Join PDD to help create a better Democratic Party and a better Delaware
If you like reading and commenting on Delawareliberal, but want to do more to help bring about a more sane and progressive government dedicated to the ideals of fairness, freedom and tolerance that made this country great consider joining the Progressive Democrats for Delaware.
Progressive Democrats For Delaware meets on the first Wednesday of every month at 7 pm. Meetings are held at Delaware Democratic Headquarters.
I had occasion to post a few facts and a little history of about Progressive Democrats for Delaware (PDD) a little while back, but they bear repeating.
1) PDD grew out of the Delaware for Howard Dean Meetup. Once Howard Dean was defeated by Karl Rove, we decided a few things about keeping the group together and trying to have some small impact at a time when the President was collecting king-like powers for himself without a peep of protest issuing from the Democratic Party. Here are the main things we decided:
a. Progressive Democrats for Delaware is for Democrats. We are liberals, but we don’t want to join the Green Party. This rubs some people the wrong way, but our philosophical home is the Democratic Party. We think that the best way to get to the kind of government and society we deserve is by working through the Democratic Party. Hence our name.
b. We realize that the Democratic Party needs reforming and we are dedicated to reforming it from the inside. This really rubs some people the wrong way. By taking part in party politics we are less pure than some ivory tower liberals. We sully ourselves by dealing with unsavory characters like John Daniello and Tom Carper. We even endorsed (and some of us worked for) Dennis Spivack who won the Democratic Party’s primary soundly defeating the multi-party candidate Karen Hartley Nagle. That really really, rubbed some people the wrong way – because they thought Nagel was more liberal that Spivack. And why would a “progressive organization” endorse the less liberal person? (I don’t concede the point that Nagel is more liberal than Spivack, but see point a)
2) There is no 2. That is basically it. I think every thinking person who has lived through the Bush years decided at some point that they had to “do something.” For some, that something was moving to Canada. For a few, Bush’s reign of evil stupidity drove them to help Mike Castle by constantly beating up on Dennis Spivack. (I happen to regard that choice as misguided – but like I said it is a free country).
Anyway, for some others and me it was forming PDD. Do we still have a lot of work to do? Yes.
Are we a front organization for regressive elements in the Democratic Party who want to keep the party “republican lite”?
If you believe that form your own group.
It’s a free country.
We think that the best way to get to the kind of government and society we deserve is by working through the Democratic Party.
That is just dumb.
If you want a more liberal country you should break away from the Democratic party and form some inconsequential party of your own.
The American Laputa Party.
Most of my life I considered myself a Blue Dog Dem.In the ’70’s I was very active in the peace movement…At that timeI was advised to ‘go inside’ the Dem party and work for change.
I hung in there for 30 years; becoming a city committee woman. (I gather some posters aren’t even that old yet). My effort(s) had little or no impact on the local party…it’s corrupt to the very core (as I believe the state gang is too). After 20 yrs of service I resigned my committee seat last year…I can tell you no one gave me a certificate of appreciation for my service (all those hours knocking on doors, stuffing envelopes, etc.). In fact, no one even said ‘Thanks’.
At this point I consider the party and its elected ‘officials’ fair game…get the water balloons ready ’cause I’m gonna fire in ’08. Loud and clear…after all, I am no longer an ‘official of the party’…now I am a free agent.
The Nine Engines for the Best Democratic Party of all time:
I think instead of calling this the “New American Century,” we should call it “the Century of the Common Man, Woman and Child.” In our discussions about foreign policy, we should not be isolationist, but we should also not be perceived as or be an expansionist and aggressive power. We must recognize that to solve today’s problems foreign policy is a domestic problem. It is more in our interest to recognize that the real threat to our security does not come from outside the nation; it comes from inside the nation in the special interests that are ruining the nation and manipulating you.
The status quo of the military industrial complex and the development of “public private partnerships” promote a kind of militarism and fascism that is clearly un-constitutional, and in conjunction with that our monetary policy is similar to that of the Confederacy and not the US government under Lincoln. And, I add these policies were vigorously demolished during the Roosevelt administration.
We need a new American Revolution in these areas, and it is a revolution of the common person. One that unites us around the constitution and the enlightenment ideals it embodies. But one that extends them in the way that Roosevelt did to ensure the safety and liberty of the average man woman and child. These are called the nine engines of the new social compact.
To address the first engine, we need to close all of our foreign military bases and use the revenue we save from them to pay down the national debt and expand national health care and other domestic spending programs for more structurally sound bridges, morally unambiguous hospitals, strong schools, etc.
