The Wolves Among Us

If you can block out the movie production of Troy long enough to think about the legend of Troy, remind yourself of what that story really says. It says that the enemy within is a far graver threat than the one outside your gates. It says that traitors, turncoats, spies and general wolves in sheep's clothing will cause more damage than all the armies combined.

This is, of course, because it is always easier to destroy something from the inside.

Keep this in mind when considering the wisdom of focusing solely on the Republicans while ignoring the wolves that currently occupy our hen-house. Wolves like the ones who voted for CAFTA, the bankruptcy bill, or the energy bill.

How can so many Democrats vote for legislation that goes against everything the Democratic party stands for and expect to get away with it? Because they know we'll let them.

They know that as election time rolls around, we will flock in droves to defeat the evil Republicans so that they won't pass such legislation as CAFTA, the bankruptcy bill, or the energy bill.

They know that many of us will argue that we need to be a big tent party and not benefit the Republicans our internal strife. That our only objective is to get back into power so we can pass CAFTA, the bankruptcy bill, or the energy bill. At least then we'll have the fancy congressional offices again.

Meanwhile, the corporations and their lobbyists are laughing their way to the bank. They actually benefit from the Democrat's and Republican's pre-occupation with each other. They love the culture war. They love Plame-gate. They love everything that takes our eyes off the ball while they quietly amass all of the wealth and power into their few hands. And they know that they can count on neither Republicans or Democrats to interfere.

It's funny. Most people know that our politicians are bought and paid for. We know that Big Money is really pulling all the strings. But who knows who Big Money really is? Who are these people who are actually running the country from the back rooms of Washington? Here's a clue, none of them are named Karl.

In our quest to "take our country back" and restore power to the people, wouldn't it be wise to know who we're taking it back from? Here's a clue, it ain't George Bush.

And meanwhile, our people continue on their mass migration to the services sector. According to the Dept. of Labor, service sector jobs are the only thing keeping Bush's employment numbers out of the red. The SEIU is the largest and fastest growing labor union in the country. Yes, we are well on our way to waiterdom. Unfortunately, only so many can serve frappes to the 2% of the population that owns everything.

And then there is the Democratic Party®. I put that little trademark symbol there to get a point across. The Democratic party is more than a group or organization of people. It is a trademark. It is a core set of beliefs that are encoded into those two words.

We all have variations on those core beliefs. And we all have different ways of describing them. And indeed, those beliefs have evolved and expanded over the last century. But always, always at it's root, the brand Democratic Party has stood for protecting average Americans. It has stood for protecting and empowering the many against the tyranny of the few. Whether manifest in the fight for civil rights, progressive taxation, the protection of the elderly, or the disassembly and regulation of monopolistic corporations, there has always been a consistent, underlying statement beneath every act: America, under Democratic watch, will not allow the interests of the monied few to prevail over the commonwealth of the many. It has been so since its inception.

And then came the DLC. Like wedding brokers with solicitation of the dowry, they showed us a new way. With an endless supply of crisp, corporate cash, they forged a pact. Let our sheep graze pittantly in the electoral pasture and we'll give the wolves the keys to the hen-house.

And the Third Way began. And when the wolves rewarded the sheep with the installation of one of their own into the presidency, the sheep were so overjoyed that they stopped guarding the hen-house altogether. The wines of glory spilt over as the wolves and sheep celebrated their thirst. Good days would surely follow.

But out here in the real world, good days did not follow. Jobs, whole towns dried up and frittered away. Many families struggled to survive working three jobs. Urban and working class neighborhoods began to resemble combat zones. Small businesses failed as corporate chains moved in with scale advantage and third world imports. Public schools became holding cells for disadvantaged youth while prison occupation reached record highs. Suicide rates also reached record highs. As did drug and alcohol abuse as the sheep found their own good days in substance and television induced oblivion.

And, almost without notice, we awoke to find the brand, Democratic Party®, had lost its meaning. The leadersheep no longer spoke about the plight of the commonwealth. To many, they were starting to sound like wolves themselves. Then large flocks began to mistrust their party's alliance with the wolves. Many stayed home on election day. Many others formed their own party. And the sheep's long sworn enemy, the pigs, began to grow in power.

You see, the pigs alliance with the wolves went back to the beginning of time. And the sheep feared that alliance. They saw how the wolves would protect the pigs as they tried to hog all the food so that, at a time of the wolves choosing, the pigs would sacrifice one of their own to the wolves feast.

But the wolves found it difficult to elect a pig. No matter how many bows and ribbons they adorned, they still looked like pigs.

But when the sheep saw other sheep drinking with the wolves, the pigs no longer looked so bad. This is a new era, some would say. We are all wolves now.

The wolves also bought up all the TV channels, so they were able to make the pigs look like ponies. And everyone loves ponies.

And yet some of the sheep were not fooled. They said, "that's not a pony, that's a pig. And those aren't sheep. They're wolves in sheep's clothing." And they vowed to fight the wolves in sheep's clothing. But the other sheep cried out in horror. "How can you turn on your own? Don't you realize these are sheep? We must all stick together. A bad sheep is better than a good pig", they would say.

But the wise sheep knew better. They knew that the wolves in sheep's clothing were worse than plain wolves or the worst pigs. They remembered the legend of the pony, long told around the water hole. It was the story of how the wolves and the pigs had once conspired to build a giant pony to give to the sheep. But it was not a pony. It was a giant meat packer.

And yet, when they tried to warn the other sheep, they would not listen. They did not remember the legend of the pony. And they believed that if it was covered in wool, it was good. No matter where that wool came from.

To be continued...

There is nothing new in American politics. There is no Third Way. This is the same story mankind has been living out for eons. It is the age old struggle between the wolves and the sheep, retold for the new millennium. The ponies are only prettier in the television lights.

Our founding fathers fought the wolves and won. American history is speckled with such fights. Not all victorious.

But in our immense history I can find no fight more imperative, no threat to the average American so grave as the one we are witnessing now. Animal metaphors aside, the watchers and the keepers have all been turned. Every institutional protection of the common man has either fallen or is under siege.

There is only one intuitional agent left to our defense: democracy. And the only democratic institution which has any hope of providing The People with remedy is the Democratic party.

We can be a big tent on a lot of issues. But on one central point there can be no compromise: Democrats, in all their affairs, must as their final, chosen allegiance, serve the interest of ordinary Americans. Service to any other is betrayal.

Update [2005-7-31 2:50:4 by TocqueDeville]: A note about purity.

Thomas Jefferson founded the Democratic party to empower the commoners. He saw the inevitable inclination of wealth and power to accumulate into the hands of the few at the expense of the many. His Party of the People was its remedy.

The root principle I have laid out above is not my invention. It is what, historically, the Democratic party has stood for since its inception. To claim that the expectation of our party to adhere to that principle -- and to solely represent the interest of common Americans -- reflects some form of ideological “purity” is bane Sophism.

The Democratic party, until recent times, has always stood for protecting common Americans against the potential tyranny of the few. And while such language may be somewhat out of vogue, it has never been more applicable. Looking out for the common man is to Democrats what “lower taxes” and “less government” are to Republicans. If you do not know this, then you are either too young to remember, ignorant of history, or worse.