Although there are numbers of good Senators and Representatives in
Congress, who have been elected as representatives of the Democratic
Party, the Party is barely functional. It is in shambles. But
frankly, who cares? For many years, hiding under the Democrat Banner,
a growing number of Turncoats, liars, opportunists and self-serving
Privateers have been taking control. In fact, there really is no
Democratic Party any longer. Gone are those golden days between FDR
and LBJ, when the working men and women began to feel a part of the
great USA. The Oligarchy tottered, staggered a bit, and then began to
reassert its control over its workers. We've come a long way since
LBJ and his Great Society. Remember those days when we actually
talked about a United People, working together to make America truly
the Land of the Free? But the very political party that proclaimed
itself to be our champion, was busy behind our backs, selling us out.
Even FDR could not move reform forward without conceding state control
to those people who came to be known as Dixicrats. A crack in the
wall of worker solidarity. And over the years the old regime came
creeping through.
It's well past time for workers to realize that they cannot put their
future in the hands of others. Even those best intentioned leaders
can be bought or eliminated. Solidarity, mass education, personal
sacrifice and commitment are the tools that will bring Power to the
People.
Carl Jarvis
On 2/3/17, M Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Why Aren't the Democrats Doing More to Support the Burgeoning Trump
Resistance Movement?
Friday, February 03, 2017 By Sarah Lazare, AlterNet | News Analysis
Sen. Claire McCaskill questions Rep. Mick Mulvaney, President Trump's pick
to be next director of the Office of Management and Budget, at his
conformation hearing before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental
Affairs Committee on Capitol Hill, in Washington, DC, on January 24, 2017.
Senator McCaskill is one of several Democratic players who voiced
willingness to work with the Trump administration, which their own
constituents have expressed vocal dissent toward. (Photo: Stephen Crowley /
The New York Times)
In the roughly two weeks since Donald Trump took the White House, millions
of people across the United States and the world have descended upon
streets, parks, airports and embassies to protest an administration that is
aggressively implementing its fascist, white supremacist campaign platform.
Stunning numbers have shown they are willing to risk detention or
deportation from local, state and federal law enforcement in order to fight
back against the onslaught. And yet the Democratic Party has shown a
dispiriting willingness to work with, and even acquiesce to, the Trump
administration.
"The airport is a place where people generally feel surveilled and don't
feel they can show any resistance against the state," Lara Kiswani, the
executive director of the Arab Resource and Organizing Center, told
AlterNet
of the San Francisco International Airport protest and shutdown. "It was a
pretty remarkable experience taking over SFO with so many black and brown
people and families. People took care of each other, and people who are
more
vulnerable stuck it out and were not afraid. Almost everyone is impacted by
Trump, his executive orders and entire administration. They are ready to
challenge the state head-on and show force and resilience in ways we
haven't
seen before."
This outpouring, which shows no sign of letting up, has exposed a gulf
between the public and key Democratic senators, even those who call
themselves "progressives." The gap widened this week when people across the
country urged Democrats to use any means necessary to stop Neil Gorsuch, a
right-wing, anti-choice federal judge, from filling the late Justice
Antonin
Scalia's seat on the Supreme Court. In the face of public fear, leading
Democrats have remained relatively quiet, with some powerful players even
suggesting that it would be "wrong" to act in an obstructionist manner.
Immediately following Trump's nomination, Sen. Richard Blumenthal
proclaimed, "He should have a hearing," adding: "I don't want to repeat
what
happened to Judge Merrick Garland. That was a travesty, an outrage. I'm
still angry about it. I know many of my colleagues are. We should do the
right thing here, not repeat the Republicans' wrong."
Sen. Claire McCaskill echoed the sentiment, proclaiming: "I mean, how big a
hypocrite am I going to be? I am not going to model my behavior after their
terribly bad, historically, precedent-setting behavior. I'm not doing
that."
The roll call of Democrats who have cast their votes in favor of Trump's
nominees, over the outrage and fear of their own constituents, is
revealing.
While they don't have a majority to block any Cabinet members, they can
still register their dissent with a vote in the Senate committee. Democrats
also have a number of political tools at their disposal, including an
organized push to withhold consent, that they could use to obstruct and
slow
the Trump administration's multi-pronged assault.
