Corporatist Dems Won't Defeat Corporatist Repubs...and It Won't Change a Thing If They Did

What Do Democrats Stand For?

By RALPH NADER

With the Bush regime reeling from its own derelictions and falling in the national polls, the question most frequently put to the leading Democrats is, "What do the Democrats stand for?"

Last month, the Democratic Party and its political consultants came up with their proposed new slogan: "Together, America Can Do Better." That's reassuring, given the Republican mess of huge deficits, rising job exports, runaway corporate militarism, pounding the poor and re-enriching the rich and generally leaving Americans defenseless against concentrated greed and power.

Why not cast aside this slogan and replace it with a program that signifies that the Democrats "Stand With The People"? Stand with them for full Medicare for all. Stand with them for quality public services from schools to public transit to environmental protection to libraries.

Stand with them for an end to diverting their taxes into huge programs that subsidize, bailout and give away peoples' assets to large corporations.

Stand with them for consumer protection from rip-offs, from shredding traditional consumer rights to take companies who cheat or hurt them to courts, from taking the government cops off the corporate crime, fraud and abuse beats.

Stand with them and their rights vis-à-vis large corporations like Wal-Mart that exploit them and block their right to organize and fight back.

Stand with them in their desire to nurture their children's childhoods in decent, affordable housing, safe neighborhoods and good schools and clinics.

Stand with them with a people's budget directed to necessities of the American people receiving the benefits of tax dollars under a fair system of taxation.

Has the Democratic Party aggressively challenged as a party the notorious Patriot Act and its further abuse by the Bush regime? To the contrary, the Bush people in Congress are making most of the worst provisions permanent and adding a few more erosions of liberty.

Lastly, the Democratic Party is clueless when it comes to a Party's responsibility to continually strengthen the power of the people to direct and hold their government accountable through clean elections and facilities that enhance banding together as workers, consumers and taxpayers.

Come on, Democratic Party, "Stand With The People." Corporatist Democrats cannot defeat corporatist Republicans.