The Shifting Political Bandwidth of Democracy

The diagram above is one that shows my viewpoint of where our two parties have been for the past 33 years. The conservatives have been in control exclusively since the end of Jimmy Carter’s term. Bill Clinton is a conservative Democrat, and has membership in the DLC to prove it. Throughout the last six years of his term, the Republicans were in control of both houses of Congress and all of the legislation passed during that time was conservative legislation. The shaded area represents the part of the conservative bloc that is in flux this election.  Although not indicated, the green area of the progressives has increased by at least 13 million newly registered Democrats this year according to the last count I read in August.

In spite of any illusions to the contrary, conservatives have been in control of our government for the past 33 years—and look what we the people have to show for it today as a nation. The only difference between a conservative Republican and a conservative Democrat is that the conservative Democrat would keep a little more government whereas the Conservative Republican would destroy it all except for the part that maintains the police and military—and even that they would privatize to be paid by the middle-class and poor taxpayers while continuing their tax breaks for the rich.

The Great Political Awakening of 2008

This has happened for numerous reasons. A few of them include the appearance of a candidate such a Barack Obama with the charisma and skill to restore hope in the hearts of Americans; the American’s fatigue with the Iraq War; the endless parade of lies from the current Republican administration; their total disrespect for the law of our land and the Constitution on which our government is founded; job loss as a result of the countless trade agreements that our government has negotiated without labor being represented; million dollar tax breaks for the wealthy and pennies for ordinary Americans; continued bailouts of the financial industry; the cynical politics of a trickle down economy, etc.

What will happen on November 4?

No one really knows. Amazing, but it is still a crap shoot, although after this past week, things are looking up for the Democrats. If you will look at my diagram you will see an area with hatch marks. On the Democrat’s side, this represents conservative democrats who may still claim membership in the DLC. In addition it includes wealthy surrogates such as Lady de Rothschild, a once supporter of the Clintons. Lady de Rothschild has already crossed over to the Republican side. No surprise there. My rough estimate is that about 30% of this group will move over to the Republican side as people like Joe Liebermann have done—even though his defection is not yet official. If McCain wins, it will be. If McCain loses, Liebermann can forget his career as a Democrat.

The hatch marked portion of the Republican side represents people who vote Republican against their best interests because they mistakenly perceive that this party represents their middle class values. The real truth about the Republican Party is that they represent the interests of no more than 5% of the American people—the wealthiest. As evidenced by the Democratic convention, the Democrats are swelling their ranks with a lot of defectors from the Republican camp.

So, in terms of determining the winner for November 4, regardless what the GOP directed polls continue to say, the cards are stacked heavily in favor of Democrats. We have a much larger potential pool of defectors from the Republican Party than they have from the Democratic side, but even more important, we don’t know yet just how large that green block indicated as “progressives” has grown over the past few months. The last I heard, we have over 13 million more democrats than Republicans nationwide as a result of our aggressive voter registration drives. Add to that the Democratic liberals (indicated by the “3” block in the diagram) and the numbers for the Democrats swell even more. In years gone by, you could count on many members of liberals from our party to defect to people like Ralph Nader. Not this year. Not this time. The huge majority of these people, people such as I, are solidly behind Barack Obama.

And one thing is certain: In spite of the Republican claptrap coming out of the McCain campaign, there are no progressives in the Republican Party.  To be a Republican and say that you are progressive is an oxymoron–unless you consider representing the rich to the detriment of the middle class and poor as being progressive.

Proclaim the Queen!

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