Your Side of the Street

Big Tent

So let me tell you a little bit about the Democratic Party.  Ken Martin, the Democratic National Chairman, just outlined the “bottom line” of being a Democrat:  “Make people’s lives a little better”.   Democrats are a Party that represents widely divergent views.  They are the Party of Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and the powerful candidate for Mayor of New York, Zohran Mamdani (Zoor-ran Mom-daah-ne: I can say it even if his former Democratic opponent, Andrew Cuomo, can’t). They call themselves Democratic Socialists. And Democrats are also the Party of Henry Cuellar of Texas, Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and even John Fetterman of Pennsylvania.  No one would ever dare call those folks “socialists”.

Democrats are the Party of the “big tent”.  So what drives them to move forward as a single political group?  It is Martin’s “bottom line” – “Make people’s lives a little better”.   His fellow Minnesotan,  Vice President and longtime Senator Hubert Humphrey defined “liberalism”.  “Liberalism, above all, means emancipation—emancipation from one’s fears, his inadequacies from prejudice, from discrimination, yes, from poverty.”  That 1967 definition still applies to the Democratic Party today, no matter that the “liberal label” has gone far out of style.  

It’s that ultimate goal that keeps Democrats of different “stripes”, different methods, together under one banner, our “big tent”.  

By the way, in a recent and incredibly divisive non-partisan local election here in the Pataskala area, one faction searched for the worst possible insult to throw at an opponent.  They used the “L-word”, “Liberal”, to paint that opponent as unacceptable to local voters.  It’s funny:  the opposing candidate is a lot of things, but, take it from me, a liberal:   he’s no liberal.  He’s more of a “populist” in the negative, “I’m a victim”, Donald Trump mold.

Blind Justice

All of that is in contrast with the current Republican/MAGA Party, where any deviation from the “Party Line” is snuffed out.  Even in the Justice Department, the ostensibly “blind justice” arm of the Trump government, two prosecutors brought up the past record of a  man convicted of gun offenses and threats to former President Obama.  They put in the sentencing document that the offender was a January 6^th insurrectionist.  The prosecutors did their jobs by outlining the convicted man’s actions in the Capitol, a record of violence.  But, the MAGA line is that there was no Insurrection, just a peaceful “First Amendment” protest outside the Capitol on January 6^th, 2021.  (Don’t believe your “lying” eyes).  Speaking the truth cost those two career prosecutors their jobs.

The sure path to oblivion for members of that Party is to stand against Trump.  There is a long line of “former” politicians, forced out of the political world because they dared to deviate from the “Make America Great Again” dictum.  The one surviving exception; the former “Queen” of MAGA, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.  She not only stood up against the coverup of the EPSTEIN FILES, but now is calling for health insurance reform to re-open the US Government.  We’ll see how that goes – Trump is snubbing her now, and remains silent on her possible Senate run.

Goals and Methods

The media from all ideological positions, hone-in on Democratic internal strife.  MAGA Republicans claim that the Democratic Socialists are “closet Communists” who represent the entire Democratic Party.  Even Democratic leaders like Senator Chuck Schumer shy away from supporting the “left-wing” of their own Party.  But the reality of the Democratic Party is this.  

Democrats hope to make “…people’s lives a little better”.  That’s true at the National level, and at the local level as well.  How they go about achieving that goal might be different, with labels like “socialist” and “Blue Dog” used to describe methods, but the goal of making things “better” remains the same.  So what’s the difference between Democrats and MAGA/Republicans?

Where’s Your Address?

We know the Democratic over-arching theme.  What we need to discuss is; what is the MAGA/Republican goal?  Perhaps the best way to describe that is the difference between “Wall Street and Main Street”.  On Wall Street, the stock markets are soaring to near record highs.  Big money is making bigger profits, and by that measure, the country is, to quote President Trump, “…better than ever before”.  

But the view from Wall Street is opposite to the view from Main Street.  The cost of living is high; one job isn’t enough to take care of a family; and the everyday issues of living are just… hard.  We are looking at soaring insurance costs, and Christmas shopping with prices up because of the President’s tariffs. 

The MAGA/Republican goal is to “Make Wall Street Great Again”.  One Government action after another helps the rich get richer, regardless of the impact on those who live in the real world of Main Street.  If Democrats are trying to “make people’s live a little better”, it seems that MAGA/Republicans are striving to make sure their wealthy backers get even more wealth. They support Wall Street at the expense of Main Street.  Democrats are committed to Main Street. 

And that’s the difference.