Sound Off: Beltway Dems Whining Again

This Daily Kos diary, "Beltway Dem Insiders Whine, 'Dean Stole our Golden Goose!'," says it for me. Enough already with the cheapshots from the likes of Bill Richardson, James Carville, Nancy Pelosi, John Edwards and Joe Biden, Dems apparently most concerned with building or retaining their own clout. We're back to the fight between personal kingdoms and what's good for the Party, and if the Party expects to recoup any of its losses in 06 and 08, they'd better start telling their elected officials to start putting the Party first.

Governor Richardson , while admitting that Dean is doing a good job as DNC Chair, stated that Dean is not the Party's spokesperson. Once-liberal House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said the same thing. I guess they and certain other Dems are afraid that Dean might actually be "mistaken" by rank and file Democrats as their spokesperson, given how he has a spine and the nerve to call out the Republicans without hemming and hawing.

To me, their responses underline how the complainers have mustered only weak defenses, if any, on behalf of our core values. Of course, if Dean is getting all the media coverage, it's tempting to get some for yourself by criticizing him and asserting that you are the "real" spokesperson for the Party. If the Party gets hurt in the crossfire, so be it. What are they so afraid of? Isn't the opposition party supposed to operate in opposition to the party in power, especially when the Repubs are lying, abusing power and worse?

So Dean said the Republican Party is composed mostly of white Christians these days. That's a fact, and it's been truer with each passing year since Civil Rights legislation was passed in the 60s and Nixon's Southern Strategy kicked in. So he said the Repubs don't seem to care about minority voters having to wait in line for 8 hours to vote because many of them haven't worked a day in their lives. Seems obvious to me. A large and powerful sector of the Republican Party is made up of the investor class.

These statements are controversial? By acting like they are, certain Dems are playing right into the hands of the infomercial media and the global corporate cabal that gains from a focus on non-issues like this. Good job. Meanwhile, Dem voters like us have been called unpatriotic, elitist, self-centered, anti-American, sinners and worse by the Republican spokesmonkies. Oh, how they must laugh when they see certain Dems kneejerk to apologize the minute Dean or anyone else uses red-meat rhetoric nowhere near as insulting as theirs.

Even if these Dems believe our rhetoric should be more dainty, it would be easy to use these opportunities to drive home the Dem message instead of being apologetic and distancing. They could say that it's true that radical fundamentalist Christians have taken over the Repub Party's levers of power and are working to obliterate the separation of church and state that's been honored by traditional religions since America was created. They could say that the Republican Party, with its elitist tax cuts, refusal to raise the minimum wage from 1997 levels and ongoing attempts to privatize social security is obviously serving our richest citizens to the detriment of working people nationwide.

We also keep reading leaked and often unsourced quotes about how Dean is failing in the fundraising department. And yet, he's raised more at this juncture than any DNC Chair in history:

Despite the polemics that were sure to follow Dean's assuming the role of party chairman, his primary duty is to raise money. Though the Republican National Committee has raised money at a rate of 2-to-1 on Democrats in the first quarter of 2005, Dean himself has been effective. In the first four months, under Dean's stewardship, the DNC has raised nearly $19 million -- more than under any other Democratic chairman in an off-election year.

I know that as progressives, we take alot of heat when we criticize Dem elected officials, leadership or the Party itself. We are accused of being devisive and damaging. Yet when the likes of Carville and other insiders repeatedly, and often inaccurately, whine about Dean and publicly or privately undercut what he's trying to do as DNC Chair, we're supposed to see this as a positive?

I'm sure this battle between the base and the fatcats will continue. Between the business-as-usual insiders and the bottom-up-strategy grassroots. Between those who think gold cufflinks and big spender contacts are IT and those who believe Party-wide reach-out to the base, boldness, passion, accountability and transparency are what's missing. Which side thinks more about holding onto personal clout and that of its monied clients and contributors than strengthening the Party of the People? You know the answer. Follow the limousines. Or the shiny new, state purchased private jets.

Shouldn't all these Dem apologists, most of whom strongly opposed Dean for DNC Chair, be speaking instead about this? Read it and weep over at Make Them Accountable. One more thing, Dean may not speak for Biden or Richardson, but he speaks for ME.

Barbara Wold