Greider: How the Democratic Party Lost Its Soul

[antigop]

This article has been posted before on DU, but it's worth another read:

http://www.thenation.com/article/190385/how-democratic-party-lost-its-soul#

The blowout election of 2014 demonstrates that the Democratic Party is utterly out of touch with ordinary people and their adverse circumstances. Working people have known this for some time now, but this year, the president made the disconnection more obvious. Barack Obama kept telling folks to brighten up: the economy is coming back, he said, and prosperity is just around the corner.

A party truly connected to the people would never have dared to make such a claim. In the real world of voters, human experience trumps macroeconomics and the slowly declining official unemployment rate. An official at the AFL-CIO culled the following insights from what voters said about themselves on Election Day: 54 percent suffered a decline in household income during the past year. Sixty-three percent feel the economy is fundamentally unfair. Fifty-five percent agree strongly (and another 25 percent agree somewhat) that both political parties are too focused on helping Wall Street and not enough on helping ordinary people.

Instead of addressing this reality and proposing remedies, the Democrats ran on a cowardly, uninspiring platform: the Republicans are worse than we are. Undoubtedly, that’s true—but so what? The president and his party have no credible solutions to offer. To get serious about inequality and the deteriorating middle class, Democrats would have to undo a lot of the damage their own party has done to the economy over the past thirty years.

Postelection diagnosis on the left found lots of reasons to rationalize the dismal results and to cheer small victories. Critical analysis focused mainly on the mechanics of this failed election cycle, but the trouble with Democrats goes much deeper than one botched election. It’s systemic, and it started in the Reagan era.

Long ago, the party abandoned its working-class base (of all colors) and steadily distanced itself from the unglamorous conditions that matter most in people’s lives. Traditional party bulwarks like organized labor and racial minorities became second-string players in the hierarchy that influences party policy. But the Dems didn’t just lose touch with the people they claimed to speak for; they betrayed core constituencies and adopted pro-business, pro-finance policies that actively injure working people.

[Vincardog]

1. Every word too damned true

[BillZBubb]

2. Sadly it is true.

But, there are reasons for it. First, a lot of the working class voters ABANDONED the Democrats wooed by the seductive anti-tax, anti-abortion, anti-welfare, and anti-government talk of hucksters like Reagan.

Second, in order to remain financially competitive in elections, the Democrats had to appeal to the people with money.

The Democrats took what looked like the safest path to remain relevant. But, it was really a trap.

[JDPriestly]

9. Don't forget that a major reason for some of the Democratic losses was racism.

The Nixon Southern Strategy is alive and well. The Republicans divided and conquered the American working people based on race.

[BillZBubb]

13. But, the republicans didn't use race directly.

That's why I mentioned anti-welfare which is right wing race baiting. That and anti-government for things like integration and equal opportunity--again race baiting.

[Electric Monk]

3. The last two paragraphs really hit the nail on the head

What we need is a rump formation of dissenters who will break free of the Democratic Party’s confines and set a new agenda that will build the good society rather than feed bloated wealth, disloyal corporations and absurd foreign wars. This is the politics the country needs: purposeful insurrection inside and outside party bounds, and a willingness to disrupt the regular order. And we need it now, to inject reality into the postelection spin war within the party. On one side, the right-wingers will blame the loss on Obama’s unpopularity, claiming his economic policy is too liberal; progressives must counter that the Democrats lost because they had no economic message aside from Obama’s replay of tired Wall Street bromides that misfired so spectacularly.

This is the fight that really matters, and it was coming no matter how bad the Democratic losses were. If the Wall Street/Walmart wing of the party wins—if Hillary Clinton is the nominee in 2016—any hope that Democrats will embrace the imperative for fundamental change will be lost. Dems will become the party of the past, defending wrong ideas that failed and losing more elections.

[MaeScott]

14. I remember the Progressive caucus put forth their

Budget and was met with *crickets*. by both the media AND the Dem party.
It was a great budget and still worthy of support.

If we need a place to start, IMO that's a good place to begin .

[rhett o rick]

4. k&r. Thanks for posting. nm

[bbgrunt]

5. k and r. Greider is always spot on.

[DeSwiss]

6. So prostituting one's self and one's party to Wall Street bankers......

...Big Pharma and Big Agri is now to be cast as ''losing one's soul!?'' Really? Hahahaha.

- Well, okay. Whatever, I'm with George.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

7. CU has made the return to our roots nearly unattainable.

How do we get money out??.

[JDPriestly]

8. K&R.

[AllyCat]

10. Someone in another thread said when Dems play to the center, we win

And when we play to the left, we lose badly. That poster supports a right of center dem candidate for Pres. Who is correct?

[stillwaiting]

11. I have no idea how anyone can say that with a straight face after the past few elections.

There has been no progressive/left-wing agenda broadcast from the Party in any cohesive manner for quite some time, and Democrats have suffered severe losses at the federal and state levels.

With how horrible the Republican Party showed itself to be during the Bush years, the fact that Democrats have lost so much ground is a huge indictment against what they have been doing. And, what they have been doing is playing to the center/center-right on economic issues. They have been serving Wall Street interests, and they certainly have not been fighting for Main Street interests. Most of America believes this, so I'd say the Democratic Party has failed in its current "play to the center"/Blue Dog strategy. Things have continued to get worse for most Americans financially, and they will continue to get worse as long as the Democrats continue to embrace Blue Dog/DLC/Third Way Democrats. That is a sure thing. We need a massive Party overhaul or we will continue to hurtle towards India/Mexico, etc. in how our country is economically divided.

[AllyCat]

12. I agree with you. But this "trending" post by a supporter of a much ballyhooed candidate

says that every "center" candidate for the Dems has won for President. Went so far as to say Carter was a centrist.

[TheKentuckian]

19. That was about the only thing that wasn't bullshit. Carter was way on the right of the party

I'm not talking noise from the House either but a Senate at odds as well.

Conservative Democrat wouldn't be off base at the time.

[KoKo]

17. At this point...maybe we need to Go With those who Support American Workers...

and then we can "get over ourselves."

Yes...I'm a Warren Supporter...for her SPUNK to DEFY the SYSTEM...but, I just want a different Dem than Hillary. I don't believe in Dynasty or Nepotism.

I want something DIFFERENT.

[Doctor_J]

15. Party's 21st century slogan:

"Just like them, with reproductive rights"

[FiveGoodMen]

16. It lost it's soul right here on DU.

Every time someone argues -- put one on ignore just today! -- that we should accept the bad will of absolutely anyone who will wear a capital D.

[KoKo]

18. So far ahead of the Election...that is disappointing...

This is the time when we out here have time to Discuss who and which Policies that we want to vote for.

This is the "Discussion Time" not the "Annointing the Candidate" Time.

[TheKentuckian]

20. They barely made it to the election results in 2012 before they were ready to hit the ground running

By the Inauguration shop was set up and already business as usual.

There is no longer any discussion time because there is nothing to talk about, you'll eat whatever is put on your plate, you will eat every bite, you will thank papa for providing it, and you will praise mamma for the excellent preparation.

[yurbud]

21. we didn't become "second string players"--we became a battered wife locked in the trunk.

[Populist_Prole]

22. A definite "good read" for sure

Will "not as bad as the republicans" work as more and more of their constituents become impoverished?

It's not working now, so one wonders what the DLC/3rd-Way meme will be even half a dozen years from now.