Friday, December 05, 2003
My two cents on the “Shadow Democratic Party”
The Wall Street journal has gotten the buzz lately with their recent article on how soft money is going to create a shadow Democratic Party. "The Mccain-Feingold law's ban on unlimited donations to political parties was barely three weeks old last November when liberal operatives started plotting ways around it…"
"The result will be a shadow Democratic Party -- an alliance of nonprofit groups that hopes to raise $200 million to mobilize voters and run ads slamming Republicans. It took months of struggle for the Democrats' allies to figure out how to coordinate the left's efforts, while abiding by the new law and not offending the party's unruly constituencies. The story illustrates the difficulties Democrats face as the 2004 campaign heats up."
Conservatives pioneered the use of harsh partisan attacks to raise money from their base. The Democrats of course readily adopted the tactics. Using attacks to gain funds isn't anything new, but given the current climate of the Democratic Party, it represents something seductive yet very dangerous.
This new influx of unregulated money will continue to push the Democratic Party to the hysterical often-irrational left. Worse yet, it will drown out the consistency of message needed to win elections in a cacophony of competing voices. There is no way people are going to put millions of dollars up to run ads arguing for centrist positions. These attacks will be to the far left of the American people. What will be the result?
I certainly don’t see the unregulated money as supporting a ground swell of grassroots or helping bring more people into the political process. What it will do is continue to drive cynicism in the political process and “disenfranchise” more voters. This will steal the “soul” of the Democratic Party. While we haven’t done a good job of representing the working family for sometime now, this will only exacerbate this tendency.
The American people are no longer “hearing” each other, as we are pulled farther to the left and right. Tolerance and civil discourse are disappearing. Support for ideals of the rule of law, individual rights have always rested on our civil institutions nurtured from the early days of our grand Republic. Stop... Wow, I sound like the ole Puritans with my own Jeremiad. Maybe I should lighten up, how about an MTV “claymation” match-up at half time of the Super Bowl between Dean and Bush. What a jolly good show that will be…
"The result will be a shadow Democratic Party -- an alliance of nonprofit groups that hopes to raise $200 million to mobilize voters and run ads slamming Republicans. It took months of struggle for the Democrats' allies to figure out how to coordinate the left's efforts, while abiding by the new law and not offending the party's unruly constituencies. The story illustrates the difficulties Democrats face as the 2004 campaign heats up."
Conservatives pioneered the use of harsh partisan attacks to raise money from their base. The Democrats of course readily adopted the tactics. Using attacks to gain funds isn't anything new, but given the current climate of the Democratic Party, it represents something seductive yet very dangerous.
This new influx of unregulated money will continue to push the Democratic Party to the hysterical often-irrational left. Worse yet, it will drown out the consistency of message needed to win elections in a cacophony of competing voices. There is no way people are going to put millions of dollars up to run ads arguing for centrist positions. These attacks will be to the far left of the American people. What will be the result?
I certainly don’t see the unregulated money as supporting a ground swell of grassroots or helping bring more people into the political process. What it will do is continue to drive cynicism in the political process and “disenfranchise” more voters. This will steal the “soul” of the Democratic Party. While we haven’t done a good job of representing the working family for sometime now, this will only exacerbate this tendency.
The American people are no longer “hearing” each other, as we are pulled farther to the left and right. Tolerance and civil discourse are disappearing. Support for ideals of the rule of law, individual rights have always rested on our civil institutions nurtured from the early days of our grand Republic. Stop... Wow, I sound like the ole Puritans with my own Jeremiad. Maybe I should lighten up, how about an MTV “claymation” match-up at half time of the Super Bowl between Dean and Bush. What a jolly good show that will be…
# posted by AB @ 8:26 AM 
