LETTERS
LETTERS to the Editor Can the Democrats Be Saved! Ed Garvey's "Can the Democrats Be Saved?" (January issue) has said what we real Democrats have said for years: The DLC is nothing but another...
...And much of the criticism of Bill Clinton is that trivial...
...The only way to real change in our government is to question its portrayal in glitzy newscasts and popular magazines...
...Lessons of November," February issue) has it right: Clinton and his vile DLC are indistinguishable from the Republican Party and are leading the Democratic Party towards certain extinction...
...Don't we get enough of that from Republicans...
...maybe we would rather have the Republicans tell us what to do, and we're well on the way to having that happen...
...One supposes the same folk who decree that the New Party is to be the official glue of the left, now decree that there should be a "leftist" Presidential candidate for 1996...
...Nobody else is going to come along and magically organize a "coalition of third parties...
...It's my nature to be a fighter but alas, this must not be so for many who profess to be Democrats...
...Of what...
...We, the Democrats, are to blame and the first thing we need to do is change our attitude and work together...
...The New Party offers the only path for progressives...
...Does all that criticism help us...
...Amy B. Muhs Houston, Texas n Maryellen Lake's letter to the editor (February issue) about Ed Garvey's piece "Can the Democrats Be Saved...
...Stempel Hawthorne, Nevada Ihave been receiving The Progressive for about a year now, and though I don't always get the time to read every issue completely, I regard it as a worthwhile source of alternative thinking...
...January issue) has said what we real Democrats have said for years: The DLC is nothing but another branch of the GOP and its members should resign immediately and switch parties...
...The progressive movement for all practical purposes exists in name only...
...The old adage, honey catches more flies than vinegar is still true...
...A political party is much like marriage...
...I'm glad you have the courage to report things from a perspective that challenges these popular myths...
...neoliberal Democrats...
...The last election answered that question...
...It articulates our vision and has a proven track record of success...
...If you think a Republican President is better, continue the criticism and that's exactly what you'll get...
...Clinton is hopeless in terms of what the modern Democratic Party should stand for and be striving toward...
...Several pages later, in the same issue, Jesse Jackson, in his interview, noted that he was waiting to be sure that the President and the DLC could not be salvaged before making his own decision to run and under what aegis...
...Gary Houchens Bowling Green, Kentucky Daniel Cantor's "New Party Time" has tilted me even further toward a third-party designation as the only credible course left for the progressive movement...
...Lately, Mr...
...and pro-and anti-gay Democrats, all of whom are pro-me Democrats with their own agenda, and all of whom expect Bill Clinton to do their bidding or they join in with the Republicans to criticize and diminish instead of banding together to try to effect the change they want...
...What we need here are workers and not bosses...
...But only if we remember that the party of the people must focus on real issues, and forget about the dead-beat five-year-olds on welfare...
...As Eugene V. Debs once said, "I would rather vote for someone I want and not get him than for someone I don't want and get him...
...As it is, so is the DLC Neo-Democratic Party...
...moderate Democrats...
...But they won't come home on their own...
...Backing such a party may not bring immediate success but at least there would be no sense of betrayal...
...pro-environment Democrats...
...It is incumbent upon us to stop criticizing and start acting...
...Ted Markow Maine New Party Time Amen to Daniel Cantor and the New Party ("New Party Time," January issue...
...At times I thought your publication was a bit extreme (particularly since you rarely side with either of the two main political parties which we are unfortunately stuck with) but I am now starting to see the wisdom of your words...
...Ed Albrecht Atlanta, Georgia Can the Democrats be Saved...
...This replacement party will only work if enough of the masses realize that the Republicans are making their life more miserable through reverse Robin Hood policies, an expanding police state, continued trashing of the Constitution, and the increasing fascism exhibited by Gingrich, the Christian Coalition, NRA, and other far-right elements associated with the Republican Party...
...What at first seemed like whining without solution, now appears more in line with the real complexity of issues, and overall lack of true choices...
...left-of-lib-eral Democrats...
...Jerry Brown, Jesse Jackson, or George McGovern are not going to save us, we are going to save us...
...We have a Democratic President, but do we support him...
...The problem with the Democratic Party lies with us, the Democrats...
...pro-gun and anti-gun Democrats...
...Our group New Jersey Independents—a member of the National Peoples Progressive Network—will have nothing to do with your illusions of grandeur, if I can help it...
...Greenberg have suckered not only extremely able and dedicated Democrats like my own governor, Zell Miller of Georgia, but their mercenary influence extends to our own President, congressional members, and local candidates as well...
