Republicrat or dempublicans

Selling Out the Democratic Party

By Christopher Scheer

(AlterNet, Dec. 10) -- How many times must the public send the message
before the Democratic Party decides to stop shooting the messenger? The
Gore-Bush contest of 2000, the 2002 mid-term elections, the California
recall, and now the astonishing near-defeat of Gavin Newsom in San
Francisco's mayor's race, each contain the same crystal-clear message:
choosing Republican Lite-weights to represent the Democratic Party
makes a lousy political strategy.

But the Democratic establishment would rather blame Nader and
the
Florida freaks. Blame Arnold and the Recall Repubs. Blame last-second
progressive S.F. mayoral candidate Matt Gonzalez and his hipster horde.
Blame "Mean" Dean and his Internet machine. Blame 9/11, late-night GOP
roll-call votes ... anybody, in fact, but itself.

The sad, mostly unacknowledged fact is that in the shadow of
Bill
Clinton's enormous charisma and political brilliance, the Democratic
Party has been steadily receding in influence across this country for
more than a decade. Congress, gubernatorial races, city elections --
you name it, and they've lost it. And the reason is simple: because the
Democratic Party is too busy raising money to connect with the American
people.

The latest example of this misplaced sense of priorities is the
mayoral victory in San Francisco on Tuesday night. The local party
machine favorite, millionaire entrepreneur and boy socialite Gavin
Newsom, received endorsements from every party heavyweight imaginable.
The campaign of the prot�g� of the ultimate politician's politician and
outgoing mayor Willie Brown was favored by dramatic appearances by
Clinton, Al Gore, and both of the state's senators.

The Democrats have sought to cast Newsom as just another
idealistic
Mr. Smith on his way to Washington -- with a pit stop in San Francisco.
In reality, he is a budding hack who draws his support from the city's
most dubious interests: Real estate magnates, landlords, and the
bureaucratic crony network created by Brown.

Newsom outspent his opponent, Matt Gonzalez -- a Green Party
candidate
running in a city where only 3 percent of the voters are so identified
-- by a factor of 10 to 1. Gonzalez's troops threw an enormous amount
of spontaneous energy into an often chaotic and amateurish last-second
get-out-the-vote effort.

Newsom's well-oiled campaign, which went into high gear a year
ago,
had the resources to systematically identify supporters across the city
and make sure that they made it to the polling booth, or, better yet,
voted in advance. This head start was key in determining the absentee
ballots, which favored Newsom by a two-to-one margin, and proved too
much for Gonzalez to overcome.

Many people had already voted when his grassroots-based campaign

caught fire. Only a few months ago, Gonzalez's support in the polls was
barely in the double-digits. On Election Day, he managed to receive 47
percent of the total vote -- and won a majority of the votes cast on
Tuesday.

To win, Gonzalez needed significant support from the city's
minority
communities, who would have given him a landslide. But faced with a
choice between two thirty-something men -- one represented the wealthy
elite (Newsom), and the other (Gonzalez) drew his support from the
white hipster nexus -- African Americans, in particular, stayed home in
droves.

The Gonzalez campaign was a successful one, despite its flaws
and
defeat. It mobilized thousands of new and irregular voters, mostly very
young, to not only get to the polls but to actively take part in the
campaign. Why? Because it stood for something: keeping big money out of
politics, taking care of neighborhoods over downtown, and an emphasis
on compassionate social programs.

These were all once the home turf of the Democrats, but the
party has
lost its way. The forces the Democratic Party chooses to nurture and
align itself with in San Francisco are parallel to those that Gray
Davis rode to an epic defeat: wealthy individuals and corporate
lobbies. That Newsom held on (by a slim 52-47 margin) while Davis was
smothered can be credited to the fact that there is still a somewhat
effective political machine in San Francisco, while state-wide the
party is fragmented and has little if any internal discipline.

The fact is, though, that five years ago the Brown machine
dominated
San Francisco's politics. But now Newsom takes over City Hall facing a
Board of Supervisors stocked with insurgent progressives. Lacking a
truly popular base, he must rely on the loyalty of political allies to
get anything done. Even in this one-party town -- Greens and
Republicans combined have no more than 20 percent of registered voters
-- the Democratic Party's fortunes are eroding.

Furthermore, Gov. Schwarzenegger's cynical yet populist move to
wipe
out the car tax has instantaneously punched a $91 million hole in this
year's budget for the city and county of San Francisco, making Newsom's
situation more difficult than ever. To be a successful mayor, he needs
to find a way to work with these progressives right away. If he can't,
look for him to be San Francisco's version of Gray Davis, buckling to
whichever special interest has the most clout. As the saying goes, if
you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything.

-- -Kraig Grady
North American Embassy of Anaphoria Island
http://www.anaphoria.com
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