Monday, November 26, 2001
The Dawn of a New Democratic Party It has become an article of faith since January 20th, 2001, that the Democratic chieftains who walk the halls of power in Washington D.C. can not be trusted to fight for this agenda. When the results of the scandalous 2000 election were ratified in Congress, only the Black Caucus had the courage to turn their backs in protest. When religious extremist John Ashcroft stood for nomination as Attorney General, no true opposition was offered.
Today, as the 4th, 6th and 13th Amendments to the Constitution are disposed of, as Posse Comitatus is replaced by clandestine military tribunals that know no civil authority, the Democrats stand almost completely silent. Only the timely defection of Senator James Jeffords has allowed Democrats to thwart Republican thrusts into the Federal larder and our environmental inheritance. Had Jeffords not jumped, there would be no stopping the GOP.
Thus, it falls to us. We must become the calcium in the withered Democratic backbone, and we must do it now.
Despite its flaws, the Democratic Party is the best tool we have available for the propagation of the liberal, progressive agenda. The Party have faithful followers in every state, and unconquerable strongholds on both coasts. The Democratic political machine stands in every county in every state in the Union. There are doubtless men and women in the U.S. House of Representatives who would savor the chance to act upon principle, instead of from a core of self-defense, a chance we can give them if we get to work now.
The time has come to invade this Party, to storm the battlements from the ground up. The Democratic Party can again become a bastion of true liberalism, as the Republican Party has become a bastion of ultraconservatism, if American progressives take it over from pillar to post. If we take back the Party, if we change the dialogue coming from the media through the brute reality of our strident and unyielding voices, if we tend and nurture that flame of new comprehension blazing in every American breast, we can achieve all that our dreams have whispered.
Today, as the 4th, 6th and 13th Amendments to the Constitution are disposed of, as Posse Comitatus is replaced by clandestine military tribunals that know no civil authority, the Democrats stand almost completely silent. Only the timely defection of Senator James Jeffords has allowed Democrats to thwart Republican thrusts into the Federal larder and our environmental inheritance. Had Jeffords not jumped, there would be no stopping the GOP.
Thus, it falls to us. We must become the calcium in the withered Democratic backbone, and we must do it now.
Despite its flaws, the Democratic Party is the best tool we have available for the propagation of the liberal, progressive agenda. The Party have faithful followers in every state, and unconquerable strongholds on both coasts. The Democratic political machine stands in every county in every state in the Union. There are doubtless men and women in the U.S. House of Representatives who would savor the chance to act upon principle, instead of from a core of self-defense, a chance we can give them if we get to work now.
The time has come to invade this Party, to storm the battlements from the ground up. The Democratic Party can again become a bastion of true liberalism, as the Republican Party has become a bastion of ultraconservatism, if American progressives take it over from pillar to post. If we take back the Party, if we change the dialogue coming from the media through the brute reality of our strident and unyielding voices, if we tend and nurture that flame of new comprehension blazing in every American breast, we can achieve all that our dreams have whispered.
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