Deconstructing
The Democratic
Party Platform
By Case Wagenvoord
18 August,
2008
Countercurrents.org
The Democratic faction of America’s sole political party has published a draft of its Party Platform, and, yes, it is official: America is now a one-party nation. It’s right there on page three of the preamble to the platform: “There can be no Republican or Democratic ideas, only policies that are smart and right and fair and good for America—and those that aren’t.”
For lack of a better name, let’s call our lone party the Corporatist Party of America (CPA). Like all one-party oligarchies, the CPA represents a political spectrum. At one end of the spectrum sits the hard right of the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), and at the other end sits the rabid Neocon right. The DLC is more inclined to mouth populist platitudes than the Neocons, but they’re both cut from the same cloth, even if the Neocons are the more sociopathic of the two.
This explains why presidential campaigns are so boring. How can there be a clash of principles if everyone agrees on the basics?
The platform itself is a study of the excruciating tension that exists between platitudes and reality.
The platitudes are:
· Renewing the American Dream
· Affordable Health Care
· Good Jobs with Good Pay
· Opportunity for Women
· A World Class Education for Every Child
· Investing in Manufacturing and Our Manufacturing Communities
· Restoring Fairness to our Tax Code
· Reforming Financial Regulation and Corporate Governance
· Smart, Strong, and Fair Trade Policies
· Fiscal Responsibility
The reality is:
· Our oligarchs need their empire, so we can’t afford
any of the above.
America is not addicted to oil; instead, we have an oligarchy that
is addicted to empire because they are convinced that a war economy
is the only thing that is keeping the Great Depression at bay, and
should we dismantle our military machinery, the country would slide
into economic ruin, which we are anyway, but who’s paying attention?
To all appearances, we are the dumbest goddamn empire ever to stumble down the historical pike. The sole raison d’être of an empire is to create a revenue stream, either through taxes, tribute or a flow of raw materials back to the mother country.
Our empire is a loss leader awash in a sea of red ink. With a national debt of $9.6 trillion, it looks as if we’re missing the imperial boat, here. However, we forget that we are a nation of innovators who have redefined the meaning of empire: the sole function of the American Empire is to transfer public funds into the private pockets of our oligarchs.
As far as the CPA is concerned, our economy is a robust one. It can withstand a subprime debacle, skyrocketing oil and commodity prices, massive foreclosures and the impoverishment of its middle class. The one thing it could never withstand is an outbreak of peace.
This is why 9/11 was such a godsend for the CPA, and why the Georgian invasion of South Ossetia is the frosting on the cake. Our oligarchs need a constant influx of new threats to justify our annual trillion dollar defense budget.
The Democratic faction is singing their song set to the tune of military Keynesianism. The faction is four-square behind the messianic spreading of “liberal democracy” to the world. Note the use of “liberal democracy” as opposed to social democracy, which is evil in the eyes of the CPA. Liberal democracy is code for the Washington Consensus, which has left as much destruction in its path as the Christian missionaries did when they swept through Latin America in the sixteenth century.
Empire building is a form of dementia that invariably ends with the destruction of the imperial builder, not from the onslaught of barbarians from without, but from the barbarians within.
An example of our dementia is our Global War on Terror (GWOT) also known as the Eternal War of the Empty Policy. It posits an ultimate military victory over the terrorists.
Recently, the Rand Corporation, a government sponsored think-tank, issued a report that, in effect, suggested that the military approach was a really dumb way to fight terrorism. First of all, it doesn’t do the job. But what is even worse, according to the think tank is that, “[t]he use of substantial U.S. military power against terror groups also runs a significant risk of turning the local population against the government by killing civilians.”
Duh!
You don’t win hearts and minds by bombing a nation’s wedding parties.
Praise God, the Democrats are not flinching in the face of this revelation.
Their platform (pg. 24) calls for sending “two additional combat
brigades to Afghanistan” to continue wining their hearts and
minds. And, we are going to carry the fight to al Qaeda by forming
“a new partnership with Pakistan,” similar to the partnership
that exists between a python and its prey.
Our oligarchs can sleep peacefully, tonight. The Democrats are telling us that, “To renew America’s leadership in the world, we must revitalize our military. That’s music to an oligarch’s ears.
And Progressives still wait around for the Democrats to deliver. Al From, a founder of the DLC summed it up nicely when he said, ‘The antiwar people cannot define the Democratic Party.”
Of course they can’t! Peace might break out.
The plain, simple truth that is the core nugget around which Progressives of all stripe must rally is that we must dismantle our empire and redirect its resources to healing America.
We won’t get any help from the Democrats on this. They’re in the enemy camp. So, we may have to start going our own way and begin the pain-in-the-ass work of building a movement. It’s doubtful any of us will live to see the results, but with luck and hard work, perhaps our children and grandchildren will.
Case Wagenvoord blogs at http://www.belacquajones.blogspot.com.
He welcomes comments at [email protected].
