Well, why not, if your issues are hitched to a donkey that has a far different destination than you? As the Dem establishment's cohorts (corporate media) are so willing to sneer: "Where else do they you have to go!" (Question mark denied, purely rhetorical.) As long as you remain hitched, clothespin or not, whingeing and furiously posting your dissent or not, as long as you vote for them, they gotcha.
They dont care about your petitions, they dont care about your majority view in polls (tax cuts, public option, Afghanistan, SS), they dont care about their meaningless pledges to you - the only thing left is your vote. If you are willing to give it to them, they gotcha. The scoffing, dismissive media is right. And you have no right to bitch about what they say - you keep going to the hair salon to get a plunger, you're gonna get a haircut and your toilet will still be swimming in shit.
Funny side note: The East Village, Manhattan, where things used to be funkee, actually had a "Hair Salon/slash/Hardware Store" on Avenue B. And a storefront that provided "Income Taxes & Numerology," on East 14th St. Them days are gone, gone with the corporate sweep of the last vestiges of ye olde funkytown, NYC... and them days are gone of ye olde "Party of the People," ie, Democrats.
I dont know if you caught the diary by Twigg, up a few days ago, titled: It's Time for a Reality Check. In it, he focuses on basic issues, which he says we should fight for much more effectively: "jobs, schools, healthcare, pensions" (his list), rather than getting sucked into fights that the majority of the populace doesnt give a fig about, or doesnt have the time to care about. Not bread, not butter.
That diary, which I liked, and a subsequent exchange with a poster on another diary, that spoke to the struggle to survive of minimum wage earners, here, and a bit of this and a strand of that met at the crossroads of my mind and, voila!... a diary!
Re the minimum wage discussion, we talked about how, in many cases, the very poor do better than those just above them because they are eligible for Section 8 housing, food stamps, free daycare, school meals, Medicaid, WIC, and other programs on tap for those at the bottom, like college tuition assistance, free summer camp for kids, etc. I know undocumented immigrants in Manhattan who, with proof of that low salary, get medical care at certain clinics for $20.
Behold, our oligarchy! Behold the necessary "safety net" for the ever expanding poor and the ruling sliver of elites. That is about all we got left. Unions, middle class, American Dream... go fuck yourselves! (This synchs up quite nicely with some extremely important observations about our wayward donkey, or Dem party, which were made by Greenwald, Taibbi and Sirota more than a year ago. Links with blockquote are at the end of the diary.)
The Democratic party is not progressive, but it is still holding onto a progressive base, one which has been determined to tag along behind it... into the Gates of Hell. Progressives in general, of any label, and whatever coalition they have of others who feel the same on BASIC issues, dont address this problem effectively. They are mostly way off the mark. Let me just say, before I go on, that I happen to believe progressive solutions ARE, in the main, the common sense ones, the ones that best guide us to the common good, whether we're talking decisions of war and peace or bread and butter.
It occurs to me that progressives and other interested parties fail to make their case, in the way they clearly or vaguely sense it should be made, because they too often buy into fighting for the snippets on offer. These are the twigs the media and both parties frame as THE issues, which only become THE issues because those are the ones 'they' decide will be addressed. Once you buy into their sell, making the fight about the twigs (Ironic this point was made by "Twigg" the diarist) rather than the roots, you lose.
Example: Folks get all knicker-twisted over the SCOTUS Citizens United decision, which gives much more leeway to corporations to freely fork cash into campaigns. Er, excuse me, but my knickers were twisted long before the CU decision, because our electoral system became a gargantuan big bucks sucker circus, corrupted and fraught with manipulation by the powerful monied establishment, a long, long time ago.
That SCOTUS decision is just another rotten branch on the rotten tree, another crappy floor added to an already "condemned" building. You focus on "fixing" that floor, you somehow manage to "fix" it, you still have the rotten structure to which it was so easily added. Ie, you got squat.
Another example - During the healthcare fight, progressives got syphoned off into fighting for the public option, rather than single payer. And we didnt even get that! Nor did we get lower drug prices via reimportation.
Examples abound, like that minimum wage, I mentioned earlier. Hell, we finally "won" the fight to raise it a few years ago after it lay untouched for eons... and now, of course, we say what we always knew - it dont help worth a damn - only now its worse because folks are supposed to get coaxed out of "the dole" with minimum wage on the hook, only to end up making peanuts, with social services DENIED. We got a few cents more from that twig while financial inequity continues to course thru the rotten tree, unabated, increasing...
