[Peace-discuss] What the Democrats are doing

[C. G. Estabrook]

By Matt Stoller, the former Senior Policy Advisor for Rep. Alan Grayson. His 
Twitter feed is @matthewstoller

Since the 1970s, Democratic elites have focused on breaking public sector unions 
and financializing the economy. Carter, not Reagan, started the defense 
build-up. Carter, not Reagan, lifted usury caps. Carter, not Reagan, first cut 
capital gains taxes. Clinton, not Bush, passed NAFTA. It isn’t the base of the 
Democratic party that did this, but then, voters in America have never had a lot 
of power because they are too disorganized. And there wasn’t a substantial 
grassroots movement to challenge this, either.

Obama continues this trend. It isn’t that he’s not fighting, he fights like hell 
for what he wants. He whipped incredibly aggressively for TARP, he has passed 
emergency war funding (breaking a campaign promise) several times, and nearly 
broke the arms of feckless liberals in the process. I mean, when Bernie Sanders 
did the filiBernie, Obama flirted with Bernie’s potential 2012 GOP challenger. 
Obama just wants policies that cement the status of a aristocratic class, with 
crumbs for everyone else (Republican elites disagree in that they hate anyone 
but elites getting crumbs). And he will fight for them.

There is simply no basis for arguing that Democratic elites are pursuing poor 
strategy anymore. They are achieving an enormous amount of leverage within the 
party. Consider the following. Despite Obama violating every core tenet of what 
might have been considered the Democratic Party platform, from supporting 
foreclosures to destroying civil liberties to torturing political dissidents to 
wrecking unions, Obama has no viable primary challenger. Moreover, no Senate 
Democratic incumbent lost a primary challenge in 2010, despite a horrible 
governing posture. Now THAT is a successful strategy, it minimized the losses of 
the Democratic elite and kept them firmly in control of the party. Thus, the 
political debate remains confined to what neoliberals want to talk about. It’s a 
good strategy, it’s just you are the one the strategy is being played on.

A lot of people think that Obama is a bad poker player, but they miss the point. 
He’s not playing with his money, he’s playing with YOUR money. You are the weak 
hand at the table, he’s colluding with the other players.

There are parts of the Democratic elite that don’t believe in neoliberalism, but 
they are a modest portion of that structure. So often what comes out of the 
party is garbled. Most Democrats support our reigning institutions, they believe 
in paying taxes, they believe in government power. Given a choice, they’ll 
grumble, but they are more willing to believe that this government is good than 
to support structural change. By contrast, the Republicans are unified in their 
desire for a more brutal and more plutocratic though otherwise unchanged 
institutional arrangement.

This makes the GOP seem more committed, more professional and more 
change-oriented. This isn’t poor strategy or coordination from Democratic 
elites. The lack of willingness to fight on behalf of the public isn’t the same 
of an unwillingness to fight. It’s just their unwillingness to fight anyone but you.

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/01/matt-stoller-understanding-the-strategy-of-the-democratic-power-class.html