The gradual evolution of the modern-day Democratic Party

[kentuck]

Many folks are blaming the President for not getting more dramatic change after we gave him a 60-seat Senate and a huge majority in the House. However, today's Democratic Party is not the same Party that passed Social Security or Medicare or the Civil Rights Act. This is an entirely different animal.

It has evolved since the days of LBJ in the 1960's. It is not the same Party. This evolution is why they were unable to pass the legislation that was needed. This Party preferred to put on a spare tire and wax the old car and call it a new one. People suspiciously thought it looked very much like the old car.

The President is not entirely to blame. Being a creature of the Senate, he believed in getting whatever he could get, so long as it was progress. The Democratic Congress was unable to coalesce around any plan that our country truly needed. So we got change that many folks were unhappy with.

But it is not the President's fault. It is not the Congress' fault. It is the fault of the Democratic voters. It is they that let the Party evolve to the point it is today. They forgot what they stand for or what they are supposed to stand for.

For purely political reasons, voters were willing to put in Blue Dog conservatives so long as it maintained power for the Democrats. They were willing to compromise their principles, so long as it kept the Democratic Party in power. Because we were fearful of what the Republicans would do.

In the process, we gradually became more and more moderate to conservative in our beliefs. We were more willing to spend on defense. We were more friendly toward big business. We looked at taxcuts differently than in the past. We have evolved to where we are today. This has prohibited the Party from attempting more daring change.

However, many of today's progressives have not evolved. When they were promised "change", they expected dramatic change. Not the kind of change that was passed by Roosevelt or LBJ. Not like Social Security, Medicare, or Civil Rights legislation. But they forget that today's Social Security, Medicare, and Civil Rights legislation, when it was passed, were not the same programs that we have today. We built on them over the years.

No doubt, we need to bring our Party back from its conservative tendencies. But we should not throw out the baby with the bathwater. We should take what we have and build on it. We should demand a public option or a single payer for our health care. We should get out of these wars immediately. We should hold these big banks and white collar criminals responsible.

Yes, we did not get anywhere near the change we needed. We have plenty of work left to do. Regardless of how the elections turn out on Tuesday, we should work to make the Democratic Party more friendly to the people and less friendly to taxcuts for millionaires and big businesses. It is up to us to change the new Congress, whether they be in the minority or the majority.