MoveOn.Org once said, flat out, that they owned the Democratic Party.
With the win back in November, they are ready to start kicking their property to the curb
Liberal groups warn Democrats to toe the line
Democratic lawmakers who stray too far from the party line could find themselves facing primary opponents financed by unions, trial lawyers, and political activists eager to put the new congressional majority to the test.
After two weeks of near-perfect unity, congressional Democrats now move into more divisive territory that will test party discipline on such issues as the war in Iraq, worker rights, and health care.
Antiwar activists led by groups such as MoveOn.org and Win Without War have already mobilized, pressuring Democrats and Republicans to denounce President Bush’s troop-boosting plan for Iraq. But they also want tougher action, arguing that the elections that put Democrats in power were a referendum on the war.
This week, an influential group of organizers from labor and the liberal movement are banding together to hold Democrats in line on populist issues such as expanded health care, trade restrictions, and worker protections.
“The idea is that this election was a watershed,” said Steve Rosenthal, one of the main organizers of the new labor coalition. “There is a great opportunity to begin moving America in a new direction of economic populism and fairness.”
The coalition has organized two entities – a lobbying wing called They Work For Us and a campaign arm called Working for Us PAC – which will target lawmakers who don’t support their agenda of raising wages, increasing jobs, providing more affordable health care, and preventing job losses to foreign countries.
“Our PAC will encourage Democrats to act like Democrats – and if they don’t – they better get out of the way,” Rosenthal wrote in a memo describing the organization.
Hopefully for you and I, these groups will see exactly what Democrats act like: Slimy, limp-wristed, spineless toads.
Found at the FreeWillBlog