What’s wrong with the Democrats

My interest in policies that preserve the planet’s ecology, my support of individual liberties, and my willingness to reject bad trade packs such as GATT and NAFTA might seem to place me with the Democrats. This is most certainly not the case, as this list will make clear.

The Democrat’s don’t have an ideology that guides them. The Democratic party is an artifact of the two-party system; they exist to be the other party to the Republicans (which at least affects an ideology, though it is insincere). This situation was clearest with the Southern Democrat phenomenon, where ideological opposites on many issues from the South and North sat in the same party only because the South refused to vote for the party of Lincoln regardless of their potential alignment on some policy issues. This is slowly changing as the South is becoming Republican, but the rest of the Democratic party remains adrift.

The political realignment of the South has not given coherency to the Democratic party. It remains unsure of what it stands for (other than reelection that is). Even before Clinton, the Democrats had been pocketed by special interests in their bid to raise sufficient money for their regular reelection bids. Clinton brought money politics to a new level and at the same time repudiated many of the principles that the Democrats at least used to claim to uphold. Clinton’s presidency has further narrowed the dif Democrats used to affect. Clinton has angered Republicans primarily by adopting so many of their platform issues as his own.

Due to the lack of coherency, it is difficult to criticize the Democrats as a whole. However, a few things stand out; the Democrats are:

• Special-interest oriented
• Anti-market (Democratic investors come before economics)
  • Prefer regulatory dictates to adjusting the system.
  • Democratic lawmakers sponsor special tax breaks for their corporate investors.
• Shy on important issues after years of Republican attacks (which have been devestatingly effective).
  • Tax reform (afraid of being accused of raising taxes)
  • Health care (afraid of being accused of socialized medicine and taking away of doctor choice)
  • Poverty (afraid of the tax and spend label after the failure of Johnson’s war on poverty)
• Anti-environment (corporate convenience comes before clean air, water, and food)
  • Clinton/Gore essentially did nothing on this front, despite their rhetoric. The EPA was completely ineffective during their term.
• Anti-free-speech
  • Communications Decency Act of 1995
• Anti-regulation (corporations come before people)
  • Clinton’s support of NAFTA, GATT, and MAI, and their anti-regulatory effects.
• Anti-sustainability (corporations come before our children)
• Pro-propaganda
  • The war with Yugoslavia was carefully orchestrated to undermine the truth for political purposes.
  • Sudan bombing
• Now conservative (original sense) instead of progressive
  • Democrats no longer propose; they only try to defend past Democratic achievements from Republican attack.