Progressives, it's time to stop the cycle of abuse...


       Yes, I did choose a picture depicting an abusive relationship to represent the relationship between the Progressive movement and the Democratic party. And no, I by no means use this image to make a parody of the very real issue that domestic violence is. But I realized some time ago that this is the perfect analogy for the relationship the Progressive movement has with the Democratic party. And just like so many very real abusive marriages, this one also needs to end.

       The history of the Democratic party is one that would often make you wonder how we ever got to the situation we are in. The Democratic party used to be the party of small government and the party that was pro slavery. Democratic President Andrew Jackson ordered the "Trail of tears", a forced relocation of Native Americans in the name of manifest destiny. The Republicans of that time period ironically were the advocates for bigger government, opposed slavery, etc.

Sometime after the civil war when a lot of new western states were added to the union, there was kind of a dramatic swap of positions. And long story short the Democratic party changed it's platform drastically to try and get the votes of the poor farmers of the west. In my analogy this could be the young woman who came from a poor family who was courted by a wealthy man who promised to give her happiness and lift her out of poverty.

       There are a few other historical points to make. One would be that a lot of socialist ideas also came to the Democratic party in an effort to try and coax votes from the various incarnations of the Socialist party throughout our history. Over the course of the history of the United States there have been many political parties that are no longer talked about that represented workers, the poor, etc. And a similar marriage happened. With similar unfortunate results.

The Progressive Party of 1912:

Formed by Theodore Roosevelt, the progressive party at it's 1912 convention formulated a platform that exemplified the following: 

"To destroy this invisible Government, to dissolve the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day." 


      It was to be a party that formed specifically to oppose the power of big business and the wealthy. And to challenge the dominion that the wealthy had seized over both the Democratic and Republican party alike. Some key points of it's platform:


  • That there should be strict limitations on campaign contributions. And that such contributions should be disclosed. 
  • Lobbyists should be registered. 
  • That congressional committee meetings should be recorded and minutes should be published publicly. 

In areas of social policy the platform called for: 


  • Establishing a national health service. 
  • A social insurance to provide for the disabled, elderly, and unemployed. 
  • To limit the power of judges to bust labor strikes. 
  • A minimum wage law for women. 
  • The 8 hour workday. 
  • Relief for farmers. 
  • Workers compensation for injures sustained while working. 
  • The inheritance tax. 

Political reforms called for: 

Women's rights or more specifically women's suffrage. Jane Adams was a prominent feminist of the time and is credited as being one of the founders of the party.

Direct Democracy initiatives to allow citizens to:

  •  Recall corrupt officials via recall elections
  •  Citizens referendums to allow citizens to decide on a law by popular vote. 
  • Citizen's initiatives to allow citizens to petition for new laws to be proposed and enacted through popular vote. 
  • And the ability for citizens to even overrule court rulings on laws by popular vote. 

The Progressive party over the years managed to fill seats in Congress, and a Governor switched from Republican to Progressive to win his election. Years later, many Progressives switched to the Republican Party where not unlike Progressives are treated now, never managed to get nominated by the party leadership for major offices. This eventually lead to the progressive movement finding it's way to the "New Deal" Democratic party lead by FDR in the 1930s. 

      Over the years the Progressives fought for issues such as an end to child labor, an end to American imperialism in Latin America, more laws to protect labor unions, etc. 

In 1948, a new incarnation of the party fought for desegregation, nationalized health care, and an expansion of the welfare system. 

The "marriage" turns sour...

      Fast forward to 1980. President Jimmy Carter who many would consider a progressive loses the election to Ronald Reagan in a crushing defeat. It would be fair to point out that Carter had been challenged to a primary before this election by Ted Kennedy. There was already concern in the more elitist of the Democratic party that Carter was not an effective leader. Ironically what made Carter ineffective was his inability to play the corrupt games of Washington. He held a lot of progressive views including supporting nationalized health care. He supported gay marriage before it was "cool" and long before Hillary Clinton's famous flip flopping on this issue. Jimmy Carter has come to be someone that the more I learn about him the more I like him. Which might also be why the DNC didn't like him at all. 
      After the loss to Reagan, the DNC started considering that it was time for the party to turn in the direction of being "Republican light". And more and more of the Progressive ideals were considered to be liabilities. And that brings me to the situation we seem to have seen play out over and over again in the recent elections. 

