|
I grew up in a union household, so I know this is true. Once upon a time, wanting a strong government to keep greedy corporations under control, pay good wages, make sure products were safe before they were brought to the market and pay a price if this law is violated, "Buy American" and keep jobs here, make corporations and rich people pay their fair share of taxes, etc., was considered middle-of-the-road, middle class, non-corporate thinking. The commonsense assumption that the middle class, not the selfish rich, was the important group and the majority, didn't need or receive a label; it was ordinary fact.
Legislation was geared toward the protection of workers, because this is where we have to turn--not to lawyers and lobbyists, but to unions, government, the law. It was our country. The kinds of people who ran for office were generally middle-class like most people, and who didn't need "the problems of ordinary Americans" explained or "framed" to them; they probably had the same problems themselves. It was like a unified structure then.
Then during the '90s especially, I heard "Democrats" talking in a way that I had never heard before, with exclusive concern for corporate profits, investment, stock returns, "opening markets," and a whole new world of jargon I had only heard from Republicans and capitalists before--and for the first time, the concerns of the middle class, poor, and unions were shoved aside quickly as if they were ashamed of us. Ordinary opinions were now being labelled "liberal" so they could be attacked, and these ordinary opinions, favoring people over their bosses, never questioned before, are still the majority today, although you never hear them. Our pay is never referred to, our jobs are never referred to, but stockholders and corporations are always taken care of.
The DLC, the Clintons, and all the rest, took control of our Party away from the middle-class and its world of unions and the PTA at school, seeking consumer protection and a raise to the minimum wage, prosecution of corporate criminals and price-gougers. Now, because of the influence of the corporate DLC, only lobbyists, capitalists, stockholders, management, influence legislation, and we have been sliding further and further into poverty, ignored.
They made us and alien, hated group in our own Party, and did it by a word game of calling all working, middle class concerns "liberal," "extreme," "special interest," where once it had been obvious--supported, not attacked--common sense of the country and the Democratic Party. Now we can't even get a hearing in our own Party, which no longer even tries to fight for us (except for the great ones, like Ted Kennedy), and it was all because of this phony, corporate/Republican-funded DLC, which joined Republicans, attacking us for trying to bring law to capitalism. Where do you turn, when the enemy (Republicans) attacks you, but when you turn to what was once your own, the Democratic Party, for help, all you hear are opportunists jeering at you. Read the posts on this website--these DLC types have no clue who we of the middle class even are anymore.
When the DLC took over the Democratic Party and only supported Republicans, it allowed Republicans to force us all into their worst, most vicious, incompetantly managed, hell. All the biggest threats of Republican economic ideology, always fought before, are now happening, like a nightmare, because there is no one there to stop it--and the middle class and poor suffer worst. Everything is completely unbalanced and only capitalists win, where once the vast middle class determined policy as a matter of course. This is why I hate the DLC.
|
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
