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The Democrats Prepare to Move Right
But in a close second place in this rightward scramble are the Democrats, who've spent decades racing into the arms of the corporations that dominate both political parties unchallenged.
This mad dash to the right did not stop at the midterm election; the Democrats are preparing to unleash their hidden second wind, kept from public view until after the elections.
The first step to the right occurred in the commentary over the lost elections. The Democrat's fake analysis about why they lost will push them to "correct their mistakes."
Contrary to all evidence or common sense, the Democrats now claim that their agenda was "too progressive" while in power, to be fixed by shifting even further to the right. In effect, the Democrats are now agreeing with the Tea Party's analysis of the Obama Administration.
Democratic Senator from Indiana Evan Bayh explained this false narrative in The New York Times, in his op-ed entitled Where Do Democrats Go Next? His answer could only be interpreted as to the right:
"It is clear that Democrats over-interpreted our [progressive] mandate. Talk of a ‘political realignment' and a ‘new progressive era' proved wishful thinking." (November 3, 2010).
Bayh suggests that the Democrats adopt numerous Republican policies to compensate, such as cuts to both corporate taxes and Social Security.
Obama wasted no time in agreeing with the Tea Party in his concession speech. He had "lost contact" with the American people, meaning, that he had acted too progressively. To compensate, Obama implied a move to the right, by serving corporations even more obediently:
"I've got to take responsibility in terms of making sure that I make clear to the business community [Wall Street and corporate America], as well as to the country, that the most important thing we can do is to boost and encourage our business sector...,"
Obama also promised to "negotiate" with Republicans over the Bush tax cuts, energy, and education policies.
Social Security is an additional area that Obama has agreed to negotiate with the Republicans. Obama's bipartisan Deficit Reduction Commission purposely waited for the midterm elections to end before it announced its recommendations, which will reportedly include cuts to Social Security and Medicare.
Both Republicans and Democrats are set to unite in attacking Social Security, in the same way they have united over the Bush/Obama wars; the Bush/Obama bank bailouts; the Bush/Obama destruction of civil liberties; the Bush/Obama education policy; and the Bush/Obama general favoritism of corporations over working people.
Both parties agree that the U.S. deficit is a more severe problem than creating jobs. They will thus unite to reduce the deficit by cutting or destroying valuable social services to working people, including Social Security, Medicare, public education, and other federally funded programs. This is their only option, since both parties agree that raising taxes on the rich and corporations or cutting military spending are "off the table".
These bi-partisan, anti-worker policies will further expose the Democrats as being extensions of the very wealthy and the corporations. Working people will refuse to vote for this "lesser evil" in the future and demand that their labor and community groups move towards political independence.
107 Comments so far
Show AllMove reich? How? With our pro-war pro-business candidate we have a Fascist Police State now.
Yeah, what is this "prepare" to move right? This greasy pole-climbing husk of a "party" went right (or reich) when the Arkansas pimp emerged from his swamp.
LOL!!!!!!!
go to Democracy Now and hear what Hudson says about the financial warfare the wall-street-based global nazies have been waging to the world, not just to the US people.
Michael Hudson has been right on target all along. Glad you spread the word!
Hudson understands what Lenin wrote about finance capital, a century ago. Liberals might dabble in Marx, but they don't do Lenin.
Leave it to the Democrats to self-destruct pretty much every single time. No surprises here.
"excuse us while we shoot ourselves in the foot once again".
See, it's becoming more apparent to me that the Democrats are not really self-destructing: They are reconstructing. They are using every "crisis" to remake themselves to be in line with the dominant culture: Corporateaucracy.
Ted,
We agree.
This "destruction" is all by design.
Kabuki theatre for the masses.
You guys will love these illustrations:
http://dollarcollapse.com/uncategorized/art-of-the-collapse-october-2010/ . A great visual of the reality we've been living in for decades.
Very good - thanks, Gail.
Interestingly, while scrolling down and looking at the illustrations, I saw a small link for properties in Chile, where I lived for five years as a tot.
I checked out some properties. Tempting...very tempting. And, I speak the lingo mucho bueno!
Sto criticizing politicians. They are operating in a corrupt system. Their biggest embarrassment is to lose reelection. They will do whatever it takes to be reelected. We will never be able to change that.
What we can change is MEDIA CONTROL. Just about ALL our media are controlled by a handful of people from one extended family. That is why 100% of our politicians button their lips in the face of the current holocaust in Palestine.
Corporations totally out-resource us. We must go straight to the cancer and neutralize it: MEDIA CONTROL.
All we need for us to make progress is to pass laws that make it illegal for one company to broadcast from more than one state. That would be very difficult to achieve, but it's the only thing that will make a difference.
