Why the support for Brown says something GOOD about the Democratic leaders

[Armstead]

I have to admit, in theory, I think the national democratic Party should have let the primaries play out and supported the winner between Brown and hackett.

However, the fact that the Democratic leadership has thrown their suppport to brown is a GOOD THING for liberals and progressives, in terms of actual issues and standing up for those principles.

Brown is very much a progressive. He is one of the House Progressives who have fought the good fight, along with people like Kucinich, Bernie Sanders, John Conyers etc. The fact that the Democratic leadership is supporting someone as liberal as Brown, is a good sign, and NOT a symptom of DLC centrism. In fact it is the opposite of centrism.

Visit his website.

http://www.house.gov/sherrodbrown/issues.htm

Here's Brown's position on trade, for example:

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"In 1999, thousands gathered to protest the World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial meeting in Seattle. In September 2003, thousands more will gather in Cancun, Mexico, as international leaders meet for the fifth WTO ministerial.

These demonstrators will be demanding comprehensive reforms to an international trade system that has failed to improve the social and economic conditions for millions around the globe. The WTO model - forcing poor countries to open markets to wealthy nations - is not working. The failures of the WTO are nowhere clearer than in agriculture policy. In the United States and across the globe, rural economies and farmers have been devastated by artificially low prices in almost every major commodity. Large, multinational corporations now control trade in major commodities by selling below the cost of production on the global market.

WTO policies have led to economic insecurity, instability and an increase in illegal crops and crime throughout the developing world. Increased migration from rural to urban centers has exacerbated poverty and joblessness. In the 10 years since NAFTA was signed, 1.7 million jobs have been lost in the Mexican countryside. Not only do WTO practices destroy lives, they destroy cultures....Etc."

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Now tell me, would a DLCer say that? Not even Kerry or most liberal Democratic Senators are willing to call the bluff of the globalization con job.

Here's his take on Wal Mart. Heard any DLCers talking like this or doing this lately?

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Are Americans Shopping Themselves Out of a Job?
A Closer Look at the Wal-Mart Business Model

Wal-Mart has a knack for inspiring strong opinions.

A leading business publication called the retail giant "a champion of global supply-chain management." And a multinational supplier said "they have raised the bar, and raised the bar for everybody." But a domestic clothing manufacturer said "Wal-Mart chewed us up and spit us out." And a university researcher said "Wal-Mart is one of the key forces that propelled global outsourcing – off-shoring of U.S. jobs."

And the consequences of Wal-Mart's business model for taxpayers and communities have also proven controversial. As the Capital Times (Madison, Wisconsin) wrote, Wal-Mart "continues to raid the state treasury by steering thousands of its uninsured employees into the state's taxpayer-funded BadgerCare program, which provides access to health care for low-income workers and their families."

Congressman Sherrod Brown sponsored a field hearing to examine these issues. National experts and Ohio citizens joined Congressman Brown in exploring the consequences of the Wal-Mart business model American workers, small businesses and communities.

Like traditional congressional hearings, this hearing offered expert testimony. Unlike traditional hearings, this hearing offered American workers and small businesses a chance to participate, by using this Website to share their stories and suggest questions for witnesses.

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