Jordan Chariton: The DNC’s Fossil Fuel Reversal Reveals More Than Climate Change Cowardice

Jordan Chariton
Aug 11, 2018 · 4 min read

During Hillary Clinton’s speech at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, I laughed when she uttered nonsense about the Democratic Party being the party of the people.

As she said that, the tale of two cities were on full display: while her mega donors and corporate America were lavishly celebrating up in the luxury suites at the Convention center, swigging champagne and caviar, outside on the streets, progressive millennials and Baby Boomers were protesting against a Democratic Party that, for all intents and purposes, had become Republican-lite.

This is the scene that came to my mind on Friday when news broke the DNC was reversing its two-month old decision to ban fan fossil fuel donations.

I mean, two months later…really!

Tom Perez and his minions’ about-face reveal three striking things. First, the party is probably hurting for cash being that its message hasn’t evolved at all since its historically shameful defeat to a used car salesman in 2016. Yup, the DNC is still spinning that same old record: Trump awful, Democrats will save you.

With that losing message and strategy still in tact, the party bosses have resisted like hell looking out the window to see the progressive uprising exploding across the country in favor of Medicare For All, free public college, ending private prisons, decreasing the military budget dramatically, strengthening labor unions, and banning fracking. Why? It’s the money Lebowski!

The second thing the DNC’s decision spells: just getting rid of Trump and inserting name-your-puppet-Democrat in his place will not result in the drastic reductions in greenhouse gasses and other planet-destroying toxins needed to prevent global temperatures from rising by 2 degrees Celsius. After all, a party that takes money from mother frackers is a party that won’t likely ban mother frackers (or more nuclear power plants, uranium mining, and worse).

But, to me, one of the more under examined revelations of the Democratic Party’s absolute moral and planetary cowardice in the face of an emergency crisis (have you seen the California wildfires, historic heatwaves across the nation, or flooding in Japan?) is who else the “party of the people” is selling out: American citizens exercising their First Amendment rights in opposition to these fossil fuel companies.

Since Tom Perez nor the Democratic Party paid much attention to the collective beating indigenous people and environmental activists took in Standing Rock, North Dakota, let me provide some cliff notes: the same fossil fuel companies, workers, and PACS the party is now soliciting checks from hired a Blackwater-esque para-military contractor, TigerSwan, to surveil, threaten, infiltrate, and brutalize unarmed water protectors engaged in the most American thing you can do: protesting.

As The Intercept reported, TigerSwan coordinated with the FBI, DHS and other agencies to trump up charges against indigenous people and environmental demonstrators while also illegally flying over the #NoDAPL camp. TigerSwan also coordinated with North Dakota’s Gestapo “law enforcement” in its several-month rampage, which included firing rubber bullets and tear gas at unarmed demonstrators at point-blank range, spraying freezing water in sub-zero temperatures at water protectors, tossing grenades at unarmed water protectors, and worse.

And it hasn’t stopped at Standing Rock: just this week, Energy Transfer Partners — the fossil fuel company that brought us DAPL — unleashed its private security hounds on water protectors legally kayaking in the Atchafalaya Basin near the Bayou Bridge Pipeline construction, pulling them out and arresting them. These mercenaries were wearing hats misidentifying themselves as “police” when they are, in fact, private security mercenaries entrapping and arresting water protectors for doing such radical things as kayaking. Under Louisiana’s new ALEC-sponsored laws criminalizing peaceful protest of fossil fuel projects, these kayaktivists are being charged with felonies.

These are the very fossil fuel company PACS and workers the DNC is again accepting money from. After all, the real threat to our Democracy is Russian trolls, bots, and hackers: fossil fuel companies attacking and imprisoning those exercising their right to peacefully protest is just, as Tom Perez loves to say, “leading with our values,” right?

Of course, the Republican Party is even worse than these corrupt, cowardly Democrats, which is what makes this reversal by the DNC that much more dangerous. Although the anti-Trump #Resistance conventionally ignores basic common sense, the reality is simple. How can extreme conservatism — now Trumpism — be defeated with a more politically palatable, verbally acceptable version of neoliberalism?

Hillary Clinton and over one thousand neoliberal Democrats who’ve lost to Republicans over the last decade plus have shown: it can’t. And the DNC’s new message to turn things around? The planet will still burn, but if you put us back in power, at least we can all sing Kumbaya as it happens instead of being disgusted all day by Trump’s tweets.

So, next time the Trump-derangement-syndrome crowd attacks you on social media for “WhatAboutism” or “helping to elect Trump,” it’s about time to ask them if the planet burning will be more acceptable with a nicer-sounding, less scary Democrat in office…

Who still let it happen.

Jordan Chariton is a progressive journalist who’s reported on the frontlines at Standing Rock, Flint, St. Louis, Chicago, East Chicago, and elsewhere. Watch his reporting at YouTube.com/JordanCharitonReports and support his in the field reporting at Patreon.com/JordanCharitonReports.

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch

Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore

Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade

Get the Medium app

A button that says 'Download on the App Store', and if clicked it will lead you to the iOS App store
A button that says 'Get it on, Google Play', and if clicked it will lead you to the Google Play store