My sense is that we'll continue our downward spiral until gas is $40/gallon, and our oil-rich states secede from the union, triggering a civil war.
No serious analyst would believe that there is a way out of our current dilemma without stopping MEDIA CONTROL.
I agree that media is the real problem and the solution. But our problem is how to gain control of the media again (if we ever actually had control). You mention passing laws - but who are the lawmakers that will pass these laws? The same bought and sold politicians that are ignoring us. That leaves referendums, I believe, but with the political hierarchies as they are, anything we the people are likely to get through can be over-ridden or vetoed or ignored at will. And of course we don't control the military machine. My sense, too, is that we will continue to rot and spiral into chaos and violence before enough of "we the people" actually wake up and do something serious.
The only working tools we have left are our shoes, sabots, if you will.
Seems an appropriate time to re-post this:
Supporting Democrats is a serious political disorder, like alcoholism or returning again & again to an abusive spouse who repeatedly lies to you. It’s easy to fall off the wagon, to make excuses & rationalizations for it.
Even many whose views are developed enough to recognize such truths as the fundamental rottenness of the 2-party system & the complicity of Democrats in all of the Republicans’ major crimes, are still unable to draw the logical consequences of these insights. (Those so naive that they still conceive of Democrats as being the “opponents” of Republicans are another case altogether.)
The central point is this: capitalist society permits the Democrats to be one of the 2 allowed parties for a very definite reason. It’s not because the Democrats “serve the people.” It’s because in a subtle but effective way, they help the capitalists keep the populace under control by providing them with the illusion of possible change. TPTB don’t want the people “served.” They want them managed, or controlled.
It is the job, the central social function of the Democrats to always be dangling before the people’s noses vague pseudo-hints of possible change, so as to keep them from bolting from bourgeois politics altogether. It is the Democrats’ intention to never deliver meaningful change, but rather to keep dangling hints of it alluringly forever. This produces control — a populace habituated to remain safely within the lines required by ruling class interests.
This is why the Democrats NEVER paint a picture of US history that’s the slightest bit accurate — they want a brainwashed population every bit as much as the Republicans do. This is why they NEVER are willing to set forth an honest socioeconomic analysis of why things are as they are — they much prefer that people not understand such things.
As long as a large chunk of voters can be deceived by the seemingly “nicer guy” act of the Democrats, there is no hope whatever of coming to grips with the core problems of our society. The most dangerous trends — a wasteful consumer society, environmental destruction, grotesque social inequality, and an uncontrollable propaganda/war machine — cannot even be approached within the framework of bourgeois politics, because they all serve ruling class interests. This is what is really being protected, when people opt to support Democrats just because they seem less blatantly cruel on TV.
Remember in your support of the Dems that means you are implicitly supporting their policies which means you are complicit in large-scale atrocities.
The record is long and very public. It is a tremendous leap right over the historical record for anyone to think supporting the Dems is in any way meaningful unless your concept of “getting things done” means rubber stamping Empire Lite.
- Rich M and others
mcoyote,
Thank you for the re-post.
Very well stated.
I really needed to read that. Thank you, Rich M and others.
Obama ain't nothing but their house boy in their Whitehouse.
Well said Mr Cooke. The veil is almost completely torn away behind which the Dems and Reps sip Crystal, and snort coke with their buddies in corporate America.
Tick, tick, tick, times running out.
Another article with a pretty good grasp of reality in describing the Obama administration, so are you going to chant this crap forever? Why is it that the rational people are so powerless in this land? Do you think that they are so rational that they become predictable and are the easiest people to control? Obama has the excuse now to act just like he has from day one. The really insane thing is that he is going to convince a lot of people that the change was necessary, how bizarre is that? Now we can continue the jobless recovery of the Bush years, so what if we have to write off 20 million people. The lazy bums deserve it; most of them are minorities anyway so they are not real Americans like us. The progressives will be screaming “cant you see what is happening”? Then in 2012 when progressives have the choice to elect Palen or Obama they will do the right thing and elect Obama, then pat themselves on the back for doing it. Just in case progressives wake up and smell the coffee, the masters will use Palen to split the anti Obama vote. If I were a progressive I would go after Obama in a primary. I would take little miss bomb bomb Iran off the table up front. In fact I would go after Feingold right now before Obama sucks him in. Feingold is just too dangerous to leave lying around. What do I know? I am just a mystic one of the irrational people, I may not be very smart but damn I am a good fortuneteller.
Moving to the RIGHT will alienate the democratic base. When we voted for CHANGE we wanted a better life for the working, middle and poorer people. The corporate rich already have a better life.
