>As for Colombia, it will take more than offering minor amendments to
stop --
>or even slow -- the killing machine down there. It reminds me of the
pitiful
>Dem efforts (such as they were) during the Central American wars in the
80s.
>Save for a few brave souls, the bulk of the party did little to stem the
>mass murder unleashed by Reagan, falling for stunts like "humanitarian aid"
>to the contras, among others.
Dennis, both the comments on Columbia and on Nicaragua seem like a statement that if progressives did not win everything wanted, nothing was acomplished. In the case of Nicaragua, the Boland Amendment was hardly "minor", since it forced the Reagan Administration into the whole back channel and illegal Iran-Contra operation to keep funding flowing for the Contras. Current Democratic leaders like Richard Bonior struggled mightily and successfully to progressively defund the Contras. Possibly it was too late as the Contra murder and US pressure finally demoralized the population to the point of voting out the Sandinistas, but there were real victories made in restricting the Contra menace, in pressuring the El Salvador government to restrain the ARENA death squads and in pressuring Guatamala to end its dirty war against left guerillas. And most of those struggles started with losing amendments that were built on over time.
That the Columbia misadventure already had 186 Congressfolks willing to vote against Clinton's full package is worthwhile, if not enough, to build upon. This is why I dispair of leftists who ignore the real progressive core of Dems we can work with. Absolutely marginal efforts like Nader's are celebrated with infinite gallons of virtual ink, while the broad organizing needed to move from 186 No votes to a winning 218 No votes on narcowar in Columbia is ignored.
The triumph of the treatment-not-prison initiative in California was a measure reflecting the real pragmatic organizing of left progressive advocates on prison reform in California. They marshalled progressive establishment allies and won a real victory against the insanity of the war on drugs.
That is what is needed across the board.
-- Nathan Newman