The Sky is Falling! - Democratic Underground

H2O Man

(1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore

Sun Aug-03-08 10:34 AM
Original message

The Sky is Falling!

Q#1: Is Barack Obama going to lose the election because he is "moving towards the center"?

A: No, he will win. The truth is that the most progressive candidate in the 2004 and 2008 democratic primaries was Dennis Kucinich, and while he ran honorable and important campaigns, the number of primaries he won suggests that a democratic candidate running on a solid progressive platform does not get enough votes to succeed in today’s political climate.

Q#2: Should progressive and liberal democrats support Obama?

A: I think so. If we made a graph of the ten most important issues today, and compare the numbers regarding where both of the candidates stand, John McCain would score a zero in terms of progressive and liberal values. While there is good reason for progressives and liberals to have concerns about some of Obama’s positions, even if he scores as low as 50%, that is a huge difference in what direction he would take the country, compared to McCain.

Q#3: If elected, would President Obama actually listen to progressive and liberal democrats from the grass roots level?

A: The best model would be the position that the civil rights leaders, who were responsible for bringing out the black vote for John F. Kennedy that gave him the margin of victory in 1960, were in. They experienced frustrations with the pace of President Kennedy’s actions once elected. Kennedy did not follow through on one of his campaign promises, for example, about instituting change with "the stroke of a pen."

The civil rights leaders had the grass roots mail President Kennedy thousands of pens. And they put pressure on the administration with public protests. Looking back, we can see that while President Kennedy was not perfect, his Attorney General took progressive actions on civil rights. That was as a result of a combination of factors, including the President and Attorney General recognizing the importance of the black voters.

Q#4: Isn’t Obama’s campaign contaminated, because both the democratic and republican parties depend upon corporate contributions?

A: In the early 1960s, Malcolm X said that the leaders of the democratic party were foxes, and the leaders of the republican party were wolves. In the late ‘70s, Senator Ted Kennedy told us that corporate influence had destroyed the Congress’s ability to represent the interests of the American citizens. So in a very real sense, the majority of elected leaders in Washington, DC are corporate canines.

However, Obama has financed his campaign in large part in the way that Howard Dean pioneered in 2004, by making use of the internet to raise significant amounts of money from the grass roots. There is a huge difference between Obama and McCain here.

Q#5: Is Barack Obama’s support a "cult of personality"?

A: Yes, a big part of it absolutely is. There are three types of "leadership": traditional, systematic, and charismatic. All leaders who have the personality attributes that we call "charismatic" will have a certain amount of support that is based upon a "cult of personality. That in and of itself is neither good nor bad; the important thing for progressives and liberals to focus on is working together as a group of individuals.

Q#6: Is it wrong to disagree with Obama at this point in the 2008 election?

A: No. However, there is a big difference between those who have opposed Obama since last summer, and who constantly attempt to undermine democratic unity, and those who either supported a different candidate, but who now support Obama but still voice areas where they strongly disagree with him. More, even those who have long supported Obama’s campaign likely have issues that they disagree with him on. As the old saying goes, any time two people think just alike, only one of them is thinking.

Q#7: What type of "change" can Obama realistically make in Washington?

A: The most significant change that Obama can make in governing is to open the door to allow true democracy to reassert itself. As Sean Wilentz points out in the preface to his book "The Rise of American Democracy," our country’s first couple of decades were governed as a republic. The "res publica," or "public thing," was intended to have a ruling class of the most worthy and enlightened men ruling the nation.

Democracy, or "demos krateo," means "rule of the people." It wasn’t until the early 1800s that this country made the transition to a democracy, as imperfect as it was. McCain represents a continuation of the anti-democratic form of rule we have had under Bush-Cheney. Obama represents the potential for rule of the people. Thus, the real changes necessary to repair our Constitutional democracy will come from "the people," not from any one person in Washington.

Q#8: How could the grass roots bring about any real change?

A: Knowledge is power. Knowing the correct way that our Constitutional democracy is supposed to work is the first step. That includes knowing how the three branches of the federal govern are intended to balance each other.

An Obama administration will not be perfect. But key positions, such as the Attorney General’s Office, can either be headed by a person such as John Edwards under Obama, or with another corrupt republican under McCain. In one case, we would have an opportunity to exercise democracy; in the other, the door would remain locked shut.

Also, Obama’s appointments to the federal courts would be significantly different than McCain’s. While even in two terms, President Obama could not change the US Supreme Court into a more liberal institution, he can keep it at about the unfortunate balance it now has. Under McCain, the court can only become more conservative.

Perhaps the most important way we can exercise power now is in supporting democratic candidates running for the House and Senate. The current democratic leadership has not taken the stands that many of us desire, but with a larger number of democrats, we would have the best chances for having true representation.

Q#9: What should people at the grass roots level be doing between now and the November elections?

A: Exercising their Constitutional rights, as defined by the Bill of Rights. That is our democratic muscle, and it is sadly out of shape. We should be exercising it at every opportunity.

Q#10: Is the sky falling?

A: Definitely. The only question is, who is it going to fall on? If we take hold of the bump-on-a-log theology, and wring our hands and cluck about being powerless, it will fall on us. The results will be more people being crushed, losing their jobs and homes, going without medical insurance, and a dangerous increase in the war in the Middle East. The other option is working hard in the next few months, investing time and energy and money in the upcoming elections. If we do that, the sky will fall on the McCain campaign. The choice is ours.