There is no reason to negotiate with the Republicans over the tax cuts. Just let them expire.
Most people won't realize this, because they never learned civics, and because the media won't point it out. Already, last night, the reports began that O is willing "to discuss" extending the cuts for the wealthy.
Obama's complicity has been writ large and day-glo ever since he flipped on the wiretaps.
My real concern is that the takeover is now complete. Citizens United was no less than a coup d'etat. The people will never be able to buy the votes to change the laws in their favor. Clarence Thomas is unafraid as his wife's non-profit rakes in the untraceable cash. Bush and Cheney openly brag about authorizing torture, and the U of Loyola Law School publishes a "scholarly" article supporting the legality of rendition and torture.
We're finished as a functioning republic. We are owned by mutants who have demonstrated their utter lack of humanity. We have to help ourselves now. We cannot win through force.
A strike, then.
A general strike!
Yes, we need to organize a general strike. I wonder if large numbers of Americans would be willing to strike if they knew that the legs of social security were about to be cut out from underneath them, all in the name of "austerity" and deficit reduction. (We didn't hear a peep about austerity and deficit reduction when the government bailed out Wall Street.)
The impending "reform" of social security is an in-your-face assault upon the working class/middle class, upon people who need that social security to survive in their retirement years. If this issue isn't enough to wake people up, I don't know what is. Once social security is "reformed," it will only be a short step to mass hunger and homelessness.
The French are wise and courageous enough to rebel against an assault on their social security. Americans, on the other hand, not so much. Will the American sheeple lay down and let the corporatocracy crush them with a whimper? I'm afraid so. And by the time they wake up and smell the fascism, it will be too late.
The American people will not go on a general strike, or fight for their Social Security, Medicare, or public schools, etc. But for a baseball or football game, or entertainment event, they're out in full force with plenty of passion and enthusiasm!
A good Teamster friend of mine spent a lot of time with his colleagues getting pledge cards signed for a majority of drivers wanting a union contract at one particular terminal. Management flew in two anti-union spokesmen and held a "captive audience" meeting, and told the workers that if they go union, the company would close the terminal. What did they do? They signed a form saying they DO NOT want union representation, for fear of losing their jobs.
Yes, the French are wise and courageous and will fight for their rights, along with people in so many other countries. Americans are ignorant, stupid, and "uncurious" about history. We have a different caliber of people now.
I'm afraid you're right, Peaceman. But maybe some would be willing to participate in a mass one-day strike, where no one works, no one buys anything. Remember the factory workers in Chicago, at Republic Windows and Doors who did the sit-in? They were an inspiration. Are there more stories like that, that we're not hearing about? I wonder.
Anne, Do you remember the week leading up to May Day, in 2008, when the Longshoreman's Union on the west coast shut down all 28 or 29 ports from the Mexican border to the Canadian border for 8 hours to protest the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan? I took off work that day and marched in solidarity with so many others from various unions. American imperialism still prevailed, and now we are bombing and killing more people in more countries, ever since.
I do remember the brave and persistant factory workers at Republic Windows in Chicago. They certainly were an inspiration, but if I remember, didn't the company pay them the back wages and all and finally close that plant and move elsewhere? There are more stories like that and I'll give you two wonderful websites to check out for yourself on labor issues here and abroad. Harry Kelber does a fantastic job in providing information which goes unreported by MSM. Go to:
www.laboreducator.org or www.laborsvoiceforchange.org
Yes, Peaceman, I do remember them shutting down the ports in protest of the wars. It was great to see that. I don't hear about these stories anymore in the MSM. So thank you for the links; I'll definitely check them out.
If only... The citizens are too enraptured by right/left media to become a cohesive force. They are now so far divided over bullshit ideologies fed them by said media that it is easier and more entertaining to be fall into line against their fellow Americans. Think along the lines of "We've always been at war with Eastasia", only on a purely domestic plane. The corporate media has been conditioning us to accept this division for many, many years.....
Surfzombo, I agree. But I also fantasize from time to time about a bottom-up protest movement centered on two or three principles on which I believe most everyone (left, right, center) would agree: reversal of Citizens United to remove the power of special interests to control the government and buy our politicians and elections; preservation of social security; removal of our troops from Iraq and Afghanistan and instead using that money to improve things here at home. I hear people of all political persuasions complain about how our system of government is broken, how we're wasting lives and treasure fighting these endless wars, how the monied and special interests have taken over. They also don't trust the media to tell them the truth. They're indoctrinated by the media, but on the other hand, they don't trust what they're told. In my fantasy, I see a grass roots movement of volunteers going door to door, neighborhood to neighborhood (and also via the internet) to rally people behind whatever the two or three unifying principles are and then demanding reform via petitions, protests, strikes, etc. Probably a pipe dream.
