The Chris Moeller Archives

Green means go

This past weekend saw a further betrayal by the Democratic Party toward the hard-working citizenry that they pretend to represent in Washington. In continuing one of the most vicious assaults on civil liberties in recent years, the Congress, now Democratically-led, extended President Bush's authority to eavesdrop on the phone calls of American citizens without warrant. Sixteen Democratic Senators and 41 more in the House, including my representative in Iowa's 3rd district, Leonard Boswell, joined Republicans in passing the measure Bush signed into law yesterday.

Also on Sunday, the House, with little debate and with probably just as little review, approved $459.6 billion in new Pentagon spending, including more than 1,300 earmarks; and this reckless military spending increase, as the rotting of our country's infrastructure reaches lethal levels in the Twin Cities, doesn't even include the extra $147 billion in Iraq War spending that the president is demanding when the Congress returns from recess in the fall. The bill passed 395-13, with only 12 Democrats in opposition.

What opened my eyes though, more than anything else, to the lack of hope for change within the party were reports during the weekend from the Yearly Kos annual conference of progressive bloggers in Chicago. Just after Democrats caved twice more to an unpopular president, for fear of appearing soft on terrorism, liberal presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, who opposed the aforementioned bills, was roundly booed for expressing his belief that there is too little difference between Republicans and Democrats. Here we saw a constituency considered to be among the most progressive of Democratic party voting groups demanding again that we have more patience with a group of elected representatives that have done nothing more with their newly-granted power but hem, haw, kowtow, flip-flop, and blame. These power-mad reps won't dare offend their corporate paymasters, but they continuously evade, manipulate, and outright lie to an electorate that has really asked for nothing more from them than simple honesty. I feel I'm no longer represented-- even as a lowly elector-- within the party's top-heavy hierarchy, and I'm at my wit's end as to why other progressives in the party clearly don't share this same sense of neglect.

Therefore, I hereby withdraw from my planned participation in the Iowa Democratic Caucuses for 2008, and upon a well-timed change of address next Monday, will, for the first time in my life, be changing the party affiliation on my voter registration. Less than two weeks ago, in a court settlement with Iowa's Green and Libertarian Parties, dating to a 2005 lawsuit petitioned by the political groups, the state announced that third parties would now be recognized individually on voter registration forms, and my intent is to register with the Green Party.

In response to the state's changing law, Carrie Giddens, communication director of the Iowa Democratic Party, said all the right things: "Democrats, as a party, encourage anyone who wants to get involved in the political process to get involved, and if this is a way to encourage more people to be engaged in the political process, we welcome them"-- but this is a damnedable lie. Giddens may or may not believe that, but "Democrats, as a party" certainly do not, as recent history indicates. Ralph Nader's independent presidential campaign, and others at the state and local level, have demonstrated that Democrats will stoop to any level to keep competing interests from sharing space on ballots.

The further impact of my decision, of course, is that I am withdrawing my voting support from Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards. While Edwards has not always dealt in a straight-forward manner with the American people, most notably during his term in the Senate, I believe he's fundamentally a decent person, and would be an improvement over any of the presidents in recent generations. It's also the case, however, that Edwards' break with Democratic party leaders and campaign stalwarts, on issues such as the blanket refusal of campaign donations from lobbyists, are going to create a steep uphill climb for him and his campaign during the primary season. In short, he doesn't have a chance in hell of winning the Democratic party nomination, and nor do any other of Hillary Clinton's less-power-entrenched opponents. At this point, the cause of working for and ennobling my political and social beliefs are best served within the functioning apparatus of the Green Party, for which just 850 signatures, from at least five different counties in Iowa, are needed to have the party represented on the 2008 state ballot.

posted by CM @ 11:44 AM