Sending The Democrats A Message... Again-- Let's Hope They Hear It This Time Around

... and those stupid Blue Dogs believe it

Yesterday I spent my day on two unrelated organizing calls with groups of progressives Inside the Beltway. (I was on the phone from DWT world headquarters... tweeting.) Each group had well-meaning presentations about how to elect Democrats in 2012. And each time I reacted by pointing out that it's time to stop thinking about "Democrats" as our friends. Yes, Republicans are the sworn enemies of American working families and lackeys for selfish, avaricious corporate managers. Yes, Republicans are almost always worse. And, yes, we have to work with Democrats to push forward a family-friendly progressive agenda. But electing whatever monstrosity shows up in a blue t-shirt is what the DCCC does, not what progressives should be doing. If resources were unlimited, a strategic case could be made for helping elect Blue Dogs and other conservative Democrats. But resources aren't unlimited and it is far more important to focus them on candidates who believe in a progressive agenda or, next in line, candidates who can be persuaded to support a progressive agenda than on candidates who support conservative and corporate agendas.

It's depressing enough for progressive donors to make contributions to outfits like the DCCC and then see them spending the bulk of their money on consultants who are working for Democrats who vote more frequently, at least on contentious issues, with John Boehner than with Nancy Pelosi. When the Republican-controlled House voted to pass Mike Pence's amendment to defund Planned Parenthood, it wasn't a strict party-line vote. The toxic amendment passed 240-185, with 7 Republicans voting with the Democrats (Bass, Judy Biggert, Mary Bono Mack, Charlie Dent, Robert Dold, Rodney Frelinghuysen, Richard Hanna) and 10 Democratic anti-choice fanatics-- most of that breed were defeated in November-- crossing the aisle in the other direction to vote with Pence and Boehner. Who were they? Mostly the usual suspects:

Dan Boren (Blue Dog-OK)
Jerry Costello (IL)
Joe Donnelly (Blue Dog-IN)
Dan Lipinski (IL)
Mike McIntyre (Blue Dog-NC)
Collin Peterson (Blue Dog-MN)
Nick Rahall (WV)
Silvestre Reyes (TX)
Mike Ross (Blue Dog-AR)
Heath Shuler (Blue Dog-NC)

And see that last name on the list-- Rahm's greatest hit? Heath Shuler, heavily financed by the worst Republican type corporate interests is out, with the cooperation of DCCC Chair (and "ex"-Blue Dog) Steve Israel, recruiting conservatives and fellow anti-choice, antigay fanatics just like himself, to run in primaries against progressives, populists and grassroots Democrats.

Blue Dogs aren’t going to leave recruiting and fundraising for 2012 up to the Minority Leader.

“We’re the ones who are going to have to go and recruit,” said Shuler, who unsuccessfully challenged Pelosi for Minority Leader last year and secured 11 votes against her on the floor during last week’s Speaker vote. “A big part of what we do is to help build our coalition.”

[Jim] Matheson said the Blue Dog PAC will be more robust in the 2012 cycle, focusing more heavily than before on recruitment and support of Blue Dog candidates across the country.

Blue America would like to ask your help to send a message to Democrats, the only kind of message Inside the Beltway power figures understand. Please check out the page and see if it's something you want to be a part of. (We even have our first candidate up for the new year.)

Amy Dean is an author and union activist on behalf of social change. You can probably imagine that she hasn't been happy about Scott Walker's jihad against public sector unions.

The actions of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and other elected leaders who are following his lead speak to a striking failure of leadership: We live in an economy that has undergone massive transformations over the past several decades. Yet, instead of reckoning with the impact of these changes and understanding state-level budget troubles in light of a larger economic crisis, many of our elected officials want us to believe that states are facing difficulties for a simple reason-- because of greedy public employees.
 
This notion is absolutely ridiculous. If we are going to come to terms with what is happening in Wisconsin and other states where governors are launching attacks on working people disguised as efforts to deal with budget issues, we must look at a wider picture. While the particulars of each individual battle are important, in the end this is not about one state. It is about confronting the disturbing tendency among our lawmakers to seek scapegoats rather than real solutions to our nation's most central problems. 
 
Any analysis of our common economic situation that blames middle class public employees for states' woes-- and that sees eliminating their rights as a viable solution-- overlooks a straightforward and challenging reality. We have an economy that, in the last thirty years, has gone through some of the most fundamental macroeconomic change we have seen since the transition from the agrarian economy into an industrial economy. We are now in a post-industrial economy, where the rules of competition have changed. Our goods and services are no longer insulated by national boundaries or protected by restrictive trade rules.
 
Yet while the working world has been turned on its head as a result of this massive macroeconomic shift, our social institutions-- our government, our labor laws, our educational systems-- have not changed to catch up. Perhaps most significantly for the states, our tax and fiscal policy have not been updated for decades.
 
Nobody disputes that we have massive rising deficits and budget challenges that need to be addressed. But blaming the people who provide health care, education, and vital public services is not the way out of these problems. Instead, we must hold our leaders to a higher standard and demand from them a substantive response to a changed economic reality.
 
Specifically, rejecting the politics of scapegoating and moving towards real solutions involves three things:

Reform our tax and fiscal structures

Higher expectations of our elected leaders

Build for the future

She does into great depth about each solution at Huffington Post and I recommend reading it. But I want to point out, again, that the enemy of working families isn't just Republicans; it's conservatives and reactionaries. Most of them are Republicans but in the hope of building a Big Tent to encompass everyone, the Democrats have muddied the water to the point where voters don't even know what they stand for-- if they stand for anything. Amy's call, for example, for higher expectations of our elected leaders certainly has as much to do with Democrats as it does with Republicans. Which has a lot to do with why we re-launched the Sending Democrats A Message page and why we picked our first candidate. Hint: she's a proven fighter for the progressive agenda and her opponent is a Democratic Machine hack backed by all the worst elements inside the Democratic Establishment.