Ben BARNES, a former-Dem-STAR, now a WEALTHY LOBBYIST

[UTUSN]

Background: Local radio wingnut talkshow host interviewed BARNES a couple of months ago for the book. BARNES reviewed his history, possible POTUS in the '70s, how NIXON torpedoed him, etc. But then he said Dems need to go back to their Big Biz roots. So the radio wingnut is going to interview him again, and I asked (2nd quote). 1st quote is 1st:

***********1st quote********
Sorry, but I recorded him two Sundays ago when he was down to speak at the Historical Museum in (town). Your question about how do you distinguish the Demos from the GOP is a great question which I’m embarrassed to say I failed to think of when I talked to him. I’ll try to remember that going forward into the election season.

**********My (2nd) quote*******
Have you already interviewed BARNES (the 2nd time)? Last time he said that the Dems have been losing ever since they stopped reassuring Big Business that Dems would be just as good for Business as Repukes, that Dems need to go back to that message.

He said that in an approving way. Howard ZINN says the same thing, but in a CRITICAL way.

So, the question for BARNES is, in the context of ZINN, Are you a Republicrat? How do you distinguish the heart and soul of the Democratic Party from the Repuke Party? (Feel free to use the more respectful terms instead of "Repuke".)

Here's what ZINN says:
*********QUOTE*********
p. 258 (paperback): CLEVELAND himself assured industrialists that his election should not frighten them: "No harm shall come to any business interest as the result of administrative policy so long as I am President...a transfer of executive control from one party to another does not mean any serious disturbance of existing conditions."

The presidential election itself had avoided real issues; there was no clear understanding of which interests would gain and which would lose if certain policies were adopted. It took the usual form of election campaigns, concealing the basic similarity of the parties by dwelling on personalities, gossip, trivialities.

p. 284: ...after the Civil War both parties now were controlled by capitalists. They were divided along North-South lines, still hung over with the animosities of the Civil War. This made it very hard to create a party of reform cutting across both parties to unite working people South and North--to say nothing of black and white, foreign-born and native-born.

p. 295: McKINLEY, for whom the corporations and the press mobilized, in the first massive use of money in an election campaign. Even the hint of Populism in the Democratic party, it seemed, could not be tolerated, and the big guns of the Establishment pulled out all their ammunition, to make sure.

*********UNQUOTE********

On edit: Sad how so much Edit/care goes into a sinking thread.