But the rallying cries of a terrified public have largely gone unanswered.
Last month, Sherrod Brown and Elizabeth Warren were among 11 Senate
Democrats who cast their votes in favor of Ben Carson's appointment to
secretary of Housing and Urban Development. The former far-right
presidential candidate is an open Islamophobe who brings no experience in
housing policy. In 2014, he opposed an agreement between the city of
Dubuque
and the Department of Housing and Urban Development to address the city's
housing policies that discriminate against black residents, suggesting it
was proof America was "becoming communist." Last year, he expressed his
fervent opposition to a HUD fair housing rule that is aimed, in part, at
reducing segregation, calling it a "failed socialist experiment."
Facing public outrage, Warren sought to defend her vote with an explanation
on Facebook. "Yes, I adamantly disagree with many of the outrageous things
that Dr. Carson said during his presidential campaign. Yes, he is not the
nominee I wanted," Warren wrote. "But 'the nominee I wanted is not the
test." This complicance bears little resemblance to the rhetoric that
propelled her to stardom in progressive circles.
"As Democrats approve Trump's nominees in Congress, we know that our
resistance and our fight against Trump is also a fight against their
complicity," Mohamed Shehk, an organizer with Critical Resistance, who took
place in the SFO protests, told AlterNet. "Trump's executive actions
targeting Arabs and Muslims are part of a war on immigrants, regardless of
documentation, as well as on people of color, native and black communities,
queer and trans people, workers and disabled people. The thousands coming
out in San Francisco and shutting down one of the largest international
terminals in the country is just a glimpse of the solidarity and resistance
that communities are ready to wage."
According to Shehk, the complicity of Democrats underscores the importance
of looking beyond the individual misdeeds of figures like Trump to examine
the political systems in which they are embedded. "The attacks on our
communities both here and across the world are waged by the systems of
policing, imprisonment, surveillance and border control," he said. "These
did not begin with Trump, but Trump is expanding and intensifying these
systems to enforce greater control over our communities."
Warren's complicity is not unique. Thirty-seven Senate Democrats supported
the nomination of John Kelly to head the Department of Homeland Security.
Kelly is a retired Marine general who oversaw and aggressively defended
mass
torture at Guantánamo Bay. He has also called immigration an "existential
threat" to the United States and urges an escalated war on drugs. Among
those who voted to approve the confirmation of Kelly was Sen. Patrick
Leahy,
who has previously been championed as a defender of human rights.
In addition, Mike Pompeo's nomination to head the CIA received 15 "yes"
votes from Democrats, including Dianne Feinstein and Chuck Schumer. Pompeo
is a far-right Republican from Kansas who was voted into Congress on a wave
of Tea Party support. He has argued that the War on Terror is a conflict
between Islam and Christianity and is a close associate of the anti-Muslim
extremist Frank Gaffney, whose think tank produced the junk research behind
Trump's campaign proposal of a Muslim ban. Pompeo is a strong proponent of
military escalation towards Iran, as well as expanded government
surveillance powers, and has expressed support for CIA torturers while
signaling an openness to the practice in the future.
Democrats overwhelmingly lined up behind James Mattis, who was confirmed as
Defence Secretary 98-1. Mattis is a darling of neoconservatives who has
directly presided over horrific war crimes. He was the convening authority
over the Haditha massacre in Iraq and played a lead role in both U.S.
sieges
on Fallujah in 2004, killing thousands of civilians. "While reporting from
inside Fallujah during that siege, I personally witnessed women, children,
elderly people and ambulances being targeted by US snipers under Mattis'
command," journalist Dahr Jamail noted in December. "Needless to say, all
of
these are war crimes."
Supporters of Mattis' nomination include the rising star Kamala Harris, as
well as Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent who caucuses with
the
Democrats.
Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii argued to the Huffington Post in late January,
"We can't very well be at a fever pitch on everything. The door swings both
ways in Washington. At some point we're going to want a Democratic
president
to stand up a Cabinet. So we're trying to be reasonable when the nominees
are reasonable."
