The real Democratic Party (with a nod to gjohnsit)

The Democratic Party symbol or logo should be the Montgolfier Balloon. It is an archaic contrivance dependent upon hot air to rise. What we think it is and what we think we know of it is largely myth, and the insiders, elites, and powers that be not only promulgate some myths themselves, but possibly even believe some of them.

Let's start -- the "party of the people", the liberal, or progressive party. Heh. Snapshots follow, form your own thesis.

OK, FDR managed to convince his peers that they needed to throw the poor, downtrodden, and unemployed a bone or two or else they would face torches and pitchforks. His "reforms" helped the little people. He also instituted some reforms to help protect the investor class from the more unscrupulous among themselves. Lastly, he helped Fiorello La Guardia permanently cripple Tammany Hall.

Tammany Hall, corrupt as it was, actually helped New York's poor. It was also a leveller to a degree.

Although its name was synonymous with corruption to many, Tammany Hall's popularity and endurance resulted from its willingness to help the city's poor and immigrant populations. Irish immigrants forced Tammany Hall to admit them as members in 1817, and the Irish thereafter never lost their tie with it. Because in the 1820s Tammany successfully fought to extend the franchise to all propertyless white males, it was popular with the working class.

-- http://www.history.com/topics/tammany-hall

Harry S. Truman vetoed the Taft-Hartley Act, but one it was passed via veto override, he used it against labor 12 times.

The Taft-Hartley Act was a hugely successful attempt to cripple if not destroy labor unions, referred to by labor as "the slave labor bill". It passed with a great amount of Democratic support including almost half (20) of the Democratic Senators and nearly 60% (106) of the House Democrats. Since its passage, the Democrats have several times had sufficient control of Congress and the Presidency to repeal or at least revise it and have never even tried to do so. They also made no effort whatsoever to pass EFCA under Obama, even though they had campaigned on passing it

LBJ passed the Civil Rights Act, started the war on poverty and did a lot for the people, all of the people. He is reputed to have said "We have lost the south for a generation" upon signing the Civil Rights Act. Many dispute he said this, but he was experienced and astute enough to have known it and to have thought it. History also bore him out. Of course, his tenure occurred during a time of unrest; strikes, sit-ins, protests and marches were common. There was the civil rights movement, the peace and/or anti-war movement, the student movement, the black-power movement and the like. His Presidency was marked by people marching in the streets and blockading buildings, so that one might well wonder if he, like FDR, feared a serious popular revolt, especially after Dr. King started attacking the Viet Nam war.

Hubert Humphry lost. Despite what LBJ said, the Democratic Party's preferred myth is to blame that loss on the left, the student radicals, the hippies, peaceniks, everyday liberals and the like. They prefer to ignore the party split-up, with the southern Democrats forming the Dixiecrat party and running Governor Wallace for President. They prefer to pretend that the Democratic party was not the party of Southern Racism up until this moment, but the simple fact is that it was. It isn't like there was a complete lack of racism in the north either, for what it is worth. They were then, as now, first and foremost the party of winning elections. They were not primarily nor even secondarily, the "party of the people".

The DLC. What aspires to be to the right of Reagan & Thatcher on economic and foreign policy while attempting to at least appear to Reagan's left on social issues? The Democratic Leadership Council. One can burrow back into their origins, pronouncements and proposals. One can also look at what they did and tried to do. Two of their shining stars, recognized by them as such were Bill and Hillary Clinton. Not *just* Bill as current party faithful will insist, but both of them, individually as well as a team. And what were they for? De-Regulation. Curtailing welfare and eliminating AFDC. Mass incarceration, over-policing, harsher sentences, etc. Freeing the Banks and the rest of the financial community to do as they pleased. Fostering consolidation of ownership across all media. Privatising and outsourcing government. Downsizing government. Globalization. Does any of that shit sound like something that would be done by the party of the people? Is any of it arguably liberal or progressive? With the advent of the DLC aka New Democrats aka Third Way, the Democratic Party became openly neo-liberal and neoconservative.

There came a time when the newly freed financial industry began hiring people to sell debt. Mortage brokers would con people into buying property they really couldn't afford or qualify for under normal standards by assuring them that they could refinance at greatly favorable terms in a few years after the value had skyrocketed. These bullshit loans were bundled and upstreamed by the original financial institutions, obviating the need for them to do any due diligence. They were fractionalized and securitized, floated far and wide and gambled on both in and of themselves and also by gambling on insurance contracts covering possible defaults. The chain of title was as often as not fraudulent and unenforceable to the final holders when the scheme blew up.

The Democrats, of course, decided that they had to make the banks whole, though the population didn't entirely agree. One way to do if would be to front the borrowers enough to pay the banks off, especially with threats of having the worst case ones simply voided. However, the chosen option was simply to front the banks the dough, depriving people of their houses and and the moiney they had already sunk into them. It was explained that any other solution might unduly benefit some borrowers who had tried to game the system, ignoring the fact that fronting the banks was guaranteed to unduly benefit people who had successfully (and criminally) gamed the system.

Let's not even talk about war, imperialism, regime change, targeted (political) assassinations, and all that.

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I'm about to get on a plane and do the family thang for a week, so I probably won't be on C99P much.
C U later

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"the era of big government is over"

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enhydra lutris's picture

either have no memories, or have only been cognizant and aware for about 4 or 5 years, if that. The whole of Democratic Party hyperpartisanship seems to be based on the idea that all of the Democratic bigwigs fell out of the sky sometime in early 2016 and have no history.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Shahryar's picture

It was the racist party from the mid-1800s. When Kennedy and then Johnson stood up for civil rights I bet the racists moaned that it wasn't the real Democratic Party anymore. Most of us grew up when the Dems had a conscience so that's what we think the Dem Party is.

