Why the Left Must Now Confront the Democratic Party

Forget the Republican Party, we all know how utterly depraved it has become. What troubles me far more is the extent to which the Democratic Party has become a tool of the giant corporations that use public policy as a profit enhancement business strategy (so revealed by this year’s health “reform” charade), and the Pentagon-industrial and right wing foundation foreign policy establishment on a militaristic rampage throughout much of the world.

Except for a shockingly small number of individuals who genuinely believe in social and economic justice (and deserve our support), the Democratic Party is a degenerate, power-corrupted entity controlled by these corporate-militarist elites and their careerist politicians and promoted by clueless activists too loyal to their party and influenced by the Establishment media to autonomously perceive this reality.

This week’s Mark Weaver Show is developing a new strategy to hold the Democratic Party accountable by implementing “modes of confrontation”. Guest is Brent McMillan, director of the Green Party of the United States. Democrats, independents, please call in.

Just take a quick look at where we are under President Obama (I will reprise in detail on the Oct. 31 Mark Weaver Show). If you are unaware of all this, and are blindly promoting the Democratic Party, there is something very wrong with you. You need to examine yourself, your values and your very awareness of the world beyond your slavish unthinking devotion to the Democratic Party.

We now have more troops in foreign combat than we did on January 20th, and further escalation is imminent. Obama has dramatically escalated the Predator drone assassination campaign against Taliban and other fundamentalist Islamic militants in Pakistan with high civilian casualties which just yesterday drew a UN official’s call for transparency that could reveal war crimes by Nobel Laureate Obama. He has coerced the Pakistani army into two major assaults on Islamic fundamentalists in Pakistan, driving over two million Pakistanis from their homes. All of this is pushing the relatively stable Pakistan under Bush-Cheney into a needless civil war. Aside from the surreal pointlessness of all this, Obama is committing hundreds of billions of dollars and condemning thousands of lives to a long debacle. And it’s all deficit financed. With his goofy impotence in confronting rightwing extremists on every issue, such as the fanatical government of Israel, Obama is leading us down a path to a war on Iran. By further assaulting and enraging millions more people, Obama is endangering our national security. President Obama and his Democratic Party are destroying this nation every bit as much as the Republicans did for eight years. The only differences are the kinds and emphases of the destruction.

And it’s not just Obama. It’s the party that created him. Virtually the entire party leadership backs this militarism. Kerry, Levin. In Florida, Kendrick Meek and Bill Nelson have already backed troop increases, before Obama has even made any decision. Alcee Hastings says he’s “not averse” to them. Only Allan Grayson, Corrine Brown and Alcee Hastings have even cosponsored a bill calling for a no-deadline exit strategy from Afghanistan that could be fifty years from now.

And it’s not just the wars. It’s Obama’s cynical breaking of dozens of his campaign promises, from union card check, to don’t ask don’t tell, to transparency, to his continuation and institutionalization of most of the Bush-Cheney power grabs such as the state secrets privilege, rendition and the rejection of habeas corpus rights to the retention of dozens of Bush-Cheney appointees in the Pentagon, the CIA, the national security apparatus and the appointment of Republicans such as Tim Geithner.

It’s time to hold the Democratic Party accountable for this mayhem.