A New Party

We must strike while the iron is hot!

As we can see, most Congressional Republicans are (at least privately) questioning the policies of the Bush Administration. Many distanced themselves from him in the 2006 election and more are distancing themselves today. Defections from the Right over leaving Iraq are showing the weakening strangle-hold Conservative ideologues have had on power in Washington. In some ways, this is a new day.

All along, ‘real’ Republicans have been concerned with Bush’s overspending, producing wild deficits. Many more have shown concern for their own tendency to over-earmark bills under Tom DeLay and Hastert leadership.

Some conservatives are even figuring out that the oligarchy created by mega-corporations is not only worse than big government, but goes against conservative principles. This is my point.

I said before the 2004 election that had Kerry turned populist, things would have shifted. I have been arguing for ages that the one thing that Democrats and Republicans are identically wrong on is the corporate position in our economy. Adam Smith, in the Wealth of Nations, the textbook of free-marketers also suggests that any group big enough to be a corporation is in itself a monopoly. Free Market economics as played by the United States is unsustainable as a national position (it won’t last the century, let alone half that time), compromises the fundamental principles of democracy: one person=one vote.

This is further muddied by the Supreme Court’s ruling that corporations are people; which also means that they are people that don’t die, are comprised of other people, and have a means of producing their own wealth that individuals don’t possess. Combine that with ‘money=free speech’, and you have cocktail with disastrous consequences for our corporate health.

The Democratic Party, for the last century has been on the side of the populist. It has been the party of the hard-working middle class. It has also been the party of inclusion and empowerment, strengthening the influence of minorities (racial, ethnic, sexual, etc.) for the betterment of society. It has also been the party of togetherness and betterment of our society. With the tide turning against corporate influence, its about time that Democrats stake claim to their true populist roots. Don’t satisfy yourselves with unions, but take policies that abandon corporate tax cuts, but encourage local production and distribution. If they don’t, the Republicans will. Outflanked, where will that leave the Democratic Party?