BLUE DOG BLUES

Over 50 years ago African-American Human Rights leader Malcolm X cautioned his community against the perils of blind allegiance to the Democratic Party.  He decried blantant racism of southern democrats and the subtle racism of its northern liberal wing. Malcolm X employed the analogy of the fox and the wolf to explain the motives of a party that in practice, appears no different than its' republican counterpart. It certainly appears just as corrupt. Since the 2010 mid-term elections we have heard of an silent majority that lies in shi'ar cloak within the democratic party. The Blue Dog Democrats as they are called, are those democrats that are actually Republicans in principle. The are for cuts in entitlement programs, small government, but big military spending and most of all, they trend toward established wealth and privilege. A cursory glance of history shows that this group is not a new phenomena in the party. A particularly poignant example is the case of Former Vice President and Secretary of Agriculture, Henry A. Wallace. Like 2016 Presidential Candidate Bernie Sanders, Wallace was an unabashed anti imperialist who supported civil rights, robust unions, checks on Wall Street, and living wages for the American Working Class.  His "Century of the Common Man speech, as well as his support for the New Deal programs of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt made him a dangerous pariah in his own political party.  And like Sanders, he was the choice of over 50% of democratic voters in the country.

Unfortunately, both were also victims of electoral coup d' etats in the primaries of their own parties. With Wallace, it was DNC Chairman Robert Hannegan, Treasurer Edwin Pauley, and others powerful party bosses, using payoffs, bribes of political offices and manipulation of electoral process, who robbed him (Wallace) of his nomination to the Vice-Presidency on a balmy Chicago night in July 1944. At the very point when Wallace's nomination seemed almost certain, they instructed Session Chairman Samuel Jackson to call an adjournment over the explosive protest of Wallace delegates who were more than ready to seal the deal and send Wallace back to the White House. According to Florida Senator Claude Pepper, Jackson told him that "he had strict instructions from Hannegan (DNC Chair) not to let the delegation nominate the Vice President." In Wallace's place would be Harry S. Truman. Truman was a Senator from Missouri that had as a backer the raining vice-lord of Kansas City; a man named Thomas Pendergast. So prevalent was this influence on Truman, that he was known as the "Senator from Pendergast."

Fast forward some 70 years later. Jewish Senator Bernie Sanders from Vermont ran on the Democratic Party ticket for the President of the United States. Subsequent emails confirm the continued machinations of the same entrenched institutions within the Democratic Party. The emails confirm the most heinous forms of race-baiting and religious bigotry directed toward Senator Sanders. One would think it was the playbook from the Republican Party. Such actions confirm the time honored accusations of little similarities between the two parties and the profound prophesies of Malcolm X.  DNC Chairman Debbie Wasserman Schultz violated party rules of neutrality by channeling resources by way of money, information/propaganda to reporters, and scheduled debate times toward positions favorable to Hillary Clinton. Like her 1944 predecessors, Wasserman Schultz concluded that what's best for the party was not going to be determined by the delegation at large, but by the authority of the few. In the words of Former CIA director Allen W. Dulles, democracy is too important to be left to the masses. Such philosophy and practices reveal a fundamental flaw in the democratic process. It also reveals the incredulity of Hillary Clinton's pledge to overturn the Supreme Court's Citizen's United decision. Tocqueville once said that: "The happy and powerful do not go into exile, there are no surer of equality among men than poverty and misfortune." But if we look at the history of electoral misconduct in politics, it is best summed up by President Dwight D. Eisenhower when he said that "things are more like now than they ever were before." Until next time, this is the RED HORNET signing out.