Democrats are now to the right of Reagan? A response to the "Party has left me" crowd.

so was browsing through the recommended list today and came across a diary announcing that the author felt betrayed by the Democratic party, and that their allegiance at this point was more to a particular candidate than the party as a whole.  Given the heat of primary season, I’m not really surprised that this person decided to express their frustration.  I certainly have my share of criticisms of both candidates, and to be honest I wasn’t all that impressed by the Obama, Clinton and Edwards triad of ‘08.  But what followed at the end of the diary was something truly shocking to me: a poll in which the diarist asked if the party had now moved to the right of Reagan.  Yes, Ronald Reagan.  As of the current writing of this diary, 49% of respondents believe it has (over 1900 votes, so this is a large number of people). 

Really? 

Were any of you alive during the Reagan years?  Do you know anything about them?  For those who were not, let me provide a brief refresher (with a comparison to today’s democratic party):

• Reagan believed that it was fine if gay people died from an epidemic disease (AIDS).  Most Democrats believe gay people should be allowed to marry.
• Reagan supported heinous dictators like Saddam Hussein and an evil apartheid regime in South Africa because they were “not Communist.”  Today Democrats at their worst — and here I’m referring to the 2003 Iraq war — were at least voting to remove one of those awful men from power.
• Under President Reagan, forced birthers made considerable headway through the appointment of William Rehnquist and Antonin Scalia.  Reagan also tried to put arch-conservative Robert Bork on the court as well, but was successfully blocked by Democrats.  Bill Clinton and Barrack Obama, meanwhile, have appointed liberal justices such as Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elana Kagan.
• Reagan supported a massive increase of the military-industrial complex, wasting billions on pie in the sky ideas like Star Wars because he could.  Democrats like Bill Clinton cut military spending, and under Obama they have blocked Republican efforts to undo the sequester’s cuts to this same area.
• Under President Reagan the United States sold arms illegally to a hostile Islamic fundamentalist regime in Iran and then funneled the money illegally to terrorists in Nicaragua because they were “anti-Communist.”  Under President Clinton the United States ended genocide in Bosnia, while under President Obama the United States has killed leading terrorists such as Osama Bin Laden and rolled back the evil forces of ISIS/ISIL.
• Under Reagan and his successor George HW Bush we invaded several small countries such as Grenada and Panama because we wanted to test out our new military toys.  Under the current Democratic president, we have not bombed Iran, nor have we put significant ground forces into Syria, Egypt, Libya or Yemen.  On the contrary, we have pulled out of Iraq and are trying to pull out of Afghanistan (a war Bernie Sanders voted for, btw).
• Under Reagan taxes for millionaires were slashed because it was all supposed to trickle down (ha!).  Under President Obama taxes were cut for the middle class, and further efforts were made to expand the earned income credit and reduce the payroll tax on poorer Americans.
• Under President Reagan politicians turned a blind eye to America’s inner cities, with the exception that they began a “war on drugs” that particularly targeted African-Americans who used crack rather than white suburbanites who used the highly similar cocaine.
• Under President Reagan unions were attacked and demonized, highlighted by his forcing air traffic control workers back to work in 1981.  During President Obama’s term Democrats have led the fight against “right to work” laws, although not always successfully unfortunately.
• Upon taking office President Reagan gutted the EPA, expanded the building of nuclear power plants and announced that acid rain regulation was burdensome to industry.  Under Presidents Clinton and Obama Democrats have successfully pushed for more investment in renewable energy, higher fuel millage standards and although they have been unsuccessful, they have tried to do something about global warming through executive actions (like Obama’s efforts to regulate carbon dioxide emissions).  Oh and Al Gore was a fairly prominent Democrat too.
• Finally, under President Reagan, the US government tried to argue that ketchup was a vegetable for school lunches.  Under President Obama (or perhaps Michelle), Democrats have tried to raise awareness of nutrition awareness, and sustainability in general.

Ah, but you say these are all general policies the party has supported, it’s the leaders who are the problem.  They are all corporate shills whose allegiance is more to the DLC than to ordinary, working class democrats.  Leaders like…

• Barack Obama.  Yeah, the first African-American President is really a right-winger.  All that stuff they say about him being a Muslim Atheist America-hating Communist is all an inside joke.
• Elizabeth Warren (elected 2013).  Right, she’s a big sellout.  And clearly she has little influence in the Democratic party, given the number of times she got asked if she was running for President (and they’re still writing this crap!).  You do realize she’s the odds on favorite to be either candidate’s VP?
• Russ Feingold (first elected 1993, hopefully coming back this fall!).  Another sellout.  Left the party because he wanted to become a lobbyist lost his seat in a wave election to an actual corporate robot.
• Oh yeah, and then there’s this guy whose name I can’t remember, who for a long time was an independent because he didn’t want to associate himself too closely with the Democratic Party machine.  And then he became a Democrat…became a very popular Democrat…and at the very least he will succeed in making economic inequality a primary issue for the party and the country in the general election.  He is clearly pulling the party rightwards.

