IS IT TIME FOR A NEW “WE PARTY?”
by Danny Schechter l Author of The Crime Of Our Time
They seem to be dropping like flies, as the old saying goes. Now, New Jersey Senator Lautenberg has been diagnosed with Cancer. Earlier in the week, Senator Bayh said Sayonara to the Senate and, a week ago, Jack Murtha of Pennslvania died somewhat mysteriously on the operating table with the Navy now investigating.

In a sense, this growing body count is a metaphor for a larger die-off—a death of democracy itself with the Supreme Court giving corporations the status of persons while the political system has been paralyzed by self-serving partisanship in a poisonous cloud of ideological extremism calling itself conservatism (while conserving nothing!)

The follow–up to the sad spectacle of that wannabe software entrepreneur who flew a plane into an IRA office based on a legitimate grievance with a tax code provision inserted initially to benefit IBM and other big companies that was legitimate. Sadder still was the disclosures that, despite attempts over decades to eliminate the rule by Presidents and members of both parties, nothing was done.

Nothing ever seems to get done.

So this angry Texan went beserk, borrowing a tactic from the al Qaeda playbook.

Perhaps that’s a symptom of why the public is so disgusted, regardless of party, Disillusion is  turning into despair with a system that goes on almost robotically with increasingly no connection with the public. Happily, despite the breakdown of government, there is growing anger with a private sector  which is, if anything, much worse, and less accountable to the extent that the legislative branch is accountable at all.

A new Zogby Poll reports: “Likely voters now have even less confidence in the nation’s large financial and business institutions than they do in both the federal and state governments. In contrast, small business and local banks earned very high levels of confidence.
“The survey asked confidence levels for all levels of government, business and finance, as well some other major institutions that impact the economy and society.”

But that’s not all. A Rasmussen poll goes further according to Naked Capitalism.com, finding:
“Today, just 21% of voters nationwide believe that the federal government enjoys the consent of the governed.

Seventy-one percent (71%) of all voters now view the federal government as a special interest group, and 70% believe that the government and big business typically work together in ways that hurt consumers and investors.That helps explain why 75% of voters are angry at the policies of the federal government, and 63% say it would be better for the country if most members of Congress are defeated this November…

“In his new book, In Search of Self-Governance, Scott Rasmussen observes that the American people are “united in the belief that our political system is broken, that politicians are corrupt, and that neither major political party has the answers.” He adds that “the gap between Americans who want to govern themselves and the politicians who want to rule over them may be as big today as the gap between the colonies and England during the 18th century.”

So what do the people want? Many are confused because of the news they get which might be renamed, the Daily Chaos, because of murky events that seem unconnected, even bizarre.

For one thing, many voters are at the point of dropping both political parties, says Rasmussen:

“Sixty percent (60%) of voters think that neither Republican political leaders nor Democratic political leaders have a good understanding of what is needed today. Thirty-five percent (35%) say Republicans and Democrats are so much alike that an entirely new political party is needed to represent the American people.”

This may explain the popularity of the Tea Party concept to many who are open to its simplistic analysis of a government betraying them.  The market researchers behind Fox News certainly understand that,  which is why they are working overtime to make it appear that the teabaggers speak for us all. In fact, polls show that at the very most, they represent only eleven percent of the public.

You wouldn’t know that by watching the fearless fanatics at Fox. As Professor Juan Cole observes,  the corporate media hype them beyond their significance ignoring a much bigger number of dissatisfied voters:

 

“Percentage of Americans involved in Tea Party Movement: 11

Number of mentions of “Tea Party” past month in Lexis radio and TV  transcript search: 1042”

He then pulls another stat out of his data base:
“Percentage of Americans who favor socialism: 20

Number of mentions of “socialism” past month in Lexis radio and tv transcript search: 69+

“Although nearly one of every two Americans is committed to a public option in the health care bill, the public option received only 1/4 as many mentions in US mass media in the past month as Tea Partiers, who are supported by 1 in 9 Americans.”

 

Most mentions of socialism, the political-economy preference of a fifth of Americans, in US corporate media are pejorative, occurring in stories about North Korea or China, or as insults directed at President Barack Obama. (In a recent Rasmussen poll, 52% of Americans supported capitalism and 20% supported socialism. Some 27% did not know what  they supported.)”

So there you go: this reveals a media as out of touch as the politricans they cover. That’s why I am calling for something new so that the 20 Percent can have  as much impact as the ll percent and so the people enraged at Wall Street can be heard.
Isn’t it time for something new on our side of the spectrum that, just coincidentally, has the possibility of reaching so many more discontented people and constituencies?

Let Repugs be Repugs and Dems Be Dems, and let the Tea Party teabag itself to oblivion.

It’s time to create something we can believe in—I suggest a new coalition, a populist WE PARTY: a party for those of us who want the changes we voted for, who want to end the wars, who believe in a more equal and fair society.

Stop obsessing over the Tea Party and see if we can apply what they are doing right organizationally and strategically.
We need a party we can call our own, an organized caucus and movement to pressure the DINOS and The White House. (And we could use a TV network supportive of our aspirations too.)

Today the Right is just aping the 60’s activist tradition. We are better at it if we can free ourselves from our illusions and avoid the sectarianism and correct-linism that has led so many left parties to self-destruct in the past.

Our country is sinking. We need a big idea and it’s not so hard to visualize like the WE PARTY. Only we can free our minds and ourselves.