Media Watch
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Media Watch
Progressivism In Conservative States
Recently there were two threads on the DU messageboard from green party activist criticizing the Democratic Party over the actions of two Conservative Democratic Senators. One thread criticized Robert Byrd, for comments he made in support of the phrase "under God' in the Pledge of Allegiance. He commented that if Atheists didn't like the phrase "under God" in the Pledge, they should quote, "just leave" America. The other thread involved South Dakota Senator Tom Daschle, and his votes in support of the timber industry in the Black Hills, and his lobbying Clinton to make sure he didn't pardon controversial American Indian Activist Leonard Peltier. . Both threads argued that these activities were the result of DLC coercion. I believe this is wrong.
I admit the DLC introduces some corporate bullshit to the party that isn't even very popular with the knowledgeable elements of the mushy middle, like Chapter 11 of NAFTA ,and the Bankruptcy bill. but the Pledge issue, Leonard Peltier's, and forestry in the Black Hills are populist issues, popular with the conservative constituents of Robert Byrd and Tom Daschle. The republican alternative to both would be vastly more right wing, and any green that took their place would unfortunately have to appeal to the same voters. It doesn't have anything to do with the DLC, and populism is not just a phenomenon of the left. It was the right wing populism of Andrew Jackson the dictated the reservation solution onto the American Indian in the first place. Poor European peasant farmers personally profited from taking land from American Indians, although mining and industry ultimately profited more, and many of the homesteaders ultimately failed, the white constituents of the Dakota's are their descendents.
The scopes trail also reflected right wing tendencies of Southern Fundamentalist populism, just as the Pledge issue reflects this today. The fundamentalists in the days of William Jennings Bryan had not allied themselves with rich industrialists yet in their effort to fight the common foe of communism, and thus they still cared about the poor. So like Pat Buchannan, they had peculiar right and left wing tendencies. They were socially liberals in their efforts to promote the beatitudes, but they were very much the cultural conservatives that the religious right are today, which is why Scopes happened.
If you want to see an example of contemporary Jacksonian populism in action, you need not look only at the Black Hills or Leonard Peltier. All you have to do is look at the Klamath Basin issue. Please note a deep obsession with the New World Order, and the UN. I spent a good deal of time trying to reason with these people before Sept 11. Half the farmers there were willing to compromise the other half are Wise Use people to the core. Here is the perspective of the other side, The Oregon Natural Resources Council. Note most of the political support comes from politicians who don't have to be elected by Klamath farmers, just as political support for black civil rights came from outside the South.
Rural people in the American west are deeply affected by the sort of right wing populism that drove Tim McViegh. These are Wise Use movement people. The same peoples who ignited the "sage brush rebellion" in the 80s. This movement was James Watt's constituency. Here is one of there major websites. http://www.sierratimes.com/
There is a reason Nader embraces Grover Norquist. The Christian right are the right wing cousin of progressive populism.
Note how Nader distances himself from abortion and gun control politics. He knows damn well some of his greens have to embrace right wing populism, to get a toehold in conservative districts.