The Democratic Party is in shambles. There are many fingers pointing in many directions. What seemed like hard won gains during the last 8 years may have been proven to be a mirage. The bedrock we thought those ideas were built on seems more like sand, that Trump is apt to wipe away. It may especially go up in flames quickly as the Republican trifecta uses its power to tear down the Democratic structures built over the last 30 years. As we stand at this crossroads, looking at where we go forward, we wonder why we’ve lost so much. We’ve lost most of the statehouses, most of the governor-ships, the House, the Senate, technically the Presidency, and now the Judiciary slips out of our hands. (warning...this is kind of a rant...I’m sorry). Can we have Democratic representatives who actually represent us?
Why has this happened? Maybe it has happened because the people who are supposed to be our representatives, aren’t actually very representative of our party. Maybe the problem is, people, especially young people are tired of DEMOCRATS who are millionaires who talk about the need for ‘common-sense’ solutions like, “CUTTING SOCIAL SECURITY while RAISING TAXES,” “FINDING COMMON-SENSE PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS TO FIX SCHOOLS AND INFRASTRUCTURE” “PUSHING FREE TRADE TO MAKE BUSINESS WORK FOR PEOPLE” and other corporatist bullshit. The Democratic Party is full of Millionaires who are OUT OF TOUCH with the American People. Here’s Nancy Pelosi, not even trying to say that the Democratic Party is anything but the party of strong capitalists.
She laughs at the guy who asked her how the party will do outreach to people who believe capitalism has gone too far, and she laughed at him. Sure, she gave some boilerplate answers to his questions that shows she understands the problems of capitalism, but she offers no solutions. Why is she so down on discussing socialism? Maybe because her and her husband have nearly 90,000,000 dollars in wealth? That much money makes a person think twice about changing a corrupt system. Did we never have a debate on a public option in the House because of her investment in health insurance stocks?
What about Hillary Clinton? She was a free-trade supporter who pretended to disike the TPP because at least she read the tea leaves and saw how poorly explained the TPP was to the American people. If she had supported it, I think the Democrats would have been demolished. We, as a people, can’t have trade deals that are so secretive and onerous that we don’t trust you. She made a good choice there, so why did poor people not trust her? Well first, her and her husband are now worth 100,000,000, at least. With all the wealth she has, she waffled on even raising the minimum wage past 15 dollars nationwide…so did the DNC chairs, and the Obama administration, and so many more Democrats. Why is this so controversial? Why are we as a party waffling on creating a living wage in this country? IT should be a goddamn fight we’re willing to die on a lonely hill for. Why is it okay that Democrats who are multimillionaires can look at poor people and say with a straight face, 15.00/hour is just too much for us to bear. We have too many poor people in this country as it is for being such a rich nation AND we have too many Rich people who poorly represent us.
Then there is my senator...Mark Warner. Mark Warner is a multimillionaire. In fact, Mark Warner is the richest member of the U.S. congress clocking in around 250,000,000 dollars of wealth. He was the conservative democratic governor of Virginia, from 2001-2005, who was able to work across party lines during the early 2000s to reach comity and help fix the Republican budget mess, left by Jim Gilmore. He is also way out of touch with the Virginia Democratic Party. We as a party are (how Warner betrays that issue):
- Green Energy/Pro-Environment — While Warner wanted to open up the pristine Eastern Seaboard to oil exploration. He also said that he would be pro-Clean Coal, even though all the studies show that Clean Coal would end up being twice as expensive as the mid-range solar power production energy rates. www.washingtonpost.com/…
- Pro-Social Security — Mark Warner has flirted with Social Security Republican reform AGAIN and AGAIN. He keeps saying we have to be willing to tighten our belts and understand that the money won’t be there for Americans if we don’t cut benefits. Taxes alone won’t save the day. I wonder why a multimillionaire doesn’t think raising taxes on the rich will fix the budget hole...hmmm www.washingtonpost.com/...
- Pro-Gun Control — Virginia has had its share of tragedies and the Democratic Party here has worked to try to overcome the gun nuts when it comes to sensible gun legislation. Mark Warner has come a long way from being the pro-NRA governor who loved guns, but he’s still not a strong ally in the fight against gun violence. www.ontheissues.org/...
- Anti-TPP — He worked to shepherd the bill quickly through the Senate using the Fast Track process to make it so that the public would not be able to process the bill through their representative. Even after Tim Kaine and Hillary Clinton had disavowed the TPP, HE STILL SUPPORTED IT!!! www.politico.com/...
- Anti-Trump — While Warner has voted for all of Trump’s nominees so far (though he has said he’ll vote against DeVos) www.pastemagazine.com/…
- Obamacare/Separation of Church & State — Mark Warner believes that its OK for religious institutions to deny women health care benefits if its part of their religious beliefs. Need affordable birth control and your church disagrees? Well if you work for them, you may not get it. And Mark Warner says that its okay for the Church and the Government to decide your health care needs for you.
- I could go on..but it’s getting late (if I feel invigorated, I’ll continue tomorrow.)
A lot of us are mad as hell, and I think its time for us to not take it anymore. These millionaires who sit on Wall Street boards and in the halls of power in the Congress make deals to screw the American people all in the name of big business and moderation. AND WE FUCKING NOTICE! Its time for that to stop.
In 2018, we need to fight the Republicans to win two seats, it will be very tough. At the same time, a clear majority of the seats will be Democrats. Maybe we should work now to find primary opponents to take on these Unrepresentatives. We have plenty of progressive Democratic congressman in the House who would make great primary opponents to Mark Warner. Hell even better than Tim Kaine. Why don’t we primary these people. Should we start to push our more progressive congressman to take them on. At this point, I think a lot of the Democratic Senators would get rolled over in a tidal wave with as crappy as job as they have been doing. What say you? (/rant)