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October 30, 2006
No Democratic Party "Win" Next Week
By Rob Kall
Next week, it looks like the Republicans are going to lose big. They deserve to. They've been corrupt, dishonest, more loyal to corporations and religious extremists than to our nation, our workers, our industries. The Republicans have been loyal rubber stampers to the worst president in the history of the US. They have enabled and supported, unflinchingly, the most hated, the most despised man in the history of the planet.
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Next week, it looks like the Republicans are going to lose big. They deserve to. They'be been corrupt, dishonest, more loyal to corporations and religious extremists than to our nation, our workers, our industries. The Republicans have been loyal rubber stampers to the worst president in the history of the US. They have enabled and supported, unflinchingly, the most hated, the most despised man in the history of the planet. But let's get one thing straight, when the Democrats win, it will not be because of the Democratic leadership, not because of their advocacy for the working class. Oh sure, there are a batch of extraordinary candidates-- in spite of the DCCC and DSCC. Those individual candidates deserve lots of credit. But the Democratic leadership has not been at all successful or effective in elucidating a vision, a plan that captures and inspires the imagination of Americans. They have been timid when they should have been tough. They have been short-sighted when vision was needed. Howard Dean has been a notable exception among the Democratic leadership and he's been hamstrung by the other wimpy, spineless "leaders" in the Democratic party, who are really not leaders. They're more like anchors. One of the biggest problems the Democratic party has is that it is afflicted by "DLCism." These Republican-lite losers would turn the Democratic party into what the current extremist, far right wing Republican party used to look like. Sorry. That doesn't cut it for me. And it really doesn't cut it for the vast majority of Democrats and moderate independents. People want guts, commitment, vision. They want candidates and a party that will take a stand. The DLC is getting ready to take responsibility for any wins the Democrats eke out of this election cycle. Any such claims will be a fraud. The Democrats will win IN SPITE OF the DLC and it's spineless wimp factor policies. Commenting on the elections, Charlie Rangel says, "This is a referendum on the war and the incompetency of the Bush administration." He's right. And it's outrageous that at this time the Democratic party has been unable to clearly express a vision that stands above the war. It is a failure-- a dismal failure on the part of the Democratic "leadership" that they have not been able to get out even the simple message that they are going to return to balancing the budget by returning to taxing the rich while continuing the tax breaks to the middle class. That's why the Republicans have been able to run ads all across the country stating that the Democrats will be raising taxes for the average family. Next week, when there is a political landslide, it will be one that buries a lot of Republicans. But the Democrats won't deserve much credit. Oh there will be some candidates who had the guts to stand up and take a stand. But there will be a lot more who were literally advised not to, even threatened by the DNC, DCCC and DSCC with witholding of campaign funds if they took a stand. So, when folks like Al From, Rahm Emanuel, Harry Reid, Chuck Schumer claim they performed miracles, and that their approaches to policy made the difference, expect them to start telling you they deserve the credit-- that their approach, their weak, luke warm, non-policy policy made the difference. Don't believe it. David Sirota, writing for In These Times, says,"...the progressive movement that exists outside the Democratic Party will be more important than it is now--but only if it serves as a progressive ideological force, and not simply a partisan one. If organizations like Moveon.org, unions and the consumer/environmental/civil rights advocacy groups are willing to prioritize their policy agendas over the Democratic Party insiders' desire simply to win the next election through expediency, the progressive movement will become a kingmaker that lawmakers will rely on for their survival and success. Say goodbye to the era of Democratic lawmakers laughing off the grassroots like they did after the Lamont primary victory, and say hello to Democratic lawmakers pleading for grassroots support. But, again, getting to that point will require the progressive movement to be comfortable not just going up against Republicans, but going up against lawmakers of both parties who cross its agenda. And if recent trends are any indication, the progressive movement is more than ready to assume this role. The Lieberman primary as well as other lower-tier primaries against Reps. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) and Al Wynn (D-Md.) indicate that progressives are not about to allow a Democratic majority to become complacent. On the contrary--Democratic legislators could be scrutinized even more closely by progressives.We progressives, on the left, will be in a great position, better than we've had for a long time, and we must make sure that the DLC republican-lites don't take the credit or the power. Once the election is over, when the Dems have taken back one or both house of congress, will be the time when we raise our voices and claim our role, our power in the new political environment that emerges.
Rob Kall is an award winning journalist, inventor, software architect,
connector and visionary. His work and his writing have been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, ABC, the HuffingtonPost, Success, Discover and other media.
Check out his platform at RobKall.com
He is the author of The Bottom-up Revolution; Mastering the Emerging World of Connectivity
He's given talks and workshops to Fortune
500 execs and national medical and psychological organizations, and pioneered
first-of-their-kind conferences in Positive Psychology, Brain Science and
Story. He hosts some of the world's smartest, most interesting and powerful
people on his Bottom Up Radio Show,
and founded and publishes one of the top Google- ranked progressive news and
opinion sites, OpEdNews.com
more detailed bio:
Rob Kall has spent his adult life as an awakener and empowerer-- first in the field of biofeedback, inventing products, developing software and a music recording label, MuPsych, within the company he founded in 1978-- Futurehealth, and founding, organizing and running 3 conferences: Winter Brain, on Neurofeedback and consciousness, Optimal Functioning and Positive Psychology (a pioneer in the field of Positive Psychology, first presenting workshops on it in 1985) and Storycon Summit Meeting on the Art Science and Application of Story-- each the first of their kind. Then, when he found the process of raising people's consciousness and empowering them to take more control of their lives one person at a time was too slow, he founded Opednews.com-- which has been the top search result on Google for the terms liberal news and progressive opinion for several years. Rob began his Bottom-up Radio show, broadcast on WNJC 1360 AM to Metro Philly, also available on iTunes, covering the transition of our culture, business and world from predominantly Top-down (hierarchical, centralized, authoritarian, patriarchal, big) to bottom-up (egalitarian, local, interdependent, grassroots, archetypal feminine and small.) Recent long-term projects include a book, Bottom-up-- The Connection Revolution, debillionairizing the planet and the Psychopathy Defense and Optimization Project.
Rob Kall's Bottom Up Radio Show: Over 400 podcasts are archived for downloading here, or can be accessed from iTunes. Or check out my Youtube Channel
Rob Kall/OpEdNews Bottom Up YouTube video channel
Rob was published regularly on the Huffingtonpost.com for several years.
Rob is, with Opednews.com the first media winner of the Pillar Award for supporting Whistleblowers and the first amendment.
To learn more about Rob and OpEdNews.com, check out A Voice For Truth - ROB KALL | OM Times Magazine and this article.
For Rob's work in non-political realms mostly before 2000, see his C.V.. and here's an article on the Storycon Summit Meeting he founded and organized for eight years.
Press coverage in the Wall Street Journal: Party's Left Pushes for a Seat at the Table
Talk Nation Radio interview by David Swanson: Rob Kall on Bottom-Up Governance June, 2017Here is a one hour radio interview where Rob was a guest- on Envision This, and here is the transcript..
To watch Rob having a lively conversation with John Conyers, then Chair of the House Judiciary committee, click here. Watch Rob speaking on Bottom up economics at the Occupy G8 Economic Summit, here.
Follow Rob on Twitter & Facebook.
His quotes are here
Rob's articles express his personal opinion, not the opinion of this website.
Join the conversation:
On facebook at Rob Kall's Bottom-up The Connection Revolution
and at Google Groups listserve Bottom-up Top-down conversation