IN A distant nation the ruling party's corruption added to the misery of the impoverishedpopulace. This nation's leader won the praise of international elites who fund the state that is systematically exterminating the citizens of his own country. While the ruler has been sipping cocktails with the genocidal international elites, a minority party provided social services that were increasingly important as the people found themselves fenced off from their water sources and family farms.
As a result, Hamas won a majority of seats in the Palestinian parliament, despite pledges to destroy Israel. In present-day America, the welfare state exists principally to serve corporate clients. Hamas demonstrates a means by which the Democratic Party can win electoral support, particularly because of the current absence of a comprehensive American social safety net. After demonstrating its ability to provide efficient, effective welfare programs, the Democratic Party will be in a much stronger position to regain majority status.
But the Democratic Party stands up for working families -- Party advocates will protest. Really? If it did, we would see stronger Democratic support among the working classes. At present, American workers do not form long lines on Election Day to vote Democrat. Perhaps that is because the Democratic Party, unlike Hamas in Palestine, too often fails to serve the interests of the American working class.
As Politics Prof. William Quandt said in an interview, Hamas won recent parliamentary elections "in large measure because of its reputation for 'good governance.'" If the Black Panther Party could provide social services nearly forty years ago, the Democratic Party certainly has the capacity to do so today.
As it creates social services like subsidized day care, the Democratic Party can make an argument that the federal government should be providing critical social services. The party could draw a stark contrast between one party that provides social services to working families and another that provides corporate welfare to defense contractors. There is historical precedent in America that a party can win a dominant position in government by providing social services effectively and efficiently.
Politics Prof. Larry Sabato said in an interview, "In 1932 Americans simply voted for change, not sure what the change would really be, but knowing that the status quo had failed to protect and help them." The Democratic Party quickly converted that mandate into sweeping economic reform, winning strong support from the working classes. Through "demonstrating leadership in a wide range of New Deal programs to create employment, provide for the immediate and long-term needs of the poor and middle class, and offer security to the desperate and fearful," Sabato said, the New Deal Democrats created an "enduring majority coalition" that would last into the 1960's.
Whether Hamas can implement substantive reform in the Palestinian territories remains to be seen. Given the thorough brutality of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, it will be nearly impossible to improve the economic situation. Reducing corruption, a central plank of the Hamas platform, is more realistic. Regardless, Democratic Party chieftains need to hold their sanctimonious tongues about the Hamas victory and work on understanding how that minority party catapulted itself into the majority.
The Democratic Party has much to learn not only from its own golden past, but also from the election in Palestine that the American media has portrayed as a tragedy. Rather than vacillate on the war, the Democratic Party should set up daycare programs in swing congressional districts. Rather than promote "free" trade, it could buy shuttered factories and transfer them to democratically-run cooperatives. As was the case in Palestine, the incompetence and corruption of the dominant party presents the minority party with an extraordinary opportunity to achieve electoral dominance.
Zack Fields' column appears Wednesdays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at zfields@cavalierdaily.com.
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