Are
there any Democrats left out there? I mean REAL Democrats.
What
I mostly see is a decrepit old gang of wealthy, centrist, corporatist insiders,
ready to bargain away our safety nets, our healthcare, our labor rights and
every other public good the Republicans are bent on destroying. I see “centrists”
and “moderates” who believe in compromise, with the uncompromising,
authoritarian party of McConnell and Trump. This has only resulted in steering
our country ever further to the Right. They have not yet learned that
compromise with authoritarians is not compromise. It is appeasement. It is
capitulation. It is as compromising as paying ransom to kidnappers is.
Republicans
must be defeated, not appeased. They know it is a long game. Most Democrats do not.
The
Republican Party used to be conservative. Now it is a bastion of oligarchic, white
nationalist, authoritarian con-servatism, at war with truth, equality, and
democracy.
Remember
Bush Junior’s speechwriter David Frum’s rare insight.
“Maybe you do not much
care about the future of the Republican Party. You should. Conservatives will
always be with us. If conservatives become convinced that they cannot win
democratically, they will not abandon conservatism. They will reject
democracy.”
Ergo,
con-servatism.
Who
remains standing against this war on democracy?
By
appeasing the Right, Democrats have been following the authoritarian path away
from democracy.
Look
at how war crimes, torture and lies leading to the Iraq war were not
investigated. Nobody was held accountable. Obama “looked forward”.
Look at the
Great Recession caused by Wall Street swindlers that hurt so many Americans,
still trying to recover. Most of the swindlers got paid back. And again, nobody
was held accountable.
Republicans
have gotten away with so many crimes and scams, they are no longer accountable
under a system of so-called checks and balances. Bush Junior saw the
Constitution as just a “damn piece of paper” and acted accordingly.
Now the
entire Party of Trump is regurgitating Putin’s propaganda and condoning foreign
interference in our elections. Since the breakup of the Soviet Union, the US is
becoming more like Putin’s oligarchic Russia than Russia is becoming a
democracy.
Khrushchev
told us, “We will bury you”. Putin kept that promise, by extorting and owning
Trump and now the Republican Party.
At
long last House Democrats are impeaching the corrupt criminal in the Oval
Office. But does that make them real Democrats? Hell, real Republican patriots
would support the impeachment, but they are extinct. It is now the Party of
Putin. The GOP is the Government Of Putin.
Putinism
has essentially become the Republican ideology. Putinism is a rancid mix of
white nationalism, authoritarianism, intolerance, and epistemological nihilism.
Putinism is destruction of journalism and truth. It is denial of science. It is
a pseudo-populist thuggery on a massive scale, infecting Europe and the
Americas
Who
opposes it? Who stands for a democratic republic?
There
is no party of real Democrats, any more than there is a party of real
Republicans anymore. Both parties owe their allegiance to the CEO oligarchs of
Wall Street, Energy, Pharma, and Health Insurance. Corporate lawyers have been
writing our laws. Their company insiders and lobbyists have become top level
Cabinet secretaries, and are their own “regulators”.
The
oligarchs are beyond regulation and accountability to the public. They are
avoiding taxes, while reaping our tax dollars in socialized corporate welfare
subsidies. They have been dismantling our Constitutional Republic and replacing
it with a neo-liberal corporatist oligarchy.
Constitutional
taxes are being eliminated. Constitutional regulation of commerce is being
eliminated. Constitutional provision for the general welfare is being
eliminated.
Who
stands athwart this grand corporate coup? Who defends our Constitution? Who
represents “we the people”?
This
is why we need from real Democrats.
You
may be wondering, “So just what is a REAL Democrat? Who are they?”
There
are a few. Bernie is a real democrat, but not a member of the Democratic Party.
This fact itself is telling.
There
are a few more. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota,
Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan are real
Democrats.
The
“Squad” of young women of color are still representing the heart and soul of
what used to be a Democratic Party. Now these real Democrats are scorned by
corporate media and corpo-dems as “too far left” and out on the “fringe”.
They
are neither. In fact, they represent the preferences of most Americans.
75%
believe humans burning hydrocarbons are to blame for climate change.
65%
believe the winner of the popular vote should be President.
They
are not “too far left”, and we are not the “fringe”. We’re the majority.
Time
for a history lesson, kids.
Back
when the US was actually becoming greater, emerging from a Great Depression,
new and better ideas were implemented in Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal.
People
went back to work in public service jobs, building infrastructure and planting
trees. Unions were growing and workers found representation at the bargaining
table. They were getting better pay and benefits, while working conditions were
improving. Social Security was established.
Of
course Republicans and oligarchs hated this “power to the people” concept. This
resulted in their flooding media with lies and propaganda intended to subvert
and demolish the Constitutional general welfare of the public. They are
destroying everything real democrats have built.
But
we had real Democrats working for the people back when America was becoming
great.
It’s
time to remind our fellow citizens and our representatives and senators what a
real Democrat stands for:
From
FDR’s State of the Union Message to Congress.
January
11, 1944
It
is our duty now to begin to lay the plans and determine the strategy for the
winning of a lasting peace and the establishment of an American standard of
living higher than ever before known. We cannot be content, no matter how high
that general standard of living may be, if some fraction of our people—whether
it be one-third or one-fifth or one-tenth- is ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill housed,
and insecure.
This
Republic had its beginning, and grew to its present strength, under the
protection of certain inalienable political rights—among them the right of free
speech, free press, free worship, trial by jury, freedom from unreasonable
searches and seizures. They were our rights to life and liberty.
As
our Nation has grown in size and stature, however—as our industrial economy
expanded—these political rights proved inadequate to assure us equality in the
pursuit of happiness.
We
have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom
cannot exist without economic security and independence. "Necessitous men
are not free men." People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of
which dictatorships are made.
In
our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have
accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of
security and prosperity can be established for all regardless of station, race,
or creed.
Among
these are:
The
right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or
mines of the Nation;
The
right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
The
right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will
give him and his family a decent living;
The
right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of
freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;
The
right of every family to a decent home;
The
right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good
health;
The
right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness,
accident, and unemployment;
The
right to a good education.
All
of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared
to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human
happiness and well-being.
~~~
There you have it, from our first Anti-Fascist and first real Democrat. Now let's take back our party.
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