Which brings me to far different tactics than simply pruning twigs or demolishing one additional story to an already condemned building. We should have a very clear point of focus with a very simply rallying cry: ALL or NOTHING! That, as the line in the sand. That, as the only acceptable goal.
It is a more effective tactic not only because it bargains at the highest and toughest point, but also because it aims for something much better - for what actually works! It aims for the cure, not an amputation or painkiller, which, as we surely know by now, doesnt even get to a large portion of the body/populace, while leaving the corruption intact and available for what will surely come - yet another rotten addition to what was left standing.
And it gets to the truth. Now I dont claim to know The Truth from on high, but I know the truth of what I want, what I think we need. And if progressives cant speak to that truth then they cant get to power. Truth to power. That is the saying, that is the way.
We need to cut thru the bullshit (If we dont, who the hell will?!) and stop taking those endless rides on which we are taken (passive, operative), and go instead to the source of what ails us. I'm thinking, what could be more powerful, in all its crystal clear simplicity, than "all or nothing?" And what could be more timely? I mean, do we really have a hell of a lot more time to play whack-a-mole? Will we still be playing, as the floor caves in below our feet and the shingles start bouncing off our silly little heads?
When they say: "Hey base, look at the pretty carrot weve got for you! We'll give you a flimsy little public option!" (a pledge/twig, which, in the end, they dont even really mean to give us, in an industry-crafted bill), we say, "Nope. Single Payer. All or nothing!" See, we criticize Obama for not bargaining hard, but look in the mirror, progressive base. We didnt even give what "fight" we gave to the PO to other progressive twigs on the tree, such as: drug reimportation, which Obama campaigned for and then actively killed (with Dems in tow, of course), or against the excise tax, which attacks hardwon union benefits, which Obama, incidentally, attacked McCain for supporting... during - all together now! - The Campaign!!!)
All those folks who fought for the public option (including me) should have joined with folks fighting for single payer... if that were to happen, then certainly, all the progressives who wouldnt even draw the line at the PO would find themselves in a very pared down club - peel some of them away and we might have a coalition of the significant, and we might actually make the powers that be feel the heat. And from that we could grow. (Instead we have our last lonely holdout, Dennis Kucinich, taken for a ride on Air Force One... our last lonely 'pledge' fell in all its worthlessness, only to join all the rest in the trash heap.
And now, to another tactic, which many here will abhor, or, at the very least, be made to feel uncomfortable over. I dont know where you, reader, stand at this point re being fed up with the Democrats, Obama, et al...
Me, I have reached my limit. I am voting Green at this point (did so in Nov). It's not just Obama, it's all the go along Dems. Without the Democrats, for one of many examples, Obama couldnt have taken education policy further rightward than Bush could only dream of doing. But yes he can and yes he did... with a compliant Dem Congress (not to mention union hack leaders, like Weingarten), and state legislatures across the land, which have had Democrats folding like napkins to change laws in order to win Obama's Race to the Top Bottom's chump change. In my opinion, states that lose due to union 'intransigence' (intelligent resistance to neoliberal deals) are the winners.
Each day only further reinforces my decision that I am done voting for Democrats. Like Saturday, for example. My decision was buttressed while listening to the opening piece read on Washington Journal, from the WaPo, wherein opinioneers were asked what would surprise them most, politically, in 2011. link
One of the opinions was from a GOPper who plainly gets it that Obama is on their side on education policy. He urges the GOP not to lose their opportunity to play ball with Obama. Hey GOP, dude is RIGHT! Obama ripped his page on education straight out of your book:
DAN SCHNUR
Director of the University of Southern California's Unruh Institute of Politics; communications director for John McCain's 2000 presidential campaign
The biggest political surprise of 2011 would be if the consensus that marked the lame-duck congressional session of 2010 continued into the new year. Such opportunities exist in education policy, where the inexplicable Republican reluctance to join into what is essentially an administration assault on union orthodoxy could dissipate, leading to more significant progress on topics such as teacher compensation and retention
.
The only thing that surprises me is Schnur's view of GOP resistance. I havent noticed the "party of no" footdragging here. I have only seen both grudging and unabashed praise from the GOP (Newt, Bennett, Christie, et al) over Obama's furtherance of Bush's education policies and goals, his assault on teachers and unions, a stealth neoliberal agenda being carried out in the light of day. It is "stealth" only because so many progressives seem completely asleep at the switch when it comes to noticing and raising their voices against what Obama is doing to the middle class/unions/public education via this channel... But then, education is a realm where a lot of folks are easily bamboozled - it has long been vulnerable to fudged data and hokey "reform" bandwagons.