But Hatem Abudayyeh, an organizer with the Arab American Action Network,
which played a key role in the ongoing protests at O'Hare International
Airport, called such arguments a "cop out." He told AlterNet, "You just
have
to juxtapose Democrats' statements with those Yemeni families, children and
mothers and fathers, standing nose-to-nose with the Chicago police, state
police and border patrol at the airport. How could you say it's difficult
to
vote no to a racist agenda? There are real white supremacists in the White
House today."
It is not even clear that those Democrats whose aims are self-serving will
see any gain from their compliance. "Trump is unprecedentedly unpopular for
an incoming president. The political risks of opposing him are minimal,"
Osita Nwanevu observed in Slate."As anyone who has been awake for the past
eight years should be well aware, the notion that the Republican Party will
reward Democrats in the future for their deference now is utterly
laughable."
"One of the lessons from the election should have been that people are
seeking an alternative to the status quo," Drew Joy, the executive director
of the Southern Maine Workers' Center, told AlterNet. "If there ever was a
time for the Democrats to offer up a bold vision that centers human rights
and racial justice, this would be it. Unfortunately, they still seem to
think that negotiating with the far right will gain them power in the long
run. Non-affiliated organizations have a role right not to provide and
fight
for that alternative no matter who is in power at the local and national
levels."
Meanwhile, lawmakers face a growing revolt. On January 30, Democratic Sen.
Sheldon Whitehouse was besieged by thousands of his Rhode Island
constituents demanding answers to why he voted in favor of Pompeo and
Mattis. Addressing a rally at New York's Battery Park on Sunday, Schumer
asked if the crowd was "ready to fight." But he was met with jeers and
boos,
with one person calling out from the crowd "Stop voting for his nominees!"
Roughly 3,000 people flocked to Schumer's home on Tuesday night to demand
that he "resist or resign."
Trump fired Acting Attorney General Sally Yates on Monday night after she
refused to defend his Muslim ban. Spurred by the developments, and pushed
by
ongoing protests, Democrats have since struck a more confrontational tone,
postponing the vote for Steve Mnuchin, nominated for Treasury secretary,
and
Tom Price, appointed to lead the Health and Human Services department.
But on Tuesday, Feinstein said that she opposes further delaying a vote on
the nomination of Jeff Sessions as Attorney General. Sessions, a U.S.
Senator from Alabama, built his national reputation by vociferously
opposing
civil rights. Sessions was appointed by former President Ronald Reagan in
1986 as a federal judge but rejected by the Senate Judiciary Committee on
the grounds that he was too racist to serve. Feinstein went on to defend
Sessions, stating at a judiciary hearing that he "has been the fiercest,
most dedicated and most loyal promoter in Congress of the Trump agenda."
"I think it's important for people to understand what bipartisanship is.
This is bipartisanship," Kali Akuno, an organizer with the Malcolm X
Grassroots Movement and the Mississippi-based group Cooperation Jackson,
told AlterNet. "It's the people who are ultimately going to have to defeat
reaction as expressed through Trump and the neocons. The Democrats aren't
going to do it. People need to be clear about that."
Sessions was approved on Wednesday by the Senate Judiciary Committee in an
11 to 9 vote that fell along party lines.
The vote to confirm ExxonMobil oil tycoon Rex Tillerson as secretary of
state was slightly less narrow on Wednesday, with Democratic Sens. Joe
Manchin, Heidi Heitkamp, Mark Warner and Angus King all casting their
ballots in his favor. Tillerson worked at ExxonMobil for 41 years, serving
the last decade as CEO before retiring at the beginning of this year. The
company faces fraud charges that it financed and backed junk research
promoting the denial of climate change over several decades. It is
responsible for perpetrating human rights abuses and environmental harm
around the world, prompting protests from Iraq to Nigeria.
Kiswani has called for concrete action -- rather than rhetoric -- in the
face of mounting dangers to people and the planet. "We saw public
officials,
including Democratic Party representatives, who we know attacked our
organization before directly coming out in support of Arabs and Muslims
without actually doing anything," she said. "We are calling on them to take
action. If they truly want to support Arabs and Muslims, they need use
their
leverage and power to resist and to support people. In the meantime, it was
our action, our disruption, that shut down the terminal for so long. We are
the ones getting people released."
This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license. It may not
be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.
