<!doctype html public "-//W3C//DTD W3 HTML//EN"> <html><head><style type="text/css"></style><title>Re: [lbo-talk] Nothing to Discuss? was Re: (no subject</title></head><body> <div>Nathan Newman wrote:</div> <div><br></div> <blockquote type="cite" cite>----- Original Message -----<br> From: "Doug Henwood" <dhenwood@panix.com><br> "In focusing on the rightward drift of the Dems"<br> <br> What evidence do you have that the average Democratic elected leader is</blockquote> <blockquote type="cite" cite>more rightwing than a generation ago?</blockquote> <div><br></div> <div>I'm not sure who the "average Democratic leader" is. I do know that the Dems did nothing to raise the min wage when they controlled Congress in the early Clinton years. Etc. If you mean that Southern troglodytes are now Reps rather than Dems, ok. But otherwise, there's no question that the national party has moved to the right, and you'd be a lot more credible if you could concede that. It's not just the DP's doing, for sure - the right has moved madly to the right, and capital has been far more assertive since the mid-1970s.</div> <div><br></div> <div>Let's look at some past party platforms.</div> <div><br></div> <div>1972 <http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/site/docs/doc_platforms.php?platin<span ></span>dex=D1972></div> <div><br></div> <blockquote type="cite" cite>We believe that war is a waste of human life. We are determined to end forthwith a war which has cost 50,000 American lives, $150 billion of our resources, that has divided us from each other, drained our national will and inflicted incalculable damage to countless people. We will end that war by a simple plan that need not be kept secret: The immediate total withdrawal of all Americans from Southeast Asia.<br> <br> We believe in the right of an individual to speak, think, read, write, worship, and live free of official intrusion. We are determined that our government must no longer tap the phones of law-abiding citizens nor spy on those who have broken no law. We are determined that never again shall government seek to censor the newspapers and television. We are determined that the government shall no longer mock the supreme law of the land, while it stands helpless in the face of crime which makes our neighborhoods and communities less and less safe.<br> </blockquote> <blockquote type="cite" cite>Perhaps most fundamentally, we believe that government is the servant, not the master, of the people. We are determined that government should not mean a force so huge, so impersonal, that the complaint of an ordinary citizen goes unheard.</blockquote> <div><br></div> <blockquote type="cite" cite>Full employment-a guaranteed job for all-is the primary economic objective of the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party is committed to a job for every American who seeks work. Only through full employment can we reduce the burden on working people. We are determined to make economic security a matter of right. This means a job with decent pay and good working conditions for everyone willing and able to work and an adequate income for those unable to work. It means abolition of the present welfare system.</blockquote> <div><br></div> <blockquote type="cite" cite>The heart of a program of economic security based on earned income must be creating jobs and training people to fill them. Millions of jobs-real jobs, not make-work-need to be provided. Public service employment must be greatly expanded in order to make the government the employer of last resort and guarantee a job for all. Large sections of our cities resemble bombed-out Europe after World War II. Children in Appalachia cannot go to school when the dirt road is a sea of mud. Homes, schools and clinics, roads and mass transit systems need to be built.<br> <br> Cleaning up our air and water will take skills and people in large numbers. In the school, the police department, the welfare agency or the recreation program, there are new careers to be developed to help ensure that social services reach the people for whom they are intended.<br> <br> It may cost more, at least initially, to create decent jobs than to perpetuate the hand-out system of present welfare. But the return-in new public facilities and services, in the dignity of bringing a paycheck home and in the taxes that will come back in-far outweigh the cost of the investment.</blockquote> <div><br></div> <blockquote type="cite" cite>Rights of Poor People<br> <br> Poor people, like all Americans, should be represented at all levels of the Democratic Party in reasonable proportion of their numbers in the general population. Affirmative action must be taken to ensure their representation at every level. The Democratic Party guidelines guaranteeing proportional representation to "previously discriminated against groups" (enumerated as "women, young people and minorities") must be extended to specifically include poor people.</blockquote> <blockquote type="cite" cite><br> Political parties, candidates and government institutions at all levels must be committed to working with and supporting poor people's organizations and ending the tokenism and co-optation that has characterized past dealings.<br> <br> Welfare rights organizations must be recognized as representative of welfare recipients and be given access to regulations, policies and decision-making processes, as well as being allowed to represent clients at all governmental levels.<br> <br> The federal government must protect the right of tenants to organize tenant organizations and negotiate collective bargaining agreements with private landlords and encourage the participation of the tenants in the management and control of all subsidized housing.<br> <br> Rights of American Indians<br> <br> We support rights of American Indians to full rights of citizenship. The federal government should commit all necessary funds to improve the lives of Indians, with no division between reservation and non-reservation Indians. We strongly oppose the policy of termination, and we urge the government to provide unequivocal advocacy for the protection of the remaining Indian land and water resources. All land rights due American Indians, and Americans of Spanish and Mexican descent, on the basis of treaties with the federal government will be protected by the federal government. In addition we support allocation of Federal surplus lands to American Indians on a first priority basis.<br> <br> American Indians should be given the right to receive bilingual medical services from hospitals and physicians of their choice.