The Third Way plays Fifth Column again
by David Atkins ("thereisnospoon")
By now the script writes itself:
1) Good populist things happen to mobilize progressives.
2) Some Democrats start to realize that populism isn't so bad, after all.
3) One of the three major papers writes a "Democrats divided" story quoting an anonymous "senior official" and some hack from the Third Way.
Today's version is about the Occupy protests courtesy the New York Times. First, the positive setup:
Leading Democratic figures, including party fund-raisers and a top ally of President Obama, are embracing the spread of the anti-Wall Street protests in a clear sign that members of the Democratic establishment see the movement as a way to align disenchanted Americans with their party...
The Center for American Progress, a liberal organization run by John D. Podesta, who helped lead Mr. Obama’s 2008 transition, credits the protests with tapping into pent-up anger over a political system that it says rewards the rich over the working class — a populist theme now being emphasized by the White House and the party. The center has encouraged and sought to help coordinate protests in different cities.
Judd Legum, a spokesman for the center, said that its direct contacts with the protests have been limited, but that “we’ve definitely been publicizing it and supporting it.”
He said Democrats are already looking for ways to mobilize protesters in get-out-the-vote drives for 2012. “What attracts an organization like CAP to this movement is the idea that our country’s economic policies have been focused on the very top and not on the bulk of America,” Mr. Legum added. “That’s a message we certainly agree with.”
Then the "Democrats divided" line:
But while some Democrats see the movement as providing a political boost, the party’s alignment with the eclectic mix of protesters makes others nervous. They see the prospect of the protesters’ pushing the party dangerously to the left — just as the Tea Party has often pushed Republicans farther to the right and made for intraparty run-ins.
And finally the anonymous "senior officials" and Third Way rumps:
“That’s the danger with something like this — that you go from peaceful protests to throwing trash cans,” said a senior House Democratic official, who spoke on condition of anonymity...
Matt Bennett, vice president for Third Way, a Democratic policy institute in Washington that favors a more centrist approach, said he believes the angry and sometimes radical tone of the protests may turn off moderate swing voters who will be critical in the 2012 elections, just as many moderates are put off by the rhetoric of the Tea Party on the right.
Embracing the protests may prove a mistake for Democrats, Mr. Bennett said. “There’s not much upside,” he said, “and there’s a lot of downside.”
There's not much upside for the Third Way crowd because they're big fans of the status quo, economically speaking. The Third Way folks are the same ones heaping praise on Mayor Bloomberg. On policy, they are tools of plutocrats--and very often plutocrats themselves. On the politics, they're morons. The electorate in 2010, far from being turned off by the Tea Party, gave Democrats their most crushing defeat in decades, replacing Dems with rabidly far-right conservatives and taking the independent vote with them. If that's what failure looks like, it would be interesting to see what the Third Way crew thinks success would look like.
It is not an overstatement to say that the Third Way and their allies represent a greater threat to the promise of progressive policy than Republicans do. Republicans are who they are. In a binary election system, so long as they don't destroy the democratic process entirely, Democrats and Republicans will trade office. It's built into the American system. As demographic shifts take fuller effect, it will become more and more difficult for Republicans to maintain their extremist ground, which should leave the door wide open for progressive policymakers.
So the greatest danger to the progressive movement lies not from without, but from within. If the Third Way succeeds in winning the battle for the soul of the Democratic Party, it won't matter what Republicans do or don't do. Much of 60% of the public not beholden to the conservative cult will simply abandon electoral politics as a means of creating change.
As for myself, I became involved in the Democratic Party only partly to defeat Republicans. In my neck of the woods in Ventura County, defeating Republicans is simply a matter of when, not if. Demography is destiny, and there's no way Republicans survive in power here over the next ten years.
No, the biggest reason I'm involved in the Democratic Party is to eliminate the influence of Third Way types. I'm active in the Party mostly to ensure that when Democrats do take over, they're as far from the odious Third Way ideology as humanly possible.
I look forward to the day when popular progressive actions by Democrats aren't sullied in the press by the Third Way's political fecal matter. It would be a welcome change.