I also think, as a way to revolt (isnt that what Tea Party means, and isnt that what Tea Partiers have done, somewhat effectively?), it would behoove disaffected progressive Dems to vocally and en masse switch from blue to Green, ie, from Democrats to Greens.
I mean, how fricking easy is it? The Greens are a ready-made, full bore progressive party, never mind the lack of viability or prime time readiness one may see in many of the candidates. What they dont lack are progressive principles, a list of progressive principles the Democrats cant even seem to vocalize anymore. When they do manage to do so, it's to get our votes, and then, well, we know how that story ends. So why reinvent the wheel and why reinvent a no-excuses progressive party (rather than constantly excusing a non progressive party) when one is right there for the joining?
Revolting en masse over to the Greens, a vocal and visible bloc of deadass serious disaffected Dems, would be an effective way to raise progressives' profile and voice, our power in making the party stop playing games and reveal their hand, openly. Like I said, the elites, esp thru their media cohorts, like to scoff at progressives with the well worn "Where else will they go?" (This was on raging full display two Sundays' ago, on the Matthews' show... Crickey, it was orgiastic multi orgasmic, is the best I can describe it. They practically fell out of their chairs to bow before their brightened idol, Obama, the grand poobah of hippie punchers (tax cave). As I said before, as long as we prove them right, we have no right to bitch. How dare they ... what? Tell the truth about us? Lol. Kind of takes the wind out of indignant sails.
I conclude with those very essential messages I mentioned earlier, from last year, I mean last last year (2009!) from Glenn Greenwald (link) and Matt Taibbi, David Sirota. What they pinpoint is the triangulation at the heart and soul of the Democratic party, now with Obama in charge.
A stellar nugget that barely gets said is the part about extending the safety net for the poor while letting the rich get whatever they want ... while the middle class gets shafted. Well, isnt that what we have, isnt that what we keep getting? The whole party is in their grip, the progressive caucus's weak protestations to the side, as they are just that... a sideshow. In the end they yield nothing... or they yield to the establishment powers, so their yield is nothing...
Here's from Taibbi's infamous Rolling Stone piece: Obama's Big Sellout I had to search a bit to find it in its entirety. Rolling Stone has disappeared all but a summary.
The "money quotes" or what we got with Obama:
Taken together, the rash of appointments with ties to Bob Rubin may well represent the most sweeping influence by a single Wall Street insider in the history of government. “Rather than having a team of rivals, they’ve got a team of Rubins,” says Steven Clemons, director of the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation. “You see that in policy choices that have resuscitated — but not reformed — Wall Street.”
While Rubin’s allies and acolytes got all the important jobs in the Obama administration, the academics and progressives got banished to semi-meaningless, even comical roles. [... ]
The significance of all of these appointments isn’t that the Wall Street types are now in a position to provide direct favors to their former employers. It’s that, with one or two exceptions, they collectively offer a microcosm of what the Democratic Party has come to stand for in the 21st century. Virtually all of the Rubinites brought in to manage the economy under Obama share the same fundamental political philosophy carefully articulated for years by the Hamilton Project: Expand the safety net to protect the poor, but let Wall Street do whatever it wants. “Bob Rubin, these guys, they’re classic limousine liberals,” says David Sirota, a former Democratic strategist. “These are basically people who have made shitloads of money in the speculative economy, but they want to call themselves good Democrats because they’re willing to give a little more to the poor. That’s the model for this Democratic Party: Let the rich do their thing, but give a fraction more to everyone else.”
This is our reality under Obama, who cautiously follows the playbook. So it was in 2008 and 2009 and 2010. Now, on the brink of a new year, 2011, will we see the same stasis from the progressive wing of a bird that dont fly... or will we see change?
If your New Year's wish, progressives, is to make change, not just HOPE for it, you had best come to grips with the realization that your wish for serious change will not be granted by Obama or his Democratic party, as it stands, as we have let it stand. If you are serious about change in our political system, you will have to make it. And that means there's some breaking to do. Otherwise, there is no "new" year, only a new number.
So, Happy 2011, everyone! Do with it as you will.