Letter to the Democrats (after the November Flop)

The election has come and gone and it seems like the main lesson learned by the Democratic Party from Bill Clinton was to go moderate. Like Al Gore before him, John Kerry took a moderate stance on most issues (although he was falsely labeled by his opponent as the number one liberal in Washington). The Clinton Era and the eight years since have led to a middle of the road strategy by the Democrats. They almost all unanimously supported Bush’s right wing agenda both at home (with the U.S. Patriot Act) and abroad (with the illegal military occupation of Iraq) in their desire to not “rock the boat”. But while they were desperately trying to shed the image of “bleeding heart liberal” the Republicans were moving more right. With religious rhetoric often based on fear and intolerance the Republicans became religious extremist, the pragmatic conservatives of their party drowned out by red-faced screaming zealots. So now, thanks to these shifts, there is the middle and there is the extreme right. The progressive left sits unrepresented.

By not embracing progressive political ideals and those that believe in them the Democrats failed miserably in 2004. If the Democrats would have picked up environmental degradation as an issue for example, they could have shown how the health of the Earth trumps all other issues and how this current Administration has sent the country back to the dark ages of environmental standards. Who cares about men kissing men if our children can't breath because of air pollution? Who cares about stem cells when our water is poison? Who cares about anything be it terrorists, abortion, or gun control in the face of global warming? With sea level rise threatening 2 out of 3 people on Earth, disrupted weather patterns already leading to food and water shortages, and an increasing regularity of major storms sweeping over the land humanity faces its biggest issue ever. The burning of fossil fuels such as coal and oil is creating greenhouse gasses and it is our blind ignorance of this connection that threatens the health of our planet. Inaction will cost us dearly, as the Democrats have found.

The Democrats should regroup and take up this uniting cause, a cause not liberal or conservative but a cause that is simply progressive. But it seems more likely that in fear of losing the corporate dollars the Democrats are going to do more of the same status quo.

As a child I was raised a Democrat but came to question the party when no one stood up to Reagan’s policies, his secret wars and profiteering, and the atrocities he created for the innocent people in the Third World as well as in our own country. None the less, I kept my faith and cheered when Bill Clinton won in 1992, though I was too young to vote. Then, as a political science major at the University of Oregon, I watched as the issue of universal health care faded away, I saw the signing of the Salvage Rider Bill which threatened the last remaining old growth forests, I morosely studied the free trade agreements like NAFTA and GATT that shipped manufacturing jobs overseas, and I witnessed the trampling of the first amendment. The fact is, it was the same old paradigm. The Democrats were just the opposite side of the same coin as the Republicans and both were in the pockets of the Big Business. The Democrats were selling out the environment and the people to the same petrochemical companies, the same drug manufacturers, the same banks, insurers, and trade organizations, and the same military industrial complex as the Republicans. They just weren’t as blatant about it.

The Democratic Party must face its own hypocrisies and then embrace the progressive. They need to stop selling out to corporate interests because if they don't it will be Green vs. Republican in 2008. Telling someone this time around to vote Kerry because Bush was doing a bad job was not exactly inspiring. Attacking Howard Dean in the primaries for saying the stuff that the party lacked the guts to say was pathetic as well. Crying about an independent (Nader) taking blue votes was pretty sad too. Of course, the saddest thing for the Democrats was that Bush reigned victorious despite his spotted record, all by using the fear of gays getting married.

So shame on the Democrats for not standing against the mess that is Iraq from the beginning. And shame on the Democrats for not addressing the environmental issues. Shame on them for not embracing a worthy cause. But most importantly, shame on the Democrats for not giving the common man credit for being able to see the big picture. Kerry should have whooped Bush. But again, Bush vs. Bush-lite. There it is.