The November Election is About Voting to Defend Democracy

For Immediate Release: Monday, August 20, 2012.
Contact: Maria Svart 212-727-8610; Duane Campbell 916-361-9072

In a statement [see below] issued by its national political
committee, the Democratic Socialists of America calls upon the
nation and DSA members to defend democracy by participating in
the critical 2012 elections. The statement says, "The Left
confronts a Republican Party thoroughly controlled by right-
wing forces that are determined to cement a long-term control
of the federal government and a majority of the states." The
statement notes that after the 2010 Congressional elections,
"A newly established Republican political control over several
Midwestern states turned into a sweeping assault on public
sector unions and on the social safety net."

The statement says "A major weapon of the Radical Right is an
unprecedented flood of money from super-wealthy individuals
and corporations into the political arena, buying influence
and votes on a massive scale."

Joe Schwartz, chair of DSA's national political committee,
criticizes the Democratic Party for its past tepid response to
the Right Wing resurgence saying, "when the country cried out
for a vigorous defense against the ravages created by Wall
Street greed, Obama's economic advisors (largely drawn from
Wall Street) extended the Bush administration's bailout of the
banks and financial elite without extracting a return in
restored, strict financial regulation."

The statement calls upon DSA members to work with labor
unions, campus groups, the NAACP and others to "work against
all forms of voter suppression. " They note, "The first task
of a movement to defend democracy is to work for maximum voter
turnout in the 2012 election."

Noting that the Left proved too weak to force the first Obama
administration to respond to popular needs, the statement
recognizes that labor organizations, along with minority,
feminist, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered groups -
as well as many DSA members - will work hard to re-elect
President Obama, largely because a Romney administration would
cause havoc to the lives of the majority of Americans. It
also calls for work to elect or reelect members of the
Congressional Progressive, Black, and Hispanic Caucuses, as
well as putting more pro-labor people in state legislatures.
Special attention is called to several races including
independent candidate Bernie Sanders in Vermont.

Maria Svart, national director of DSA, urges building
coalitions to oppose further cuts to social spending and
supporting movements capable of pressuring whichever party is
in power. DSA argues these cuts can be avoided if "Congress
reversed the Bush and Reagan income tax-cuts for the top 2
percent, restoring 1960-era corporate tax rates and slashing
wasteful defense spending."

"This is a year," the statement concludes, "to take the
'democratic' part of our democratic socialism very seriously."

Please see the complete statement including budget
alternatives below.

DSA, the principal U.S. affiliate of the Socialist
International, is the largest socialist political organization
in the country, with more than 6,000 members and active locals
in more 40 U.S. cities and college campuses.
 
More information on DSA is available at its website,
www.dsausa.org. The complete statement is on the website at
http://www.dsausa.org/NewsFromDSA/2012/16aug2012.htm

Persons available for press comments.
Maria Svart (through Aug. 24). (212) 727-8610.
Joe Schwartz. (605) 592- 8255. [log in to unmask]

 ====

Complete statement;

The National Political Committee of Democratic Socialists of
America

August, 2012.

I. The Threat of Right-Wing Hegemony

The 2012 election poses an extreme challenge to the future
prospects for democracy in the United States. This threat
demands the focused attention of the broad Left - the labor
movement, communities of color, feminists, the LGBTQ
community, environmentalists and peace activists. The task for
the U.S. Left is two-fold. First, we must defeat the far-
Right threat to democracy. Second, we need to build a
grassroots, organized Left capable of fighting the corporate
interests that dominate the leadership of both major political
parties.

The Left confronts a Republican Party thoroughly controlled by
right-wing forces that are determined to cement long-term
control of the federal government and of the majority of
states. Its agenda is to extend the reign of the corporate
oligarchy over the whole of American society from top to
bottom. The wish list of the 1% includes dismantling not only
Social Security and Medicare, but all government programs
designed to benefit the large majority of people - the 99%.
This reactionary plan intends to repeal not only the New Deal
and the Great Society, but also the reforms of the Progressive
Era and the post-Watergate legislation of the 1970s. A Romney
victory would likely be accompanied by Republican control of
both the Senate and House, as well as the Supreme Court. Such
a governing majority would endeavor to pass the reactionary
Ryan budget, deny federal funding for women's reproductive
health, wage a sustained and fundamental attack on the rights
of workers and unions, and overturn already weakened federal
civil rights laws.

A major weapon of the Radical Right is an unprecedented flood
of money from super-wealthy individuals and corporations into
the political arena, buying influence and votes on a massive
scale. This intervention has been enabled by a long series of
decisions by the Supreme Court, culminating in the Citizens
United decision (and the recent Montana case) that essentially
encourage buying electoral results through massive negative
advertising - itself aimed at suppressing voter turnout -
under the guise of "free speech."

Another right-wing tactic is to suppress voting by African-
Americans, Hispanics, students and poor people generally,
under the guise of preventing non-existent "voter fraud." New
forms of photo ID requirements and restrictions on early
voting and independent voter registration efforts threaten to
remove millions of potential Democratic voters from the rolls.
This is part of a Republican racial strategy to convince swing
white voters that their economic distress is caused not by a
predatory corporate elite but by alleged government hand-outs
to undeserving poor people of color.

A third assault is to further weaken unions, particularly in
the public sector, by eliminating collective bargaining and
discouraging membership and imposing onerous new restrictions
on the use of union dues and agency fee payments in political
campaigns. Since unions, especially public sector unions, are
a major source of political opposition to right-wing causes
and campaigns, the Right is consciously out to destroy their
very existence.

