Fractured party time

No surprises from the Democratic Party rules committee today — deciding to seat the Florida and Michigan delegations, but only give them half their votes — but the question remains whether irreparable damage has been done.

If you read the quotations from Clinton supporters in the MSNBC.com report, the party seems like it is in trouble.

“How can you call yourselves Democrats if you don’t count the vote?” one of the many hecklers in the audience yelled loudly and repeatedly before being escorted out by security. “This is not the Democratic Party!”

MSNBC described a “sharply divided audience” that “shows Obama will have a long way to go to bring the party together after a long and divisive primary.”

‘We just blew the election!’”We just blew the election!” a woman in the audience
shouted. The crowd was divided between cheering Obama supporters and booing
Clinton supporters. “This isn’t unity! Count all the votes!” another audience
member yelled.

I still think that the people screaming loudest about this will come over to the Obama camp when the realization that a fractured party will ensure a McCain victory in November. But there are no guarantees (Democrats are famous from grasping defeat from the jaws of victory).

In the end, if the Democratic Party can’t find a way to bridge this gap, given the rather small differences that really separate the candidate, then perhaps the Democratic Party should not be viewed as the vehicle to achieve progressive goals.

I’d argue that the party offers little more than a brake on the dangerous actions of the Republicans, but is not a beacon of change. Change can only come — as I wrote in my Dispatches column this week — if we take responsibility for making it happen. Elections are only a small part of this process.

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.
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Author: hankkalet

Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie.

One thought on “Fractured party time”

  1. As if labels mattered? There are such trivial differences between the two parties how either could be a check each other is laughable. Ever heard of log rolling? They just argue for appearances purposes. Like the old joke that a town with one lawyer starves until a second one comes to town. Even Superman needs a mortal enemy to fight. So you\’ve been fooled into believing that we need any of this nonsense.

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