Sirotablog
David Sirota is a political journalist and nationally syndicated newspaper columnist at Creators Syndicate. David writes about political corruption, globalization and working-class economic issues often ignored by both of America's political parties.
-
September 26, 2007 11:50 AM
When Will the Innocent Bystander Fable Stop?
I just finished up an appearance on Warren Olney's national radio show (you will be able to find the archived recording here probably in a few hours). On it, I debated (among others) former DLC strategist Ed Kilgore, who quite literally regurgitated the Innocent Bystander Fable, word for nauseating word. He claimed that Democrats in Congress need to find total unity to do anything to stop the war, that they don't have 60 votes, and oh the Congress is so closely divided, yadda yadda. It is a false and misleading meme, and I called him on it, telling him that the Innocent Bystander Fable is deliberately dishonest (and by the way, this subject is going to be the major topic of my next nationally syndicated newspaper column, out Friday).
Kilgore first feigned outrage that someone would call a factual lie "deliberately misleading" (and again folks, claiming Democrats have no power to stop the war or that they need any more than 41 Senate votes to stop the war is a lie - and a deliberate one coming from people who are "experts" and who thus know precisely how the Congress works). He then was forced to admit that yes, in fact, it is correct that if Democrats put together 41 Senate votes for a filibuster or - perhaps even easier - if Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid or House Speaker Nancy Pelosi refused to bring a blank check war funding bill to the floors of their respective chambers, Democrats would be able to ultimately stop the war. But while the Democrats' rhetoric is certainly different than Republicans, their actions really are not. The only thing they have consistently done when it comes to Iraq is try to pass the buck, and worse, successfully pass blank checks (like today's new one).
Now, Ed and all the other brilliant Democratic "strategists" in Washington who have gotten us to this disastrous point would counter that polls aren't clear on whether the public really supports Congress using its power of the purse to stop the war. I agree, the polls aren't - but those polls are a snapshot in a vacuum.
To date, there has been absolutely no concerted campaign by Democrats or even by the major media-focused antiwar organizations in Washington to educate the public on why Congress using its power of the purse is the responsible way to end the war. No, everyone inside the 50-square mile radius of Washington, D.C. - politicians, activists, reporters, pundits, everyone - wants us to believe that Democrats are just Innocent Bystanders, that they have no power to do anything, and that, in fact, the Constitution does not include Article 1, Section 9 specifically stating "No money shall be drawn from the treasury, but in consequence of appropriations made by law."
It is a lie being perpetrated on the American public - and if folks in Washington are confused about why the public is so disgusted with Congress and with Democrats, it is because the public has figured out when it is being lied to. We got burned once by the WMD claims - we aren't getting fooled again. The public understands the message in this YouTube video:
What this all shows is the mindset of the Democratic apparatus in Washington, D.C. They react to polls. They don't believe in actually spending political capital to move polls on issues - they really only believe in spending political capital on moving polls on individual candidate and party approval ratings - but again, not on issues. They react to snapshots in a vacuum, veering one way and then veering another way, and then they have the nerve to somehow wonder why the public thinks they stand for nothing.
How many more Americans have to die before Democrats stop pushing the Innocent Bystander Fable and pretending they can't do anything? How hated does the Democratic Party have to be by the public before Democrats stop listening to their Washington "strategists," muster the tiniest shred of courage and use the constitutional power they were given on Election Day 2006?
-
TAKE ACTION
-
About David Sirota
David Sirota is a political journalist and nationally syndicated newspaper columnist at Creators Syndicate. He is the New York Times bestselling author of Hostile Takeover. He lives in Denver, Colorado. His daily blog can be found at CREDO Action. He contributes regularly to the Denver Post's Web site, is a senior editor at In These Times magazine and is working on his second book. He has been profiled in Newsweek and the Rocky Mountain News and is widely known for his reporting on political corruption, globalization and working-class economic issues often ignored by both of America's political parties. Sirota serves as co-chair of the Progressive States Network, a 501(c)3 organization that supports state legislators and that is a partner of CREDO.
You can subscribe to Sirota's e-mail newsletter by going to davidsirota.com and signing up in the lefthand corner. To find out more about Sirota, download his official biography or see his recent media appearances. You can e-mail him at sirota@credoaction.com.
