I've been on DemocraticUnderground for over two years. In all the time I have been here, the one thing I have seen posted more than any other - more than "Your candidate sucks!" even - is this: The Democratic Party requires serious, fundamental change from the top down. The matter was so pressing, in fact, that I wrote about it over two years ago:
Published on Monday, November 19, 2001
The Dawn of a New Democratic Party
by William Rivers Pitt
http://www.commondreams.org/views01/1119-08.htm(snip)
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.
(snip)
Thus, it falls to us. We must become the calcium in the withered Democratic backbone, and we must do it now.
Writing to these people is useless. Protesting against the President will bear no fruit. Letters to the editor go unread. Emails to like-minded friends amount to political masturbation. We are a people made too comfortable by pleasant arguments and debates. The day has arrived where action is demanded, else all that happens from here on out can be lain at our own feet. The document in question says We The People for a good reason.
Take heed of conservative successes. They ran for state representative positions, took over school boards, got jobs in local government and basically stormed the bulwarks of the Republican Party from the bottom of the walls. It took ten years, but they did it, and the Presidency of George W. Bush is but one reward they have reaped by their labors. The media is awash with the conservative viewpoint because they commandeered the dialogue after years of grass-roots work. This is another reward, one that ensures their continued success.
To overcome this, we must become it.
The only reason the Democrats moved to the right is because of the aforementioned conservative grass-roots revolution. The Party had nothing to counteract the surge of conservatism that blasted through Washington, no shock troops of their own, so they swung Rightward in order to survive. Now, the Parties are slowly becoming indistinguishable. They are not yet there, no matter what Ralph Nader says, but they are on their way and this can not be denied.
It has been argued that true progressives will never find a home in the Democratic Party, because it has sold too much of its soul in a hard tack to the right borne of defensive strategy and political expediency. This leaves two alternatives: either abandon the Party completely, or roll up some sleeves and clean out the Augean stables.
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.
Most within the Party will welcome this, I believe. Those who do not can be reminded of the wisdom spoken by an old politico named James H. Rowe: "The old bulls never quit until the young bulls run them out. The old bulls are dead."
Master the issues. Walk down to your local Democratic Party office and find work. Take as much responsibility as you can, and make it your office. Run for positions on your school board, or within your local government, or stand for election to your state congress. If you can not do these things, find someone who is doing them and dedicate your energies to their success. Run the old bulls out, and harness the young bulls to plow new fields. Make the Party a home for everyone who knows in their heart that things must change in this country before the targets can be stripped from our backs.
It will take time and patience. There is a window of opportunity to act in time for the 2002 elections, but the target should be 2004. Don't look to the Oval office, for working from the top down has bred a dizzying array of recent failures. Go from the ground up, one step at a time.
What a paradise we can make of this world if given the chance. The chance will not come on its own. We must make it, take it, demand it, fight for it tooth and nail.
Get to work.
...more...
At the time, that article represented the bedrock mindset of the vast majority of DUers. I think, probably, a lot of people here still feel that way. Certainly, the fuel that propels a great many Dean supporters here is the idea that he represents the advent of that coming change. Frustration at his showings thus far, compounded by the evisceration he took from the media, goes beyond Dean, and reaches into the heart of the matter. The frustration comes because the opportunity to grasp that change appears to be slipping away.
But guess what? Dennis Kucinich wants that change, too.
People here ask why Kucinich is still in the race. Some say he stays in because of ego, others seem to think he is part of some larger conspiracy to sap strength from their chosen candidate. Still others just seem confused.
Here's the deal. Change in the Democratic Party will not come unless we demand it, and Dennis Kucinich is in this race to the end so as to make that demand. Kucinich put trade on the debate table where the other candidates did not. Kucinich puts the Iraq issue into a broader context than would have been on the debate table in his absence. Kucinich is crafting a national grassroots progressive movement with this race. Everywhere we go, we plant a seed that will germinate, to the woe of those who would rape our planet and undercut our workers and make war after war after war.
People ask why Dennis is in the race? DUers should demand that he stay in the race until Boston, and then DUers should join his national movement to push the Democratic Party into a new day, a better day for all of us. Frankly, there is no middle ground about that.
Think about this when you go to vote in your primary, or when you go to caucus, or when you hear the TV talking heads natter about electability and the need to narrow the field. There are broader causes afoot here. The country, and the Party, will still be here after November. Both will still need vast change, and will need a movement to advance that change, and will need a leader to organize that change.
That leader is Dennis Kucinich. Today, tomorrow, next week, next month, next year, that leader is Dennis Kucinich. I, for one, am profoundly grateful to know he is roaming in the gloaming and speaking the truth. I think, perhaps, you should be thankful, too.
William Rivers Pitt
Press Secretary
Dennis Kucinich for President
(This, by the way, is not an official campaign release. Just another DU post.)
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