<br> <br> Rights of the Physically Disabled<br> <br> The physically disabled have the right to pursue meaningful employment and education, outside a hospital environment, free from unnecessary discrimination, living in adequate housing, with access to public mass transportation and regular medical care. Equal opportunity employment practices should be used by the government in considering their application for federal jobs and equal access to education from pre-school to the college level guaranteed. The physically disabled like all disadvantaged peoples, should be represented in any group making decisions affecting their lives.</blockquote> <div><br></div> <div><br></div> <blockquote type="cite" cite>Health Care<br> <br> Good health is the least this society should promise its citizens. The state of health services in this country indicates the failure of government to respond to this fundamental need. Costs skyrocket while the availability of services for all but the rich steadily declines.<br> <br> We endorse the principle that good health is a right of all Americans.<br> <br> America has a responsibility to offer to every American family the best in health care whenever they need it, regardless of income or where they live or any other factor.<br> <br> To achieve this goal the next Democratic Administration should:<br> </blockquote> <blockquote type="cite" cite>Establish a system of universal National Health Insurance which covers all Americans with a comprehensive set of benefits including preventive medicine, mental and emotional disorders, and complete protection against catastrophic costs, and in which the rule of free choice for both provider and consumer is protected. The program should be federally-financed and federally-administered. Every American must know he can afford the cost of health care whether given in a hospital or a doctor's office;</blockquote> <div><br></div> <div>Yeah, 1972 was an extreme. 1980 <http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/site/docs/doc_platforms.php?platin<span ></span>dex=D1980> moves to the right, but still has:</div> <div><br></div> <blockquote type="cite" cite><font face="Arial" size="+1" color="#000000">Full Employment-We specifically reaffirm our commitment to achieve all the goals of the Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment Act within the currently prescribed dates in the Act, especially those relating to a joint reduction in unemployment and inflation. Full employment is important to the achievement of a rising standard of living, to the pursuit of sound justice, and to the strength and vitality of America.</font></blockquote> <div><br></div> <blockquote type="cite" cite><font face="Arial" size="+2" color="#000000">Health</font><font face="Arial" size="+1" color="#000000"><br> <br> The Carter Administration and the Congress have worked closely together to improve the health care provided to all Americans. In many vital areas, there has been clear progress.<br> <br> The United States spent over $200 billion for health care in 1979. Despite these high expenditures and although we possess some of the finest hospitals and health professionals in the world, millions of Americans have little or no access to health care services. Incredibly, costs are predicted to soar to $400 billion by 1984, without improvement in either access to care or coverage of costs. Health care costs already consume ten cents of every dollar spent for goods and services.</font></blockquote> <blockquote type="cite" cite><font face="Arial" size="+1" color="#000000"><br></font></blockquote> <blockquote type="cite" cite><font face="Arial" size="+1" color="#000000">The answer to runaway medical costs is not, as Republicans propose, to pour money into a wasteful and inefficient system. The answer is not to cut back on benefits for the elderly and eligibility for the poor. The answer is to enact a comprehensive, universal national health insurance plan.</font></blockquote> <div><font face="Arial" size="+1" color="#000000"><br></font></div> <div>And 2004 <http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/site/docs/doc_platforms.php?platin<span ></span>dex=D2004>, where the words "full employment" and "universal health insurance" are nowhere to be found. Instead:</div> <div><br></div> <blockquote type="cite" cite><font face="Arial" size="+1" color="#000000">We need a new military to meet the new threats of the 21st Century. Today's American military is the best in the world, but tomorrow's military must be even better. It must be stronger, faster, better armed, and never again stretched so thin.</font></blockquote> <div><br></div> <blockquote type="cite" cite><font face="Arial" size="+1" color="#000000">We believe the private sector, not government, is the engine of economic growth and job creation. Government's responsibility is to create an environment that will promote private sector investment, foster vigorous competition, and strengthen the foundations of an innovative economy.</font></blockquote> <div><font face="Arial" size="+1" color="#000000"><br></font></div> <blockquote type="cite" cite><font face="Arial" size="+1" color="#000000">We will attack the health care crisis with a comprehensive approach. Our goal is straightforward: quality, affordable health coverage for all Americans to keep our families healthy, our businesses competitive, and our country strong.</font></blockquote> <div><br></div> <blockquote type="cite" cite><font face="Arial" size="+1" color="#000000"><i>Expanding coverage.</i> Under the leadership of John Kerry and John Edwards, we will offer individuals and businesses tax credits to make quality, reliable health coverage more affordable. We will provide tax credits to Americans who are approaching retirement age and those who are between jobs so they can afford quality, reliable coverage. We will expand coverage for low income adults through existing federal-state health care programs. And we will provide all Americans with access to the same coverage that members of Congress give themselves.</font></blockquote> <div><br></div> <blockquote type="cite" cite><font face="Arial" size="+1" color="#000000">We will improve the quality of care and the efficiency of the medical system by using American technological know-how to cut billions of dollars wasted in administrative processing and paperwork. Today, about a quarter of all health-related spending is not even medical. We can do better. We will ensure that all Americans have secure, private electronic medical records by 2008, and we will give medical providers incentives and resources to simplify their paperwork so patients spend more time with doctors and less time filling out forms. We recognize that our health care system is substantially strengthened by the daily efforts of the men and women in a variety of health professions and we support fair treatment for all health professionals.</font></blockquote> <div><br></div> <div>Etc.</div> </body> </html>