This caught my eye doing some recent research, it brought up a few thoughts
Tue, 12/08/2009 - 9:55am.
BUZZFLASH EDITOR'S BLOG
http://blog.buzzflash.com/node/9986By Mark Karlin
That's according to a Rasmussen Poll that indicates the GOP is in the back of the pack as far as party preferences, with the Tea Party identifiers (although it isn't even an official national party) far ahead of the Republican Poobahs.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics/december_2009/tea_party_tops_gop_on_three_way_generic_ballot The Democratic Party long ago abandoned the populist FDR strain that used to animate a good portion of the Party. The Dems largely have left the working person behind in return for campaign contributions from Wall Street and big corporations. Oh yes, we'll still vote for a Dem over a Republican, because the Democratic Party as a whole is more secular and relatively more culturally progressive, but as far as economic disparity, the Dems aren't doing much to close the ever widening gap between the rich and the poor.
The Bush tax cuts for the super rich are still in place, aren't they? And they helped to deep six our economy, along with a gilded Wall Street crew of gamblers who keep getting richer no matter how much destruction they leave in their wake.
FDR showed that he empathized with "the forgotten man (and woman)." Obama is a brilliant Harvard/University of Chicago lecturer, but he left the community organizing of those less well off behind long ago.
I think the general observations made here are correct with one exception.
The right wing was been brilliant at demonizing "liberals". They have made strategic investments in media and religion. They put their best shock troops out front - carpet bombing liberals 24/7, fueling hatred and spreading lies. They are desensitizing us to greed, cruelty, torture and war. And it is working. Although we may dither, the country has set the auto-pilot pointing right, celebrating and rewarding the ultra rich and punishing everyone who isn't. Our wall street bailout and tax-cut/tax-credit driven stimulus represent a triumph of trickle-down populism cheered on by the majority of democrats. And how about those bishops and other religious leaders, pens in hand, helping us to craft health care legislation for women! It was like the Berlin Wall coming down. I had tears in my eyes.
Wall street corruption, church/state, wiretapping, outsourcing, torture, health insurance mandates, corporate financing of elections and escalation of a horrifically violent 10 year war all are readily accepted by the new democrats as "the cost of doing business" - both realistic and centered. The reality is that the corporation (their business) is squarely in the center, serving both as a proxy military force and proxy legislators for our country (our cost).
As the centrist would say, its more complex than that. Not all credit goes to the populist windbags on the right for pushing our political center over the cliff on the right. These blowhards consume resources- tv stations, radio stations, newspapers. All of this adds to global warming.
In contrast, our democratic leadership has been so energy efficient you can almost call it the "green" party. They have smartly let the right wingers of both parties do all the work establishing the political direction and leadership goals for the nation. Democrats are no longer shackled to quaint and outdated principals in a vigilant and resource heavy struggle for the common man. They have learned how to coast along in the slip stream - "drafting" if you will. As long as they stay just a tiny bit to the right of Lou Dobbs et al, without crossing over the wake, they can rightly claim to be somewhere in the middle and barely break a sweat.
For their efforts, I give the democrats an Energy Star!
By any objective measure and regardless of the party in power, the gap between the rich and the rest of us is growing (and possibly accelerating) and individual rights and liberties are slowly giving way to a new "corporate class" super citizen with preferred rights and privileges.
But, my one exception to Mr Karlin's relevant thoughts is this:
For the minority of us who don't really matter to either party (aka liberals), I don't agree that we should or will continue to vote democratic because of the "better than Bush" factor.
Many liberals and progressives are asking us to withdraw our savings from the big wall street banks and invest in smaller local banks as a way to make a difference and dilute power so it doesn't become so corrupt and self-serving. The same truths can be applied to the democratic party. I can't reconcile the idea that on the one hand a political monopoly is good and corporate monopoly is bad. I believe we have corporate monopolies because we have political monopolies.
Albert Einstein is claimed to have said “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”. It really isn't more complex than that. Torture, war, wall street, out sourcing, corporate influence, we might have to live with it for now, but we should not have to support it over and over again expecting it to change.
I'd like to hear some recommendations regarding credible organizations on the left that might need financial and volunteer support. I want nothing to do with DLC/DCCC/DSCC/OFA bullshit. I've made some past cash contributions to PDA, but I no longer believe positive change is possible from within the party framework.
I'll never vote for another "at least he's not -" candidate. Any other ideas? It is easy to withhold volunteer time and money; but there has to be an alternative to just not voting (a practice that would have made me angry at one time, but maybe I finally understand the reasons now).
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