The Role of the Democratic Party in the 2-party system--and our role.

I was just listening to Amy Goodman's rebroadcast of the interview with Bill Clinton on election day 2000. It got me to thinking....

The role of the Democratic Party in the 2-party system seems to be to build up the economy so that future Republican administrations can loot it again.

While the Republicans will do as much as possible to destroy human and civil rights in this country, their main goal is to loot the treasury. The Democrats will build up the economy, but will do as little as possible to restore human and civil rights. The big corporations that fund both parties, and without which neither could exist, seem to like this system.

I now remember why I voted for Nader. Things were better under Clinton, but he did little to restore or, heaven forbid, improve human and civil rights, or to help those who had been harmed by COINTEL and other RW programs, or bring RW perpetrators to justice. He did very well with the economy, stupid, but by doing as little as possible for human and civil rights, paved the way for a puke administration to come in and loot it again.

For someone my age, to be faced with a choice between the greater and lesser evils in an election is just 2-party business as usual. In this case, though, I do not think Kerry is merely a lesser evil. I think he has the capability of doing things that Clinton could not. For one thing, he is independently wealthy, and has proven that he can run for office without big corporate donations.

I know that many DUers not only want to see Kerry win, but want to see some actual progress after the election. We should not be the biggest police state in the world. Clinton was not as concerned with the rights of prisoners as he could have been. Our enforcement and legal system should not be as racist as it is, and Clinton was not as concerned as he could have been. We should not have so much poverty in this country, and Clinton was not as concerned as he could have been.

But more than anything else, I believe it is important that we stop being a fascist (business = government) country and move towards being a government of, by, and for the people instead of the corporations. For this to happen the two party system must be reformed. We need an end to ALL campaign contributions, hard, soft, or scrambled, and instead to have completely publicly funded elections along with the restoration of the Fairness Doctrine.

We need to abolish the electoral college, and to institute proportional elections and instant run-off voting. Will this make government more complicated? Sure. Nobody ever said government was supposed to be easy. But some people did say that people, not just big corporate contributors, should have a voice in government and that there should be no taxation without representation, and the people who said those things founded this country.

We need to reregulate and recertify corporations and make them act like responsible citizens. They must clean up their own messes, pay taxes, stop relying on government handouts, and permit competition. They should not have any of the rights of citizens unless they have all the responsibilities of citizens.

I want the surviving victims of COINTELPRO out of prison. I want to see white collar criminals pay full restitution to those they have bilked before any sentence less than life without parole in a maximum security prison can be considered. I want nonviolent offenders out of prison, and violent offenders in. (On Edit: This seems contradictory, as white collar criminals are usually considered nonviolent. Well, if you steal below a certain dollar amount it is considered a misdemeanor, while above that amount is a felony. So I guess I would consider any theft or misappropriation of over a million dollars to be a violent crime, because it can do so much harm.)

I want my country back. I want John Kerry to prove to the world that America is not a joke. I know that, given a Democrat-controlled Congress, or with sufficient public pressure on Congress, he can do it.

The real question is if we will do our part. When Kerry is elected, will we put pressure on Congress to do the right things? If Kerry is elected, and then assassinated, will we go into shock, or will we revolt and see that everything he intended is carried out? John Kerry is a good man, a strong man, and will make an excellent President. But you cannot be a leader without strong public support. We need to get our democracy back and we must not stop fighting until we get it.

I voted for edwards in the primary but I am thinking now that its probably just as well that my vote didn't count for much here where I am. That thing with the tobacco buy out bugged me and I hear that edwards voted on it. Frankly I think we should be instituting as many purchasing bans on these companies that are irresponsible as we possibly can.

The real battle will start on Nov 3, no matter who wins the election.

It may be a little bit easier with Kerry to get some progressive legislation passed, but I'm not holding my breath. They said the same thing about Clinton in 1992, and as you pointed out in your post he didn't do a whole lot for working people in his eight years. In fact, because we had a "Democrat" in office, many progressives slacked off because we thought that a Democrat would naturally be more supportive of our agenda.

However, it's important to remember that local candidates (state legs, congresscritters) often have much more effect on our lives than the president does. So it's doubly important to support solid progressive candidates on the local level wherever possible.

Dems won't change unless scared by defections, but they won't be scared by defections so long as there is no real alternative to them. I say that we should fund a fourth party. Let's contribute to the Libertarian Party Presidential Candidate, to triangulate votes away from Bush. They will take away right wing antiwar voters. The PNACers in both parties will be repudiated.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x1839669