I once moved into a rented house that had most recently been inhabited by a guy who worked in the produce section of a grocery store. He often brought boxes of goods home, "right off the boat." Seems there were some stowaways riding in with the bananas and lettuce: cockroaches. I had never seen one before (they are less common in cold places like Maine, where I lived at the time), so I wasn't sure what it was that went scuttling off into the shadows when I flipped on the kitchen light one night. But I soon found out. Having four little kids, there was a constant source of crumbs to attract the pests. I didn't want to use chemical sprays, so I tried every alternative: zealously bagging and closing up food, putting borax around the wall bases and backs of cupboards, bleaching surfaces, and vaccuming in the wake of my own little crumbsnatchers. But, as anyone familiar with cockroaches knows, this sort of gentle strategy just makes 'em more determined - they view it as foolish human weakness! If there was so much as a grain of food for the taking, they would find it and zero in! And, as my "politically correct" efforts proved ineffective, they became bolder and bolder. Soon, they were coming out while the lights were still on - climbing up the walls and waving tauntingly during a dinner party...grinning smugly as they scuttled across my foot while I read to the kids...laughing derisively at eye level from atop the refrigerator as I stashed the leftovers in the box for safe keeping.

In the end, I had to break down and call the fumigators and vacate the house. In the end, I won. But it seemed a shame it had to come to that.

Anyway, the point of this true fable is that right now, the US government and media remind me very much of that pest-infested house - only instead of cockroaches, we are being overrun by their close relatives: corporate lobbyists and their minions in the US government. The “household food,” of course, is tax dollars and largesse in the form of contracts and corporate-friendly legislation. If we don't stash every bit of this ”food” in air-tight (as in being uncompromising) Tupperware and start to fight back with a giant can of Raid!, they will clean us out and leave behind a thoroughly contaminated home.

So what constitutes our can of RAID!? Put simply: R.ally A.round your I.deals, D.emocrats! Yes - Democrats. At this eleventh hour, there are no other "soldiers in the field" in great enough numbers or in strong enough positions to stand a chance against the cockroach legions, as dearly needed as a thirdy party may be. It is time for the Democrats to stop trying to play both ends of the court – you cannot be for the common man, the environment, peace, freedom, and justice AND at the same time try to placate the corporations. These goals are mutually exclusive. Period. The vast majority of Americans are fed up with corporate influence over their lives and government. This morning (May 22) in the "Washington Post," the Gray Panthers ran a full-page ad asking why corporations like MCI are being REWARDED for ripping off the public. This is what is has come to: elderly Americans who should be enjoying their golden years having to pool their funds to buy an ad in the hopes that SOMEONE – as in their alleged representatives – will LISTEN. Yet Democrats, the supposed champion of the common man and woman, continue to schmooze or at least tiptoe around corporate interests because they are so afraid that they will lose donations when election time comes around, or have corporate executives or lobbyists write nasty letters filled with vague threats.

In 1936, the GOP joined forces with Big Business to try to overthrown FDR and in his place set up the corporate puppet Alf Landon. Never in the history of the US had so much money been poured into a candidate, nor so many media resources tapped into by so few. But FDR won by a landslide. How did he do it? By standing by his principles and continuing to advocate for the common man, corporations be damned! That is what Americans are longing for someone to do now: Stand up and speak out, unafraid, unphased by pollsters, pundits, or political strong armers The Democrats lost the Senate in 2002 because they refused to take a stand on the war against Iraq. Americans punished them by staying away from the polls in traditionally Democrat strongholds - an immature response, to be sure, but their only way to send a clear message (their emails, phone calls, and letters sent to Congress by the tens of thousands before the war went unheeded).. Of course, the GOP helped this situation along by using their influence over the media to create the impression that “most” Americans favored using force in Iraq and “most” Americans approve of Bush’s performance. Those of us out in the trenches with the average American (i.e., not cloistered inside the Beltway or in newsroom cubicles) knew this was a complete fabrication. But too many Democrats, unable to stand by their principles, took the bait, hook, line and sinker and voted to support the war – in a vote conveniently timed (thanks to the GOP’s machinations) to coincide with the run up to the election.

