Should the Democrats join an International Alliance?

[Idioteque]

As you probably already know, there are several international alliances of political parties.


International Democrat Union - Don't be fooled by the name. The IDC is an alliance of several Conservative and Christian Democratic parties. Some of its members include the Conservative parties in Great Britain and Canada, the CDU in Germany, and the GOP here in the US.

Liberal International - Liberal International is an alliance of Liberal and Centrist political parties. Some parties are liberal in all aspects. Others may be socially liberal and fiscally conservative or vice versa. Most parties fall in the center of the political spectrum. Members include the Canadian Liberal Party and the UK Liberal Democrats,

Socialist International - An alliance of centre-left Labour and Social-Democratic parties. Members include the UK Labour Party, New Democratic Party of Canada, SDP in Germany, and the Israeli Labour Party.

You will notice that while the GOP is a member of the IDU, the Democratic party has not joined an alliance. In my opinion, the party should be moving to a more social-democratic position. However, because of the stigma of the world "socialism" in the US, Liberal International might me a better idea.

What do you guys think? Should the DNC join an alliance?

[vpigrad]

1. There is no stigma...

except in the media.

[ProgressiveConn]

4. Are you crazy?

There is no stigma against socialism? Guess you must not live in McCarthy-Reagan America.

[vpigrad]

7. McCarthy was a long time ago!

McCarthy was shown to be a fraud in May(?) of 1954, and died three years later. Millions saw live on TV what type of person he really was. That was over fifty years ago! Most people don't remember six months ago, much less fifty years ago. How can you claim that is relevant?

[Mass]

2. Depends what Democratic Party.

Ben Nelson and Landrieu's one should join the IDC.

The DLC should probably join LI.

The Progressives should join SI.

Which is the reason why I doubt they will ever join one. If I had to choose, it would be SI.

[oneold1-4u]

3. We need allies now!

It is a fact that this domain, the US, is under siege by actually a quite small minority of the worlds industrial, ultra, rich. They get richer and more powerful with commerce and taxation. It will only be when the majority right here say enough and rally enough to hurt both industry and taxation, that any real change will come. An alliance with others could help the cause with just the fact that they were there for some support.
The aforementioned, conservative industrial rich can not hold together if the middle, working class, stops supporting them!

[autorank]

5. Clearly NO TIES with the corrupt and decadent Labour Party of Britain!

They are a disgrace. I don't care if they drop Blair, they are the most vile enablers of violence and aggression in the world today. Shame on them. No association with them. We probably should join an alliance but then they'd just say we were commies or something like that.

Let our motto as Democrats be: "We are the World."

[Selatius]

6. It could be difficult to get the Democratic Party to join

First off, the Democratic Party is essentially a coalition already. The only reason the Democratic Party exists in its current form is because the electoral system in the US really only allows for two political parties and not more. It is very difficult for the Party to agree on anything beyond the basics.

If the electoral laws in the US were changed to allow for multiple parties to enter government, I would submit the Democratic Party would break up into Greens, various socialist groups, Social Democrats, Christian Democrats, various labor parties, and more. Try getting them all to agree.

The only way I'd support joining an international coalition is after election reform, campaign finance reform, and the abolition of the Electoral College is complete.

[Dirk39]

8. The Democrats are somehow related to the Socialist International

Hello from Germany,
the Democrats are somehow related to the Socialist International through the NDI.


http://www.socialistinternational.org/maps/english/northa.htm

Albright is the chairman, Carter is a member too:
http://www.ndi.org/about/about.asp

But most of the former socialist and social-democratic parties have become Blairists, neoliberals and Clinton-style-DLCers anyway...

It would be more important, if you ask me, that NGO-organisations like Attac, who have members all over Europe and in other countries, but do not have ties with parties, would exist in the USA, too.

Dirk