Industrial Authoritarians

A little light reading for the progressively minded.

Obstruction from the New Democrats (adherents to the DLC philosophy) are a big part of why the newly elected Democratic majority in Congress seems to be having so much trouble keeping their policy promises. Glenn W. Smith eloquently identifies the DLC not as centrists, but as industrial authoritarians.

Glenn W. Smith: The Trouble with the DLC
Submitted by BuzzFlash on Tue, 08/14/2007 - 9:15am.

A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION
by Glenn W. Smith

Why are Harold Ford and others from the more paternalistic and condescending quarters of the Democratic Party so keen on discrediting the rising progressive movement? What have been the consequences of their obsession with "the middle"? Most importantly, how have the Tory Democrats managed to bury the expression of deep progressive values, and what should the progressive movement do about it?

For three decades, advocates of "centrism" have used their money to monopolize the Democratic message and leave the progressive base out in the cold, not spoken to. Since its founding in 1985, the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) has been leading this effort. How did they pull this off? Before we get into that, let's call them what they are. "Centrist" implies conciliation, moderation, compromise. It reinforces the mistaken idea that our political life falls along a neat, linear scale from left to right. That metaphor makes the center a pretty good and safe place to be. And it certainly is not.

The plutocratic Democrats should be referred to not as centrists, but as industrial authoritarians. Their movement was born after the Nixon re-election in 1972. They blamed that landslide on Democratic Party rules changes that audaciously sought to include Americans formerly excluded from the backrooms of power. They fronted for older corporate interests -- oil and gas, finance, insurance. They are really 19th-Century paternalists who would save us from ourselves by keeping us far from the plantation's Big House. ...(read the full article)

Once you've read all of Glenn Smith's article, have a look at what George Lakoff has to say about Centrism and being progressive.

"Centrism" is the creation of an inaccurate self-serving metaphor, and it is time to bury it.

... The progressive view of government is simple. Progressive government has two aspects: protection and empowerment. Protection is far more than the military, police, and fire departments. It includes consumer protection, worker protection, environmental protection, public health, food and drug safety; social security, and other safety nets. It also includes protection from the government itself, and hence a balance of powers, openness, fundamental rights, and so on.

Empowerment include roads and bridges; public education; government-developed communications like the internet and satellite communications systems; the banking system; the SEC and institutions that make a stock market possible, and the court system, mostly about contracts and corporate law. Progressive government makes business possible. No one makes any money in this country without the progressive empowerment by government. A progressive foreign policy is not based solely, or even mainly, on the state -- about the "national interest" defined as our military strength and GDP. Progressive foreign policy focuses on individual people's interests as well as national interests: on poverty, disease, refugees, education, women's and children's issues, public health, and so on.

These are simply American values. The progressive movement is a patriotic American movement. ... (read the full article)

Lakoff is right on the money with his conclusion; "It is important to stand up to the DLC, and to the idea that there is a unitary mainstream center, that they are it, and that progressives are extremists and deserve to be marginalized."

So now that you know there isn't a "unitary mainstream center" let me point out that anything you hear about Americans being fundamentally conservative is a MYTH. The average American holds solidly progressive views, even if they don't call themselves Progressives.

The Progressive Majority:
Why a Conservative America Is a Myth

Conventional wisdom says that the American public is fundamentally conservative - hostile to government, in favor of unregulated markets, at peace with inequality, wanting a foreign policy based on the projection of military power, and traditional in its social values.

But as this report demonstrates, that picture is fundamentally false. Media perceptions and past Republican electoral successes notwithstanding, Americans are progressive across a wide range of controversial issues, and they're growing more progressive all the time.

This report gathers together years of public opinion data from unimpeachably nonpartisan sources to show that on issue after issue, the majority of Americans hold progressive positions. And this is true not only of specific policy proposals, but of the fundamental perspectives and approaches that Americans bring to bear on issues. ...(read more)