SARAH LAZARE
Sarah Lazare is a staff writer for AlterNet. A former staff writer for
Common Dreams, she co-edited the book About Face: Military Resisters Turn
Against War. Follow her on Twitter: @sarahlazare.
RELATED STORIES
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By James Trimarco, YES! Magazine | Interview
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By Brian Moench, Truthout | Op-Ed
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By Marjorie Cohn, Truthout | Report
________________________________________
Show Comments
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
Why Aren't the Democrats Doing More to Support the Burgeoning Trump
Resistance Movement?
Friday, February 03, 2017 By Sarah Lazare, AlterNet | News Analysis
• font size Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. Error! Hyperlink
reference not valid.Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. Error! Hyperlink
reference not valid.
• Sen. Claire McCaskill questions Rep. Mick Mulvaney, President
Trump's pick to be next director of the Office of Management and Budget, at
his conformation hearing before the Senate Homeland Security and
Governmental Affairs Committee on Capitol Hill, in Washington, DC, on
January 24, 2017. Senator McCaskill is one of several Democratic players
who
voiced willingness to work with the Trump administration, which their own
constituents have expressed vocal dissent toward. (Photo: Stephen Crowley /
The New York Times)
• In the roughly two weeks since Donald Trump took the White House,
millions of people across the United States and the world have descended
upon streets, parks, airports and embassies to protest an administration
that is aggressively implementing its fascist, white supremacist campaign
platform. Stunning numbers have shown they are willing to risk detention or
deportation from local, state and federal law enforcement in order to fight
back against the onslaught. And yet the Democratic Party has shown a
dispiriting willingness to work with, and even acquiesce to, the Trump
administration.
"The airport is a place where people generally feel surveilled and don't
feel they can show any resistance against the state," Lara Kiswani, the
executive director of the Arab Resource and Organizing Center, told
AlterNet
of the San Francisco International Airport protest and shutdown. "It was a
pretty remarkable experience taking over SFO with so many black and brown
people and families. People took care of each other, and people who are
more
vulnerable stuck it out and were not afraid. Almost everyone is impacted by
Trump, his executive orders and entire administration. They are ready to
challenge the state head-on and show force and resilience in ways we
haven't
seen before."
This outpouring, which shows no sign of letting up, has exposed a gulf
between the public and key Democratic senators, even those who call
themselves "progressives." The gap widened this week when people across the
country urged Democrats to use any means necessary to stop Neil Gorsuch, a
right-wing, anti-choice federal judge, from filling the late Justice
Antonin
Scalia's seat on the Supreme Court. In the face of public fear, leading
Democrats have remained relatively quiet, with some powerful players even
suggesting that it would be "wrong" to act in an obstructionist manner.
Immediately following Trump's nomination, Sen. Richard Blumenthal
proclaimed, "He should have a hearing," adding: "I don't want to repeat
what
happened to Judge Merrick Garland. That was a travesty, an outrage. I'm
still angry about it. I know many of my colleagues are. We should do the
right thing here, not repeat the Republicans' wrong."
Sen. Claire McCaskill echoed the sentiment, proclaiming: "I mean, how big a
hypocrite am I going to be? I am not going to model my behavior after their
terribly bad, historically, precedent-setting behavior. I'm not doing
that."
The roll call of Democrats who have cast their votes in favor of Trump's
nominees, over the outrage and fear of their own constituents, is
revealing.
While they don't have a majority to block any Cabinet members, they can
still register their dissent with a vote in the Senate committee. Democrats
also have a number of political tools at their disposal, including an
organized push to withhold consent, that they could use to obstruct and
slow
the Trump administration's multi-pronged assault.
But the rallying cries of a terrified public have largely gone unanswered.
Last month, Sherrod Brown and Elizabeth Warren were among 11 Senate
Democrats who cast their votes in favor of Ben Carson's appointment to
secretary of Housing and Urban Development. The former far-right
presidential candidate is an open Islamophobe who brings no experience in
housing policy. In 2014, he opposed an agreement between the city of
Dubuque
and the Department of Housing and Urban Development to address the city's
housing policies that discriminate against black residents, suggesting it
was proof America was "becoming communist." Last year, he expressed his
fervent opposition to a HUD fair housing rule that is aimed, in part, at
reducing segregation, calling it a "failed socialist experiment."