There are others I could name, some you’d recognize, others you might not.  Ah but you say, those voices are a minority in the party.  They are popular because they stand up to the corporate shills who have all the power.  People like…

• Harold Ford, Jr. (TN/didn’t he try to move to NY or NJ?) Is he still the chair of the DLC?  Who knows?  Because outside of Joe Scarborough no one gives two shits about Harold Ford these days. 
• John Breaux (LA).  Who?  My guess is very few millennials even recognize that name because he left the Senate to become a lobbyist.  He now has 0 influence on Democratic policy, which is a good thing.  Breaux has little influence now because a whole host of other corporate shills have left the party or are out of office because they went right as the party has moved left.  Does anyone remember Evan Bayh?  Wasn’t he supposed to President by now?  Did he even run in ’08?  Who cares?  Same for Ben Nelson.
• Remember Zell Miller and the Dixiecrats?  No one else does either because he left the party, which was “too liberal” for him.  Kind of ironic that so many so-called progressives are now echoing this loser’s words to describe their own political drifting.
• Ah, but the best example of how the party has actually moved left since 2000 would be the prince of the Third Way Democrats, Mr. “No Labels” himself, our former Vice-Presidential nominee Joe Lieberman.  Know where ol’ Joe is today?  Not in office anymore, because he was knocked out in a primary by progressives and then too embarrassed to try to run as a fake Democrat again. 

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Look, I understand where a lot of you are coming from.  You like Bernie Sanders.  You really, really like him.  You feel the Bern, you believe he is something different and special, a Mr. Smith who will go to Washington and speak truth to power.  Awesome.  More power to you.  I’m not as big a fan, though I do like him.  But anyway I say go vote for him in the primary if that’s who inspires you.  Give him money.  Phone bank for him, GOTV – the whole nine yards.  All the way to the convention. I think it’s wonderful the enthusiasm and excitement he’s brought to the party and the race.  At the very least he has pulled Clinton to the left, and that is a good thing.  And hopefully we can use his momentum to elect more and better Democrats at the state level, where we sorely need to rebound.

But here’s the thing.  Come November, it is more likely than not that Bernie will not be the nominee.  And you, like millions of others will be left with a choice.  You can vote for a candidate who supports most (though not all) of the things that you, a liberal progressive cares about: the Supreme Court, the environment, social security, a woman’s right to choose, immigration, etc., etc.  Or you can vote for someone else who will either a) do a lot of things you don’t want or b) who you know will not win and therefore will render your vote a protest.  What you choose to do is ultimately up to you.  But do realize that staying home or voting for Jill somebody will do nothing to further the causes you believe in.  At best no one will notice because Clinton will win.  At worst we will all wonder what could have been, had people of similar minds united together to achieve the best results (i.e., what the world might have looked like without a second Bush).

This unity thing is important.  Not because the party leaders say so, or because someone “requires fealty to a candidate just because they wear a D, regardless of policy.”  The Truth is, this isn’t about you, or about them.  It’s about all the people we claim to fight for, to care about.  It’s about my friend Jorge and his right not to be deported because his father came to this country looking to live the American dream many years ago.  It’s about protecting my elderly friend Jamal’s right to vote even if he doesn’t have a driver’s license.  It’s about Elsie’s social security, and Fatimah’s right not to be treated like a terrorist every time she walks down the street just because of her religion.  Or Ed’s new health insurance that he’ll lose when the Affordable Care Act is repealed.  Or your sister’s right to control her own body.  And yes, it’s about the Polar Bears and Mother Earth too.

I love movies, and judging by some of the recent diaries around here it seems many of you do too.  But I think some of you might have missed the point of many of these movies, which like Lord of the Rings are often stories of conflict between the small, outnumbered forces of good and the massive, inhuman faces of evil.  The point of Lord of the Rings was not that we should always hold true to our deepest convictions, that being uncompromising in the face of great challenges can bring about real change.  Rather it was about that unity thing (hell they called the first book “The Fellowship of the Ring” for a reason).  The arrogant and well-off elves weren’t strong enough on their own to bring about change for the better.  Nor were the humans, or the dwarves or the wizards or hobbits or whoever.  Despite their differences, their virtues and their vices, they all needed each other to build the world they wanted.  And as the Fellowship began to break, the Koch brothers the forces of darkness grew stronger. 

Now listen, don’t misunderstand me here. I’m not saying give up your ideals.  But for Christ’s sake put them in a larger context and be realistic about what matters most.  Yes, Bruce Wayne is an arrogant prick, the very epitome of the 1%.  But he and Superman have far more in common than they do differences.  Iron Man is also corporate dick who made his money selling weapons of war.  But he also has a good heart (no pun intended), and the Avengers need him just as much as golden Boy Captain America if they want to defeat the weird robot worm-things that come from another galaxy (perhaps you need to see the movie).

So if you feel like the party has left you and in the name of purity you want to sit out one of the most important elections of our life time or waste your vote with a protest, that’s your right.  But don’t dare call yourself a liberal/progressive or complain that the party left you.  You are choosing not to participate, to not defend the things you say you hold dear. 

Edmund Burke once said that all that all that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.  Come November, some of you unfortunately will choose to do nothing.  But that won’t be me.  I will do what I can to make sure a Democrat wins – be it Bernie or Hillary. And that is why I am the Democratic base.  Not because of my race or religion or my socio-economic status or the region I live in or the label I attach to myself politically (liberal, progressive, moderate, centrist, etc.).  But because of my conscience.  Because at the end of the day, I realize that it is not about ME.  It is about Jorge and Jamal and Fatimah and Sarah and Elsie and Ed and all the things that might happen to these good people if the wrong person gets into office (and yes, to the fucking polar bears too!). 

Elections have real world consequences.

Those of us who are actual liberals or progressives or even people of conscience will remember this long after these primary battles are over.