The views expressed on this blog are his own, and do not necessarily represent the views of Working Assets (publisher of CREDO Action) or the institutions Sirota works for.
-
Recent Sirotablog entries
- Teaching McCain Econ 101
- Fox News at 5:15 EST
- Will the Elite Pay Their Fair Share?
- What's Right and Wrong With This Picture
- Bill Kristol Needs to Get Out More
- Six Words for Better Wages...And Why We Need to Promote Ideological Warriors
- What A Huge Scandal!
- Radio West
- Report: America's "Free" Trade Policies Harming Rural Latin America
- Free Speech TV
-
More David Sirota
-
This Modern World
-
July 29, 2008 -
July 23, 2008 -
July 15, 2008 -
July 8, 2008 -
July 1, 2008
-
-
Donations Recipients
-
RSS feeds
Discussion
Our government is primarily corrupt and inept. Worse, the media has been corrupted, keeping the public uninformed and misinformed. However, we the people still have power. We must use it.
--
Stand for something or fall for anything.
http://www.ExcaliburBooks.com/RedAlert/
http://www.ExcaliburBooks.com/Articles/Papers/patriotism.html
Its not just poll watching going on here, I wish it was but its not. For starters the pols are behaving this way because their base doesn't hold them accountable - you know with threats of primaries, smear campaigns, etc.
Another aspect is that K Street owns the Democratic leadership lock, stock and barrel. Reid and Pelosi are signing on to whatever Bush wants. Like secret trade deals, opening up the borders and H1-B and L-1 Visa workers, etc. Its like DeLay and Lott are still in power.
Then there are the faux populist democrats like Webb, Tester and Casey who turned out to be major disappointments and just as crooked as Lieberman.
And oh the Presidential candidates are already heming and hawing on Iraqi withdraw. Isn't that suprising or not.
The party has pretty much morphed into a wing of the GOP for practical purposes. It needs to be put down and taken out of power.
Woe to the disadvantages of a two-party system. However, nothing will change until an overwhelming number of people demand it.
And that won’t happen until people stop watching the likes of “Fox News”— the most blatant insult to journalism I have ever witnessed, and there are people out there who actually take it as truth. Believe me, I live in Texas!
DLC as Republican-lite, Republican heavy...what's the difference? It's what determines Democratic Party politics today, and the money basically comes from the same source. Welcome to the Shell Game.
The point is, that for all the efforts, all the theorizing, writing, organizing, complaining, petitioning, phoning, demonstrating done by "progressive Democrats," the DLC calls the shots, and progressives working in THEIR (the DLC's) party, ultimately work for them.
I've read talk lately about "hijacking" the Democratic Party by progressives. Yeah, right! Hello! The hijacking has already taken place, and it's by THEM. Progressives are just the baggage and workhorses feeding the machine and the illusion that answers will somehow magically come out of that corrupt, encrusted entity (the DP) and save us all. Save us?? The Democratic Party as constituted can only bring us closer and closer to the precipice by enabling the right and silencing the left.
It has taken decades for any and all institutions capable of really "saving" us -- that is, educating us and/or helping us to organize a real and effective Resistance to the Repressive Authoritarian corporate takeover of America that is underway -- to be fragmented, dispersed, co-opted or destroyed: labor unions, progressive farmers (farmers at all!), schools and universities, public libraries, civic associations, the media, and (finally) any "opposition" political parties.
What is left?
Who is telling us that defending each of our issues and rights piecemeal (abortion, healthcare, voting, free speech) is NOT going to save us?
Who is saying we have to come together around a new democratic (small d) and sustainable politics?
Who is telling us that nothing will change this situation but coming together around a real, concerted effort to build a political force that looks at the Big Picture? One that takes into account root causes, and grows alternative voices, visions with sustainable plans to move AWAY from disastrous crony-decision-making towards building a conscious power base for a functional (gasp!) democracy.
You can debate all you want about the nature of the DLC. What is not worth wasting another ounce of breath on, is how the Democratic Party will restore democracy or the rule of law or people's participation in America. It won't. For all the hype and the nostalgic rhetoric (the "democratic wing of the Democratic Party, and blah, blah..."), it is designed to do just the opposite, and works just fine, thank you.
