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David Sirota is a political journalist and nationally syndicated newspaper columnist at Creators Syndicate. David writes about political corruption, globalization and working-class economic issues often ignored by both of America's political parties.
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September 25, 2007 7:08 PM
Dem Leadership Rolls "Over the Dead Bodies" Of Its Rank-and-File
Per my Creators Syndicate column from last week, check out excerpts from this midday New York Times dispatch.Here it is:
"A trade pact between the United States and Peru won bipartisan support in a crucial Congressional committee Tuesday...The vote Tuesday was a victory for the Bush administration and Representative Charles B. Rangel, the New York Democrat who is chairman of the Ways and Means panel. Mr. Rangel argued, against the opposition of many Democrats...[Ways and Means Committee Chair Charles Rangel (D-NY)] noted that he may not be able to win over most of his party, adding, 'Our membership on this committee means that we will have to do things that at times will not be as popular as we would like them to be.'
[...]
Democrats regained control of Congress last year after a campaign in which many candidates promised to block future trade deals...While many rank-and-file Democrats fear that trade deals erode American jobs, Democratic leaders have developed close ties with Wall Street and with many high technology and industrial companies...
[...]
Critics of the deal say that it represents an extension of Nafta...Lori Wallach, director of Global Trade Watch division of Public Citizen, assailed the Peru vote as bad policy and politics. 'This is especially incomprehensible,' she said, 'after many of the freshman Democrats, who tipped the balance of power in Congress, were elected by focusing on ending more-of-the-same trade policies.'"
Notice that this Rangel admits he is passing the deal over the objections (ie. "over the dead bodies") of his own party. Notice too that he added that ramming the deal through the committee over the objections of rank-and-file populist Democrats represents "a very special day in my legislative career."
All I'm gonna say is this: Democrats, come election time, don't say we didn't tell you so. We told you so - and then some.
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About David Sirota
David Sirota is a political journalist and nationally syndicated newspaper columnist at Creators Syndicate. He is the New York Times bestselling author of Hostile Takeover. He lives in Denver, Colorado. His daily blog can be found at CREDO Action. He contributes regularly to the Denver Post's Web site, is a senior editor at In These Times magazine and is working on his second book. He has been profiled in Newsweek and the Rocky Mountain News and is widely known for his reporting on political corruption, globalization and working-class economic issues often ignored by both of America's political parties. Sirota serves as co-chair of the Progressive States Network, a 501(c)3 organization that supports state legislators and that is a partner of CREDO.
You can subscribe to Sirota's e-mail newsletter by going to davidsirota.com and signing up in the lefthand corner. To find out more about Sirota, download his official biography or see his recent media appearances. You can e-mail him at sirota@credoaction.com.
The views expressed on this blog are his own, and do not necessarily represent the views of Working Assets (publisher of CREDO Action) or the institutions Sirota works for.
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Discussion
David, David, David,
Earlier this year, you held out optimistic hope that Charlie Rangel would come to his senses and look where it's gotten you. You ought to just drop the Democratic Party and join the Independent anti-two party sentiment. Besides, Independent 3rd parties and their candidates will NEVER let you down. There's no point in trying to revive a DEAD party that is no longer what it used to be anyway.
Don't forget Pelosi and Hoyers had a hand in this. Rangel couldn't have done squat without the ok of the top dems.
Independent third parties never get elected. They only serve as spoilers to help the Republicans.
The Democrats aren't dead, the election of the new crop of populists shows that there's still life in the party.
The way to clean up the Democrats is to work to support populist candidates, and contribute directly to those candidates. Never contribute to the national party because that's money that will go to the sell-outs.
Well Butte the populists don't mean jack shit when the leadership is as crooked as a dog's hind leg. Because at the end of the day the crooks still get what they want and appease Bush at the same time.
Nor does it help that mindless democrats keep voting crooks like Rangel, Pelosi and Hoyer back in which only encourages this sort of corrupt behavior.
I still say the whole trade controversy is a moot point and the top dogs know it. If you want to save the American worker from extinction, change the paradigm of the global economy from that based on faux comparative advantage to that based on Parity Economics. (Parity Economics is explained in Parity Democracy sold at online bookstores worldwide) These trade deals are all sound and fury amounting to nothing.
emforde
Sadly these trade deals are deadly to the American worker, manufacturing base and tax base. We've lost most of our manufacturing and technology sectors to SEAsia, our middle-class is on its way to extinction. Our national infrastructure is being sold off to at best to foreign entities that have ties to organized crime and Islamic terrorists.
Hardly moot.
We either bring back our factories and stop foreign companies and nations from buying our infrastructure or watch our country wither away and eventually perish.
I said the trade deals are moot not the other things. Trade deals or no trade deals none of the waltc aforementioned things are going to come back unless the Global trade rules are changed. You're thinking inside the box like congress, even if your view is opposite.
"Independent third parties never get elected." -butte
So Bernard Sanders is not an Independent? Look, the reason Independent 3rd parties generally don't make it to office is the Democrats and Republicans cooperate and see to it that they never make it by choking them off the media, slapping frivolous lawsuits to push them off the voting ballots, stealing their ideas, etc ... Hell, Ross Perot made both parties shit in their panties that he was FORCED out of the presidential debates alone and only given late night slots to speak his mind out !
"They only serve as spoilers to help the Republicans." - butte
Uh, don't forget that if it weren't for Ross Perot, Bill Clinton would have lost big time because the GOP was ready to take him down with the Gennifer Flowers scandal and they would have DUKAKISized Clinton if Perot hadn't forced the economic issues to the front burner first and foremost. Hell, if Ross Perot had stayed in the race, he might have even won or at least seriously put this election to a closer 3-way race.
"The Democrats aren't dead, the election of the new crop of populists shows that there's still life in the party." - butte
Fake "populists" in the Democratic Party made it to office only to piss off their base once again. We gave them our chances and they BLEW IT ! How many more elections are you going to say that we should keep doing this before we say of this party "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH !!"
"The way to clean up the Democrats is to work to support populist candidates, and contribute directly to those candidates." - butte
That was done last year and now there's nothing positive to show for it. Just giving them money isn't going to convince them to get their job down or they wouldn't be shitting on us base voters in the first place.
"Never contribute to the national party because that's money that will go to the sell-outs." - butte
Well, that's a good start. However, once they run as Democrats, they're already controlled by the National Party so they're bound to be tainted sooner or later.
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