I am tired of the Establishment Democrats, Corporatist Democrats, and the Corporate Media attempts to inflict fear into the American psyche about the Democratic Party. They are trying to gen up a false concern that Democrats are moving too far left. Do not buy it and here is why.
Progressives must ignore the Corporate Democrats attempt to continue centrist policies cloaked as Democratic principles. They are Republican Lite.
Salon’s article “Some fear Democrats are veering too far left: But does centrism have a future?” says it all. In fact, they brought in Democratic Party traitor Joe Lieberman to make their point. Are you serious? Joe is the man who defied his party oath to support John McCain over Barack Obama. He is the same Joe Lieberman who also blocked the public option to the Affordable Care Act even as it had widespread support. Why should one take him seriously?
The article starts with today’s reality.
Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont nearly seized the Democratic presidential nomination from Hillary Clinton in 2016, and may run again in 2020. Many Democrats see Ocasio-Cortez’s primary victory as a leading indicator of a grassroots rebellion against the party’s middle-road establishment. When candidates like those — or others interviewed in a New York Times feature this weekend — discuss issues like persistent poverty, lack of economic opportunity and the sense that our political system is more beholden to big businesses than ordinary people, they speak to longstanding tensions and grievances within the Democratic coalition.
The values that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez stands for are not New York or Left Coast values. They are values that expressed appropriately in middle-America, rural-America, and Appalachia will resonate. It is the message for the forgotten ones. Cortez is clear.
Progressives must resist Corporate Democrats
Who is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez?
The article then veers off to the fallacies put out by the Corporate Democrats.
At the same time, many Democrats are uncomfortable with this apparent left turn. For the party to be politically viable in the future, it must develop an approach to governing that can win as many voters as possible, and that can work not only in theory, but in practice. One standard-bearer for this view is former Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, who recently published a Wall Street journal op-ed urging voters in Ocasio-Cortez’s district to re-elect Crowley on a third-party line, despite his decisive defeat in the Democratic primary. Ocasio-Cortez advocates policies “far from the mainstream,” Lieberman wrote, and electing her “would make it harder for Congress to stop fighting and start fixing problems”
And that is the problem. These Corporate Democrats are directly responsible for the faltering of the entire Democratic Party through the states and federally. Democrats lost governorships and state houses because many Americans did not feel they were on their side economically. So they did not vote. They felt Democrats took care of corporate interests first and then provide crumbs for the masses. Yes, they consider the masses from time to time, but their solutions inevitably hurt the middle-class and poor. We do not have to argue about any of the issues any longer as they are proving out by the data. Wealth can only continue to move upward independent of the parties if the parties are doing the same thing from an economic standpoint.
And then there is this NBCNews headline, “Sanders’ wing of the party terrifies moderate Dems. Here’s how they plan to stop it” in which the article points out that Third Way and real estate billionaire Winston Fisher invited Corporatist Democrats to strategize on countering the party’s Progressives.
That anxiety has largely been kept to a whisper among the party’s moderates and big donors, with some of the major fundraisers pressing operatives on what can be done to stop the Vermonter if he runs for the White House again. But the first-ever “Opportunity 2020” convention, organized here last week by Third Way, a moderate Democratic think tank, gave middle-of-the-road party members a safe space to come together and voice their concerns. “The only narrative that has been articulated in the Democratic Party over the past two years is the one from the left,” former Delaware Gov. Jack Markell told NBC News. “I think we need a debate within the party,” he added. “Frankly, it would have been better to start the conversation earlier.” …
The gathering here was just that — an effort to offer an attractive alternative to the rising Sanders-style populist left in the upcoming presidential race. Where progressives see a rare opportunity to capitalize on an energized Democratic base, moderates see a better chance to win over Republicans turned off by Trump. The fact that a billionaire real estate developer, Winston Fisher, co-cohosted the event and addressed attendees twice underscored that this group is not interested in the class warfare vilifying the “millionaires and billionaires” found in Sanders’ stump speech.
The article would then blurt out the same narrative that while Lefties can win on the coasts and in Liberal areas, it won’t sell elsewhere. What is interesting is that “elsewhere” needs Progressive policies more than everywhere else.
If Democrats are to live up to their Democratic Platform, instead of trying to become false moderates or acquiesce to Republican Litism, they should go to where Americans are and start representing the wants of Americans. If one asks Americans about the policies they want, they are decidedly Progressive, not corporatists as Elizabeth Warren pointed out in this Netroots Nation speech.
Democrats should learn what made Republicans successful in making American vote against their interests. They miseducated a base that became effective in electing them. Our job is much more doable as we have the truth and wants of Americans aligned with our values. It is clear that Corporatist Democrats intent has little to do firstly with middle-class and poor Americans. They believe in taking care of the wealthy first. They want to have a trickle-down economy with a compassionate facade.
There is no need for Democrats to fear Progressives. It is the Establishment they must worry about as they have continuously brought pain to the middle-class and the poor by not offering enough to win. Progressive candidates that effectively message will sell.