http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0246/ridgeway.php
Anthony
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On Tue, 12 Nov 2002 18:07:18
Anthony Kennerson wrote:
>I couldn't have said it better myself...good job, Ridgeway!!!
>
>Anthony
>--
>
>On Tue, 12 Nov 2002 15:00:42
> Chuck0 wrote:
>>Published on Tuesday, November 12, 2002 by the Village Voice
>>
>>Attention, Small-D Democrats: The Party's Over
>>
>>by James Ridgeway
>>
>>Since last week's election, liberals have been melodramatically wringing
>>their hands, while the pundits have rushed to expound upon the deeper meaning
>>of the Republican sweep. The Democrats lost, they say, because they no longer
>>stand for anything. From the pundits' portentous tones, you'd never guess
>>that they were beating a horse that's been dead for more than 30 years.
>>
>>In fact, this party has been disintegrating since it nominated Hubert
>>Humphrey in the bloody streets of Chicago in 1968. The Democrats haven't had
>>a shred of original ideology since the New Deal, or a spark of fire in their
>>bellies since the nominally liberal momentum of the Kennedy-Johnson years ran
>>aground on the party's cowardly refusal to oppose the Vietnam War.
>>
>>And it was Jimmy Carter who provided the spark that fired up the right wing.
>>His decision to abandon the Panama Canal helped result in the founding of the
>>New Right. That, in turn, went hand in hand with Ronald Reagan's march to
>>power. Flailing wildly, Carter tried to beat the right by co-opting its
>>economic plan, doing such things as embracing deregulation of the energy
>>industry and other businesses. Charting new ground with an allegedly centrist
>>support base, Clinton tried to outfox conservatives by adopting halfhearted
>>versions of their own plans. Clinton put the final nail in the New Deal's
>>coffin—embracing welfare "reform," screwing up and then abandoning health
>>care, even letting it be known that his administration would look kindly on
>>experiments to reform Social Security by handing partial control to Wall
>>Street brokerages. He managed to leave his greatest mark on history by giving
>>the Republicans an opportunity to impeach him because of an ill-timed blowjob.
>>
>>Today's Democratic Party is less a party than an entrenched Washington
>>apparatus, which operates as a sort of simulacrum of itself, bellowing the
>>names of past icons, while it carries on the business of responding to the
>>interests of one lobby group or another. It is what William Greider calls a
>>"managerial" party, exemplified by the technocratic fussbudgets in the
>>Democratic Leadership Council.
>>
>>Now, some say, there may be a real shakeup in the party in the wake of the
>>midterm defeat, the failed Dick Gephardt stepping down as minority leader,
>>and the Democrats turning to new leadership in the form of California
>>Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi. But this is sham. Gephardt is not quitting as a
>>failure, but to prepare for a presidential run in 2004. As of late, Pelosi is
>>best known for her role as senior House Democrat on the Intelligence
>>Committee, where with the rest of this deadbeat crew she ignored or covered
>>up the U.S. intelligence fiascoes that led to 9-11. Pelosi hails from a
>>Baltimore Democratic political family and says she traces her roots to FDR.
>>Currently she's known as the mother of documentary filmmaker Alexandra
>>Pelosi, who traveled with George Bush during his campaign, and whose
>>filmmaking, among other things, apparently spurred the two families to meet
>>for lunch.
>>
>>The Republicans, on the other hand, have, since the days of Barry Goldwater,
>>articulated a clear ideology. Beginning with the Nixon campaign of 1968, they
>>have carried out an elaborate plan of action to muster the "silent majority"
>>and bring what was a splintered and broken party to power. They have
>>successfully positioned themselves as the party of conservative "principle,"
>>with a mission to roll back the ever encroaching federal government—shutting
>>down agencies and privatizing others, returning power to the states, crushing
>>the New Deal welfare state—while restoring old-fashioned Christian morality
>>to civil society.
>>
>>There is some substance to these political claims, but not much. Right now,
>>the Republican majority is using its power to expand, not contract, the role
>>of the government, replacing the welfare state with a far more costly and
>>intrusive police state, with an economic program based on Keynesian
>>pump-priming for the defense industries.
>>
>>Power may be wielded to advance ideology, but more often, ideology is a front
>>for the simple protection of power. Bush may pose as a Texas wildcatter, a
>>Bible-thumping Christian zealot, a war-ready patriot, and a champion of the
>>common man. But in reality, he's a blue-blooded New England Methodist who
>>dodged the draft by joining the National Guard and pledged for Skull and
>>Bones at Yale. And he's never had anything remotely like an ideology, with
>>the possible exception of the 12-Step Program. If Bush succeeds in spite of
>>an elitist pedigree, it's because he heads—and epitomizes—today's Republican
>>Party. This is a party that wields the money and power of Big Business,
>>shrewdly woven into a populist, patriotic ideology designed to appeal to a
>>country so desperate for passionate ideals that in return it will give them
>>the license to rob their pensions and send their children to war.
>>
>>Those who fail to fall for all this are left feeling powerless and depressed,
>>wondering where to go next. The answer is not terribly hopeful, but it is
>>very simple—and it has nothing whatsoever to do with party politics. Take
>>every opportunity to oppose the power structure: March on Washington, go on
>>strike, organize a boycott, start a resistance radio station, take to the
>>streets with the anarchists. If you are looking for models, they are all over
>>the rest of the world: the East German Christian opposition to the Honecker
>>police state that led to the toppling of the Berlin Wall, the massive Czech
>>uprising, the South African overthrow of apartheid, the protests in Seattle.
>>Don't wait for the Democrats to do it. Do it yourself. Stand for something.
>>
>>© 2002 The Village Voice
>>
>>###
>>
>>
>
>
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