Now the GOP, knowing the truth – that Bush is highly unlikely to win in 2004, despite the media’s created illusion of his “great popularity” – are beginning to try new schemes on the Democrats. Doesn’t ANYONE in the Democratic party find it a wee bit strange that rightwingers like the “Washington Times” Tony Blakely and others of his ilk are singing the praises of Dick Gephardt and John Edwards? Or why Nancy Pelosi was one of the only non-rightwingers to be invited to the White House State dinner this past week? This is because Gephardt and Edwards are seen as totally manipulable, self-interested and weak by the corporazis, thus the best alternatives for the presidency if the GOP is destined to lose the White House to the Democrats. Pelosi is seen as easily swayed, unable to take a strong stand on most issues when subjected to much pressure or flattery (thus the dinner slot). It may also be that Gephardt and Edwards are seen as so unlikely to win a presidential race that they are being zealously promoted by the opposition. Here in Maryland, corporazi governor Bob Ehrlich and his operatives are already – and openly - helping to promote Democratic candidates unlikely to win state and city elections (ie spoilers). It is a new, slick tactic that appears to work, mostly because there are enough Democratic candidates out there willing to abandon their principles to go along with such a scheme.

The reality is, that at Democrats.com (which gets millions of hits each month and thus represents a large block of voters), week after week in straw polls of the candidates, Gephardt and Edwards – esp. Gephardt – trail the field, way behind stronger, more principled people such as Howard Dean, who actually dares to challenge Bush unapologetically on a wide variety of key issues. By contrast, Gephardt, you will recall, sold the Democrats out, along with millions of Americans, by cutting deals with Bush behind closed doors on the eve of the war and the 2002 election. Is this what Democratic “principles” have come down to? That the guy who plays both sides of the fence most slickly is now the “leader”? If so, then it is no wonder Bush has such a strong following! At least he stands, uncompromisingly for SOMETHING. Unfortunately, what he stands for is Evil.

But Americans are so starved for someone in this era of sales pitches, schmoozing and over-political correctness to take an uncompromising stand that they many find themselves attracted to Evil. That is how Hitler gained such a foothold in Germany. After Germany lost World War I, the German leaders allowed the country to be humiliated and starved because they failed to take an uncompromising stand against the extreme measures imposed by the Treaty of Versaille. In their continuous efforts to “compromise” and “oblige,” they did not appear to care about the welfare of the common man and woman, nor about national pride. Onto the scene comes Hitler, whose superficial but highly convincing platform was all about “standing up to the rest of the world” and creating a new nationalism based half on hatred of “outsiders who want to destroy us,” half on vaguely formed images of mythic German heroes and love of "Homeland." Bush and the GOP are operating along such similar lines, it is terrifying.

Meanwhile, the majority of Democrats have acted like the post-war German leadership and parties: mired in efforts to compromise and oblige, splintered into factions, failing to confront head on the rise of evil.

The only way the Democrats can stamp out the cockroach infestation is to take a leap of faith: sever the corporate apron strings and tune out the media. Then speak out loud and clear against the corporate empire, against the loss of liberties in the name of fighting terrorism, against the relentless assault on the environment that is the natural home to us all, against deceit and special interest collusions. At the same time, start speaking up for the common man and woman – not just on the tax cut, but on all issues – relentlessly and passionately. If a movement like this is started in the Democratic party, just as in 1936, there would be no amount of dollars or phony polls that could stop it. America would rally behind a party that exhibited true courage and an honest vision and thus offered a genuine source of national pride. Any candidate running on an anti-corporation platform will find themselves considered national heroes. Why no one has figured this out yet mystifies me.

I say that the Democrats should select their strongest voices and have them, as a collective group, appear as a forum – not individually as competitors for the nomination. Their campaign dollars should be pooled to get a unified message out, not frittered off in 10 different directions, leaving the party the butt of jokes (“Everyone is running for president”). The C-SPAN program on which the Democratic candidates appeared and discussed issues as a forum was the NUMBER ONE highest rated C-SPAN program for many days, nosing out every other press conference, speech, or gathering. The American people obviously WANT to hear alternative voices, but they want to be able to trust that there are unifying, uncompromising principles beneath them. As they say in 12-step programs: “Principles over Personalities.” By adopting the forum group approach, the GOP will not be able to “divide and conquer,” attacking one candidate, while setting yet another one against another. At the Democratic Convention, let the PEOPLE decide who they want to represent them in the home stretch. And then, whoever is selected must remember, every single moment of every single day, that it is the PEOPLE who chose him or her, and the PEOPLE to whom they are accountable.