The Purpose Of The Democratic Party...

Kevin Drum has an interesting look today at "What Democrats Stand For", recounting the tale of another blogger, seemingly well in with the in crowd, who recently sat in on "a focus group of (Ivy League) Democratic activists who were asked what the party stands for". The blogger, David Adesnik of Oxblog, reported:

...Almost every answer was exactly the same. The purpose of the Democratic party is to help the poor and the disadvantaged.

....The organizer's response to this unexpected consensus was both sympathetic and devastating. On the one hand, this consensus suggested that there is a foundational commitment on which Democrats can build. On the other hand, if the purpose of the Democratic party is to help the disadvantaged, what can the party possibly offer to the overwhelming majority of Americans who see themeslves as middle class?

Now Kevin's answer to that question is spot on:

To a growing extent, the type of gnawing stress and uncertainty that has always afflicted the daily life of the poor is increasingly afflicting the working and middle classes as well: stagnant wages, booms and busts in income from year to year, disappearing pensions, predatory lending, unreliable healthcare, and the constant, everpresent background fear of being laid off and falling into a hole you can never dig yourself out of.

This growing instability affects a huge swath of workers in the United States, and it's something the Democratic Party should dedicate itself to addressing.

And he has some great graphs to prove it.

But "The purpose of the Democratic party is to help the poor and the disadvantaged."?

This is satire, right? Like saying the Republicans are for small government?

If not, why did Biden and others vote for the Bankruptcy Bill? Why is there no Dem leader willing to speak up for universal healthcare? Why did so many Dems vote for CAFTA? Where's the plan for electoral reform to place the onus for voter registration on the State instead of the individual and to make it easier to register while they are at it? Where's the plan to reform welfare so that people don't starve because they dont meet thresholds which are utterly out of touch with reality? Where's the plan to give education for all for as far as they can take it, not just to High School level? Where's the plan (and this is a biggy) to limit the power of corporate lobbyists through campaign finance and actually return representation to the people? How many Senators are on record as saying they would repeal Bush's tax giveaways to the rich?

The Democrat leadership are so far from having a platform aimed at helping the poor and disadvantaged its scary. Instead they pursue a course of "any policy we think will get us elected" while making damn sure they don't lose their corporate dollars.

Here's a novel thought for you - whatever the rank-and-file may say or think is largely irrelevant as long as the Leadership don't say the same things. The people of America will judge both parties primarily by the folks they put up for election to the House, the Senate and the White House. If the Democratic Party wants to be for anything at all, then the public faces of the Party must be publicly working for the same things.

How can the rank and file of the Democratic Party ensure that the leadership of the Party are truly representative of the base's convictions?