This is part of a response I received to the PD post:
could I get a comprehensive list of the views that one MUST espouse to be a REAL democrat? You guys seem to be writing it one blog at a time.
OK, fair enough. Here's an excerpt from a great DailyKos diary about what I think is the CORE issue of being a REAL Democrat:
Ever since the rise of movement conservatism in 1980, there has been a discernable failure by our government to effect the just distribution of profits in a market economy. Worse yet, liberals have forgotten how to use its principles as way to effectively explain how the middle class and working poor can actually lose ground during periods of high corporate profits.
To that end, liberals must again prove that they will provide Americans with a truer sense of personal security. This goal is attainable simply by using the canons of distributive justice capitalism; the means society uses to allocate its economic resources in proportion to the individual's needs. But to be truly effective, this conversation must be framed within the context of satisfying the greater common good through individual contribution, i.e., the responsibility every citizen has for maintaining the American institutions upon which all citizens rely upon for individual self-development.
Distributive justice democratizes capitalism while leaving intact the incentive for meritorious achievement. While recognizing the employer's right to a just compensation for proper management and economic risk it demands that that the laborer ceases being treated as a commodity but as a dignified individual. It accomplishes this goal not by focusing upon the endless receipt of public assistance, but by emphasizing the dignified compensation for honest labor. Such compensation requires the proportionally just distribution of profits to each individual who contributed to the production of a given item or a provided service.
Expanding the distribution of profits extends opportunity to a greater number of individuals by increasing their ability to acquire and own private property. Increasing both private property ownership and its means of acquisition are major steps forward in satisfying the common good goal of self-sufficiency and individual economic security to a greater number of individuals.
7 comments:
I don't ask Blue Puppy to be a "true Democrat," whatever that means.
I just ask him not to be a Republican.
So, why is Harold not a real Democrat?
I'll tell you why I don't consider him a "real Democrat".
It mainly has to do with his appearance here with Obama. His intro people spent their time talking about how important Ford's faith was to him and how important he thinks it is to support business. Those sound inherently conservative to me.
Then when you add in his undying support for the president and the war and his vote on the bankruptcy bill, the question can only be what is it about him that DOES make him a "real Democrat"?
Ask yourself that question.
Like I said above, he acts like a Republican, clearly pandering to a State-wide electorate. Watch the Flash ad he's running on WMCTV's and other websites. All those quotes come from conservative groups and journals. Some of the quotes themselves just make me ill.
He voted FOR a constitutional amendment denying gays their human rights (to marry).
He voted FOR a bankruptcy Bill that is a giveaway to creditors, and it took effect just as the credit card coimpanies upped their minimum payments, and mortgage companies upped their variable rates.
He claims to "love" his president.
He is unabashedly in support of the war.
He is playing footsie with faith-based politics.
He says he wants to move the Democrats center-right. Indeed he wants his own election to be a referendum on that.
If he had stayed in the Congress I would try to ihnore him. But now I will gleefully watch him go down in flames which I believe he will, because the Republicans have no qualms about using you, then butt-f'ing you when it suits them.
I think a D that panders to the Rs is more insidious than a true R, because the Rs get to use the panderer's "bipartisan" support to promote/guild their own agenda.
Think Joe Lieberman.
It's time to send Junior out into the world to get a real job.
"Stayed in Congress" -- I meant stayed in the HOUSE.
Admin, that rocks...
The Democratic Party is too "center-right" as it is; any further right and they'll be Reagan Republicans.
I am an FDR Democrat!
Admin, you are right. It's better to have a real R than a D acting like an R. You never know when they will sell.
Leftwingcracker, FDR saved American capitalism, the republic, and won WWII. Amazing. At times I find those feats almost incomprehensible. I to am a FDR Democrat. Unfortunately, we are rare in this party today. I worry that when America comes to its next great crisis, there will not be another President as visionary as FDR.
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