Holding The Betrayers Accountable

As I continue to figure out just how in the hell I’m going to support a political party that cowers and capitulates at every turn to our criminal ruling regime, I happened to come across this editorial in the New York Times today which should be required reading for every single member of the Democratic Party (regarding the shameless sellout by Congress on FISA, aided and abetted by a handful of “Democrats” including Sideshow Bob Casey).

Yes, I’m still angry. I’m going to be angry for a little while.

And with this in mind, I should let you know that I came across the following letter in the New York Times recently from Marc Dunkelman, whose title is “Director of the Ideas Primary Democratic Leadership Council” (?) written in response to a column by Noam Scheiber called “The Centrists Didn’t Hold”…

Mr. Scheiber’s contention that the Democratic Leadership Council believes that the “teachers unions endanger the republic” must have come as a surprise to the teachers union, which sponsored the National Conversation in Nashville.

Moreover, despite his insinuation, the D.L.C. did not support the bankruptcy bill in 2005. But worse, he did not bring any historical perspective into his analysis.

During the third year of every presidential cycle, candidates looking to court the left choose not to attend the D.L.C.’s National Conversation. That was true in 1999, and again in 2003. But during each subsequent year, like clockwork, the Democratic nominee keynotes the National Conversation, cognizant that any Democrat hoping to win a national election needs to win swing votes in the middle of the electorate.

So if history is any guide, we’ll see the Democratic nominee in 2008. Only one political strategy and governing philosophy has successfully propelled Democrats into the White House during the last 30 years: the New Democratic philosophy generated by the D.L.C. and championed by President Bill Clinton.

Fortunately for all Democrats, despite Mr. Scheiber’s histrionics, all three Democratic front-runners indicate that they would govern with the type of centrist ideas the D.L.C. has championed for a generation.

Marc Dunkelman
Director of the Ideas Primary Democratic Leadership Council
Washington, Aug. 2, 2007

Gee, Marc, I guess it would have been nice if the Democratic candidates for president had actually shown up at the “National Conversation” to tell you that, wouldn’t it (bad luck there, dude). And smooth move to blow off Chris Dodd and Bill Richardson, by the way – I’m not paying much attention to them either, but then again, I’m just a lowly, unkempt liberal blogger, not the “Director of the Ideas Primary Democratic Leadership Council” (?).

If Dunkelman believes that Scheiber “did not bring any historical perspective” into his analysis of how Dunkelman’s precious DLC Democrats completely and utterly caved on the 2005 Bankruptcy Bill, then please allow me to do so here: this is a link to Senate vote total on the bill, and this is a link to the House vote total.

I’ll save a bit of time and summarize those Dems who voted for that awful bill in the Senate:

Baucus
Bayh
Biden
Bingaman
Byrd
Carper
Conrad
Inouye
Johnson
Kohl
Landrieu
Lincoln
Bill Nelson
Ben Nelson
Pryor
Reid
Salazar
Stabenow

I’m not going to bother doing that for the House, but suffice to say that “Democrat” Tim Holden is on that list, among way too many others.

My guess is that many of those people from both the Senate and the House would feel very much at home addressing a DLC gathering, so Dunkelman’s assertion that the DLC did not sponsor the bankruptcy bill is truly laughable.

And I’m so glad that kos wrote this about the DLC today since that ties in so well to this post. Beyond that, though, kos said this in 2005 that I think is more resonant than ever now (with respect, I would favor kos’s argument over Ezra Klein’s in a heartbeat).

Now before you start thinking that I have achieved some kind of mind meld with The Great Orange Satan, please understand that I’m trying to put the pieces together and understand how the Democratic Party, despite some notable accomplishments cited in today’s Times editorial, so utterly failed us on the “big picture” stuff.

To me, there is still a yawning chasm between the accomplishments of the progressive netroots and its future goals and inherent philosophy (i.e., the actual truth) and that of the corporatist Beltway mentality of our national party, which strives for accommodation above all else (with those who want nothing but to grind it into the dust, sadly enough).

And again, as it was with today’s kos post, it was a bit of karma I believe that brought news of this ad my way, sponsored by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee…



Yes, it’s nice, full of the syrupy-voice narration with a soft-focus, earth-toned feel of kids, workers, politicians, shiny happy people one and all, wagging their collective finger at that baaad George W. Bush saying “Golly gosh, you’d better listen to us, Mr. President,” not unlike a pouting but adorable Shirley Temple as a child cradling a puppy (I almost expected Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi to recreate the dance Temple performed with Bill “Bojangles” Robinson up the steps from the landing to the child’s bedroom).

So Nineties. So out of date. So no longer appropriate or relevant, barely reflective of our actual life and times at this moment.

I don’t want to see that crap any more. I want to see this instead…

So that is my estimation and analysis, for whatever it’s worth. And now, I want to ask something of you, dear reader.

Accompanying the DSCC spot, Chris Van Hollen, the Maryland congressman and head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, asked for a donation to help promote the ad.

Don’t give it to him.

Don’t give any money to either the DCCC or the DSCC. And don’t give any money to the Democratic National Committee either.

Don’t even consider giving any money to a national Democratic Party organization until those running those organizations decide to tell us definitively what it is that they think a member of the Democratic Party stands for. To me, they have been utterly poisoned by the style of DLC accommodationist garbage that has brought us to our present misery.

“But how will we get our ad on TV?” I hear Van Hollen cry among others.

Representative Van Hollen, based on the recent FISA cowering as well as the refusal of Congress to stick to legislation on Iraq with timelines for troop withdrawal, I would say that the Democrats have bigger issues to deal with than funding for a T.V. ad.

And oh yes, I know how doing something like that would finally cause those with one foot in the boat and one foot out, so to speak, hedging their best at every turn, to jump to the Repug side at long last (are you listening, Tom Carper, Ben Nelson and everyone else who bailed on FISA, among other moments of cowardice?).

Fine. Go. I, for one, will not miss you.

And if that ensures that the Democrats will be a minority party forever, so be it. But somehow, I don’t think that will be the case when the rest of this country realizes that we’ve finally figured out exactly who we are, what we represent and what we believe in at long last.

And I hasten to add that I am not saying that you shouldn’t donate money to Democrats if you are so inclined. I encourage anyone with the means or desire to do so to donate to Act Blue candidates, any Netroots-related organization such as Democracy for America, or to local candidates or local Democratic organizations.

But as I said, the national Democratic party organizations can get out of my face.

The title of the New York Times editorial I linked to above is called, “Fear of Fear Itself.” That is a highly appropriate title. Fear is the only explanation for the conduct of this Congress, with the Beltway crowd, the morally bankrupt inheritors of the legacy of Joe Lieberman, among others, whispering its poison in its metaphorical ear, telling them to just act like Republicans and everything will be all right.

I’m not interested in their fearmongering; if I had been, I never would have started this blog.

So get out of the way, chicken Democrats. We’re all going to do the hard work of saving our party on behalf of the working men, women, families and kids who are the heart and soul of this great nation (may be melodramatic, but it’s what I believe). You can help us, or you can go off and cower in your corner.

We’ll do it, one day, God willing. With or without your help. It’s up to you.

(By the way, I would never be so bold as to presume that kos was thinking the same way I was for a minute, but…).

Update 8/8: I'd say mcjoan is spot-on here.

Update 8/13: And Harold Ford wonders why the Democratic presidential candidates don't take the DLC seriously when he utters nonsense like this (h/t Atrios).

Update 8/19: The latest on FISA (no excuses - h/t Atrios)...