Destroying the D.C. System of Patronage

This MUST end.

Bill Clinton's gift to the gasping Lieberman campaign in the form a breath of undeserved oxygen, together with Barbara Boxer's appalling campaign assistance, has highlighted something incredibly important:

This is not just the DLC we are fighting.  It's not just the entrenched corporatists on the Democratic side of the aisle.  It's not just the spineless conventional wisdom of bubbled-in D.C. Democrats.

What we're fighting here is nothing less than an entire aristocratic system of patronage--a system that threatens to collapse as the serfs below grow increasingly revolutionary.

It is not corporate money or genuine respect for the issues that drives Barbara Boxer to attempt to rescue Lieberman from his own political suicide.

It is not respect for character or mutual support of failed policies that drives Bill Clinton to perform CPR on the Republicans' favorite Democrat.

It is not personal regard and esteem that drives rank and file establishment Democrats to kiss Lieberman's ring in a grand circle-jerk of endorsements.

In fact, it's pretty obvious what it is: if the serfs can successfully revolt against any ONE of them, then they could potentially revolt against ALL of them.  And who knows where that could lead?  Heck, it could lead to chaos, anarchy, pigs flying, and maybe--just maybe--even DEMOCRACY!  The horror!

So what do they do?  They band together, fearing for their safe, cushy political lives.  Favors are done in return for favors, and old chips are called in.  The Mafia is protecting its own.

We're not just dealing with Joe Lieberman (D-PNAC) here.  You think Joe Biden (D-BofA) isn't quaking in his boots right now?  You think Dianne Feinstein (D-$$) doesn't have this in the back of her mind?  That Jane Harman (D-DoD) isn't petrified by the prospect of future challenges by peace-loving progressives?  I can assure you that they are.

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When we send Lamont to the U.S. Senate this November, we will not have struck a blow just at the DLC.  We won't have simply sent a message to the Democratic establishment that pro-Bush rhetoric and backstabbing will not be tolerated.

We will have done nothing short of put fear into the hearts of every one of these Democrats that we are watching.  And that we won't tolerate spineless, corrupt and kowtowing Democratic politics as usual anymore.

But more important than that is this: when Lamont defeats Lieberman this August and again this November, we will have defeated the entire Mafioso system of entrenched Democratic backscratching patronage.  And that's critically important, because every time they scratch each other on the back, they stab the American people in the back as well.

We will have proved, in short, that there's nothing they can really do to stop a people-powered progressive movement.

They can bring in the Big Dog.  They can call in all the chips.  They can spend all the money they want.  But it won't stop us--and certainly not is a deep blue state whose hearts and mind brim full of progressive patriotism.

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In short, my fellow progressives, we will not have brought down just single corrupt man (Lieberman), or even an antiquated organization going the way of the dodo (the DLC).

We will have shaken the very foundations of a corrupt, Mafia-like system of political patronage that conspires to strangle Democracy and progressive politics in this great nation--and that, through its weakness, indirectly maintains Republican electoral advantages.

So get to work, folks.  If you can make it to Connecticut to volunteer, GO.  If you can spare any money, GIVE.

See to it that we make this happen; because it's even more important than you know.

[Cross-posted from My Left Wing]