I Cogitate
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The DLC Worships Corporate Whoring
Forget that the DLC insists that the litmus tests to qualify as a candidate for the next Democratic presidential nomination are:
1) must have ordered a military attack in his or her previous employment
2) must agree that issuing a presidential order for a a bombing run, any bombing run, be the foremost priority upon assuming the presidency of this country
3) must appear at the initial Iowa Democratic primary candidate debate in camouflage, clinching a knife in his or her teeth, rifle locked and loaded.
No, forget my snarkiness above because this is actually about DLC feasance to corporate whoring, the newfound loyalty that sets up a 'Berlin Wall' between the DLC and many of the Democratic netroots activists.
Doing the bidding of the corporate business world to the detriment of the American worker has been a primary factor to the decline and fall of the Democratic Party. Certainly not the only factor but an important one. Either DLC cannot see this or refuses to admit it.
Why should any worker, union member or not, vote Democratic when it is the so-called party of the common person that is now in bootlicking financial cohabitation with the Fortune 500? Why not go over to the other side after being sold out? Loyalty cannot be a one-way street.
When financial institutions such as Goldman Sachs, CitiGroup, Salomon Brothers, Merrill Lynch and the like call in their financial donation-generated IOUs, the DLC commences to kick into its best Republican imitation mode and supports whatever legislation it is directed to.
This isn't about blind hatred of financial institutions and corporations.This is about taking for people for granted, playing them for a fool and selling out those you have long represented.
Let's take the DLC, as currently constituted, and go back in time. Would the DLC have supported the implementation of the 8-hour work day? The 40-hour work week? Vacation pay? Child labor laws? Would it stand for the right to unionize?
It's questionable. It truly is. It would depend on direction from this country's financial titans and corporate leaders.
If you doubt this, where was the strenuous DLC opposition to CAFTA? To the recently-passed bankruptcy legislation? To the Medicare "reform" package?
There was none. The DLC supported all three, to the detriment of American workers and this country's middle and lower economic classes.
CAFTA was riddled with employment and environmental loopholes and will enable more American manufacturing jobs to disappear. The bankruptcy legislation was promoted by the giants of the financial sector. The pharmaceutical behemoths loved the Medicare package
The DLC needs to demonstrate it stands for fairness in the economic playing field but cannot accomplish this when doing the bidding of the corporate and financial worlds is job one for the DLC.
CAFTA passed in the U.S. Senate with 33 Democrats and 12 Republicans voting thumbs down. To no avail, 187 Democrats, 27 Republicans and one independent voted to nix CAFTA in the House of Representatives. Is the DLC out of touch or are the vast majority of Democrats in Congress?
In a March 16, 2005 article from the DLC web site, DLC moguls Al From and Bruce Reed stand and deliver. Here are some confounding excerpts:
"...In order to restore these great values, Democrats need to remember our calling as the true party of reform. Last time we looked, the Republicans controlled the White House, both houses of Congress, a majority of governorships, and a plurality of state legislatures. Yet the Republicans are the party of fiscal profligacy, special interests, and K Street corruption...So are DLCers voting with the Republicans on CAFTA, bankruptcy and Medicare embracing risky radical reform? Does the CAFTA, bankruptcy and Medicare legislation end corporate welfare? Does all this demonstrate to the middle and lower economic classes that the DLC stands with them?
...Democrats have a duty to blow the whistle and champion radical reform. We need to be willing to take political risks and embrace new ideas: breaking the redistricting racket that leaves most incumbents more likely to die in office than be defeated; ensuring all Americans can vote and have their votes counted; opening primaries to enfranchise independents and break the grip of organized interests on the nominating process and the parties; restoring spending caps and pay-as-you-go policies to put our fiscal house back in order; promoting family-friendly tax policies that help middle-class families with retirement savings, college costs, homeownership, and raising families; putting a stop to Washington's costly revolving door; and ending corporate welfare that puts the tax code up for sale...
...We need to reclaim the mantle of reform and innovation and show the Republicans for what they are -- the party of Washington, corruption, and the status quo. Then we can speak to Americans, as we did in our finest days under Roosevelt, Kennedy, and Clinton, in terms of our vision, our values, and our sense of national purpose, not in the bureaucratic doubletalk of Washington..."
Hardly.
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