While Democracy and the Democratic Party may sound similar, the party leaders again showed yesterday that one has little to do with the other. President Obama and party leaders wanted the party’s platform changed to include a reference to both Jerusalem being the capital of Israel and God. The omissions however were not accidental and a high number of delegates opposed the change, which had to be agreed to by two-thirds of the delegates. As shown in the video below, in calling for a voice vote, the leadership was shocked when it appeared that more people voted no than yes — certainly well short of two-thirds in support of the changes. That did not matter. The leadership just declared the vote as having passed by two-thirds acclamation.
Many wanted to be neutral on the divisive issue of Jerusalem but Obama was worried about the political backlash among Jewish voters. Many others wanted a secular platform and to stand apart from faith-based politics. Obama himself has relied on faith-based politics and policies, as discussed in earlier columns. Obama objected to the removal of the word God and seemed to miss the secular purpose of the move, asking him “Why on earth would that have been taken out?” It appears that no one had the courage to answer that question by explaining to Obama that it is not necessarily that delegates do not believe in God but were standing against the use of God for political advantage. Instead, Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz insisted that “the platform is being amended to maintain consistency with the personal views expressed by the President and in the Democratic Party platform in 2008.”
The problem is that the platform actually reflects the views of the party members and they did not agree. The GOP had already pounced on the omissions in the platform and the Democratic leadership wanted the issues removed regardless of the opposition of the membership. Waserman Schultz dismissed the omitted language as a “technical oversight” ignoring the obviously high number of delegates supporting the omission. When combined with the rejection of the clear vote, the statement left the convention looking like a Chinese Party Congress. The “technical oversight” in this case proved to be the views of the delegates who were told that they would decide the content of the platform to reflect the views of the party base rather than the party bosses.
In fairness to the Democratic Party, the GOP has relied more heavily on faith-based politics in the past as shown most vividly by George Bush in his first successful run for the White House. The GOP also did not show much commitment to participatory politics in their treatment of Ron Paul supporters. However, many of us have criticized the use of faith in politics as not only demeaning faith but often also injecting sectarian divisions into our political system. It also undermines principles of separation of church and state when politicians run on their intent to advance religious values in government. Yet, it is how the leadership forced through the changes that was the most unnerving for those who watched yesterday.
Party leaders dispatched former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland to push through the changes. Strickland started out by noting his credential as an “ordained United Methodist minister.” Strickland announced “I am here to attest and affirm that our faith and belief in God is central to the American story and informs the values we’ve expressed in our party’s platform. In addition, President Obama recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and our party’s platform should as well. The 2008 platform read, “Jerusalem is and will remain the capital of Israel. The parties have agreed that Jerusalem is a matter for final status negotiations. It should remain an undivided city accessible to people of all faiths.”
It took three voice votes and the opposition was clearly loader than the support for the changes. Yet, Strickland simply declared the measure passed despite all appearances to the contrary.
For those long unhappy with the Democratic leadership, it was a telling symbolic moment. Once again, it appeared that Democratic voters (even delegates representing the most loyal activists) are given only the appearance of participation in their party. For years, Democratic leaders lied to their members about their knowledge and even support for Bush’s torture program and surveillance policies until it was revealed that key Democrats were briefed on the programs. The party leadership then worked with Bush to scuttle any effort to investigate torture and other alleged crimes to avoid implicating key Democratic members. Likewise, while the majority of Democratic voters opposed the continuation of the wars, the Democratic party leaders blocked efforts to force a pull out under both Obama and Bush. These controversies were seen by many that the Democratic Party is primarily run to ensure the continuation of a small number of leaders in power with voters treated as ignorant minions. It was a particularly poignant moment in an uncontested convention after Democratic voters were not given any alternative to Obama.
The image of the chair just ignoring the obvious opposition from the floor of the conventional symbolized this long simmering tension. For full disclosure, I have long been a critic of both parties and have argued for changes to break the monopoly on power by the two parties. It is really not the merits of these two changes that is most bothersome. Arguments can be made on both side of such issues. It is the disregard of the views of the members and the dishonesty in how the matter was handled. The illusion of democracy was all that the leaders wanted in the vote.
