I voted for the Green Party candidate for president for the past 20 years.
I gave up on the national Democratic Party when it seemed clear to me that it did not represent interests of the working and middle class in this country. Sen. Chuck Schumer, minority leader in the U.S. Senate, last year proclaimed that the Democrats were eager to show their strong resistance to the Trump agenda.
However, when Senate Democrats recently had an opportunity to block legislation that places expanded spying powers into the hands of President Trump — frequently criticized as being a deranged authoritarian — 18 Democrats opted instead to provide the decisive votes in favor of a motion that essentially ensured the bill's passage.
Also as evidence of their stalwart resistance to Republican plans, a group of eleven Senate Democrats joined Republicans to support legislation that would mark the first major revision of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act.
Under the bill, firms with less than $10 billion in assets would be exempt from the rule that prohibits banks from making risky bets with federally-guaranteed deposits.
All of those who lost their homes saw how trustworthy good citizens the banksters were without oversight in 2008.
In 2016, I would have voted for Bernie Sanders, running as a Democrat, had I been given a chance.
Debbie Wasserman- Schultz and Donna Brazile among others in the Democratic National Committee blocked Bernie supporters every chance that they had resulting in the candidacy of a losing candidate. Most polls at the time showed that Bernie would have easily beaten Donald Trump. One would almost think the DNC wanted to lose the election.
Post-election, Tom Perez purged anyone who had shown support for Bernie from positions of influence in the DNC.
Recently, while the question of the government shutdown was still in the air, the Dow Jones dropped over 100 points. Probably after hearing from their donors, Claire McCaskill, Doug Jones and other Democratic corporatists in the Senate showed their firm resistance to Trump by caving in to Republican demands, the Dow recovered and rose another 150 points to another all time high.
The deal accepted by 30 Democratic senators hinged on the promise from Mitch McConnell that he would allow an immigration bill onto the floor of the Senate sometime in February. He did not promise a "clean" bill to which Republicans couldn’t add any amendments they wanted. McConnell is not known to be trustworthy. Democrats also did not receive any assurances from Paul Ryan and the House leadership.
According to Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, what the Democratic Party gained is “the potential for momentum” by this full scale surrender to the Republicans.
Say that again with a straight face.
One begins to suspect that the corporate economic leashes attached to the necks of most members of the Democratic Party hierarchy will only allow them to move in directions away from the needs of the working people of America. Unless it develops a stiffened progressive backbone, the Democratic Party has no future.
Larry Kerschner
Centralia
