NOT A DEMOCRAT . . . . A HUMBLE OPINION
As the dust settles on the November elections and the Democrats assess the damage, one thing seems increasingly clear. . . it is no longer clear at all just who or what is a Democrat. Given the apparent identity crisis, a process of elimination may be in order. . .
If you are not willing to openly fight the historic wealth inequality that has replaced democracy in America, you are not a Democrat.
If you are not publicly advocating the breakup of “too big to fail” Wall Street banks, you are not a Democrat.
If you do not rigorously support criminal prosecution of the fraud perpetrated on the people of America by the heads of Wall Street financial institutions, you are not a Democrat.
If you are not outspokenly calling for increased taxes on capital gains and a financial transaction tax, you are not a Democrat.
If you are not openly calling for a constitutional amendment to overrule the Citizens United decision allowing near unlimited corporate contributions to political campaigns, you are not a Democrat.
If your campaign was financed by Wall Street and corporations, you are not a Democrat. You are a servant of the rich. Even if you win, the people of America still lose.
If you voted in favor of the recent “cromnibus” federal spending bill that opens the door for another public bailout of Wall Street banks, allows increased campaign financing by the rich and corporations, and legalizes greater theft from the pension funds of working Americans, you are not a Democrat. You have sold working Americans and their children down the river. You have shamed the name of Democrat.
If as president you fought alongside Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan, to pass the “cromnibus” spending bill legislation written by Citibank, you are not a Democrat. You are a Wall Street crony. You are looting America.
If as president you are fighting to pass the corporate destruction of democracy called the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), you are not a Democrat. You are installing corporate government in America.
If as a former president you signed the legislation repealing the Glass-Steagall Act separating commercial and investment banking, you are not a Democrat. You and the Citibank officials you installed in your Treasury Department led the way for the financial collapse of 2007/08 that destroyed the lives of millions upon millions of decent Americans and their families.
If as a former president you signed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), you are not a Democrat. You personally drove down the wages of working Americans or sent their jobs out of America altogether.
If as a potential Democratic candidate for president in 2016, you have been paid $200,000 or more per speech to give talks – closed to the press and the public – to JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, the investment firms Fidelity, KKR, the Carlyle Group, and others, you have already sold your soul. You are not a Democrat. You are a Wall Street insider, a well-paid member of the Money Party – the Oligarchy Party – now in control of America. The Democratic and Republican Parties are merely tools for exploitation in support of your ruling class.
If as a former or current president you have in any way suggested that you would support cuts to social security, you are the antithesis of all that is Democrat, a traitor to the very name.
The list goes on and on: If you are not publicly screaming for a national minimum wage of at least $15.00/hour; if you are not openly supporting labor unions; if you are not fighting for single-payer universal public healthcare; if you do not adamantly oppose the privatization of our public schools, the privatization of prisons; if you are not fighting to raise taxes on the rich and corporations – to stop the offshoring of billions of dollars to the Cayman Islands or Swiss banks or other secret “elsewheres” by wealthy tax dodgers; if you are not openly promoting publicly owned state banks like the Bank of North Dakota; if you are not working to stop the insanity of the National Rifle Association and promoting gun control; if you are not taking on the big pharmaceuticals and forcing them to negotiate drug prices like they do in virtually every other industrialized nation on the planet; if you are not promoting alternative energies and fighting to stop climate change; if you are not openly promoting women’s rights and fair treatment of women in the workplace; you are not a Democrat.
These are not issues for compromise or bargaining. They are the very essence of being a Democrat – the essence of being an American. They are the essence of being a decent human being. If Democrats do not begin fighting for their people, voters will choose candidates who are at least honest enough to admit they are working for the rich.