The Quiet Conservative November 24, 2006
The Third Political Party.
Most Americans think of our system as a two party system. If you ask the person on the street
about the parties their response would be Republican and Democrat. Those are the two parties they
see. While there might be other parties such as the Libertarians or the Greens, they don’t get serious
consideration on any national level. But, in reality that thinking would be incorrect. There is a third
national party and it has just elected its first U.S. Senator. The third party is the Socialist Party.
If this comes as a surprise then maybe you should know the rest of it. The U.S. Senator is Bernie
Sanders from Vermont and he has been in the U.S. House of Representatives since 1991. He isn't a
closet socialist. He is not hiding it. He states it quite clearly. If you go to the Democratic Socialists of
America web site they mention in their fall news letter their fund raising efforts and his appearances.
Now, he registers as an Independent for the record, but caucuses with the Democratic Party. But he
is a socialist by affiliation and by his own statements while remaining very close to the Democratic
Party. That closeness is exemplified by the head of the DNC, Howard Dean. On Meet the Press
May 22, 2005 Tim Russert asks Dean about Bernie. This is part of the exchange from the transcript:
“MR. RUSSERT: In your home state of Vermont, there's a vacancy for the United States Senate
about to occur. Bernie Sanders, the congressman from Vermont, wants to run for that seat. He is a
self- described avowed socialist.
DR. DEAN: Well, that's what he says. He's really a populist.
MR. RUSSERT: But is there room in the Democratic Party for a socialist?
DR. DEAN: Well, first of all, he's not a socialist, really.
MR. RUSSERT: He...
DR. DEAN: He hasn't said that for a while.
MR. RUSSERT: Oh, he has a--he wrote in his book: "Outside or in the House, I am a Democratic
socialist."
DR. DEAN: Well, a Democratic socialist--all right, we're talking about words here. And Bernie can
call himself anything he wants. He is basically a liberal Democrat, and he is a Democrat that--he
runs as an Independent because he doesn't like the structure and the money that gets involved. And
he actually has, I think, some good points about campaign finance reform. The bottom line is that
Bernie Sanders votes with the Democrats 98 percent of the time. And that is a candidate that we
think...
MR. RUSSERT: So you'd support him?
DR. DEAN: We may very well end up supporting him. We need to work some things out because
it's very important for us not to split the votes in some of the other offices as well.”
Two things come to mind right away. First is Howard Dean’s discomfiture at the word ‘socialist’.
The second is his quickly brushing it off in passing by stating that a socialist is basically a liberal
Democrat. After all, the socialist Bernie Sanders voted with the Democrats 98 percent of the time.
One begins to wonder if there really is a difference between Socialists and liberal Democrats.
Americans traditionally do not trust socialists or communists. They are seen as fringe elements of
society. Their goal, after all, is to tear down the existing system and replace it with one more inline
with their political thinking. Most Americans don’t give any credence to these seemingly insignificant
political groups. No modern third party candidate other than Ross Perot has ever made it to the
national stage as a serious player. They do not get invited to televised debates or have the money
invested to make constant campaign ads on TV or radio. This may be why Howard Dean was
nervous about not splitting votes in other offices. Would there be a backlash from supporting a fellow
socialist that honestly admitted his position?
But, just because the mainstream American consciousness marginalizes these fringe people doesn’t
mean those fringe people are not intelligent enough to read the political currents and adapt to their
surroundings. Bernie Sanders registers as an Independent even though he is also openly a proud
member of the Democratic Socialists of America. That has been enough of a panacea to pass by the
less than intense scrutiny a liberal Vermont media would give. But Bernie’s socialism isn’t any more
a guarded secret than was Foley’s homosexuality. For over a decade the self described Democratic
Socialist worked for socialism in the U.S. House of Representatives.
So what is the big deal with one socialist from Vermont? There is nothing illegal or even wrong with
being a socialist. It is a pretty popular political viewpoint worldwide. America allows diverse political
parties to participate. The only problem is, that Socialists are un-American. When I say that I mean
they stand against all of our basic principles as a nation and the core belief that the individual has the
God given right to be free. Socialism sees the welfare of the group as its core value. Freedom isn’t its
foundation. It may be why the DNC Chairman hesitated over the word “Socialist”. You can do it,
you just can’t say it. The Democratic Party Chairman knows that America by and large, likes being
America.
The influence of socialism in government doesn’t stop with the aberration of a single lone politician.
In 1991 the newly elected Congressman Sanders founded the beachhead of the third party in the U.