Those mentioning the need to support Kucinich (and we agree, he says many of the right things) only acknowledge the exception that proves the rule. He is allowed to talk, because he keeps you INSIDE -- "safely" handled, and still in the camp. Listen and send money -- until Primary Day; then he and those ideas get locked up again.
If you listen to Dennis' ideas from the mouth of a Green Party candidate or from Ralph Nader, however, all hell breaks loose! Suddenly you see the ire, venom and aggression coming from Democratic organizers that you might like to have seen used against the Bush War Machine Regime.
Sorry. No new thoughts or institutions are permitted in the DLC-dominated Democratic vision of "Solving America's Problems." All solutions are corporate -- or corporate approved. Sound familiar? The fear, the "rules"? How very RePUBlican!
What we really need is to grow NEW institutions that are aiming to go in entirely different directions politically and socially from where we are now headed. We must develop them quickly and without fear if we want to save our communities, our nation, our planet. Every day we stay on the same path is a day closer to destruction.
We need, as Bill Moyers aptly put it, a New Narrative for America. A Sustainable Narrative. A Sustainable Vision fueled with sustainable politics.
Green politics is that sustainable politics.
It does not presume a corporate-dominated party structure. It seeks participation as it aims towards equitable and sustainable solutions to life's problems.
You may not like the idea, or feel that building the Green Party is pie in the sky, but not only is that pie looking nicer and getting closer each day, the REAL pie-in-the-sky is believing that the Democratic Party by itself is going to mention, much less bring us to, a way out of this awful lawless, Constitution-shredding, murderous mess we find ourselves in.
It is because of that DLC core of the DP, this Congress refuses to act like one, and even hesitates to save our civil liberties and laws, allowing the worst of crimes to go unmentioned and unpunished in our name and on our nickel -- Iraq, Katrina, Abu Ghraib, Enron, Blackwater, signing statements, Executive Orders [??!], 911 unanswered questions -- need we point out more?
Just like Bush is not going to voluntarily give up the neocon PNAC vision and plans for the US and the world, neither is the DLC going to allow progressives access to the Democratic Party's coffers and organization. Both efforts serve corporate goals, and are corporate sponsored, funded and controlled.
Period. It is just that simple. Can you deny it?
As hard as it sounds (and as hard as it is likely to be) we must get over it and help pick up the pieces of the sorry and dangerous situation our nation finds itself -- by getting behind a clearly defined and sustainable new vision.
Want to see Congress act as if they understood the 2006 vote? Want to see them turn around and vote to stop war funding and move towards impeachment? Here is a way to wake them up and make them listen to someone other than their campaign funders. Get a big number of us to switch registration to Green Party. Watch them get the message that wasn't screened by the DLC. Find out how OUTside leverage can produce results that INside begging and cajoling cannot. To learn how, visit switch2green.org. Your registration (or affiliation) change alone will provide ample statistical evidence that Americans want a peace and impeach agenda, and that we want justice for corporate and executive crimes.
What other way says that? A Democratic registration? It says nothing. Going "Independent"? Hardly. Don't you want your Voice registered -- finally?
Registering/supporting the Green Party right now builds a Voice unafraid to say what we know needs to be heard out loud in America today: Fair elections in the US -- corporate money out of elections and politics. Stop this War (seek international diplomatic resolution). Impeach Cheney/Bush. Single-payer universal healthcare for our nation. The right for labor to organize. Women's rights. This is what Americans want. This is your agenda.
Those words will never come out of the Democratic loudspeaker, no matter how much progressives wish it. We need to hear them now.
Make it heard. Make it happen. Green Party. GP.org. Warm up to that idea.
Oh, we may still find ourselves voting for some traditional-party candidates for some time to come, like it or not, as we are building and growing a clear new direction and voice, with our own candidates, our growing numbers will cause THEM to change their politics, not us. It's fine vote as your conscience dictates (that is if they let us vote or count the results). Their time is over. As it should be. We have been sold out, betrayed.
Let's make 2007 be imbued with the Spirit of 1776. Make 2007 the birth of Sustainable Politics.
Join the Discussion