Notably, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa seemed to be ready to acknowledge that the delegates clearly rejected the change on the first vote. He then insisted on a second vote and it got worse. He seemed about to admit the failure of the motion and then called for a third vote which sounded even more lopsided (with not just a failure to get two-thirds but even a majority). Yet, he declared the motion passed to the boos and jeers of the delegates.
In creating the illusion of democratic voting, the delegates might have just as well bleated like sheep in protest. It did not matter. The message was clear that the delegates are just a backdrop to be used by party leaders to celebrate their reign.
Source: CNN
Tony C:
I dont know how you see it, but in the entire history of the United States I think there are only about 4, maybe 6 wars which should have been fought.
1. The Revolution
2. The War of 1812
3. The Civil War
4. World War II
5. Maybe the First Gulf War
6. Afghanistan on a very limited basis
Just because you fought or died for your country doesnt mean you get to dictate what constitutes a right. You fight and maybe die protecting those rights. That is why war should only be used when the survival of the Republic necessitates its use.
Politicians have played fast and lose with the lives of our military in the late 19th and throughout the 20th century. I wonder if there is a connection? I think there is but you wouldnt believe me.
I think I am going to start calling you Jean Jacques C.
Jill:
“you profoundly misunderstand Ms. Kimberely when you say she hates both parties. She is trying to jog your conscience, asking you to face what you are really doing. She is asking you to be a citizen.”
******************
Citizens vote; they don’t pick up their marbles and go home leaving the running of the country to their opponents. She’s not jogging consciences; she’s engaging in a meaningless surrender that is sure to be looked on with disdain by the victor and bewildered disappointment by the party’s inevitable loser. Ask Al Gore what he thinks of Ralph Nader’s principled run that cost Gore the 2000 election. But then again that wasn’t surrender; it was suicide of his principles. Walking out is a vote for Romney and his uber-right wing allies no matter how much pomp and circumstance you accompany it with.
I’m not big on making choices that aren’t there. If you are waiting for a party that perfectly meets the dictates of your conscience, I suggest you start one. That’s what Ross Perot did, sort of, and we see how that fared.
Turley misses the point. God spelled backwards is Dog. The Willard put God in a crate on top of his car and drove for thousands of miles. There was nothing in the RepubliCon Platform about The Willard’s blasphemy.
I just had to look @ the title of the post and knew this would be the longest comment thread.
In caving on Jerusalem, Dems pulled back the curtain on the lobby:
Last night was an amazing moment at the Democratic National Convention; for an instant, we saw the Israel lobby naked on the national stage. When party bosses stuffed the phrase, “Jerusalem is and will remain the capital of Israel,” back into the platform, reportedly at the command of the president himself, and the Democratic rank-and-file on the floor bridled at the command and booed, and even the convention chair, Mayor Villaraigosa, looked to be following orders, the curtain was pulled back on the wizard of Oz– to use the great conspiratorial figure of a previous American century– and the press and the informed public were left to discuss what we had all just seen.
Go figure the founding of your country was a Republic not a democracy, & the founders of it despised democracy.
The same thing happened at the RNC, both parties care nothing of people, only power.
No mespo,
She and other people like myself and David Swanson have given you an answer time and again. Act like a citizen. Stop being an authoritarian.
If you believe in the actions of your party, then by all means applaud them. That is your right. If you do not believe them then do the following:
“OF COURSE you should not vote for Romney. But civil rights were not gained by avoiding the responsibilities of citizenship in order to pretend that every day is election day. Today is not election day. Today is an opportunity to communicate a message to the holder of an office that has been given unprecedented power (again, by allowing Bush to walk free). Women did not vote themselves the right to vote. The labor movement was not built by the current strategy of funding a corporate political
party with working people’s hard‐earned pay. In that moment of voting, vote as you see fit. But censoring your criticism of your government, cheering as a spectator for one half of a corrupt government, treating government of the people as a spectator sport is working against what has always done the good you are intending to do here. We don’t need well‐meaning props in electoral commercials so much as we need activists, organizers, mobilizers, educators. If we reject any cuts to our
Social Security and Medicare, if we insist on an end to all the killing, we will move the culture of the country and with it all the politicians. That’s what’s worked for centuries. Avoiding ugly facts has never gotten us anywhere.”
