No One Wants To Admit There Are Bad Democrats... Democrats JUST AS BAD As Republicans

"Lesser of two evils" doesn't always apply. Sometimes the evils are so bad there is no "lesser." Washington has come to that. The system is so rotten now that both party establishments are thoroughly detestable. The Democrats, as a party-- largely because of a sizable contingent of honest, crusading progressives-- are better around the edges. And those edges can be quite important in peoples' lives. For as much as the Democrats still see themselves as a political party that stands up for ordinary working families and as a party that values the role of government's ability to keep the Law of the Jungle at bay, the Democrats, as a party, are better than the Republicans, a true force for evil, a hopeless political party long captured by satanic forces and committed to a counterrevolution seeking to undo every bit of progress that has been accomplished since the Enlightenment. But... aside from that... let's put it like this. Take the Republican House leaders-- John Boehner, Eric Cantor, Kevin McCarthy, Jeb Hensarling, Tom Price, Pete Sessions-- and take the Democratic House leadership (leaving out Pelosi for a minute, since she's just a very short time from retirement)-- Steny Hoyer, Jim Clyburn, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Steve Israel, Joseph Crowley-- and there is no way you can point to one over the other and say one is truly the lesser evil than the other.

Yesterday we talked about an opinion going around the OWS movement about the futility of electoral politics. The alternative, unfortunately, is much worse. So finding Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Democrats to run for office-- finding men and women who will stand up to both corrupt party establishments-- becomes the crucial task. It's the primary job of Blue America and we like to think our candidates will stay true to their school when they get to Washington. It's not an easy task. But sometimes you just know who will and who won't. Norman Solomon is one who will, which is why so many progressives believe his primary June 5 for a safe blue district in northern California is the single most important race in the country.

Norman has a long and very public record as an activist and as an author. Where he stands is an open book. But does he have what it takes to resist the temptations once he gets to the den of iniquity that is Washington? Yesterday he wrote a leter to his supporters about the latest Wall Street scandal at JPMorganChase and went out of his way to blame both political parties. And he wasn't nuanced.

One of the huge banks we bailed out a few years ago, JPMorgan Chase, has admitted to a $2 billion trading loss -- growing out of the kind of speculation that crashed the global economy in 2008.

Have we learned nothing? Have we fixed nothing?

When Wall Street gambles, Main Street loses. Yet our federal government keeps subsidizing Wall Street’s gambling ways.

I want to go to Washington to say “NO!” to the coziness that rips off taxpayers. I want to be your independent watchdog.

...I’ll be blunt: Both Republican and Democratic leaders are to blame. The head of JPMorgan Chase-- whose pay package last year was $23 million-- is Jamie Dimon, a Democrat with close ties to party leaders. He is a major foe of Wall Street reform.  

In 1999, it was a Democratic White House working with a Republican Congress that pushed to end the successful Glass-Steagall Act, which for 65 years had set up a firewall separating commercial banks from speculative Wall Street investment banks. Heralded as a shining example of "bipartisanship" at the time, it facilitated mergers that created too-big-to-fail banking institutions and ultimately led to the 2008 crash, from which we are still trying to recover. Was that type of bipartisanship worth the layoffs, foreclosures and budget deficits now hobbling our economy? Of course not.

I’ll be blunt again: Electing business-as-usual Democrats to Congress will not fix Washington/Wall Street cronyism.

...I refuse to take any corporate PAC or lobbyist money-- not one penny. I'll never compromise my ability to speak out for you. I’ll speak out against corruption no matter which party inhabits the White House or runs Congress.

In Washington, I’ll look out for the interests of the 99% -- the middle class, the poor, the small businessperson, even the local banks that don’t have the government advantages of the JP Morgans.

As for a Wall Streeter like Jamie Dimon and his $23 million in a year pay package, he doesn’t need my representation. He has all too many members of both parties doing his bidding.

With your support, I'll fight for everyone who doesn't have a lobbyist. I'll fight for you.

That's what an ideal candidate sounds like. Will be get bought off by Steny Hoyer and Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Steve Israel? I doubt they'll even dare try. We need Norman Solomon is Congress. America needs Norman Solomon in Congress. If you can give him support, now's the time. His primary against a pack of business-as-usual Democratic careerists is in 3 weeks. He's on the Blue America page. It scares us that most other progressive groups haven't recognized this race for what it really is, really scares me. Today, 20 or so progressive activists joined me signing this public letter from PDA. I was proud to be a signatory along with lifelong fighters for the cause of the 99% like Noam Chomsky, Tim Carpenter, Phyllis Bennis, Phil Donahue, Medea Benjamin, David Swanson, Sarah Anderson, Mimi Kennedy, Bob Fertik, Andrea Miller, Leslie Cagan, Bill Fletcher, Jr., Jodie Evans, Sam Husseini, Danny Goldberg, Michael Eisenscher, David Segal, Karen Dolan, Daniel Ellsberg, Thom Hartmann, Tom Morello, and Carolyn Eisenberg. I doubt there's another candidate for the House who could ever get that kind of principled support behind their race, even if they can rounup some compromised labor leaders or some progressive operatives in DC. And the letter every one of them signed for Norman? The heart of it:

This open letter will be straight to the point-- if you opposed the Bush/Cheney invasion of Iraq-- if you knew Bush and Blair were lying about the Downing Street Memo-- if you wanted (and still want) Guantanamo shut down-- if you oppose the "secret" drone wars-- if you opposed the Obama "surge" in Afghanistan-- then there is one anti-war candidate running for Congress this year who stands head and shoulders above everyone else-- Norman Solomon.

In fact, if you have demonstrated against any of the undeclared, unconstitutional wars that the U.S. has waged over the last 40 years, from Vietnam to El Salvador to Iraq, Norman Solomon was right there with you. He marched; he was arrested for nonviolent protest; he wrote and spoke out; he organized high-profile peace missions to Iraq and Afghanistan; he led the fight for "Healthcare, Not Warfare!"

And since next year's Congress will be missing two of our most dedicated peace leaders, Dennis Kucinich and Lynn Woolsey, we need Norman Solomon elected to stand up for us, no matter where we live.
We know Norman. We've worked with him against illegal wars for 4 decades now. And we can state for a fact that there is no pro-peace candidate running for an open seat in Congress this year who is more deserving of the votes, the donations, or the volunteer help of anti-war activists all across the country.

...Norman Solomon has spent his life opposing wars and standing up for peace. He's earned our support. The question for the peace movement is-- will we come through for him?