Late to the party, as usual, I’ve become a major Sam Smith fan in a single visit.
If you’re one of those folks who think Edwards’s $400 haircut matters, but Clinton’s $1200 makeover doesn’t, you shouldn’t read this post.
One of the delusions of elite liberals is that that they lack prejudice. To be sure, they treat black[s], women and gays far better than once was the case. But if you are poor, uneducated, own a gun, weigh a lot, come from the South or mainly read the Bible it is another matter. Class and culture have replaced the genetic as acceptable targets.[…]
For many years, as the Democratic establishment has become wealthier, the traditional Democratic base has been steadily pushed away as too dumb, too prejudiced, or otherwise too unworthy of the party. It wasn’t that abortion, gays and family values were intrinsically so important. But if your campaign contributors won’t let you talk or do anything about pensions, healthcare, outsourcing or usurious interest rates, the door opened wide for the rightwing hypocrites.
Which is how the Democrats lost the middle class, as Tom Edsall explains in Building Red America. Following the DLC model, the party has concentrated on issues that are mainly important to the party elite, who are generally well fed and educated, leaving behind the issues of concern to the vast majority of those on whom they depend for votes. Like the country-club Republicans who cozied up to the right-wing Christians every fourth November and ignored them the rest of the time, the Democratic power brokers talked a good game but did nothing to help the people who need jobs, health care, child care, and transportation in order to have a shot at the American dream. All of which we as the richest country in the history of the world could easily provide, except that doing so would produce more competitors for the top rungs of the ladder, which is exactly the opposite of the goal of both parties. Used to be different for the Democrats, back in the FDR days, which is why Democrats controlled Congress for decades. What the country wants hasn’t changed; but the Democratic party is now controlled by people who don’t give a damn what the country wants, as evidenced by the current wimp-ass Democratic Congress on too many issues to list here and now.
So along comes a wealthy southern white male lawyer and tries to change things back to the way Democrats used to do it. And what happens? Yes, those with power move to keep him in the background. Yes, from the start the establishment media gave him as little coverage as possible.But more significant was the reaction of average members of the liberal — really post-liberal — establishment. Ridicule and disgust combined with a stunning disinterest in Edwards’ issues that told much about the Democratic Party today.
Not only was this elite bored with Edwards’ program, it made clear that the candidate didn’t look or talk right, was too wealthy to say such things, and, when you come right down to it, wasn’t one of us.
[…]
Edwards’ problem was that he made the smug set of American liberalism extremely uncomfortable. He showed them what they should really be thinking about and what they might do about it. And they didn’t like it. Far better to relax in the self-righteousness of choosing between a Harvard Law School black and a Yale Law School woman.
And so, once again, the Democratic Party drifts further away from what once made it worth bragging about.
And if you cherish the notion that the sainted Al Gore (who did nothing while in office to advance the cause he now champions so well) would have saved us all had Ralph Nader not been so egotistical, you also shouldn’t (and I dare say won’t) read this one.
We are left with corporatized, conservative compromisers who add mightily to the argument that the Democratic Party should be forced to change its name to end the consumer fraud it purveys.So what do we do about it? Some will stay home on election day, others will support a Nader or a Green, likely Cynthia McKinney. The Democrats will be, as usual, furious that a certain number of voters still believe we live in a democracy and choose someone other than those assigned to them by the DNC. While Ralph Nader may make what seems to some the wrong political decision, it is a sign of the corrupt, cynical nature of our times to look into the face of moral integrity and dismiss it as an act of ego.
Even from a tactical standpoint, it is no worse than a Democratic Party that has known for eight years that it was unraveling and failed to do anything for progressives and Greens except to insult them. These folks deserve to be treated at least as well [as] soccer moms or hedge fund traders, but instead they are ridiculed and scolded and then the party wonders why they don’t get their vote.
Actually I think the party understands why it loses so many voters, but it has replaced caring about them with the brilliant strategy of doing and saying nothing, thus managing to appear slightly less repulsive than the opposition.
(Hat tip to Democracy Lover for the pointer to Sam.)
