Have that feeling the Democrats are letting you down? Would you like to see impeachment "on the table" and torture "off?" Wouldn't a national health care plan be just great? Give us so much freedom and job mobility.
So why don't we have them? The Republicans lead the charge, but the Democrats let it happen. They could filibuster to stop any legislation they want, including a war budget, but they won't. It's not "spinelessness." It's the plan. What we see is what we get.
Opponents accuse Democrats of "flip flopping," but that's their function in the scheme of things. While they say they represent the "middle class" (their euphemism for ignoring workers, the unemployed, the homeless, and imprisoned) their greater purpose is to channel and co-opt dissent before it becomes a radical threat to the status quo. The purpose of the Democratic Party is not to spread wealth and justice, but to contain the demands for them and make sure we don't have any fundamental change. They won't fight for any policy that seriously challenges corporate profits, even the most obvious, like freeing the health care system from insurance corporation vultures.
By continuing to fund and vote for Democrats, we only participate in the destruction of our hopes and dreams. While the Democratic Party presents itself as the "only alternative" to the slash and burn policies of the Republicans, it serves as a vampire to suck the progressive movement dry of energy, money, hope, and vision.
The captains of capital fund Democrats as well as Republicans, and for the same reasons – to control the world's resources, protect the interests of ruling elites at home and abroad, and extend the power of the United States. The two parties have slightly different strategies about how to achieve these ends. While Republicans yield the iron fist, Democrats tend to wear the velvet glove – tossing a few more economic and social bones to the masses. In this election, capital may even be favoring the Democrats, as Bush's disasters become more and more of a liability for the Republican Party.
The Democrats pretend to represent African Americans, and certainly use their votes to win elections, yet the party leadership refused to support Congressional Black Caucus challenges to vote counts in Florida in 2000 and in Ohio in 2004 – challenges that, if successful, would have given the presidency to Democrats.
Under the pretense he would stand up to Bush and fight to be president, John Kerry conned the party base into donating more than one-third of the almost $300,000,000 he raised in 2004. He saved $15,000,000 of that money to challenge contested elections, then refused to join those demanding an investigation in Ohio.
He betrayed the majority of the base who were trapped into voting for him, because he was "the lesser of two evils" or because "there is no alternative." By nominating a pro-war candidate, then actively fighting to keep Ralph Nader off the ballot, the Democratic leadership made sure the almost 50 percent of the country who opposed the war in Iraq had no viable electoral means to express their opposition. And they're preparing to repeat the same thing in 2008, by marginalizing Dennis Kucinich, the one true anti-war candidate.
The Democrats share with the Republicans a bipartisan foreign and security policy, which pretends to uphold "democracy." Yet they support undemocratic regimes in many countries, including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Pakistan, while they refuse to accept or defend governments elected democratically with huge majorities in Palestine, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Haiti, because it doesn't suit their interests.
The price of protecting U.S. interests in the world is war. The U.S. has declared war on the world, and not vice versa. It's a grab to control oil supplies, natural resources, and impose corporate/IMF/World Bank-driven class structures that support international elites and condemn the majority of the world's people to lives of indescribable squalor. Some call it "global apartheid," and the Democratic leadership marches right along to the beat.
Although at times the party base opposes these policies, the leadership steers the "bipartisan" course of imperial conquest. A bipartisan mandate got us the Patriot Act, a bipartisan mandate got us into Iraq, and a bipartisan agreement to prevent judicial filibusters in the Senate has guaranteed a reactionary Supreme Court for at least a generation. Even "good" Democrats are powerless in this situation.
The Democratic Party leadership serves as a reminder to those who continually opt for the "lesser of two evils." Not only have we compromised our principles, but we've ended up with the greater of two evils anyway.
What to do?
First, identify what kind of government we live under. Is it really a democracy? Does a true left opposition exist? Do I have a voice? If you answer yes, vote Democrat.
If you answer no, however, stop pretending. If we perceive the Democrats to be part of the problem, stop giving them time, money, and votes. Stop participating in our own defeat and irrelevancy. Stop acting like an addict pretending things will get better with the next election fix. Stop behaving like a battered partner who just can't find the ability to make a break with the abuse and strike out independently.
Do what Cynthia McKinney did but Jesse Jackson did not: leave the party. Kick the Democratic Party habit. Find the courage, the will, the organization, and the funding to build a new movement. It's more important to build a fighting opposition movement than to support any party or candidate. Imagine what we might have now had Jackson led the Rainbow Coalition into a new independent party in 1984, instead of raising our hopes, only to let us down.
Unite around principles instead of candidates. For example a group has drawn up the Progressive Challenge 2008 – http://www.progressive2008.org/index.jsp – seven points of unity that could be used to build an opposition movement around principles that anyone from a liberal Democrat to a communist might be able to agree on. Don't fund, work, or vote for any candidate who doesn't pledge to work toward the agreed upon principles.
Some see working on a grassroots level as the most important way to create change, others believe it's through electoral politics. If one wants to work in the electoral arena, support third party and independent candidates. End the gridlock of the two-party monopoly. In California we could join together the three small parties on the left with independents and left Democrats to form a Green Labor Party for Peace and Freedom. Find a way to unite, possibly by dividing up the offices and supporting each other's candidates. It will take a visionary, radical, and militant movement to make any significant change, and the 2008 Democratic convention in Denver is a good place to start.
What should protests at the 2008 Democratic convention in Denver look like? Yes, we're angry, but is that all?
Even if we end up voting for Democrats, make them earn our votes. At the very least we can say, and mean: Don't take us for granted. Either you vote for the principles we believe in, or we will not vote for you.
This is a time to show there exists a left opposition that is ready to lead. It has a platform and a plan of action. Move away from a defensive stance to the offense. Instead of merely protesting the litany of Democratic "betrayals," deconstruct the Democrats. Unmask the interests they represent. In particular, expose the Democratic Leadership Council as the organization created to destroy the Rainbow Coalition wing of the party.
Many sincere people believe the Democratic Party can be reformed from within, but I don't believe it anymore. The last straw for me was the sellout on filibustering Supreme Court justices. By acquiescing in the selection of John Roberts and Samuel Alito, the Democratic Party bipartisan leadership has locked us into Bush administration policy hell for the indefinite future. It's time to stop expecting anything positive to come from the Democratic Party, because by its very structure, nothing can. We can do better.
Become the vocal majority. Change the thinking of the folks who always cave in to the Democrats, from "there is no alternative" to "we are the alternative." We are the ones we've been waiting for, and the time is now.
Charlie Hinton, an original member of Bay Area Gay Liberation in 1975,
has been an activist and writer for more than 35 years. He works at a
worker-owned printing collective in Berkeley and is a member of the
Haiti Action Committee.