I’m dedicated to winning back Congress for the Democrats. So, dedicated that I just dragged another team of former campaign volunteers to spend another weekend day canvassing for John Hall in the 19th New York Congressional district—he wouldn’t even be my representative but he could win a seat from a Bush Republican. BUT…

I hate to rain on our parade but I’m going to come back to the subject that must be repeated: the Democratic Party is getting the wrong message—again. If we don’t hear the cry of the people—people who I encountered while canvassing and the larger echo out there—we will end up in the minority again, or, at least, have very little ability to move the country towards a sane and sustainable future.

And the mainstream media is quickly rising to the task. Today, The New York Times informs us that, if the Democrats retake the House, it will because of anti-abortion, anti-gun control candidates who “are far out of step with the prevailing views of the Democrats who control the party.” And the election of more “moderates” will stop Democrats from the “drift back in their liberal identity.” All this will stop the Democrats from “running over the left cliff,” says Rep. Ellen Tauscher, a co-chairperson of the self-described “centrist” New Democratic Coalition. This misses the point. Across the party, no matter ideology, there is a far bigger danger than the divergence on social issues.

I’ve pointed out recently here, here and here how our party is already being manacled by the very powerful interests that are hurting our country. Our party leadership is already pledging that there won’t be any “business bashing” in a Democratic majority. Now, this is not new—I and others have written that the system has been broken for many years because both parties belly up to the corporate money machine (and my friends in the labor movement support this foolish political system…but that’s a topic for another time). It’s just being taken to a new level, at the very time that it seems clear to me that people are not going to support a party that simply replaces one machine sucking up to corporate power with another machine gobbling up corporate cash.

On this issue, the political spectrum of “liberal,” “moderate,” or “conservative” or “centrist” versus the rest is entirely irrelevant. If you are a voter in New York, Missouri or North Carolina, you are more likely than not to be deeply in debt, without proper health care, facing stagnating wage levels and living in a community straining to provide basic services because of a lack of resources—all of which you can ascribe directly to a corrupt political system that is handing over democratic decision-making to the big corporate interests who are bankrolling the two parties.

This isn’t even smart politics. I recently described how 22 Democrats might end up costing us the House because, by voting for the so-called “free trade” agreement with Oman, they gave endangered Republicans in marginal districts a chance to vote against the agreement, a vote that could have been used by Democratic challengers to hammer them as enabling multi-national corporations to ship good-paying jobs abroad. So, if Republicans like Charlie Taylor, Robin Hayes, and Jim Gerlach squeak by, you can thank a Democratic leadership that still quavers when the pollsters and inside-the-Beltway pundits utter the magic word “pro-business centrist.”

Let me quote one of my favorite clear thinkers, Molly Ivins: “The majority (65 percent) of the American people want single-payer health care and are willing to pay more taxes to get it. The majority (86 percent) of the American people favor raising the minimum wage. The majority of the American people (60 percent) favor repealing Bush’s tax cuts, or at least those that go only to the rich. The majority (66 percent) wants to reduce the deficit not by cutting domestic spending, but by reducing Pentagon spending or raising taxes. The majority (77 percent) thinks we should do ‘whatever it takes’ to protect the environment. The majority (87 percent) thinks big oil companies are gouging consumers and would support a windfall profits tax. That is the center, you fools. WHO ARE YOU AFRAID OF?”

Some would argue that we should all just keep quiet and wait to have this fight until after the election. With all respect, the way to win back Congress—and be able to govern—is to make sure that we stand for the interests of the people, not the very corporate interests who are trying to hold on to their power, no matter who voters choose on November 7th.