Hillary Clinton's suffocating presence/The Economist

[woo me with science]

92. Nonsense. Of course individual Democrats speak out in favor of liberal policies.

That's how corporate Democrats get elected in the first place...by pretending to stand for the positions that have always drawn people to the Democratic Party. Part of the job description of a corporate Democrat is pretending to care about the same things the voters do. That's why corporate Democrats routinely LIE their way through campaigns, pretending to stand for things like a public option, or reining in the surveillance state, or protecting the 99 percent against criminal bankers. But their collective actions belie their pretty words once they are elected.

You have to watch their BEHAVIOR in office, and the policies that are actually enacted when they have power to control the outcome. Over and over again we see the deliberate installation of corporatists into positions of power in the administration. Over and over again we see executive actions that entrench and expand the Bush agenda. Over and over again, we see *just enough* corporate Democrats voting with Republicans to ensure that predatory corporate policies are expanded and the liberal policies they claim to support can never actually materialize.

That's the scam, and it's a familiar one by now. "The primary tactic in this con game is Villain Rotation."

http://www.salon.com/2010/02/23/democrats_34/

Tuesday, Feb 23, 2010 11:24 AM UTC
The Democratic Party’s deceitful game
They are willing to bravely support any progressive bill as long as there's no chance it can pass

Democrats perpetrate the same scam over and over on their own supporters, and this illustrates perfectly how it’s played:

.... Rockefeller was willing to be a righteous champion for the public option as long as it had no chance of passing...But now that Democrats are strongly considering the reconciliation process — which will allow passage with only 50 rather than 60 votes and thus enable them to enact a public option — Rockefeller is suddenly “inclined to oppose it” because he doesn’t “think the timing of it is very good” and it’s “too partisan.” What strange excuses for someone to make with regard to a provision that he claimed, a mere five months ago (when he knew it couldn’t pass), was such a moral and policy imperative that he “would not relent” in ensuring its enactment.
....
This is what the Democratic Party does...They’re willing to feign support for anything their voters want just as long as there’s no chance that they can pass it. They won control of Congress in the 2006 midterm elections by pretending they wanted to compel an end to the Iraq War and Bush surveillance and interrogation abuses because they knew they would not actually do so; and indeed, once they were given the majority, the Democratic-controlled Congress continued to fund the war without conditions, to legalize Bush’s eavesdropping program, and to do nothing to stop Bush’s habeas and interrogation abuses (“Gosh, what can we do? We just don’t have 60 votes).

The primary tactic in this game is Villain Rotation. They always have a handful of Democratic Senators announce that they will be the ones to deviate this time from the ostensible party position and impede success, but the designated Villain constantly shifts, so the Party itself can claim it supports these measures while an always-changing handful of their members invariably prevent it. One minute, it’s Jay Rockefeller as the Prime Villain leading the way in protecting Bush surveillance programs and demanding telecom immunity; the next minute, it’s Dianne Feinstein and Chuck Schumer joining hands and “breaking with their party” to ensure Michael Mukasey’s confirmation as Attorney General; then it’s Big Bad Joe Lieberman single-handedly blocking Medicare expansion; then it’s Blanche Lincoln and Jim Webb joining with Lindsey Graham to support the de-funding of civilian trials for Terrorists; and now that they can’t blame Lieberman or Ben Nelson any longer on health care (since they don’t need 60 votes), Jay Rockefeller voluntarily returns to the Villain Role, stepping up to put an end to the pretend-movement among Senate Democrats to enact the public option via reconciliation.

This is the scam of corporate rule. We need to get the Third Way, Wall Street infiltration out of our party.