Article: Midterm Election: Last Chance for Democrats & Democracy

The answer may come as a shock to some, but it is no surprise to progressive critics of the political scene, especially old-timers like Gore Vidal or Ralph Nader, who have been saying all along that Democrats and Republicans are two branches of the same party. Call it the Demopublican Party or the Republicrat Party-- call it whatever you want. The reality is that both Democrats and Republicans are financed by the same large corporations and have similar agendas.

The Democratic agenda is a bit more liberal than the Republican one, but when it comes to legislation regarding their mutual big contributors-- the oil and gas oligopolies, the insurance companies, the Wall Street investment firms, the pharmaceutical giants, the military hardware manufacturers, etc.-- the Democrats are only slightly less guilty than Republicans of prostituting themselves for money to finance their campaigns.

Teddy Roosevelt warned us about this problem at the beginning of the last century, calling the Big Money interests who buy and sell politicians the "malefactors of wealth." His cousin, FDR, cut into their power during the Great Depression and they plotted to overthrow him. Eisenhower admonished us about them in his famous beware the military/industrial complex speech. And even Nixon butted heads with them on occasion.

But ever since Ronald Reagan became the standard-setting shill for Big Business, political candidates know their place and rarely cross their corporate sponsors. Ditto with members of the mainstream news media. And anyone who dares to create legislation or tax policy to cut into their profits or attempts to promote a populist agenda will be marginalized or destroyed. Howard Dean found that out the hard way when he ran in the Democratic primary against Kerry. AAARRR!!

And this is why Democrats have kept their mouths shut in the last three elections and have accepted their losses with humility. If they want to stay in the game and continue to accept the largesse of their malefactors, they must be "good team players," a code phrase that transcends politics and applies to all craven employees who want to survive in today's cutthroat work environment.

Despite this, Americans are an optimistic lot. They believe this election will be different. They say the zeitgeist is changing, that average citizens are becoming more discontented, that even long-time conservatives are beginning to speak out against the evil Bush Empire.

Moreover, they are hopeful that some how, some way a miracle will happen and the Democrats will win back the House and Senate, the news media will grow some balls and report the truth, and Bush and Cheney will be impeached and tried for high crimes and misdemeanors.

We'll see... But one thing is certain: This is the Democratic Party's last opportunity for a comeback until 2008, its last chance to cast off its loser image and strike a blow for democracy. If Democratic candidates are defeated in this midterm election-- fairly or otherwise-- their party will be nothing more than a punching bag for Republicans for the next two years, and George W. Bush will be as hard to hit as Muhammad Ali in his prime.

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