"Junkies" Speak

Democracy Corps is advising Democrats that this is the message the public needs to hear:

President Bush is overwhelmed by the problems facing the country, employment and the economy, Iraq, and the budget deficits. The problems grow out of control, yet he has no plan for expanding em-ployment and no plan for post-war Iraq or the growing budget mess. Failing to win international support, he wants $87 billion from US taxpayers for Iraq, but with exploding deficits, that means cuts in spending for education and health care and a lack of funds for Social Security.

Junkie Editor Michael Carmichael uses the Democracy Corps memo as the basis for his comments. – Democracy Corps. (Adobe Acrobat)

[The above file is in Adobe Acrobat format.. To view or print these PDF files, you must download and install a copy of the Adobe^® Acrobat^® Reader. Click the button below to obtain your FREE copy of Adobe^® Acrobat^® Reader. (NOTE: Please pay close attention to this software's installation instructions and licensing agreement.)

Get your free Adobe^® Acrobat^® Reader now!]

I am gratified that Democracy Corps is finally articulating what we at TPJ have been arguing for the past twelve months - that Bush is vulnerable on Iraq as well as his budgetary blunders. This latest memo is the first time that I have noticed them using the term "progressive". In the past, they have been spreading fear and timidity of criticizing the president or his policies while we have been urging precisely the opposite strategy and message. Anything that you can do to make this fact clear would be deeply appreciated, and it would be helpful in establishing TPJ’s credibility as the cutting edge of Democratic strategy.

The material above greatly strengthens the case against the candidacy of Wesley Clark. The very audacity of the man: to address the Pulaski Republicans as a potential political candidate and then to infiltrate the Democratic Party as a stalking horse for Hillary Clinton or the neoconservatives driving the Bush administration.

Last night, I attended a high level and highly restricted briefing on the impact of the internet on the 2004 presidential campaign at the US Embassy in London. There was tight security, and we had to present our passports as well as our invitations as well as run the usual gauntlet of armed security and metal detection checkpoints. My old friend, Phil Noble [Editor of Politics Online – a TPJ favorite] of Charleston was one of the featured speakers. We chatted about the presidential campaign.

From what I have been hearing lately, Wesley Clark is no Democrat, and he is being used as a stalking horse for Hillary Clinton who may still enter the fray. I think it will depend on how swiftly Bush's popularity plummets. Another theory is that he is a neoconservative candidate who is seeking to transform the Democratic Party into a clone of the Republicans.

In the meantime, too few top Democratic Party politicos are noticing that there is a riot going on. Maybe it is not exactly a riot, but it is a full scale revolution. The revolution taking place in American presidential politics today is as significant as the revolution in mass communications caused by television. This revolution is being driven by the internet.

The epicenter of the revolution is - without any shadow of doubt - the presidential campaign of Howard Dean who is streets ahead - no that is not true - for Dean is light years ahead of his competition. His campaign is a political phenomenon. There are now hundreds of unofficial-official websites - many of which have powerful messages about the candidacy of Dean. The effectiveness of Dean's use of the internet was driven home at the end of the last reporting period, when he led the field by a comfortable margin - from the position of a rank outsider who was outrageously ostracized and attacked by the political hierarchy. The fact that he is leading the fundraising on the back of contributors that average only $53 donations is like a lightning bolt from the future of democracy.

The importance of this revolution is that it is coming from the grass roots. The voters are in a quiet revolt against the New Democrats, the Democratic Leadership Council, the Democratic National Committee and the powers that be. They want action. They are demanding change, and they are demanding a leading role in bringing about all of the above. The politics of presidential campaigning has been transformed. So far, none of Dean's competition has been unable to understand the profundity of the changes descending on the Democratic Party and through it, the entire process of American democracy.

The Dean campaign has more volunteers and contributors than any presidential campaign in history - and we are still four months away from the New Hampshire primary. Whatever happens, the changes taking are irreversible. Dean's campaign could still fail, (the party hacks could join forces with the Republicans to ensure a lockout) but the technological revolution underpinning his campaign will thunder on like the juggernaut it has become. Phil Noble tells me that at this level of development in the Dean campaign's web strategy, the engines will now shift into a political equivalent of Mona Lisa Overdrive.

In American presidential politics, there is everything to play for, and - with the long-awaited and long predicted in The Political Junkies political collapse of Bush's presidency - the game is finally getting very interesting. American presidential politics have just joined the third millenium.

Junkie: TPJ does not endorse candidates. Everyone is welcome to write for Junkies speak as to their views.