The DLC vs. Democracy (510 hits)
Category: Politics -> DemocratsRating: -0.42 on 9 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Steven Durel (View user info) at 2006-07-27 16:58:50 EDT
In the wake of Ronald Reagan's landslide 1984 re-election, several self-professed New Democrats put together a corporation called the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) for the purpose of pressuring the Democratic Party into adopting a more business-centered model of governance. The DLC's plan was not just simple, but also guaranteed success: support Republican-style "economic growth" and militarization, but with a more middle-class-friendly façade. Simultaneously overseeing the Progressive Policy Institute, the DLC's Neoliberals have now spent two decades convincing voters that homogenous consumer culture, perpetual warfare and ecological meltdown are not really all that bad, just so long as it is supervised by a virtuous Nanny State.
During their time in office, DLC-cofounders Clinton and Gore energetically implemented Council policies in a variety of areas by: continuing the War on Drugs; helping to pass George HW Bush's North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1993; unmercifully obliterating the Branch Davidians' Mt. Carmel church; invading Haiti in 1994, Bosnia in 1995 and Kosovo in 1999; advancing commerce with Vietnam and China despite rampant human rights violations; deporting motherless seven-year-old Elián González back to Castro's Cuba; and, during the troublesome Lewsinsky scandal, bombing numerous terrorist targets, including a Sudanese aspirin factory, and later Iraq. Though it no longer controls the White House, the DLC has nevertheless celebrated the current occupation of Iraq, even campaigning against anti-war Democrat Howard Dean during 2004's presidential primaries.
Inside last May's edition of the DLC's Blueprint Magazine, Will Marshall and Jeremy Rosner perfectly lay out what they say Dems must tout as a foreign policy in the upcoming election: "Democrats must be committed to preserving America's military pre-eminence, because a strong military undergirds US global leadership. Diplomacy works best when it is backed by the credible threat of force... We should launch a sweeping program of economic, political, and social reform in the [Middle East]."
Unfortunately, this strategic domination stands in direct opposition to the opinions of most Iraqis, including Speaker of Parliament Mahmud Mashhadani, who recently told intervening powers, "Just get your hands off Iraq and the Iraqi people and Muslim countries, and everything will be all right... What has been done in Iraq is a kind of butchery of the Iraqi people."
Following the further eruption of war in the Middle East last month, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki criticized Israel's overzealous bombardment of Lebanon, saying, "The Israeli attacks and airstrikes are completely destroying Lebanon's infrastructure... We call on the world to take quick stands to stop the Israeli aggression."
Soon thereafter, Senate Democratic leaders Harry Reid, Dick Durbin and Charles Schumer condemned al-Maliki's pacifistic/terroristic message, sending him a letter that ominously warned, "Your failure to condemn Hezbollah's aggression and recognize Israel's right to defend itself raise serious questions about whether Iraq under your leadership can play a constructive role in resolving the current crisis and bringing stability to the Middle East."
Coincidentally, these three senators are also vocal supporters of Connecticut's own Joe Lieberman, who used to be Chair of the DLC—he held that position when Al Gore picked him as a running mate in 2000. Today even Bill Clinton is in Connecticut campaigning for Lieberman against the subversive elements of our state, now viewed as a battlefield for the future of the Democratic Party. One man capitalizing on the ruckus is Greenwich multi-millionaire Ned Lamont, who has stolen Lieberman's liberal base by running as the anti-war candidate. For all his good will, however, the populist Lamont expresses his dissatisfaction with the occupation of Iraq as merely a challenge to one symptom of the much larger disease destroying our planet. Conversely, the Green Party's Ralph Ferrucci, a truck-driver from New Haven, is running with a much broader anti-corporate message.
Just as the DLC has perverted the individualistic yet communitarian spirit of the mid-20th Century's Democratic Party, it is obvious that the same kind of coup also occurred inside the GOP. Led by Neoconservatives like Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Dick Cheney, Jeb Bush and John Bolton, the infamous Project for the New American Century seized the reigns of the Republican Party on its path of complete global conquest. Still, progressive conservatives like Lou Dobbs, Robert Novak, Alex Jones, Pat Buchanan, Michael Badnarik and Michael Peroutka have all been extremely critical of our nation's recent embrace of tyranny, a fact that leftists should not overlook.
We can rest assured that this fall many powerful, wealthy politicians will shy away from all the concerned citizens hoping to undermine the legitimacy of their much-beloved economic and military empire. Joe Lieberman will continue applauding the slaughtering of Arabs, as will Hillary Clinton and Dianne Feinstein. Simultaneously, countless Republicans will support the federal government's encroachment into our private affairs. As all the twisted martinets continue touting their Neofascism, however, America's opposition to will grow exponentially more obvious and raucous, this stagnant darkness only serving to make reality's light all the brighter.
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V (Washington Post Photo Credit: By Bob Falcetti -- Getty Images)
User Reviews
Submitted by rad1101 (user info) at 2006-07-28 09:35:59 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
and what happened to durel's politics
changes every season I thinks.
Submitted by rad1101 (user info) at 2006-07-28 09:35:23 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
im starting to like this rob berg guy
Submitted by Beano312003 (user info) at 2006-07-28 07:03:53 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
American politics = vbad.
Submitted by skrapmetal (user info) at 2006-07-27 21:53:51 EDT (#)
Ranking: -1
Right wing, shite wing. This pic needs a Beebin'.
Submitted by rob_berg (user info) at 2006-07-27 17:52:53 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
hmmm...
Seems like distractive right wing bullshit to me.
What's the point of this? To illustrate that the left has its own fair share of assholes as well?
No fucking kidding. You going to really blow our minds and declare all water wet for your next big scoop?
Please tell me you have more to offer than this heavily biased drivel that looks more like a high school social studies essay titled "Why I hate Democrats".
This is not relevant political commentary. It's poop.
We ALL suck. Right, Left, Center. Republicans are just REALLY fucking manipulative, greedy and all-around winners at being horrible. Oh and they are the ones currently in power... so it might make sense to analyze what kind of job they are doing right now. See, this whole nostalgic musing about how badly the castrated Democratic Party blows is just stupid and utterly pointless...especially when you consider the rampant devastation that Bushco. has inflicted during its reign of terror.
I repeat again - WE ALL SUCK. Do better homework.
Submitted by HighVoltage900 (user info) at 2006-07-27 17:37:18 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
You are the yin to ETS.
Submitted by BobLobla (user info) at 2006-07-27 17:12:03 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
You know, I really don't give a shit. I want my money back...
Submitted by stevendurel (user info) at 2006-07-27 17:08:28 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
A system that centralizes power instead of dispersing it.
Submitted by JonnyX (user info) at 2006-07-27 17:03:52 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
I am missing your point here, Durel - just tell me who I'm supposed to hate.