S. House of Representatives when he founded the Congressional Progressive Caucus. A lot of
House Representatives joined. That group of House Representatives worked openly with the
Democratic Socialists of American until 1999 when it began to be reported in the press. Suddenly
the links between the two groups disappeared, at least publicly. The Democratic Socialists of
America to which Congressman, now Senator, Sanders belongs is the principal US affiliate to the
International Socialists political party. These are the folks working towards a one world socialist
form of government. They have the symbol of a fist holding a rose. The key word that these
socialists use to identify themselves and their ideals is “Progressive”. When you hear the term
“Secular Progressive” or “Progressive” you know you are discussing a socialist idea or position. So
when you think of the Democratic Progressive Caucus or Congressional Progressive Caucus you
know you are talking about socialists.
Let us reinforce that point. An open socialist establishes a group upon coming to Congress to push
forward the political goals and aims of the Democratic Socialists of America. That caucus adopts the
name of the Democratic Progressive Caucus. To any Representative thinking of joining that caucus
they would know what ideals are being promoted and just who is promoting them. The founder is an
open socialist. Therefore, if they join then they too are promoting the ideas and agree with the
positions of socialism. Why else join? Howard Dean on Meet the Press must also agree with the
DSA goals. After all, the visible member of that socialist party in Congress votes with the Democrats
98% of the time.
As of June of 2006 there were more than sixty members of the House of Representatives that
belonged to Congressman Sander’s socialist caucus. That brought me back to my first impression in
DNC Chairman Deans hesitation to admit his fellow Vermonter was an avowed socialist. He wasn’t
all that sure how America at large would receive the news that socialists were in Congress and were
aligned with the Democratic Party. One might almost think this interview was a trial balloon to test
whether Sanders would be too hot to advocate for the Senate seat. If there was no uproar, and there
wasn’t, then the DNC could give the go ahead to push Sanders upward to the Senate. Bernie
Sanders won in a landslide in his state and will reside for the next six years in the U.S. Senate voting
along with the Democratic Party.
This shadow third party, the Democratic Socialists of America, now has one US Senator out of
sixty. They now have 71 Congressmen sitting in the House of Representatives out of 435 voting
members. By numbers alone that doesn’t ring many alarm bells, until you find out who belonged to
the Democratic Progressive Caucus as of June, 2006. One of those people was Congressperson
Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House. Elected unanimously by the other members of her party,
she has been described as one of the most liberal, progressive members of Congress. She is third in
line to be President of the United States should the President and Vice-President be killed. Current
references to her belonging to the caucus have disappeared as she has since dropped out of the
caucus upon assuming her party leadership. But dropping out of the caucus is not the same as
disavowing its ideals any more than Bernie Sanders registering as an Independent means he disavows
being a socialist.
If you go to the Congressional Progressive Caucus they list their members. Do you recognize some
of the names? It is reported that the new 110th Congress will pick up new freshmen members and
be the largest Democratic caucus in Congress. You might want to check in occasionally. It might be
interesting to see if freshman Congressperson Boyda joins.
It isn’t just happening on the Federal level. Your state might have its own local Progressive
Caucus. Kansas does. Check them out online at www.Kanasprogressives.org. This is their
statement on “Who we are”:
Who We Are
We are an official caucus of the Kansas Democratic Party working to bring progressive solutions to
Kansans. You can be one of us!
If you are interested in working on progressive issues in Kansas, send us email at ksprogressives.org,
or send email directly to someone on one of the Committees of the Caucus.
We are part of a progressive movement that is sweeping the nation. Our national affiliation is with the
Progressive Democrats of America. There are some 20 other states also allied with the PDA.
Webster defines progressive as " one believing in moderate political change and especially social
improvement by governmental action, or not bound by traditional ways or beliefs." It is to this end
we dedicate our mission; that is to bring mainstream values and common sense to the forefront in the
State of Kansas.
By Kansas Progressives at 2006-08-20 21:09
You might want to check out their links page. It was to one of their national affiliates. It was the
one marked “Congressional Progressive Caucus” and it went directly to Bernie Sander’s web page
of: http://bernie.house.gov/website/. He is probably changing it over now that he is in the Senate.
Give him a few weeks to get settled in and build a brand new link, a progressive one, to the Senate.
Other links worked fine. The other national link goes to the Progressive Democrats of America.
The nineteen other state progressive links worked from Arizona to Washington. The link to the
Kansas Democratic Party worked fine. With so much closeness maybe there are only two parties
after all: The Republican Party and the Democratic Socialist Party. Maybe we just haven’t got the
memo yet. Or maybe the people that do not support individual liberty over group social planning are
not quite sure yet if they can openly expose their true political leanings to an as yet free society.
Maybe that is why the Assault Weapons ban has suddenly returned. Gun control goes hand in hand
with social planning.
For our national party symbols we have the elephant and the donkey. Now maybe we should have
the fist holding the rose. Or, at the very least maybe the donkey should hold the rose between its
teeth.