Feb/March 2001
It
Does Pay to Fight
by Jackie Alan Guiliano
Bipartisanship
at the Expense of the Citizenry
by Howard Zinn
The
Greens Great Opportunity
by Blair Bobier
DLC
Says Gore's Presidential Bid Ruined by Populist Message: Others Disagree
by Brian Hansen
Letter
from Porto Alegre
by Norman Solomon
Doing
the Right Things, Without Making Someone Wrong
by John Darling
Globalization
From Below
by Jeremy Brecher, Tim Costello & Brendan Smith
Book
Review by Suzi Aufderheide
No Logo: Money, Marketing and the Growing Anti-Corporate Movement
by Naomi Klein
Book
Review by Gerry Cavanaugh
Hannibal
by Thomas Harris
Money
Talks
by Kayla Starr
America's
Food Safety Crisis Intensifies
by Ronnie Cummins
Coming
Home
by Jesse Wolf Hardin
The
Secret of the Valentines Angel
by Peter Melton
A
Prescription for Well-Being
by Peter Moore
Age-old
Concepts Benefit Modern Babies
by Pamela Jorrick
Cancer:
An Unexpected Way to the New Being
By Royal E. Alsup, Ph.D.
Book
Review by Kent Shew
Quantum Touch
by Richard Gordon
Cosmic
Calendar
By Salina Rain
DLC
Says Gore's Presidential Bid Ruined
by Populist Message: Others Disagree
By Brian Hansen
According to a new report drafted by the Democratic Leadership Council, Al Gore, self-styled environmental candidate in the 2000 Presidential election, lost his bid for the White House because he campaigned on an outdated "populist" platform that was too liberal for most Americans,
The 40 page report, "Why Gore Lost, and How Democrats Can Come Back," which concluded that the Democratic Party must move towards the political right—towards the Republicans—if it wants to regain control of Congress in 2002 and the White House in 2004, was unveiled last January by Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) officials.
Al From, the DLC's founder and CEO, argued that Democrat Al Gore made a huge tactical mistake by continually emphasizing that he would "fight for the people and not the powerful" as the nation's first president of the 21st Century.
"Gore chose a populist rather than a new Democrat message, and as a result, voters viewed him as too liberal and identified him as an advocate of big government," From claimed.
From rejected the argument that the so called "populist" message was vindicated by adding Gore's vote total to that compiled by Ralph Nader, the insurgent Green Party Presidential Candidate. From said that a combined Gore/Nader vote total does not justify the soundness of the populist message, which he said was crafted to evoke an unrealistic and imagined "specter of class warfare."
Nader, who has long blamed the DLC for "abandoning" the Democratic Party's progressive roots, said that Gore "didn't project authenticity during the campaign, and that he "didn't project conviction and take a real stand" on issues that mattered to American citizens. "He talked populism in a very general way, but he never filled the blanks in," Nader said.
Nader maintains that for the most part, the environmental initiatives that will be undertaken by Bush will not be substantially different from those that would have been put forth had Gore ascended to the White House. Spencer Abraham, Bush's new Energy Secretary, "cannot do worse than Al Gore did by giving the auto companies eight years holiday from fuel efficiency standards," Nader told ENS.
A Gore Presidency would have made little difference in terms of biotechnology issues, pesticides and herbicides, and environmentally unsound trade policies such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Nader added.
Nader acknowledged, however, that "there is a difference" between the two parties regarding public lands issues. The Democrats, Nader said, do not share the public lands views advocated by Gale Norton, Bush's nominee for Interior Secretary.
Still, Nader
told ENS that he harbors no regrets about his entry into the presidential
race, explaining that "our goal was a long range political reform movement,
and you build that in steps. It doesn't come overnight."
Nader said that the Green Party will provide millions of disaffected progressive voters with a "political home," and he promised a "geometric increase" in the number of candidates that the insurgent party will run in coming elections.
Jackson: Ignoring
Greens Will "Spell Disaster" For Democrats
That is exactly what worries Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr., a Democrat from
Illinois and one of the most progressive lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Jackson,
in an exclusive interview, told ENS that he "could not disagree more"
with the DLC's assertion that Al Gore's failed presidential bid means that
the Democratic Party needs to move to the political right.
"Their comments appear to be ahistorical, and ignore a significant reality in this past election," Jackson said. "The present DLC attitude and disposition as evidenced by the [report] … will only strengthen the Green Party in 2002 and 2004, and will therefore spell certain national disaster for the Democratic Party once again."
Jackson blamed the DLC for pushing policies such as NAFTA and the passage of Permanent Normal Trade Relations for China, both of which he said strengthened Nader's position in the past election. Conservation groups were largely united in their condemnation of those initiatives, maintaining that they would foster an economic "race to the bottom" that would lead to widespread environmental degradation.
"Almost all of [the DNC's arguments] appear to ignore the reality that Ralph Nader did well in Florida, and that he did well in a number of other states," Jackson said. "So it was not Al Gore's populist message that did him in, but it was the proven history and legacy of conservative democrats that created a split within the Democratic party that manifested itself in the Nader campaign."
Jackson said that both the Democratic and Republican Parties are "right of center" in terms of their appeal to the nation's population as a whole. More than 100 million eligible voters, he said, neglected to go to the polls on election day because "the political options afforded to Americans were right of center" in the campaign.
That is why Jackson sponsored a Congressional resolution to allow Green Party Candidate Ralph Nader to participate in the Presidential debates, he said.
"I thought [Nader] had a very important voice that was being locked out of the process," Jackson said. "Given Mr. Gore's performance in the debates, and given Mr. Bush's intellectual capacity, maybe the most thoughtful person in the debates might have been Ralph Nader."
Not one of Jackson's 534 colleagues on Capitol Hill signed on to his resolution to allow Nader into the debates. Nader filed a lawsuit against the corporate sponsored debate commission after he was denied permission to observe the first round in Boston, even though he maintained that he had a valid ticket to attend the event.
"Nader in debates would have brought the country closer to the real political center," Jackson said. "The millions of people who did not vote might have heard something different than what they were hearing from Mr. Gore and Mr. Bush."
Jackson decried the conservative DLC Democrats who are "rushing to the illusion of bipartisanship" with Bush and the Republicans on Capitol Hill. It is that conservative bipartisan coalition, he said, that allows Nader to say that the nation has "one corporate party with two different names."
"They're giving the country the illusion of bipartisanship, but the reality is that millions of Americans … are greatly disenchanted, disturbed and disappointed with Mr. Bush's election and his cabinet choices so far," Jackson said.
"Mr. Bush has not reached out the Congressional Black Caucus, or to the Progressive Caucus, or to the left wing of the Democratic Party," Jackson said. "And it's going to require two wings to fly."
Jackson told ENS that he plans to undertake a number of actions during this Congressional session to advance a progressive agenda, including introducing a Constitutional amendment designed to ensure a clean, safe and sustainable environment for all Americans.
From the Environmental News Service (http://ens-news.com) January 24, 2001.