II. The Tepid Democratic Response

How can such a radical restructuring of American politics and
policy, one that benefits the plutocracy at the expense of the
majority, have a real prospect of success in 2012?

One reason is that the national leadership of the Democratic
Party is not a consistent, credible champion for the interests
of the majority. The top of the party serves the interests of
its corporate funders over the needs of the party's mass base
of trade unionists, people of color, feminists and other
progressives. Thus, when the country cried out for a vigorous
defense against the ravages created by Wall Street greed,
Obama's economic advisors (largely drawn from Wall Street)
extended the Bush administration's bailout of the banks and
financial elite without exacting a return in restored, strict
financial regulation. The administration also failed to take
effective measures against foreclosures and job losses
associated with the crisis. Republicans and conservative
Democrats blocked any more far-reaching proposals, like those
of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and the Congressional
Progressive Caucus. Furthermore, in a misguided effort to
appear as a "strong" foreign policy leader, the president
unnecessarily extended the failed war in Afghanistan and
engaged in the indiscriminate use of drone warfare in clear
violation of international law.

Rightwing obstructionism and the waffling of the majority of
the Democratic Party understandably led to large Republican
gains in the Congressional elections of 2010. Thereafter, the
Tea Party-influenced House Republican majority curtailed any
possibility that the Obama administration would govern in a
progressive manner. Newly established Republican political
control over several Midwestern states turned into sweeping
assaults on public sector unions and on the social safety net.

President Obama's on-and-off flirtation with the neoliberal
view that fiscal "austerity" is the road out of the Great
Recession may prove to be his downfall in 2012. As federal
support for state and local programs faltered in the contrived
"debt crisis," most Democratic governors and legislators also
followed suit in slashing social programs and public employee
benefits. In addition, Obama's openness to "entitlement
reform" may deny the Democrats the mantle of being the staunch
protectors of Social Security and Medicare. If the Obama
administration had fought for -and succeeded in continuing
beyond - 2010 federal aid to preserve state and municipal
jobs, today's unemployment rate would be seven percent or
lower. This is the first recession since the early 1900s in
which public sector employment has fallen rather than grown.

III. Rebuild the Left by Defeating the Right

In light of the threat that would be posed to basic democratic
rights by Republican control of all three branches of the
federal government, most trade union, feminist, LGBTQ and
African- American and Latino organizations will work
vigorously to re-elect the president. And in swing states such
as Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia, Wisconsin and elsewhere, many
DSA members may choose to do the same. But DSA recognizes that
an Obama victory, unaccompanied by the strengthening of an
independent progressive coalition able to challenge the elites
of both parties, will be a purely defensive engagement in
lesser-evil politics.

The Left proved too weak to force the first Obama
administration to respond to popular needs. The Occupy
movement of fall 2011 gave voice to popular frustration with
the American plutocracy; but it emerged well after the
Republicans had gained control of the House. The Left must now
build upon the accomplishments of Occupy. Democratic
socialists must work to build a multi-racial coalition of
working people, the unemployed, indebted students and the
foreclosed that is capable of forcing politicians to govern
democratically. The first task of a movement to defend
democracy is to work for maximum voter turnout in the 2012
election.

Building such a mass social movement for democracy is DSA's
major task; the 2012 elections are only a tactical step on
that strategic path. Thus, while working to defeat the far
Right, DSA and other progressive forces should work to
increase the size of the Congressional Progressive, Black and
Latino caucuses and to elect pro-labor candidates to state
legislatures. The election this year of Tammy Baldwin (D-WI)
and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), along with the re-election of
Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT), would increase
the number of progressive voices in the United States Senate.

DSA locals should use their work in progressive electoral
campaigns to build coalitions opposed to further slashing of
federally-funded anti-poverty programs. Such disastrous
shredding of the social safety net will occur if the cuts
mandated by the August 2011 "budget compromise" are not
reversed before January 1, 2013. These "automatic cuts" in
domestic spending could readily be avoided if Congress
reversed the Bush and Reagan income tax cuts for the top two
percent, returned effective corporate tax rates to the levels
of the 1960s and reduced wasteful defense spending. In our
educational efforts in favor of progressive economic
alternatives, DSA locals should draw on the resources of the
DSA Fund's Grassroots Economics Training for Understanding and
Power (GETUP) and The Other America is Our America projects.
GETUP offers a comprehensive critique of neoliberal economic
thought and policy. The Other America project draws lessons
from the 50th anniversaries of the publication of The Other
America (1962); the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and
Justice; and the 1964 advent of the War on Poverty.

DSA locals should also work against all forms of voter
suppression, whether onerous photo ID requirements, harassment
of independent voter registration efforts, or phony purges of
voter rolls. DSA members should also take part in the voter
registration and turnout efforts by groups like the NAACP,
unions and progressive community groups.

DSA locals ought to also join efforts to restrict the role of
big money in political campaigns, including local efforts in
favor of a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens
United, to permit public campaign funding and to restrict the
abuse of "free speech" to buy elections.

This is a year to take the "democratic" part of our democratic
socialism very seriously. Whatever our analysis of the
numerous imperfections of US democracy, we should be
absolutely forthright about championing the rights of the
people to make their own political decisions.

==========

___________________________________________

Portside aims to provide material of interest to people
on the left that will help them to interpret the world
and to change it.

Submit via email: [log in to unmask]

Submit via the Web: http://portside.org/submittous3

Frequently asked questions: http://portside.org/faq

Sub/Unsub: http://portside.org/subscribe-and-unsubscribe

Search Portside archives: http://portside.org/archive

Contribute to Portside: https://portside.org/donate