Anne, you make good points. I must admit that I too am one of those enraptured by the media, yet being skeptical/distrustful at the same time. Even this morning at breakfast as I was reading the New York & L.A. Times, publications I really do enjoy, I was trying to read between the lines, making comments under my breath (to the amusement of surrounding diners I'm sure).
There are many grass roots movements out there, some active, some not, and it would be interesting to take a survey of them to see what the "two or three unifying principles" are between them. I just hope that the differences between them are not stronger the similarities. As for pipe dreams?? You never know unless you try to make them a reality.
Progressive101, I appreciate your posts, but this time I believe you missed the point - ala mcoyote. Obama WANTS to negotiate with the Republicans over the tax cuts, and is delighted with an excuse to move further to the right.
mcoyote got it exactly right. Excellent post.
I read recently that the corporations fear only one thing. Every breathing "person" has one vote. And some are actually beginning to use it wisely. Some time ago I proposed a Main Street Party. Well, guess what is starting up and running! The Working Families Party http://www.workingfamiliesparty.org/ is on the ballot in 6 states and endorsing progressive candidates from other parties. Here in OR, since in good conscience they could not support Ron Wyden (nor could I), they (I'm changing that "they" into a "we") fielded their own candidate, Bruce Cronk from Roseburg. Or. It was satisfying to vote for him and repudiate that corporate weasel Wyden. Are the winds of change starting to blow? I sense movement.
When the people fear their government there is tyranny,
when the government fears the people there is liberty.
~ Thomas Jefferson
Yes, at least the working Families Party has survived since the days of the revulsion of right-wing Clinton. But the other good prospects from those days - The New Party, and the Labor Party, failed in the disarray after Bush's election and will have to be started from scratch.
how about this 'The New & Improved Real T.E.A Party (Take Empathetic Action)!'
I should have said (but didn't because I was trying to keep it simple):
If Obama wasn't already sold out by other interests and wanted to do the right thing in not following Republican failed tax policies (trickle down and starve the beast), he wouldn't bother negotiating with the Republicans on the tax cuts, he'd just let them expire. But he is putting on some charade like he needs to negotiate with the Republicans on this.
I notice that M$M doesn't just blurt out (to no surprise): "Why bother negotiating with the Republicans on the tax cuts, just let the tax cuts expire!"
Yes, there are good people in the WF party in Oregon. Their program is a bit thin, however. It is strictly economist. It seems that they avoid any issue that doesn't have something to do with jobs. Of course, jobs are number one, but we need a progressive tax agenda including taxing the rich, a financial transaction tax, eliminating the tax on unemployment benefits, Social secruity, and pensions.They probably are silent on the war because they don't want to alienate working class people who may be pro-union, but still believe that the militarized US foriegn policy has merit.
I think the WF party should considering sitting down with the Progressive party and the Greens and see if there is any basis for a common program.
I've been posting that suggestion for months. If the top people of all the progressive parties and the unions that still exist sat down together (literally around a table) and agreed on 3 or 4 issues for which they have alternative policies to the other two-in-one party, and then they fielded one candidate for each post, local to federal, don't you think millions would support them? Wouldn't the media have to take notice of such unprecedented cooperation?
Every branch of the Tea Party hammered away at the same 2 or 3 criticisms of the govt. They had no solutions to offer but the people who voted for their candidates didn't notice that. There was fervour, excitement, noise, and a lot of publicity. More important: a common program, as race_to_the_bottom suggests.
Golly gee willikers!!! I sure didn't see this coming!!
I guess I should be really mad and upset and waste time and energy trying to come to terms with the DP's seemingly inexplicable actions, frothing and foaming at the mouth at the utter insensibility of this latest move to the right.
Or I can calmly realize that we exist in a fascist state and move on from there.
Could all of these moves be orchestrated to blind us with rage and disappointment?
Could all of the moves be played to engender cognitive dissonance amongst the citizenry?
Hmmmm...
Let's look at this way:
Take a hypothetical spectrum of societal organization.
On one side you have individuals entirely free and pursuing their own agendas.
On the opposite side you have a dictator or cabal of omnipotent forces calling all the authoritarian shots.
On this spectrum, to which extreme does the US in 2010 lie closer?
Answer these questions and you see that using what some might call a conspiratorial model to view our country is actually the model more closely in line with reality.
Let your mind ponder the darkest possibilities in the future because at the very least you won't be surprised when they are realized.
