The Last Picnic: Keystone
“Sitting at the table doesn’t make you a diner, unless you eat some of what’s on that plate.”
-- Malcolm X
“If we can’t sit at that table, let’s knock the fucking legs off!”
-- James Forman
Within days of republican victories in the House and Senate election contests, the possibility of “compromise” on the proposed Keystone Pipeline was being floated in the media. This is, of course, a fiction -- there is no “compromise” -- either there is a Keystone Pipeline, or there is not. The only things that would be compromised by building the pipeline would be the environment, and any sense of ethics that our democratic representatives claim to have.
Throughout my adult life, I have advocated an informal coalition of the Democratic Party and the Democratic Left to confront the republican machine. There are numerous areas where we share common interests, and can find common ground. Indeed, there are a substantial number of registered democrats who identify with the Democratic Left. I am one of them.
In my experience, the combined efforts of the Democratic Party and Democratic Left have been able to defeat republican candidates in local elections. This has been true, despite the fact that there are more registered republicans in this region of upstate New York, than there are democrats, third parties, or independents. That same combination was able to elect (and re-elect) Maurice Hinchey to the House of Representatives for years.
Yet, after Hinchey’s retirement, the democratic candidate failed to reach out to the Democrat Left, in the mistaken belief that he could take their support for granted. This same tactic was tried by other democratic candidates for state office this year, resulting in defeat. Only the governor was able to safely write off the left’s support.
The Democratic Left wants a seat at the table. Likewise, the left-wing of the Democratic Party does. We are sophisticated enough to know that “politics is the art of compromise.” We’re not demanding our way or the highway on the majority of issues. People can agree in general on issues such as the value of public education, yet have different opinions on how to best achieve the best results. Certainly, not everything has a “one size fits all” solution.
But there are a few issues where compromise is not an option. We shouldn’t be willing to compromise our ethics. We should never be willing to compromise on issues that present extreme dangers to human health and the living environment.
When democrats in Washington, DC, talk about “compromise” in the context of ethical issues, that’s fancy language for selling out. It means that they have more loyalty to energy corporations, than to human beings. With the 2016 elections looming less than two years away, “compromising” on the Keystone Pipeline would be as damaging to the Democratic Party, as the pipeline would be to the environment.
I am a loyal member of the Democratic Party. I’ve volunteered lots of hours in campaign headquarters, donated money. and gone door-to-door for numerous candidates over the decades. But I won’t donate a penny or vote for any candidate who I consider to be wrong on ethical issues. I won’t support a neoconservative, nor an energy industry lap dog. And I damn sure won’t ask anyone -- be they a member of the Democratic Party or the Democratic Left -- to do so, either.
At the same time, I will definitely remain as active a participant in politics as I have been. My efforts will include trying to reform the Democratic Party from the grass roots up. It will also include working with the Democratic Left. I think that is the best way to let those at the state and national level know that they cannot take people like myself for granted. If enough people do something similar, it will communicate clearly that their old “they have no where else to go” is simple not true.
Peace,
H2O Man
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