Facing public outrage, Warren sought to defend her vote with an explanation
on Facebook. "Yes, I adamantly disagree with many of the outrageous things
that Dr. Carson said during his presidential campaign. Yes, he is not the
nominee I wanted," Warren wrote. "But 'the nominee I wanted is not the
test." This complicance bears little resemblance to the rhetoric that
propelled her to stardom in progressive circles.
"As Democrats approve Trump's nominees in Congress, we know that our
resistance and our fight against Trump is also a fight against their
complicity," Mohamed Shehk, an organizer with Critical Resistance, who took
place in the SFO protests, told AlterNet. "Trump's executive actions
targeting Arabs and Muslims are part of a war on immigrants, regardless of
documentation, as well as on people of color, native and black communities,
queer and trans people, workers and disabled people. The thousands coming
out in San Francisco and shutting down one of the largest international
terminals in the country is just a glimpse of the solidarity and resistance
that communities are ready to wage."
According to Shehk, the complicity of Democrats underscores the importance
of looking beyond the individual misdeeds of figures like Trump to examine
the political systems in which they are embedded. "The attacks on our
communities both here and across the world are waged by the systems of
policing, imprisonment, surveillance and border control," he said. "These
did not begin with Trump, but Trump is expanding and intensifying these
systems to enforce greater control over our communities."
Warren's complicity is not unique. Thirty-seven Senate Democrats supported
the nomination of John Kelly to head the Department of Homeland Security.
Kelly is a retired Marine general who oversaw and aggressively defended
mass
torture at Guantánamo Bay. He has also called immigration an "existential
threat" to the United States and urges an escalated war on drugs. Among
those who voted to approve the confirmation of Kelly was Sen. Patrick
Leahy,
who has previously been championed as a defender of human rights.
In addition, Mike Pompeo's nomination to head the CIA received 15 "yes"
votes from Democrats, including Dianne Feinstein and Chuck Schumer. Pompeo
is a far-right Republican from Kansas who was voted into Congress on a wave
of Tea Party support. He has argued that the War on Terror is a conflict
between Islam and Christianity and is a close associate of the anti-Muslim
extremist Frank Gaffney, whose think tank produced the junk research behind
Trump's campaign proposal of a Muslim ban. Pompeo is a strong proponent of
military escalation towards Iran, as well as expanded government
surveillance powers, and has expressed support for CIA torturers while
signaling an openness to the practice in the future.
Democrats overwhelmingly lined up behind James Mattis, who was confirmed as
Defence Secretary 98-1. Mattis is a darling of neoconservatives who has
directly presided over horrific war crimes. He was the convening authority
over the Haditha massacre in Iraq and played a lead role in both U.S.
sieges
on Fallujah in 2004, killing thousands of civilians. "While reporting from
inside Fallujah during that siege, I personally witnessed women, children,
elderly people and ambulances being targeted by US snipers under Mattis'
command," journalist Dahr Jamail noted in December. "Needless to say, all
of
these are war crimes."
Supporters of Mattis' nomination include the rising star Kamala Harris, as
well as Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent who caucuses with
the
Democrats.
Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii argued to the Huffington Post in late January,
"We can't very well be at a fever pitch on everything. The door swings both
ways in Washington. At some point we're going to want a Democratic
president
to stand up a Cabinet. So we're trying to be reasonable when the nominees
are reasonable."
But Hatem Abudayyeh, an organizer with the Arab American Action Network,
which played a key role in the ongoing protests at O'Hare International
Airport, called such arguments a "cop out." He told AlterNet, "You just
have
to juxtapose Democrats' statements with those Yemeni families, children and
mothers and fathers, standing nose-to-nose with the Chicago police, state
police and border patrol at the airport. How could you say it's difficult
to
vote no to a racist agenda? There are real white supremacists in the White
House today."
It is not even clear that those Democrats whose aims are self-serving will
see any gain from their compliance. "Trump is unprecedentedly unpopular for
an incoming president. The political risks of opposing him are minimal,"
Osita Nwanevu observed in Slate."As anyone who has been awake for the past
eight years should be well aware, the notion that the Republican Party will
reward Democrats in the future for their deference now is utterly
laughable."