America's business community is a network of monopolies. The invisible hand metaphor was used by Adam Smith to beg the question of whether the market actually serves public interests, but it cannot even function when bound by monopolies. Such a society is not operating by market principles, but by conspiracy as Smith noted: "People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices."
All expressions of bolstering "the business community" are promises to not only benignly neglect the public interest in allowing the growth of monopolies, but to positively enforce the conspiracies they contrive upon the public. "Business as usual" means in effect "conspiracy as usual."
Bipartisan Barry was going to move further to the right no matter the outcome of the midterms...he knows who is buttering his bread.
Are US Progressives FINALLY going to wake up and form their own party? Or just give up yet again?
Hey ClassAct, you are absolutely right. There is no such thing as anti-trust enforcement anymore. One corporation can own an infinite number of other corporations. When I was in school I was taught that holding companies were illegal under the Sherman Antitrust Act (remember when bills were named for the lawmakers who created them? Now they use cutesy idiotic names so to describe them to the illiterate masses such as No Child Left Behind Act and Patriot Act and Creating Jobs for America Act & numerous other examples of utter bullshit. Any law with such an idiotic title should be immediately voted down whatever its content in the defence of the English language). Now that the Supreme Court has ruled that corporations are people, shouldn't these conspiracies against the public be outlawed because people aren't allowed to own people which is slavery. Obama could be a trustbuster rather than a hopebuster. Anyone who votes Democratic after they vote to slash Social Security should have their head examined.
we've had 2 EXTREME examples where the sherman anti-trust act wasn't used when it should have been:
nbc-comcast merger
Continental - united airlines merger
NOT 1 word on those.......
If there is anyone here that doesn't understand that the democrats under Pelosi, Reid and Obama pushed people far, far too fast, that they tried to force people in a dictatorial manner rather than convince them and lead them to change, then they know so little about politics and people they must be from outer space.
They would be the same kind of brainless idiot that would believe that California is a success and a model to follow.
The ability to compose nicely worded explanations or puff up generally foolish opinions is of great use in college but of little use in the real world.
California was a success until St. Ronnie beat Pat Brown in '66. I started college that fall and it was free. Free. All I needed to do was buy my books. It had the best public schools, roads, infrastructure etc. and then after two terms of the idiot actor they succumbed to the right wing stupidity of believing they could get something for northing and passed Jarvis-Gann and it has been all down hill ever since. California used to be the model to follow.....50 years ago.
Angryspittle:
You're right on target about California, back then and what happened from Raygun to the present. Earlier this year, Shamus Cooke wrote an article about the Obama/Republicrat plan to reduce Social Security and Medicare by appointing a secret commission for solutions in "deficit reduction." I notified friends and relatives that were nearing 62 or were older, (waiting for higher SS payments) to apply for their Social Security asap, because the Dronebama and his paymasters were going to reduce it, so "you better get it while you can." A few listened and a few didn't.
Dr. Paul Craig Roberts has a very good article on "Elections" at www.globalresearch.ca and I would encourage you to read it.
I spent an hour yesterday at my old union hall arguing about how the Democratic Party strokes the labor unions and I might as well have talked to the wall, hearing about my "wasted votes on candidates who can't win!" (I'm a Green)
After [all the way with] Adlai Stevenson, the last real Democrat was Hubert Humphrey.
Whoever those people in Congress are who are not Republicans, the only "move to the right" left to them is construction of Ovens for the Poor.
The priapic plutocrats have put the US middle class and the barely-surviving poor into an arena for gladiatorial combat. They are sipping champagne and receiving BJs while watching The Show - and laughing their asses off.
But the middle class has yet to figure this out.
soon it'll be tent prisons in the desert of arizona for all liberals -
Hubert Humpherey? You got to be kidding! He was the model for the later useless Democrats to follow. And he met the same fate as the current crop, for the same reason - the left, anti-war base of the Democrats refused to vote for him.
The real Democrat in that election year (1968) was Eugene McCarthy. The last real Democrat to get the presidential nominaiton was George McGovern.
Somewhere I have a thin booklet from the McCarthy campaign, containing an antiwar speech - and I think that Hillary Rodham was on his campaign staff.
The mistake of totally ethical Hubert Humphrey was accepting the Vice Presidency to an unprincipled jerk. In 1968 he was the victim of the RIOT at the Chicago convention. He also knew that Wayne Morse and Ernest Gruening had committed political suicide by their principled votes on the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. I believe that Humphrey would have acted to get the US out of Vietnam. I suspect he knew that was the goal of JFK, which may have cost his life. But, who knows for sure?
SaboCat: Correct!
That's why MSM kept Kucinich and Gravel out of the limelight in 2008 literally discrediting them as presidential contenders.