Monday, September 12, 2005
More Advice for the Democrats
A writer of a letter to the editor of the Los Angeles Times recently complained that the Democratic Party has forgotten that it is the party that advocates for the poor. Instead, the party has taken up such issues as gay marriage and unlimited right to an abortion. The writer commented that he wished the party would get back to its true goal.
My own answer is that the Democratic Party must advocate for the rights of poor people as well as for their economic conditions. Who is it that depends on government to guarantee that a woman can have a safe abortion? Certainly not a rich woman. She can travel abroad. She can find a doctor who provides safe abortions in secret for a price. It is poor women who need a guaranteed right to safe abortions. It is reproductive health clinics that provide services to poor women who need protection against anti-abortion activist groups and State legislatures dominated by conservative fundamentalists.
Who needs the privileges normally accorded to married heterosexual couples? It’s not rich gays, it’s the poor and middle-class ones. As with other rich folks, a rich gay couple can enjoy their lives together as well as heterosexual couples. It’s the not-so-rich ones who need the benefits normally granted to married couples.
My Democratic Party has been and continues to be the advocate for the poor and the relatively poor in our society. It advocates not only for their economic improvement but also for rights that are either taken for granted or not needed by the rich.
Any successful political party in our system of “winner take all” elections must be a coalition of many different but cooperating interest groups. It is the genius of political leaders to persuade these groups to stick together and cooperate in spite of some serious differences among them. Poor people by themselves are not numerous or influential enough to win elections without allies. The Democratic Party must provide them those allies by building coalitions. That’s the way our system works.
My own answer is that the Democratic Party must advocate for the rights of poor people as well as for their economic conditions. Who is it that depends on government to guarantee that a woman can have a safe abortion? Certainly not a rich woman. She can travel abroad. She can find a doctor who provides safe abortions in secret for a price. It is poor women who need a guaranteed right to safe abortions. It is reproductive health clinics that provide services to poor women who need protection against anti-abortion activist groups and State legislatures dominated by conservative fundamentalists.
Who needs the privileges normally accorded to married heterosexual couples? It’s not rich gays, it’s the poor and middle-class ones. As with other rich folks, a rich gay couple can enjoy their lives together as well as heterosexual couples. It’s the not-so-rich ones who need the benefits normally granted to married couples.
My Democratic Party has been and continues to be the advocate for the poor and the relatively poor in our society. It advocates not only for their economic improvement but also for rights that are either taken for granted or not needed by the rich.
Any successful political party in our system of “winner take all” elections must be a coalition of many different but cooperating interest groups. It is the genius of political leaders to persuade these groups to stick together and cooperate in spite of some serious differences among them. Poor people by themselves are not numerous or influential enough to win elections without allies. The Democratic Party must provide them those allies by building coalitions. That’s the way our system works.