David Swanson
P.S. you profoundly misunderstand Ms. Kimberely when you say she hates both parties. She is trying to jog your conscience, asking you to face what you are really doing. She is asking you to be a citizen.
Jill:
Margaret Kimberley has effectively explained to us that she hates both parties. Now what ? Throw up our hands and push for Vermont-style direct democracy and use the internet. Telling us neither side is perfect is wonderful exploration in a few thousand words of the obvious.
@Bron: some of us think we should live how we want to live, providing of course we dont step on other’s rights, and some of us seem to think that we should live for society.
And some of us that think you should be allowed to live how you want to live have a far different conception of what, precisely, your rights should be, and how, precisely, you should be required to pay for the protection of them, which costs us lives and money.
Obama is afraid the churchies. It hobbles him terribly.
OS:
That, plus bumping the other guy off the track. Well played, indeed.
I’m most surprised the normally competent Obama campaign ever let the changes occur in the first place. So stupid of them to serve up the the Republicans such a gift on a silver platter in the first place. It makes me mad at all the idiots in the party who want to push their petty agenda at the cost of the greater good.
Blouise, it was the political equivalent of the handing off the baton in a relay race at Olympic level. Literally.
“The flourish at the end was a masterpiece of theatrical stagecraft at its best.” (OS)
Wasn’t it! How to take the focus from a star like Clinton and politely return it to the candidate … have the candidate humbly thank him and escort him offstage. Skill.
Bron:
“Seems to me people still rise from modest origins so I would say the American dream is still alive and kicking. You may not get rich but then no one is promised a rose garden.”
*******************
The best line of the night (attributed to Bob Strauss, former Democratic Chair), “Every American politician wants you to believe that they were born in a log cabin that they built with their own two hands.”
I see stupid this day, reminds me of the time I tried to lite a match underwater. It can be done, with proper preparation. Remember don’t boo, Vote.
For all the criticism rightly thrown at the Democrats in the convention power play, you still must ask yourself: Which political party more closely embodies my political approach? You can always say neither, of course, but it renders you politically irrelevant. Ask Ron Paul. Even he’s a nominal Republican. His approach wasn’t to abstain, and he’s made some in-roads, modest though they may be.
Seems to me people still rise from modest origins so I would say the American dream is still alive and kicking. You may not get rich but then no one is promised a rose garden.
As far as “Cowboy Rugged Individualism”, what exactly is that? Do you mean the small businessman who starts a business in his garage and becomes wealthy by pretty much his focus, drive and perseverance? Or the farmer who has to know how to weld, to plow, to birth a calf and stitch up a wound on humans or animals because the doc or the vet is too far away? What exactly is “Cowboy Rugged Individualism”, do you mean the people who went west with a few dollars in their pocket and some household belongings or the latter day small shop keeper who doesnt want to work for a big corporation because he wants to do it his way no matter how small it is?
We exist in society so we all benefit from each other but some of us think we should live how we want to live, providing of course we dont step on other’s rights, and some of us seem to think that we should live for society.
I think I see what “Cowboy Rugged Individualism” is all about. What is that Ibsen play? Oh yes, An Enemy of the People, he was also a “Cowboy Rugged Individualist”, not Ibsen [although he seems to be as well] the main character in the play.
Dont go against the grain, dont rock the boat, follow the party line. That is the antithesis of the “Cowboy Rugged Individualist”. So I guess it comes down to following your own mind or not.
Get along little dogies. Whoope Ti Yi Yo.
Freedom Rider: Democrats Show Their True Colors
by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley
“Barack Obama and the Democrats are not the lesser of two evils, they are the more effective evil.”
