Reply #188: agree some what, but with qualifications [View All]

[kodi]

"This once-great big tent of a party” you mention had lost 5 of 6 recent presidential elections (and Ford would have beaten Carter if Ford had not pardoned Nixon) by calling on its base for support, and had Clinton done what Humphrey, McGovern, Carter, Mondale and Dukakis had done, the Democratic Party would have lost in ’92 and perhaps disintegrated as a serious national presidential party altogether.

Of course Clinton and the DLC saw personal opportunities in this, of course they did, but what is also true is that whatever Democratic Party remained was also a presidential party which could do things via the executive branch that even Congress could not, and unlike the GOP, it is a force that still can be molded and used for positive social change by forces more than mere money.

When Clinton centered the rhetoric of the Democratic Party he undermined many of the things for which I was proud to be called a Democrat. But I also realized that our old rhetoric had not accomplished much in 25 years, and that we had better try to figure out how to win the White House and the powers which flow from it....The prospect of 9 Antonin Scalias on the SCOTUS may not scare you, but it is my worst nightmare.

Clinton’s move from grass roots to corporate sponsorship of the Democratic Party was intentional, but not terminal. It was a response to the GOP and its own money machines cranking out millions for Far Right activities and policies, and I am unsure that we would have a strong Democratic Party now had Clinton not reached out for corporate sponsorship then.

To me, and not withstanding much good that the Democratic Party jettisoned, I still think that the Democratic Party is the best available social organization to promote real, positive changes for this country.

But, the true strength of the Democratic Party is not derived from its money; it is derived from the people who support its agendas for fairness, and as the Democratic Party has regained strength, it is now time to wrest control from corporations and recapture our Party and mold it for the battles we must fight for a progressive America.

The “corporate sponsorship” of the Democratic Party can be overcome. The tools for this abound. But such a recapturing of the Party requires that what replaces corporate funding and the power it provides to press its issues must be supplied by its successor

It will take a concerted effort by thousands of activists to do this. Are we up to this challenge?

Howard Dean has shown that this is possible, and I think that Al Gore too was moving in this direction in 2000-2 and did not have the vigorous support of his own party because of it. These DLC types knew that Gore was a populist in many ways Clinton was not, and these ways threatened the Democratic Party leaders, and they would rather have had Gore lose than help him build a grass roots, populist movement in the Democratic Party which would challenge their power in the Party.

It is for this reason that both Democratic politicians and their moneymen shunned Gore last year.

So I am delighted that Howard Dean has appeared with his grass roots movement because he is doing exactly what the Democratic politicians were afraid Al Gore would do,and it is the best way to regain control of the Democratic Party from the "corporatists."

These Brainiacs forgot the old adage, “Better the devil one knows than the devil one doesn’t know.