The Writing on the Wall II

Trey Smith

Spare me the spin. This was a whupping.

After sixteen months of the most historic and exciting citizens’ uprising that I’ve ever been a part of in my thirty-five years of progressive activism and journalism, we’re left with this disaster.

Scott Walker is governor for another two and a half years.

He claims vindication for his rightist onslaught.

The national rightwing media is carrying him around on their shoulders.

And the Koch Brothers are popping the expensive champagne.

Meanwhile, the movement — a real giant grassroots movement, which flooded the capitol square with more than 100,000 people and which gathered a million recall signatures — is disintegrating.

Actually, it began to disintegrate the moment the leaders (and who were they, exactly?) decided to pour everything into the Democratic Party channels rather than explore the full potential of the power that was latent but present in the streets back in February and March of 2011.
~ from Accountability in Defeat in Wis. by Matthew Rothschild ~

It's good to see that at least one prominent progressive understands the linchpin of the defeat in Wisconsin. Yes, money played a role -- as it almost always does in politics -- but Wisconsin progressives torpedoed their own efforts by hitching their wagon SOLELY to the Democratic Party.

What too many true progressives seem unwilling to wrap their heads around is the reality that the Democratic Party is no longer the party of the little guy or gal. It is no longer the party of FDR or JFK. It no longer represents the unwashed masses, minorities or organized labor. This was their constituency of the past; today they represent many of the same oligarchs that the GOP represents. And that's where the lion's share of their money is derived from.

To know this is fact, all you have to do is read the campaign finance disclosure forms! You can quickly see that Wall Street funds the Democrats as much as the Republicans. Since money talks in politics, who has the Democratic Party's ear?

However, if you still cling to the notion that the Democratic Party establishment remains as the so-called liberal alternative, then how do you explain their complete abandonment of Wisconsin progressives? As Rothschild later points out,

This was the biggest pitched battle against workers, and the AFL-CIO barely showed up. Where was the Democratic Governors Association? Where was the DNC?

Then the union leadership handpicked Kathleen Falk, even though there was no groundswell of support for her whatsoever, a choice that embittered much of the movement’s base and proved unpopular on primary day.

And finally, Barack Obama never deigned to make an appearance, literally mailing it in with an Election Day tweet.

If you take off the blinders for just a moment, it can be seen plain as day. The mainstream Democratic Party -- along with the heads of America's most powerful labor organization -- threw Wisconsin progressives under the bus! While their Republican counterparts worked fervently to defend Scott Walker and his version of the shock doctrine, the Democratic Party establishment CHOSE to sit on the sidelines. Support from the party's leader -- the President of these United States -- could have made all the difference in the world, but he chose to sit this one out.

Shouldn't that tell you something? Possibly give you an inkling of whose interests he REALLY cares about?

If you are unable or unwilling to connect the obvious dots now -- after this historic defeat -- I simply don't know what could make it more real for you.

The answer is not to be found at the ballot box.