Democrats House Divided

--- by Micheal Shackelford:

The recent split in the AFL-CIO had Democratic pundits agonizing about how such a labor split hurts the traditional Democratic (labor) base. How can they hope to win the White House when their own house is divided? What the noisier Dems fail to see, is that they've been a house divided for a long long time.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeny said, "...at a time when our corporate and conservative adversaries have created the most powerful anti-worker political machine in the history of our country, a divided movement hurts the hopes of working families for a better life." Sweeny speaks in predictable terms of working families vs. corporate adversaries, but his insertion of the word "conservative" is telling. Can't a working family be conservative?

Back in the heat of the 2004 Presidential campaigns, liberal author Thomas Frank wrote a book entitled "What's wrong with Kansas?" In it, Frank is befuddled over why Kansas, a state with much farm and labor interest, would repeatedly vote Republican. "Why would voters not support the party (Democrats) who are trying to help them?" Frank's own puzzlement stems from the fact that the Democratic Party has suffered from a multiple personality disorder since the 60s and 70s.

When the Democratic Party decided to make itself the champion of liberal modernism issues, they gave themselves multiple agenda, which do not necessarily mesh. The high-profile Democrats have been most vocal over advocating Gay Rights, Affirmative Action and Abortion. This is what they most often want to be seen as. The Democratic Party likes to tout themselves as the environmental watchdogs and advocates for global peace (even if Chamberlainesque), not to mention the zeal for removing all religion from the state.

Their trouble was (is) that they assumed that farmers and working families HAD to share those new liberal agendas. The past two Presidential elections have suggested otherwise. A working man might feel that gay marriage undercuts traditional marriage. He might be a devout church goer. A working woman could well be pro-life. A working family might feel that "tree-huggers" are making more trouble than they're helping. Working families, especially those with soldier sons and daughters in Iraq, just might feel the war needs to be fought.

But, the Democrat leadership continues to beat their liberal agenda drums very loudly. The whole tempest over Supreme Court nominee Roberts is centered around whether he'll be pro-Abortion or not. The drum for workers' rights is conspicuously silent.

Maybe there isn't anything "wrong" with Kansas. Perhaps the 'something wrong' is that the Democratic Party has (for too long) presumed that laboring folks must be social liberals too. 2004 strongly suggested that they might not.