If right wing Republican ideology didn’t exist, it would have to be invented. The blatant racism, bizarre shrillness, and appeals to patriarchy and misogyny are easily condemned. Attacking the Republican Party isn’t at all difficult, it is in fact a bit like shooting fish in a barrel. It isn’t surprising that an African American camerawoman was taunted and humiliated by Republicans at their recent convention. The Republicans have been working for decades to make themselves the party of, by, and for white people.
Republican racism and right wing extremism mean that the Democrats get credit for doing nothing or even for acting like Republicans. Their convention is being held in Charlotte, North Carolina, a city without one unionized hotel, and little wonder, North Carolina is a right to work state with the lowest rate of union workers in the country. The absence of outrage over the choice of Charlotte as the convention venue is proof positive of the ideological bankruptcy of the Democratic Party and the cowardice of its supporters.
“The Republicans have been working for decades to make themselves the party of, by, and for white people.”
As if the choice of Charlotte weren’t bad enough, an anti teachers union movie, Won’t Back Down, was shown at a convention event after being vetted by Democratic Party leadership. Michelle Rhee, the face of teacher union busting and the destruction of public education, appeared on a panel at the film’s screening. Rhee told the harsh and ugly truth about the way the Democrats are treating teacher unions. “There is no longer sort of some assumed alliance between the Democratic Party and the teacher’s unions.”
If teachers and other unions had any self-respect, they would boycott the convention altogether. Instead they will be front and center, proclaiming their love for a party that never passes up an opportunity to stab them in the back.
Barack Obama and the Democrats are not the lesser of two evils, they are the more effective evil, and their convention coronation proves it. They have the benefit of running against a Republic candidate who made a fortune by putting thousands of people out of work and who brags about it. While Democrats do not openly talk about putting Social Security and Medicare on the budget cutting table, the Republican vice presidential candidate makes eliminating Medicare his claim to fame.
“Residents of Afghanistan and Pakistan will be the victims of American drone attacks whether the president inaugurated in January is named Obama or Romney.“
The Democrats are once again committing the perfect crime. They present themselves as the friend of working people and as the defenders against racism, misogyny and homophobia. While a black camera operator will probably not have to fear being humiliated by Democrats, the residents of Afghanistan and Pakistan will not be so lucky. They will be the victims of American drone attacks whether the president inaugurated in January is named Obama or Romney.
Obama’s nominating speech will no doubt be better than Romney’s. There will be no strange decision to let an old actor give a rambling speech. The evils of Bain capital will be exposed to the world, but Obama would have agreed to a back room budget deal with Republicans if vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan and other Republican congressional leaders hadn’t scuttled his plans.
The activists who opposed war during the Bush administration can’t seem to find their voices now. Instead they criticize Mitt Romney because he didn’t “mention” wars in his convention speech. It isn’t clear what these critics wanted to hear. Were they once again anti-war or had they already dropped those convictions once a Democrat became president? In any case, Romney has no room to criticize Obama because Obama is now the war monger in chief, with the body count to prove it.
“Were they once again anti-war or had they already dropped those convictions once a Democrat became president?”
Little children with abusive parents can be forgiven if they don’t know how to break free from their victimizers. Adults who claim to lead others have no such excuse. The union leaders, and the peace activists and all other progressives in the Charlotte convention hall should walk out in protest but they won’t. They won’t because their convictions aren’t really any better than Obama’s. They want to belong more than they want to be right.
Obama is the more effective evil because he is enabled by Democrats who are either afraid of their own shadows or who are as bad as he is. They should know that making the case for their demands, indeed having demands at all, is the sure path to political victory. But they don’t want political victory. They just want someone who is part of their crowd to get the top job. Too many people in the Democratic base are effectively evil too.
Margaret Kimberley’s Freedom Rider column appears weekly in BAR, and is widely reprinted elsewhere. She maintains a frequently updated blog as well as at http://freedomrider.blogspot.com. Ms. Kimberley lives in New York City, and can be reached via e-Mail at Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgendaReport.co
Thanks, Blouise!