Wisconsin Recall Reveals the True DNC Agenda

Visiting with my dad last week, talk turned, as it inevitably does, to politics.  A retired electrician and proud member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), Dad has been closely following the attack on labor in Wisconsin since the 2011 uprising.  He expressed amazement at the reluctance of the DNC to offer anything more than token support of the attempt to recall our notorious Republican governor.  “I just don’t understand it,” he marveled.  “What can they be thinking?”

“Well,” I said, “clearly they don’t want to encourage mass mobilization against austerity measures.  They plan to work with the Republicans after the national election to implement austerity – cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and so on.  Remember, Obama and Boehner made a deal last July to do just that.  Ironically, it was the Tea Partiers that derailed the whole thing, and not because they care about social programs.  Outside money is supporting that kind of policy in Wisconsin.  It’s not just an attack on collective bargaining; it’s cuts to Badgercare, education – all kinds of things.”

Dad just kind of stared for a moment; then we went onto other topics.  Although he has only a high school education, he’s well-read and intelligent.  He senses I’m right; he just doesn’t want to believe it.  I don’t blame him.  Not so many years ago, I would have reacted similarly.

It’s obvious that if the DNC were truly interested in a progressive agenda, Wisconsin would be a high priority.  Massive funding from organizations such Freedomworks, Club for Growth, and ALEC, as well as from wealthy individuals such as Las Vegas billionaire Sheldon Adelson, who funded Newt Gringrich, Bob Perry (funder of the Swift boat ads), URL Pharma President Richard Roberts, and Christy Walton of the Wal-Mart Waltons, has poured into the state to support Governor Walker.  If their dollars can buy the implementation of their neoliberal and austerity agenda in a state where hundreds of thousands marched in the snow, week after week, to strenuously protest that agenda, then they can do it anywhere.  The DNC, Wasserman-Schulz, and Obama clearly understand this.  They know exactly what they’re doing.

Andrew Levine expands on this in an article in Counterpunch today:

One would think this would be a no-brainer for Obama and the DNC.  A Walker defeat would all but insure that Wisconsin, a battleground state, would again go Democratic.  It would demoralize the Republicans nationally, and (re)energize the forces that put Obama in office in 2008.  But there’s the rub.

Obama needs the people who enthused over him four years ago to enthuse over him again; that’s where the votes are.  And so we can count on him trying to reel the base back in.  Therefore expect more of what we got two weeks ago on gay marriage: encouraging words.  Some of those words may even come packaged in a vaguely populist register.

(snip)

But the last thing he or Wasserman Schultz or any other national Democrat wants is for the people to call the shots.  It’s not just that they want to run the goings on from the top down as in 2008.  More than that, they want to make sure that popular mobilizations don’t get out of control – to the point that they threaten the interests of the fraction of the one-percent whose favor Obama and the DNC assiduously court.

Levine goes on to explain that the uprising in Wisconsin, which began as a reaction to the attack on collective bargaining, evolved into a deeper understanding of our economic and political predicament that prefigured the emergence of Occupy:

Although the anti-Walker insurgency was defensive in nature, it developed into a movement that began to name the enemy, the plutocrats behind Walker and his fellow over-reachers.  From there, it is not a great leap to move on to Obama’s plutocrats, the ones who fund him already and the ones he still seeks to enlist.

This, of course, was what the Occupy movement, drawing on the Wisconsin experience, was about.  And this is what Obama and Wasserman Schultz cannot abide, even if it means acting against their own electoral interests.

Levine is on the money here.  The Wisconsin protests were exciting for me for just this reason – the conversations that took place in bars during breaks between marching, with people asking, Who are the Koch brothers again?  What’s ALEC? I was thrilled that people were interested, waking up, asking questions, and making an effort to get informed.

And this is precisely what Obama and the DNC don’t want.  Like the Republicans, their loyalty is to their corporate paymasters, not the people.  So Wasserman-Schulz will make a couple of belated token appearances in Wisconsin.  President Clinton will try to “sort out his schedule” to see whether he can drop by.  The strategy is very Obama-esque – make a pretense at doing something, but ensure it’s mostly ineffectual.  Then privately carry on with the agenda of the 1%.

It remains to be seen whether people power will win over corporate money in Wisconsin next week.  In any event, I expect the outcome to be a portent of things to come.  Just as the protests in Wisconsin helped to inspire Occupy, a victory will infuse the movement and its fellow travelers with a shot of energy.  A defeat, on the other hand, will further embolden our corporate overlords.

3 Comments.

  • The Democrats desperately need a walker victory in Wisconsin. The scariest position for a Democrat to be in is to have to govern in the interest of the 1% without the cover of Republicans, who can be blamed for having made them do it.

    The Democrats looked nakedly vulnerable in their first two years of the Obama administration for exactly this reason. How could they blame Republicans for Obama’s cabinet appointees and policies, when the presidency and congress were all held by Democrats?

  • That would be Walker with a capital W.

  • The Democrats desperately need a walker victory in Wisconsin. The scariest position for a Democrat to be in is to have to govern in the interest of the 1% without the cover of Republicans, who can be blamed for having made them do it.

    Great insight, Glenn – thanks for posting.

    Katherine

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