— DonLake@localnet.com:

From: Toni Vafi
The Function of the Democratic Party
To: changeformissouri@yahoogroups.com
Date: Friday, November 14, 2008, 7:11 PM

this was a very interesting read. Thanks for posting
On Nov 14, 2008, at 11:28 AM, Tom Chapin wrote:

> Someone on Alternet posted this as a reply to a Naomi Klein article.
>
> I’m having a hard time disagreeing with it…
>
>
http://www.alternet.org/workplace/107000/wall_street%27s_bailout_is_a_trillion-dollar_crime_scene_–_why_aren%27t_the_dems_doing_something_about_it_/
>
> Posted by: chlamor on Nov 14, 2008 7:32 AM
>
> The Function of the Democratic Party in the Political System- Part One
>
> The Democratic Party plays an indispensable role in society’s
political
> machinery. This doesn’t mean it has any power, in terms of
controlling
> the state or setting policy. It means that without the existence of the
> Dem Party, the US could no longer maintain the pretense that it’s a
> “democracy.” If the Dem Party disintegrated, the US would be
revealed
> for what it really is — a one-party state ruled by a narrow alliance of
> business interests.
>

>
> For the Democratic Party to even begin to serve as a vehicle for
> opposing the absolute rule of capital, it would at a minimum have to be
> capable of acknowledging the conflict that exists between the interests
> of capital and the rest of the population; and of expressing a
> principled determination to take the side of the population in this
> conflict.
>
> A party whose controlling elements are millionaires, lobbyists,
> fund-raisers, careerist apparatchiks, consultants, and corporate
> lawyers; that has stood by prostrate and helpless (when not actively
> collaborating) in the face of stolen elections, illegal wars, torture,
> CIA concentration camps, lies as state policy, and one assault on the
> Bill of Rights after the next, is not likely to take that position.
>
>