Ed Schultz isn't on my radio dial anymore...

Zhade

(1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore

Tue Jul-26-05 02:47 PM
Original message

Ed Schultz isn't on my radio dial anymore...

An email I just sent. Not happy to do this, but there's little point in listening to his who now.

You've just lost a listener.

I tune in today, like I do many mornings, to hear that liberals and progressives should "get the chip off their shoulder" about the DLC.

Respectfully, that's ridiculous.

The DLC speaks of "reconciliation" and "unification", but what's really being asked for is capitulation. Here are a few examples of the issues that cannot be reconciled between liberals and the DLC, because they take polar opposite stances:

Liberals are for workers' rights worldwide, DLC for NAFTA.
Liberals for protection of civil liberties, DLC for PATRIOT Act.
Liberals against the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq, DLC for it from the start.
Liberals for ending the failed "War on (Some) Drugs", DLC for continuing it through policies like Plan Columbia.
Liberals against using public tax money for private school vouchers, DLC for them.

Then there's the issue of luring voters. The DLC continually claims that the American public is "moderate", yet a majority of Americans support "left" policies like universal healthcare, workers' right to a fair wage, and protection of civil liberties. One would think that if the DLC's true goal was to attract voters to the Democratic party, it would recognize this and support these policies as well, but instead it supports keeping healthcare privatized, it supports "free" trade policies like NAFTA/CAFTA that destroy workers' right to a fair wage, and it supports the PATRIOT Act. Why does it go against what a majority of Americans want on very important issues, if it seriously wants to attract voters?

That's just a tiny smattering of the problem. In addition, I simply don't trust an organization that has direct financial ties to groups like the Cato Institute and Koch Industries. As quoted in the American Prospect,

<http://www.prospect.org/print-friendly/print/V12/7/dreyfuss-r.html>

"And for $25,000, 28 giant companies found their way onto the DLC's executive council, including Aetna, AT&T, American Airlines, AIG, BellSouth, Chevron, DuPont, Enron, IBM, Merck and Company, Microsoft, Philip Morris, Texaco, and Verizon Communications. Few, if any, of these corporations would be seen as leaning Democratic, of course, but here and there are some real surprises. One member of the DLC's executive council is none other than Koch Industries, the privately held, Kansas-based oil company whose namesake family members are avatars of the far right, having helped to found archconservative institutions like the Cato Institute and Citizens for a Sound Economy. Not only that, but two Koch executives, Richard Fink and Robert P. Hall III, are listed as members of the board of trustees and the event committee, respectively--meaning that they gave significantly more than $25,000."

So, again with all due respect, I am simply not interested in working with people who want liberals to sit down and shut up, who want to continue corporatism and voting with and for Republican-backed legislation (like Joe Biden and the reprehensible bankruptcy bill - he voted AGAINST an amendment to exempt medical expenses, for crying out loud), and who refer to celebrated truth-tellers like Michael Moore as "rancid" and "un-American" (as Al From has). I also will not work with or vote for anyone who endorses the imperialistic notions of the Project For A New American Century, as DLCer and founder of the "Progressive" Policy Institute Will Marshall has on several occasions.

You may feel free to call that a "chip on the shoulder". I call it remaining true to my principles. By stating that it's "all about winning", you have shown me that power reigns over principle in your book. While I understand the idea that one must be in power to achieve principled goals, setting those principles aside in order to win simply results in either not picking them back up again once in office, or following them and getting thrown out in the next election by voters who will feel misled.

I wish you success with your show, and hope there can be some movement on progressive ideals, but working with the corporate-funded, right-trending DLC is not an option for me, and so I will bid you goodbye as a listener. Your show no longer has an appeal for me, and I find it sad that the DLC was once again the catalyst for a split - just as it was when I left the Democratic party to become a registered independent.