"One of the lessons from the election should have been that people are
seeking an alternative to the status quo," Drew Joy, the executive director
of the Southern Maine Workers' Center, told AlterNet. "If there ever was a
time for the Democrats to offer up a bold vision that centers human rights
and racial justice, this would be it. Unfortunately, they still seem to
think that negotiating with the far right will gain them power in the long
run. Non-affiliated organizations have a role right not to provide and
fight
for that alternative no matter who is in power at the local and national
levels."
Meanwhile, lawmakers face a growing revolt. On January 30, Democratic Sen.
Sheldon Whitehouse was besieged by thousands of his Rhode Island
constituents demanding answers to why he voted in favor of Pompeo and
Mattis. Addressing a rally at New York's Battery Park on Sunday, Schumer
asked if the crowd was "ready to fight." But he was met with jeers and
boos,
with one person calling out from the crowd "Stop voting for his nominees!"
Roughly 3,000 people flocked to Schumer's home on Tuesday night to demand
that he "resist or resign."
Trump fired Acting Attorney General Sally Yates on Monday night after she
refused to defend his Muslim ban. Spurred by the developments, and pushed
by
ongoing protests, Democrats have since struck a more confrontational tone,
postponing the vote for Steve Mnuchin, nominated for Treasury secretary,
and
Tom Price, appointed to lead the Health and Human Services department.
But on Tuesday, Feinstein said that she opposes further delaying a vote on
the nomination of Jeff Sessions as Attorney General. Sessions, a U.S.
Senator from Alabama, built his national reputation by vociferously
opposing
civil rights. Sessions was appointed by former President Ronald Reagan in
1986 as a federal judge but rejected by the Senate Judiciary Committee on
the grounds that he was too racist to serve. Feinstein went on to defend
Sessions, stating at a judiciary hearing that he "has been the fiercest,
most dedicated and most loyal promoter in Congress of the Trump agenda."
"I think it's important for people to understand what bipartisanship is.
This is bipartisanship," Kali Akuno, an organizer with the Malcolm X
Grassroots Movement and the Mississippi-based group Cooperation Jackson,
told AlterNet. "It's the people who are ultimately going to have to defeat
reaction as expressed through Trump and the neocons. The Democrats aren't
going to do it. People need to be clear about that."
Sessions was approved on Wednesday by the Senate Judiciary Committee in an
11 to 9 vote that fell along party lines.
The vote to confirm ExxonMobil oil tycoon Rex Tillerson as secretary of
state was slightly less narrow on Wednesday, with Democratic Sens. Joe
Manchin, Heidi Heitkamp, Mark Warner and Angus King all casting their
ballots in his favor. Tillerson worked at ExxonMobil for 41 years, serving
the last decade as CEO before retiring at the beginning of this year. The
company faces fraud charges that it financed and backed junk research
promoting the denial of climate change over several decades. It is
responsible for perpetrating human rights abuses and environmental harm
around the world, prompting protests from Iraq to Nigeria.
Kiswani has called for concrete action -- rather than rhetoric -- in the
face of mounting dangers to people and the planet. "We saw public
officials,
including Democratic Party representatives, who we know attacked our
organization before directly coming out in support of Arabs and Muslims
without actually doing anything," she said. "We are calling on them to take
action. If they truly want to support Arabs and Muslims, they need use
their
leverage and power to resist and to support people. In the meantime, it was
our action, our disruption, that shut down the terminal for so long. We are
the ones getting people released."
This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license. It may not
be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.
Sarah Lazare
Sarah Lazare is a staff writer for AlterNet. A former staff writer for
Common Dreams, she co-edited the book About Face: Military Resisters Turn
Against War. Follow her on Twitter: @sarahlazare.
Related Stories
Trump Impeachment Campaign Begins
By James Trimarco, YES! Magazine | InterviewTrump Is Building a Wall
Against
Reality, and We're All Going to Pay for It
By Brian Moench, Truthout | Op-EdTrump's Choice of Gorsuch Endangers Civil,
Human and Environmental Rights
By Marjorie Cohn, Truthout | Report
Show Comments