...What we should be doing is organizing in the streets and running independent progressive candidates in the few local, state, and congressional races where we can make substantive economic and political inroads in the community...
...My marriage would not last very long if I continually criticized my husband for closing the top of the dish-washing liquid instead of leaving it open...
...Running a truly progressive candidate and laying the groundwork for a radical progressive party makes sense, if only to offer the people an alternative viewpoint...
...The person you're married to may not always conform exactly to your wishes or expectations, but as a mature, thinking adult you know this is normal and you don't criticize and carp about it in public...
...What we have is liberal Democrats...
...However, I do not believe it will...
...We no longer have a Democratic Party...
...What Democrats...
...Is it weakness that we can't band together for the Party and not expect our own personal agenda...
...Let the modern day Henry Wallaces be...
...When's the last time you read something positive about Bill Clinton, even in so-called liberal publications...
...Gerald Cavanaugh Ashland, Oregon Lessons of November Adolph Reed Jr...
...If Matthew Rothschild wants a protest vote, the Socialist Party and the Socialist Workers Party have been running presidential candidates for many years...
...If we continue to remain fragmented, we have no hope...
...None of us in this new party is waiting for someone else to start it—they won't...
...A close look at the Republican Contract With America should reveal quite a number of areas in which Democrats have a common interest...
...It was first filibustered by Republicans in the Senate and was reduced from $16 billion to $1 billion when Democrats controlled the Senate and House...
...Dixiecrats...
...Maybe we don't want to belong to anything...
...If a Presidential campaign would substantively aid us in this organization, I would say, "Go for it...
...Matthew Rothschild, speak for yourself...
...J.D...
...We are years, perhaps decades, away from any concerted undertaking of this sort...
...Not only would such an undertaking be premature, it would be destructive...
...she writes, "I hope to see a grass-roots movement started here in Massachusetts for the New Party and/or a coalition of third parties...
...When will people of the left persuasion realize that we are the grass roots...
...Leave me out of it...
...I am proud to be a Democrat because Democrats care about people...
...The State of the Union address was added proof...
...It seems like at least once a year every leftist publication in the country runs a piece pondering "What's wrong with the Democrats...
...The Democratic Party can be saved...
...People need to hear good things and there are many...
...If the Democrats come back to the left because the New Party pushes them that way, so be it...
...We are organizing in an increasing number of counties and towns in Maine...
...From and Mr...
...A Labor Party sounds good, but it will take a while...
...Rothschild and his armchair should be bound, gagged, and dropped in the nearest body of water that will take them (metaphorically, that is...
...When are we going to learn that it ain't gonna happen...
...The answer is yes...
...All letters may be edited for clarity and conciseness...
...The "two" parties are not nearly as different from each other as they would have us think...
...A third party...
...Don Sloan New York, New York Cart and the Horse Matthew Rothschild may speak in his column (Editor's Note, February issue) for a percentage of the liberal "academic elite," but he should not confuse that with speaking for what is left of the left as a whole...
...I suggest we are already and clearly at that point...
...And always the writers say the same thing: the Democrats have abandoned their base and must again become a working people's coalition if they are to succeed...
...pro-labor Democrats...
...What happened to Clinton's jobs-stimulus bill...
...DLC Democrats...
...Maine now has a viable and legal third party—the Maine Green Party...
...It would drain what few resources the left does have...
...A Presidential race is not going to rejuvenate or bind it together—for the mere reason that wisps of smoke neither form more wisps of smoke nor join into a solid mass because one attempts to bottle them...
...conservative Democrats...
...he can always vote for one of them...
...Reagan Democrats...
...Steve Cooper Hackensack, New Jersey Your editor's note "Cart and the Horse" makes perfect sense...
...If progressives are going to wait for the grass roots to grow without them, we will no longer be wondering whether the Democrats can be saved, but whether the country can be saved...
...pro-life and pro-choice Democrats...
...I want to feel good about being a Democrat, but it's not easy when all I hear is carping and criticism about every real or perceived ill or fault of our President or the Democratic Party...
...Reed suggests a Labor Party to replace and adopt the better aspects of the old Democratic Party...
...Cal Walter Denver, Colorado The editors welcome correspondence from readers on all topics, but prefer to publish letters that comment directly on material previously published in The Progressive...
...The powers that control the Democratic Party will never let it be a people's party...
...The poor, minorities, labor, environmentalists, homosexuals, advocates for civil and human rights have all been left twisting in the wind...
...This is a completely grassroots movement...
Vol. 59 • March 1995 • No. 3
