The Chris Moeller Archives

The Last Dance?

The Democratic Party is at a major crossroads, and things will come to a head this weekend. Tomorrow in Orlando, FL, fewer than 450 well-connected Democrats will sit down and begin the process of deciding who becomes the next party chair. Will it be the progressive former Governor of Vermont, Howard Dean, or any one of a group of centrist pols, like former Clinton aide Harold Ickes, who represent fat cat party contributors?

Throughout 2004, people of all political persuasions insisted that the election in November would be the most important of our lifetime, but that ceased to be the case when the Democrats nominated John Kerry, a Bush-lite, skull-and-bones, war hawk who hadn't done anything to show the public his moral fortitude since the early 1970s. Once again, the electorate was forced to choose between two heads of the same political monster. And that's why, once again, voters were split evenly between the two major candidates.

Unlike the fraudulent choice for President, this weekend's meeting in Florida could have major policy implications. For the first time in 30 years, we could begin to see true opposition in this country to the corporate paymasters that have hijacked our political system.
I caucused for Howard Dean in January, and I'm not going to pretend I didn't feel betrayed when he became a bag man for Kerry in the general election, but he does represent what I believe is the last chance for the party of FDR. His policy speech on Wednesday at George Washington University was an impassioned plea for the party to stop accepting corporate bribes in return for political protection. He outlined a vision of new leadership for the party by grass-roots contributors and working men and women. He wants to strip away the influence of a loose coalition of lobbyists and big corporate donors that have a stranglehold on the party. The new coalition would be made up of the 50 million low wage workers and their families, small farm and rural families in America, if only a major political party represented their interests.

Let it be completely understood- the current sorry state of the Democratic Party is the end product of having been led for more than a decade by the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, a committee of mostly southern, Washington insiders, held under the hypnotic sway of Bill and Hillary Clinton's phony populism. What was good politically for the wretched and immoral Clintons was rarely good for working people, and when I use the word immoral, I'm not talking about the libidinous escapades of William J. under his desk that sets GOP hearts all a flutter. I'm talking about the corporate giveaway of our national assets, the coddling of the Chinese totalitarians who crushed the uprising in Tiananmen Square, and the damage allowed to be inflicted on our most vulnerable communities by predatory businesses- all in exchange for a whopping pile of the mean green.

Harry Truman reminded us a half century ago that, if forced to choose between a Republican and a Republican, the voters will choose the real thing every time, and that's where we are at Christmas, 2004. We were told that John Kerry had the moral authority to be president, and we got a candidate who aped the incumbent. He didn't promise to stop the war in Iraq. In fact, he illegally surrendered his Constitutional authority to sanction it. He never got around to adding a policy statement on corporate crime to the crime page of his campaign website. He "reported for duty" by giving the most Republican-sounding speech in the history of the Democratic Convention, and proposed further cuts in corporate taxes, which have already sunk from 33 percent to 7.8 percent over the last 30 years.

It actually worked. The Democrats succeeded in raising more money than Republicans, right before they got steamrolled on election day. Meanwhile, more than 44 million people left without representation on November 2nd also continue to go without health insurance.

I confess I go back on forth on whether hope for the party is already lost. I thought I was done this summer. Ralph Nader is a perfectly viable alternative. I haven't regretted my vote for him one iota. I know I voted for the smartest, most compassionate, and most honest man in the race. I am now a Democrat in registration only. If Iowa allowed independent voters to participate on caucus night, I would be gone completely. But I'm the type of voter the Democrats should be trying to win back, along with the 40 percent of voters in union household who voted for Bush, the 44 percent of Latinos, and the absolutely astonishing 42 percent of those earning under $30,000 a year. These voters are voting over extemporaneous issues because they can't see any differences between the Democrats and the Republicans. Democrats, why don't you show us some?

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Statistics cited, and other useful information can be found at www.votenader.org

posted by CM @ 6:26 PM