It's not, obviously. It's just what we see. And if we're not corporatists then we're not Democrats. We might resemble Democrats, as we remember them, from the 60s, but that's not what a Democrat is today.

However, just like some people think NPR is liberal because it used to be, and some people think dKos is liberal

because it used to be anti-war

, it takes a long time for the majority of people to catch on.

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Hillbilly Dem's picture

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"Just call me Hillbilly Dem(exit)."
-H/T to Wavey Davey

enhydra lutris's picture

, it takes a long time for the majority of people to catch on.

.

As to "used to be anti-war" - that was during the Bush years, and somewhat dividedly even then. When Kos created groups, I founded "Group W" intended to be a collection and focal point for anti-war authors and their writings. It pretty much languished on the vine from lack of interest and lack of anti-war sentiment. I had some plans to try to reinvigorate it once Hillary won, but now, mit der Drumpf, I think I'll watch a bit and see if there is anybody there interested in trying to resurrect the anti-war movement before getting involved.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

shaharazade's picture

should think about starting you Group W here on c99%. I do believe that the people at dkos will just double down and follow the lead of the New Demorat's that own and run the party. The Third Way globalizing endless bloody warriors seem entrenched in the Paty's 'leadership' including Bernie. We are still growing and many of us are anti-war. The Russian baiting will continue from the Dems. along with pushing 'national security' hardliner propaganda both here in der Homeland and wherever our master's 'interest's are threatened.

When the dust settles from this insane election I think people of good spirit are going to take to outside resistance to the by-partisan war criminals and their mad bloody war on terra for power and profit. I would love to see more issue related essays or groups here. I'm sick of the politics of persona and identity being pushed as socially liberal. Nothing will change even economically until the raging global killing stops. same with our rights civil and human we lost them due to declaring war on everyone who resists the agenda of both sides which offer no difference in so called 'foreign policy'.

Just a suggestion as as we grow which we will, there will be interested readers here who see the connections between the endless wars, economic injustice, human rights abuse and the environment. Providing a place for writers who are anti-war without the usual acquiescence and rationalization of the Democratic war madness. No justice, No Peace.

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enhydra lutris's picture

because I thought they needed it. Here I suspect that I'd be preaching to the choir, but it still could be a good thing.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Give em a chance, they are the least bad [or so I'm told]

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riverlover's picture

But I worried about daytime bats and raccoons. And there was no reason to dispatch them. I have had on occasion in the summers, a skunk odor at night, decreasing with time. I assumed that was a not-rabid and just leaky anal sacs. And I have had skunked dogs before. Bad news. Pink samoyed from tomato products did not reduce odor, just made her pink. I keep all components of The Recipe around all the time. Better than Skunk-Off.

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Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

riverlover's picture

So my husband would make me deal with dead things. Or bats. I should demand titer-testing.

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Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

enhydra lutris's picture

I had two of them come up marginal when they weren't but simply were misunderstood.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

a pack of five wild dogs. It was no fun. We were deep in the mountains. My dog was a bullmastiff so short work was made of the ambushing dogs but the animal control officer and I never found the fifth dog and I asked him to approve my getting the shots & he said that was a good idea.

Don't want to go through that again.

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"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"

enhydra lutris's picture

with wild mammals including bats, raccoons, skunks and opossums back in my days at a wildlife center. It was a 3 shot series and doesn't grant immunity, but gives you a leg up on the others, and increases the time you can safely go between exposure and the shots.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

riverlover's picture

We had animal blood palsma/serum samples come in to test for FIV infection. Some wild (think Florida Panthers). And many zoo cats, some collected from the wild. And yes, I know there would still be a followup series post-exposure. Probably shorter than those naive to the antigens.

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Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

officer said he'd been immunized after he was hired. I bet he got the series that you did.

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"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"

Amanda Matthews's picture

that the tomato juice thing works because when he was low man on the totem pole, he had to climb under the porches or go into the garages for trapped skunks/racoons/possums/whatever. He never made it past the day that they had to removed about 50 cats (he swears on that number to this day) from a house that an old woman had died in. Since some had started to feed off the body, they all had to be destroyed.

That is how I see the 'New' Democratic Party and the neo-libs. They've been feeding off other people's hardships, trouble-filled lives, and very often deaths (i.e. Libya, Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Honduras) for so long that they need to be 'put to sleep' themselves. They have become political 'rabid' animals who have been feeding on the American public for far too many years now. The Clintons and Obama are the end product of all the greed and corruption.

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I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

polkageist's picture

What terrible metaphor to use for the New Democrats, neo-libs, and the Clinton Crime Family. Accurate though.

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-Greed is not a virtue.
-Socialism: the radical idea of sharing.
-Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
John F. Kennedy, In a speech at the White House, 1962

ggersh's picture

the D's let the R's off for war crimes
and the R's let off the D's for corruption

it's a pretty good gig for 546 perps in DC.

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I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

Right now the democrats are wailing so hard they are waking the angels. And it feels good to be united against Trump and the republicans. Street protest "spontaneously" erupted in over 25 cities protesting the election of a republican over another republican. There is a kind of unity among the Clinton democrats (are there any other anymore?) Most anti-Trump organizations and people will probably rally around the democrats. And they once again will use the language of phony liberalism to feel the pain of somebody.

But what happens when Trump starts up his corporatist agenda after the inauguration? Pelosi and Schumer will bluster and huff but in the end, any pro-corporatist policy will be enacted with the help of dems. And then the same rituals as before. Progressives will complain and then the democratic party elites will hippie punch them and accuse them of not understanding the realities of politics, blah blah blah. We will once again see that the dems are an opposition party in rhetoric only. And in 2018 midterms dems will bring out the lessor of two evil arguments for corporate lawmakers and how important it is to retake one house of congress...

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