KurtFF8
10th November 2010, 19:49
Source (http://southernleftists.wordpress.com/2010/11/10/blue-dog-democrats-take-major-hit-in-mid-term-elections/)
I posted this at the Southern Leftist blog (btw Rick Scott is the new Florida Governor, probably should have clarified that in the article)
By KurtFF8
One of the political groupings that lost the most in the elections last week were southern Blue Dog Democrats. The conservative group of Democrats formed in 1995 represented the most right-wing of the Democratic Party. The Party spent a lot of time hoping they could gain power at the national level by appealing to the more conservative elements of the South (something the GOP has historically done since the end of segregation). This “neo-Southern strategy” has to some extent, come to an end (at least in the short run).
I’ve said, and am not alone in saying, that the failure of the Democratic Party last week is their responsibility. It doesn’t represent a major right wing shift or prestige of the Tea Party (although within the conservative movement in the United States, it has obviously grown considerably) but instead was a failure of the Democratic Party to bring anything to the table to get their even liberal supporters to stand behind.
Take health care for example. The Democrats started at a compromise: a public option. Then the GOP negotiated away from that compromise and the health care reform that was passed was significantly watered down, in a major part as the result of the poor political choices of the Democrats.
But why do the Democrats do this? There are of course various different factors. One factor, the Blue Dogs. The conservative section of their party is constantly a road block for progressive legislation that also blocks the Democratic Party from ever being able to reach the status of a Social Democratic party (which puts America in a strange position compared to the rest of the “Advanced Industrialized World”). Another, perhaps obvious factor, is the power of Pharmaceutical and Health Insurance companies. They are some of the most profitable industries in the country and are not currently being threatened by any major/strong labor movement. The relationship between the Democratic Party and capital is no surprise to the Left. And in a place like the South that disproportionately lacks a strong labor movement, even the mainstream “alternative” to the GOP is significantly more right leaning. As a result, the discourse in Southern politics revolves less around class consciousness, and fighting capital, but instead is more around conservative issues like abortion (which was one of Rick Scott’s big talking points). This and the resistance to what the right has labeled “Obamacare,” are some of the things that have galvanized the right.
But the Left often makes the mistake of thinking that the working class is just moving more to the right, and that things like the Tea Party are made up of misguided workers. This is a misconception, as the labor movement in the US (while it has its host of problems, both historically and today), is not the base of these reactionary movements, and never has been. The “mobilization of the Tea Party” for this election should instead be viewed as a “lack of support by and lack of mobilization of the working class” instead.
So in a place like the South, where labor has to chose between overtly pro-business candidates, and just-a-little-less-overtly pro-business candidates: it’s easy to see why groups like the Blue Dogs have failed this time around. That’s not to say that the strategy of playing on conservatism of elements of the working class in the South won’t work in the future for the 2 pro-capitalist parties that rule America, but if we are to measure this election as anything: it should be a lack of faith in the party that is self described as being pro-labor. This is why an independent working class organization (party, social movement, whichever your flavor of the Left) is greatly needed, especially in the US South.
Further reading: Election nearly wipes out white Southern Democrats AP Article (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101105/ap_on_el_ge/us_whither_southern_democrats_4)
I posted this at the Southern Leftist blog (btw Rick Scott is the new Florida Governor, probably should have clarified that in the article)
By KurtFF8
One of the political groupings that lost the most in the elections last week were southern Blue Dog Democrats. The conservative group of Democrats formed in 1995 represented the most right-wing of the Democratic Party. The Party spent a lot of time hoping they could gain power at the national level by appealing to the more conservative elements of the South (something the GOP has historically done since the end of segregation). This “neo-Southern strategy” has to some extent, come to an end (at least in the short run).
I’ve said, and am not alone in saying, that the failure of the Democratic Party last week is their responsibility. It doesn’t represent a major right wing shift or prestige of the Tea Party (although within the conservative movement in the United States, it has obviously grown considerably) but instead was a failure of the Democratic Party to bring anything to the table to get their even liberal supporters to stand behind.
Take health care for example. The Democrats started at a compromise: a public option. Then the GOP negotiated away from that compromise and the health care reform that was passed was significantly watered down, in a major part as the result of the poor political choices of the Democrats.
But why do the Democrats do this? There are of course various different factors. One factor, the Blue Dogs. The conservative section of their party is constantly a road block for progressive legislation that also blocks the Democratic Party from ever being able to reach the status of a Social Democratic party (which puts America in a strange position compared to the rest of the “Advanced Industrialized World”). Another, perhaps obvious factor, is the power of Pharmaceutical and Health Insurance companies. They are some of the most profitable industries in the country and are not currently being threatened by any major/strong labor movement. The relationship between the Democratic Party and capital is no surprise to the Left. And in a place like the South that disproportionately lacks a strong labor movement, even the mainstream “alternative” to the GOP is significantly more right leaning. As a result, the discourse in Southern politics revolves less around class consciousness, and fighting capital, but instead is more around conservative issues like abortion (which was one of Rick Scott’s big talking points). This and the resistance to what the right has labeled “Obamacare,” are some of the things that have galvanized the right.
But the Left often makes the mistake of thinking that the working class is just moving more to the right, and that things like the Tea Party are made up of misguided workers. This is a misconception, as the labor movement in the US (while it has its host of problems, both historically and today), is not the base of these reactionary movements, and never has been. The “mobilization of the Tea Party” for this election should instead be viewed as a “lack of support by and lack of mobilization of the working class” instead.
So in a place like the South, where labor has to chose between overtly pro-business candidates, and just-a-little-less-overtly pro-business candidates: it’s easy to see why groups like the Blue Dogs have failed this time around. That’s not to say that the strategy of playing on conservatism of elements of the working class in the South won’t work in the future for the 2 pro-capitalist parties that rule America, but if we are to measure this election as anything: it should be a lack of faith in the party that is self described as being pro-labor. This is why an independent working class organization (party, social movement, whichever your flavor of the Left) is greatly needed, especially in the US South.
Further reading: Election nearly wipes out white Southern Democrats AP Article (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101105/ap_on_el_ge/us_whither_southern_democrats_4)