Snake
Oil And The Midterm Elections
By Joshua Frank
31 October, 2006
Countercurrents.org
So
we are in the trenches of another election season, and if you peer closely
you can see the explosions on the horizon. I’m yet to be convinced
the Democrats have the capacity to take back Congress, and to tell you
the truth I don’t really care if they do. Not only do they not
have the ability to lead, they also do not possess the moral impetus
to change the direction of this country if they are lucky enough to
regain control. Indeed they are just as responsible for the ruin in
Iraq and back home as the Bushites.
The Democrats have assisted
the Republicans at virtually every turn over the past six years. From
the bloody invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, to the passing of CAFTA,
to the confirmations of Samuel Alito and John Roberts, to the support
of the PATRIOT Act, to the dismantling of Habeas Corpus, to the championing
of Bush’s ravaging forest plan, to backing Israel’s brutal
assault on Lebanon -- the Democratic Party has long played the role
of enabler. And now they want your vote.
Author Jeff Cohen in Commondreams.org
recently pled with progressives to elect Democrats to office this year.
“A Democratic win in 2006 would be similar to 1998: a rejection
of rightwing extremism and hypocrisy.”
I fail to see the rationale.
If we usher the Democrats into office on November 7 we’ll just
be electing rightwing extremism under a substitute banner -- it won’t
be called Republican but it’ll still be wicked as all hell. Even
Cohen admits that the Democratic leadership doesn’t have a progressive
agenda, but still feels that a lefty push inside the party could change
that around. What Cohen and others have embraced is a blatant call for
lesser-evilism: ignore alternatives and vote for what you don’t
believe in, because it’s strategic.
The whole plan: "take
back Congress and then pull the Democrats left down the road”.
When has that ever worked? And why would the corporate Democrats give
its progressive wing any credence? If the Democratic Party continues
to receive progressive votes regardless of their rightwing positions,
there is absolutely no reason for them to change.
Sadly Cohen’s position,
like the Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) of which he serves on
the Board, is analogous to The Nation magazine’s foul electoral
philosophy. Neither will "endorse" pro-war Democratic candidates,
nor will they "oppose" them.
Silence is complicity.
I hold out no hope that the
Democratic Party can ever be reformed, but let's say by some divine
intervention they can. If so, the only way it will ever happen will
be when its progressive constituents leave the party and challenge them
from the outside. In fact, that is what The Nation seems to fear most.
In the upcoming November
13 issue, on shelves this week, The Nation editors warn, “If Democrats
fail to recapture at least a working share of Congressional power, they
and their party will rightly be cast into disrepute, too, and distressed
citizens may reasonably begin looking for other options.”
What would be so wrong with
that? Progressives should have been looking for other options long ago.
However, The Nation, like Cohen and the PDA, does not support independent
politics or the emergence of a legitimate progressive third party. And
that’s why they have not lived up to their promise of truly opposing
pro-war Democrats by endorsing any of their antiwar challengers.
Of the 23 new Democratic
candidates for the House, 22 are ardently pro-war. The other is suspect.
But The Nation and the PDA don’t want you to know any of that.
Instead they’d rather see left-leaning voters cramped inside the
cage of the Democratic establishment. Nothing could be more damaging
to social movements or our hope for real progressive change.
Joshua Frank
is the author of Left Out! How Liberals Helped Reelect George W. Bush
and edits http://www.BrickBurner.org
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