 month, 1 year, maybe 5 year, heck, maybe even your 10 year "Purity Troll Clean" coin.
When I got my 7 year coin I thought it was a chocolate dollar. But then it turned out to be foil made from fool's gold wrapped around a disc of shit.
The gates were never crashed. We just get to shout at them occasionally. As long as we're not too loud. And we're not in the run-up to an election.
(Wow. Three metaphors in a row, tucked inside a big one. I'm a master of metaphor mixology. And alliteration.)
We can politically ally with Corporate Democrats on social issues, but if you keep working to get Corporate Democrats elected and then voting for them, you are functionally an enemy of both the middle class and low income Americans.
You're electing a bunch of Romneys, who happen to like gays.
And we could be winning primaries with Progressive Reformers, even though we're being told not to. Remember, an overwhelming percentage of Democratic voters, most of the Independents, and quite a few Republicans are Populists. That's a hell of a coalition to work with. And every one of those voters is desperate for an actual Populist candidate to vote for. Not a triangulating weasel (read: Corporate Democrat). How about an example of what happens to said weasels? I'm sure you've got your favorite, but here's one.
Why didn't Udall win Colorado by hammering out a Populist message instead of just saying "personhood, personhood, personhood" over and over again? Easy, he couldn't. He works for Chuck Schumer. FAIL.
Note: Both of the video links at the end of the Taibbi piece are mysteriously broken. Perhaps Sirota has one that works.
Still buying into the bullshit that Progressive Reformers can't win?
Elizabeth Warren
Bill de Blasio
You'd better be ready to have their backs though, because they're catching it from both sides. A Warren speech on the Senate floor is like turning the lights on in the kitchen and watching the roaches scurry for cover. Except these roaches have fangs. The Corporate Democrats and the Establishment Republicans will not tolerate effective Progressive Reformers. Bernie chirping from the corner, cool. Warren raging? Get the long knives. So if we expect to win a primary with a quality candidate, we need to have a groundswell of near Warren magnitude, and we must grow spines of steel in order to not cave when a Cuomo/Working Families Party deal magically appears.
Since the 19th century, progressive movements have created the blueprints and the public groundswells needed to enact them. Can progressives build such a movement in this century?
They can do it but they’ll have to take a time-out from electoral politics. They must declare their independence from the Democratic Party, its ineffectual politics and its current, clueless leaders.
How Dobby, once freed from the lies, betrayals, and enslavement of the Malfoys will see things:
☆☆☆ Progressive Reformer's Clear View Of The Four Groups ☆☆☆ |
|
Social Issues |
Liberal |
Conservative |
Economic
Issues |
99% |
We, the latest incarnation of
Progressive Reformers
who rise up when needed to bring would-be oligarchs to heel, and thus, once again,
save our democracy.
(trumpets) |
With a lot of effort and nose-holding,
Potential Populist Allies |
1% |
Allies on social issues, but ultimately
Backstabbing Enemies |
Our Natural Enemies |
The vital task for progressives isn’t reelecting Democrats but rebuilding a strong, independent progressive movement. Our history makes clear that without one, social progress in America is next to impossible.
- Curry
A Progressive Declaration of Independence is a risk, but it’s safer than idling about on deck as the Democrats’ ship goes down. Movement building is arduous work. Builders must agree on an agenda, finance and organize a base, communicate their vision, and help people apply the pressure needed to make change. It’s a huge task. If it hadn’t been done so many times before you’d think it was impossible.
- Curry
My guess is that if you can’t take over the Democratic Party, you can’t take over the country — and that a declaration of independence should be followed by an actual rebellion. The Tea Party has shown you can work within a party and yet be highly independent. But whether to work within, against or apart from the Democrats is a call for later. Building a strong progressive movement is work we must do now.
- Curry
In Conclusion:
Let me requote Curry here, "...whether to work within, against or apart from the Democrats is a call for later."
Warren and de Blasio, and Bernie (clearly a Progressive Reformer, I precisely believe in his diary); these three at the minimum prove that a Populist message is a winning message. Teachout shows us that Corporate Democrats will not only abandon, but cut the throats of and publicly scorn dangerous Progressives when big money is there.
Remember Lieberman? Did you see how fast he abandoned the Democrats when they turned all Progressive on his ass? He saw the 2x2 matrix clearly, and exploited it effectively. And when he struck out on his own, with all that corporate cash in his pocket, who stood by him? Barack Obama.
The Corporate Democrats are our enemies, and it is time to stop being codependent enablers of their war on the middle class. Voldemort and the Malfoys are so close to winning they can taste it.
- Incrementalism is codependence. And fails.
- Repeatedly voting for the lesser of two Evils is codependence. And fails.
- Acceptance of the fallacy of two options is codependence. A failure of intellect, integrity, and courage.
If we're going to do this from the inside out, Tea Party-style sans idiocy, there can be no more half-measures. One way or another Progressive Reformers must declare their independence from the Corporate Democrats and begin a full-on, no quarter given, no compromise rebellion.
We must welcome their hatred.
We have to struggle with the old enemies of peace; business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, war profiteering. They have begun to consider the government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. And we know now that government by organized money is just as dangerous as government by organized mob.
Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me—and I welcome their hatred.
- F Freakin' DR
The Corporate Democrats are government by organized money. They hate us, and loath us as we snivel in our self-inflicted codependence.
We must hate them back.
Now will somebody please throw Dobby a freakin' sock?
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