      The DNC continues to push for and nominate candidates that are labeled "centerists". These candidates also tend to lose. These candidates typically pander to the Progressive and Union/Labor element enough to get us on board. Then as things draw closer to the convention the situation is manipulated to ensure that the Progressive voices get less and less time to be heard. In 2008 the more Progressive candidates like Gravel and Kucinich were marginalized by the media and the party. Kicked out of debates as fast as the party could get it done. 

      Barack Obama pretended to be a Progressive and just like an abusive boyfriend lied to us to get us to stay with him. Then after he got us "in bed"  the next morning we woke to find him absent, as he had better things to do with his actual friends, the corporations that the DNC actually values. (This is at the core of the tensions between Bernie Sanders and Obama that lead to talks of a "primary")     

In 2016 we watched as they again tried to placate us until it was clear we were not falling in line. Finally culminating in a situation where we are bullied, brow beaten, and threatened to obey. Because after all, we have nowhere else to go. Just like an abusive husband standing over us daring us to leave. Where are we going to go?

I recall watching a documentary about Ralph Nader, wherein a former DNC insider said those exact words. And explained that was what he was told about Progressives. To ignore us. After all "We had nowhere else to go..." he also stressed that as long as the DNC didn't believe we would ever take our votes away from them they would continue to do just that. Bill Clinton said if Progressives didn't want to live under Republican rule, that we would have to vote for him as we have nowhere else to go. Bill Maher in one of his many rants berating us and ridiculing us for not jumping on the Hillary Clinton bandwagon said the same thing. Ignore progressives because they have nowhere else to go. They count on our vote. Because just like that abusive husband they feel they hold all the cards. The house and the car are in their name. They know they will get custody of the kids. 

      So that brings me back to the analogy I used at the start of this article. The Progressives got married to the Democratic party after promises that we would be respected and that our views would be shared by our "husband". But over the years those promises have not been kept. The covenant of this marriage has been violated. And as a result should be annulled. 

     Every election cycle, like an abused wife we are insulted, intimidated, and ridiculed. If we dare to speak up for ourselves in any way, we are told we are the ones being cruel. (Bernie Bros). We are pushed and shoved, ignored and berated. Then as the primary draws to a close we are again on the floor bleeding as the DNC takes out it's rage at it's own inadequacies on us. We are threatened to be sent back to our equally abusive father. (Trump or whatever Republican) if we don't fall in line and obey. And we do because like many abused wives, we have nowhere else to go. And we have to protect our children, (The poor) who sometimes we can get our abusive husband to help take care of. After we are brutally beaten down during the primary and we are thinking maybe, just maybe we should leave our husband for that nice man down the street who loves our ideas and tells us we are beautiful (3rd parties) our husband shows up with flowers and candy, and begs us to forgive him. He promises it will be different this time and to please not leave... 

     Until next election cycle, when it all begins again. We are blamed for any failings in our husband's life. Even after we obeyed and did what he asked of us. It's still and will always be our fault. The nice man down the street just watches, shaking his head in sadness. He can't understand why we keep doing this to ourselves. And neither can we. 

     Progressives, it's time to break this cycle. Yes, it will be hard. Maybe the nice man down the street doesn't have as much money or power as our soon to be ex-husband. But if we work together with him we can build something that is right for us. It will take a long time and it will be hard. But it will be right. And we won't be picking ourselves up off the floor bruised and battered. And we will face any adversity together. Supporting one another rather then being told our ideas that are close to our heart are foolish dreams. 

     We need a progressive party. I no longer advocate for joining the Green Party as it has shown that it has all of the same corruption problems that the Democratic Party does. More on that later. 




      








     


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