Why Democrats Don't Have Backbones and How They Can Grow Them

I got a call a few Saturdays ago from someone who asked if I would like to listen in on Congressman Pete Stark's telephone conference call town meeting. I wasn't doing anything at the time so I said, "sure."  

I was then asked if I would like to ask a question. Again I said, "sure."Although I didn't get a chance to ask my question, I liked a lot of what many other people were asking about.

The point that came up over and over again by Democrats was, "how come Democrats don't seem to have any backbone? The Republicans stick to their guns and don't start out by compromising and giving in."

Actually Stark himself complained about this same point regarding President Obama on a local radio program on KPFA.

I have a couple of opinions regarding this issue. One, there's a money trail behind every Republican vote in both D.C. and Sacramento. The Republicans are not disciplined by conviction, they're disciplined by contributions.

With the healthcare debate, every vote got rewarded by the health insurance industry.

With Social Security ,Wall Street got rewarded, because if we don't have a federal program for retirement, 401K's and other investment retirement instruments will replace the government program.

Republicans take Big Oil money and quickly deny climate change. The Democrats are not without sin, of course, but you will never hear a mainstream broadcast media coverage of an issue go into any detail about who's behind a bill and how much the Republicans are getting to carry water for the interest group.

I say this regarding issues related to big business and the Republicans because their support usually always translates into a money reward, while this isn't often true for Democrats.

A vivid example of this is detailed in the book Votes, Money and the Clinton Impeachment by Irwin Morris. Republicans were more than happy to stick together and stay with the impeachment because they were being showered with contributions by wealthy conservatives and corporations.

While Bush had a trunk full of reasons to be impeached, Democrats weren't being given the same contribution incentives, so they weren't enthralled by the idea. 

The second reason why they don't seem to have much backbone is because we have what's called a candidate-centered system where little to no money is spent on local party building and organizing.

If people are not organized in structures that allow them to prioritize issues, communicate with each other, and keep elected officials accountable about issues, than the spineless will not suffer the wrath of their Democratic Party sisters and brothers.

In the age of the Internet, local Democrats are at least 10 years behind what the unions are doing. And no elected official will say anything about this because they have already been elected. Creating a party-based comprehensive communication system would also mean more accountability to your party and its members.

If you add up the money spent on Assembly, Senate, statewide and federal races, Presidential, U.S Congress and Senate, a small fraction for communication — even 5 percent — would be a significant sum of money and could take local Democrats out of the communication Dark Ages.

So the reason why Democrats don't have backbones includes the corruption of our system by money, but also by a self-inflicted, candidate-centered system, which allows Democratic Party officials to be successfully elected but not effective legislators who will mobilize their members when the going gets rough and they need to mobilize.

To use a sports analogy, we have elected officials who are like millionaire running backs, while our linemen, which are the local party organizations, are not even making minimum wage. 

Bill Moyers, the renowned journalist, recently argued that politics was basically the confrontation between organized money and organized people. Without putting any money into organizing people, Democrats are playing football without our helmets.

A running back needs blockers and the Democrats could get backbone if they invested in the people they represent. The Republican Party, most will concede, is the party of business and bigger business, so what they do is understandable.

The Democrats need to put some of their money where their mouth is and create organizing and communication structures that members can be proud of, and then they will grow a vertebrae.