The Door Mat Party

As I was listening to NPR this morning, I heard a voice of reason, a voice of intelligence and decency, booming across the airwaves.

This voice wasn’t unfamiliar to me, as I am already a big supporter of the man, but all the same it was an early morning blessing to hear Sen. Bernie Sanders on the air.

At any rate, the focus of Sanders’ rant this morning was the epic failure of the Democratic Party to represent America’s working class, the millions of men and women who struggle each day to keep their heads above water. It’s funny that Sanders would rant on this issue today as, just yesterday, I was raving the same rant about the Democrat’s failures.

As working Americans look to Washington for help and understanding, they see little more than a desert flooded with dried-out creatures seeking dollar bills to horde in their caves. Not only that, they see large, scaly reptiles working to sacrifice smaller ones to their corporate gods and slimy, side-winding belly crawlers dodging beneath the shade of dried brush so as to not agitate their large reptilian opponents.

In simpler terms, it goes like this: any person of reasonable intelligence knows that Republicans work diligently for the good of the wealthy and their businesses and the party meant to contrast their villainy, the Democrats, back-step on promises and cower in the shadow of controversial legislation. It’s no wonder that Democrats took a shellacking in the recent elections – their constituents decided to stay at home rather than stand in line to vote for cowards who stand for nothing.

During his NPR interview, Sanders put it like this:

To see where the Democratic Party is, I think, it’s important to understand where America is. And where America is, is that today we are seeing the collapse, the continued collapse, of the American middle class. You have working-class families who have given up the dream of sending their kids to college. That dream is now not a reality for a whole lot of folks in this country. And then people look out and they say, “Gee, the wealthiest people are doing phenomenally well.”

And where are the Democrats? Do people see the Democratic Party standing up to Wall Street? Any of these guys going to jail? Not really. The average person is working longer hours, lower wages, and they do not see any political party standing up and fighting for their rights. What they see is a Republican Party becoming extremely right wing, controlled by folks like the Koch brothers. But they do not see a party representing the working class of this country.

Sadly, he’s exactly right – there’s no one standing up for the working class of this country, the millions of people just trying to feed their kids and pay their bills with no hope of ever getting ahead, all while watching Republicans act as Roman soldiers to the wealthy Caesars and the Democrats acting as silent, docile monks in a crumbling cathedral.

While liberals can complain about Republicans’ boisterous idiocy, we can’t ignore the fact that it has served them well.

Perhaps it’s time for Democrats to stand up and shout for a change – shout that they demand quality healthcare for Americans, demand higher wages for workers, demand real reform on immigration, marriage equality and environmental protections.

And, perhaps, the good senator from Vermont is just the man to lead the charge.

Crossposted from Piece of Mind.

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