It should be noted our national honor does not come from who we can conquer, it comes from the life blood of the average person, it comes from the manufacturing base, and it comes from the development of civic and common responsibility.
It does not come from dangling the individual out in a market of gross inequality to make it alone.
Second, we need to stop all secretive governmental agencies from overthrowing democratically elected governments- even if we disagree with them- and reinvigorate the process of democratization at home. Education in civics and the constitutional republic should be expanded dramatically. We should take the stance of non-intervention in the foreign affairs of sovereign nations, and instead promote trade and development partnerships that focus on the poor and marginalized citizens of states we do not like. If you want to change a heart do not drop a bomb, build a home. Sell a tractor, give a man or woman a decent chance to live a humane life.
Nothing ever beats direct assistance with no strings attached to the least among us.
Going along with this, we must maintain defensive capability to protect our embassies and missions; but not to attack others unless they aggressively provoke us to do so.
Counter-terrorism is the business of imperial nations like Great Britain who create terrorists, under our constitution we are not meant to be imperialists in any way; we are simply not in that business. Our Constitution and Declaration of Independence are the most politically revolutionary doctrines that have existed.
Though it should be noted with sadness that we have been in that business, the business of imperialism, since the time FDR died. We need to seek justice and mediation, reconciliation with and assistance to other nations without the presumption that might makes right, instead by lending a helping hand to our brothers and sisters in need. We need to do this because it is in our long term interest, and not is not part of the adventurism and expediency of getting more oil to our shores in less time from regimes that are unquestionably funding terrorism like Saudi Arabia.
We need our Army, Coast Guard, Air Force and Navy in case things go wrong, as a defensive force only, and where our ambassadors or missions or citizens are threatened when they in other nations. We do not need to protect monopolists who exploit people and in fact we should break through those doors and give the average people of other nations other models of life and democracy to follow, like O’Higgins did in Chile and we ended in Salvador Allende because Kissinger needed to “make an example of him.” We must lead by moral example, not by the example of an iron and often right-wing fist; this has been the undoing of nations far older than our own and it leads to nothing but misery for the common person on both sides of these tragedies.
Also, this will get us no where except in more quagmires. If you want unending Vietnams, follow the Bush doctrine.
Such actions by the administration are not only Un-American, they are anti-American if we count the misery it has caused the average man, woman and child in this country. Not to mention shattering the hopes of the downtrodden around the world.
With regard to this, our embassies must be brought back to the old tradition, as old as Jefferson of providing safety and money to American citizens who are victims of crime or terrorism abroad- a practice that we now only extend to public officials but not to the average citizen.
Third, we do not need to go to war with third world countries and make more enemies where we could build bridges of friendship and mutual cooperation. We should take an aggressive anti-imperial stance, because we were once an imperial colony and know what it did to our citizens and because many Americans’ great-grandfathers fought to make all the slaves free of the same types of imperialism at home. We must continue to fight these same imperialists wherever we find them. Uproot them and discard them in the dust bin of history.
We do not want to export corporate or another kind of imperialism. We want to be friends with the world and I think that is the biggest single problem we face.
Fourth, we need to reinvigorate the defensive capability of the US through a renewed FEMA that protects and does not spy, through a renewed defensive posture that protects the homeland more and worries about our notion of “stability” when it only means keeping the Chiquita banana plantations that enslave people open, less. In fact- close those folks down. They do not represent us.
Instead anything that enslaves the human person be it a big business or a big government should be made to understand that this government is the revolutionary government barr none, it stands for the common person in every way- not just here but all around the world.
Fifth, we must move from a fiat currency to a real currency. This is perhaps the most difficult domestic move. But it is constitutional. It will liberate us from spiraling inflation and dramatic deflation of the economy. And provide stability to the national economic situation.
Sixth, we must expand civil rights domestically to include everyone so we have the moral authority to speak on civil rights abroad. Tasering free speech at home is not the way to win friends and influence policy. Police state tactics will win us a revolution and you will find yourself in the middle of it. Having Gitmo or secret prisons open is an affront to the idea of a democratic government.
Seventh, we must follow up on Roosevelt’s ideal to end colonialism of all types, and create both economic and social democracy; socialism even when it is needed- as these were aggressively pursued during the 30’s and 40’s and used to confront every single problem from the depression to the war with outstanding success. And they worked so well and the leaders were so honest about it that it saved for us a liberal, but not the current neo-liberal, economic system.
Eighth, we need to look and re-learn the value of a John Kenneth Galbraith, and remove the regressive income tax. Taxes must not be abolished, but must be modified to reflect that the rich pay their fair share and the poor get a fair share. If you were elected president I would hope in this tradition you would say like Epaminondas the 4th century Greek leader of Thebes, “I would rather serve my citizens than take their money, so will accept no pay for leading them to the glory they deserve.” A reduction in pay for all legislators would be a good way to start.
That way money does not become the driving force behind the idealism, idealism becomes the driving force that moves the nation.
This is an important tool to win the people’s respect and vote, and is even more important when they are suffering.
Ninth, end the ideal of corporate government once and for all. The government represents the common good. Private industry represents private interests. There is a gulf between them that cannot be reconciled. And it follows that recognition of this fact and that monopolies are behind much of our aggressive war policy, that you need to address. Break the monopolies and restore private local industry.
Where Monopolies are based on private interference in the common good to the detriment on the common person they must cease to exist.
Finally, we must reinvigorate and appeal to the Constitution that protects the rights of all before the law, no minority population should be exploited as the illegal immigrants, the new slave class, of this nation are. We must build hope, not instill fear in all peoples from all walks of life. While encouraging a reconstruction of the Northern Hemisphere through public works.
In Delaware, we were the first state to ratify the Constitution, not because we could, or because Cesear Rodney had an especially fast horse, but because we believe in our hearts what it stands for, and its ideals and their proper recognition and promotion.
To do this, we need to take every single program and policy that have come into existence under George W. Bush and dismantle them. Get rid of them once and for all; they do not reflect the interest of our state or our nation. In their place, I would suggest we replace them with democratic institutions that can inspire the rest of the world, not subjugate it to our interest. If we side with the common man, our interest is the common interest. This was Roosevelt’s vision.
Thank you for taking the time to listen to these ideas, I think they will finally save this republic from itself and its course toward what I believe is a form of corporate totalism; and end with the sad note that the current course is clearly unacceptable for the majority, it serves the interests of an elite minority who talk as if they own you as a commodity and own me as worker.
This immoral stance must be of concern to this government and to all of our people. We must stay strong to make this government new, provide a new type of Roosevelt and Lincoln-esque leadership that will take real courage and resolve.
I encourage you to study both of these men’s works and ideas first hand as you travel across our country, and work in our Senate, study Bayard, study our own leaders, study Rodney’s idealism, and study their speeches, study the speeches of Henry Wallace, or Roosevelt, of Lincoln, these men liberated this country and provided it with a sound and firm direction. I think we can do the same today- and if you cannot do it on a national level, we can do it from this tiny state and can produce, extend and preserve the democracy we cherish while enhancing the social life of its common people; that is the democracy of the common man, not the democracy of the elite.
And between them there is little room for compromise and much need of reconciliation
There are so many things wrong with the above post I am going to have to take tomorrow OFF just to correct all of it.
Earth to Brian….”Snap out of it!”
Hi Chris, It is funny you should think so as this was the ideology of Franklin Roosevelt and his VP Herny Wallace. I would be happy to provide you primary documents off-line if you would be interested.
I think I need to take a pill just to read all that dreck. Anyone have the annotated version? Cliffs’ Notes?
So restoring and protecting the Constitution is “dreck.” LOL.
“So restoring and protecting the Constitution is “dreck.” LOL.”
That was not what I read in that dreck. Half the stuff in that mess could be straight out of Marx’s book.
It is not restoring the Constitution just because liberals say it is.
Lol- I am glad you think so becuase Marx is the wrong answer, his form of totalism is terrible- these words come directly out of the mouth of FDR and Henry Wallace with the names changed to refect modern circumstances and are based on Adam Smith’s distinction between capitalism and merchantilism and John M. Keynes (and his student John Kenneth Galbraith’s) social reconstruction policy during the Depression ala 1940. If you want to call my wiritng a dreck, it is ok, but I am only repeating their words so I think it is more apropriate that you should call thier work the drecks; and after you do that read your history books, and ask yourself do you want more waste, corruption, instability, and lack of rule of law? Or do you want to see FDR’s vision fulfilled? Your cynical and rude posts without substance and with name calling confirm for me how much vision or understanding of history you have, but aside from that, you miss the point, the point is that the constituion is the final arbiter of law and that policy should be directed toward the common good. I guess in modern terms you could call all of what Roosevelt did a Dreck, along with Acheson, Bayard, Rodney etc.
Lol- Wrong answer. Not Marx- Adam Smith in the distinction between capitalism and merchantilism. And the words come directly from FDR, Wallace, Bayard and Rodney. I guess you are saying their work was the real dreck.