Recently, Spacedark did me the service of posting a piece of an email I wrote not long ago regarding my concern that too many progressives were toying with the concept of withholding their allegiance from the Dems. The quote was fine, as far as it went, but I'd like to provide you the whole context. Note the parts of this that discuss Attorney General designate Gonzales are a response to an earlier post by Prodigal Son. Here is my whole comment, word for word.
"First, I think it goes without saying that all of us contributed to the past campaign in large measure because of a certain amount of anger. That anger is a good thing, because it is justified and helps fuel our commitment. The question is whether it is more important to be angry for its own sake or to commit ourselves to change. Anger and self-righteousness are certainly easier. Change in a democracy is a long process that requires us frequently to make common cause with others who wish to help, even though we may not be in complete agreement. Now, let's be clear. If the Democratic Party as we know it today did not exist, we would be forced to create it. Fortunately, there is no need to reinvent the wheel. There are flaws in our party, as there are in every human organization. That is not a reason to jump ship. After all, if there were a third party, who would join it? Only truly pure liberals? What does that mean? I'm aware of several "liberal" parties that already exist and are available to join, but none of them has ever won a national election, nor come close. Why don't they unify? Mostly because each of them is too interested in their particular brand of philosophical purity to dilute it with others. Each lives under the illusion that they can convince large numbers of others to join them. Anyway, even if all Democrats and other progressives joined a new party, it would only constitute the Democratic Party by another name. But don't believe me. Try listening to none other than Howard Dean, who said the following just last month (the highlights are mine; the full text is available at http://www.democracyforamerica.com/).
CLICK HERE to read the rest . . .
"Democrats have the right beliefs to win; we just execute a poor public relations plan. And, despite the enormous improvement in our ground game, the Republicans executed a more effective strategy. Republicans are far more successful because they work in a more unified, disciplined way with local supporters, especially with their base."
ReplyDeleteWhat Gov. Dean is suggesting is that progressives need not sacrifice their ideals to work within the party. What we need to understand is that while we may each have ideas we believe in that will not soon become public policy, we can still work together to make sure that our common vision is implemented. It was not always so, but at this point in time, it is not hard to see that nearly any Democrat is preferable to nearly any Republican for almost any office. Now is not the time to be deluding ourselves with the false promise of another party. Now is the time to be even more unified and disciplined and effective. Don't be lured by pied pipers like Mike Malloy (though I agree with many of his views, his "rant" is mainly a ratings ploy and a call to doing something counterproductive). The Democrats in Congress do not deserve our scorn. Ask yourselves honestly if national policy wouldn't be far better with John Kerry as president and a Democratic majority in Congress. They are not agreeing that torture and indefinite detention are OK. They are recognizing the regrettable reality that the Republicans have the votes because they won the election and that if Gonzalez went down, Bush would only replace him with someone even worse. Of course, the Republicans didn't win by much, to be sure, and there are going to be opportunities for the Democrats to stop some of the worst of Bush's agenda, if we stick by them.
We have already seen an example of our power at work. Last month, the Republican House leaders pushed through changes in their own ethics regulations that would permit an individual to retain their leadership position even if under indictment (can you say "Tom DeLay"?). During the holiday recess, thanks to the activism of MoveOn and the Democrats, Republican House members received thousands of questions from us about which of them voted in favor of the change, and thousands of letters critical of it. We even recruited many concerned Republicans to ask why this was happening. As a result, this past week, the Republicans voted to rescind this change. Many of them cited the critical mail as the primary reason for their change of heart. This will not always work, of course. But the important point is that we do have power if we stick together, regardless of our differences. If we divide, then you are looking at Republican domination as far as the eye can see. Why didn't all the Congressional Democrats stand up together to call for an investigation into the Ohio misconduct? That's not hard to answer. It's because they are still the minority, without power to do more than they did. Rather than criticize them for what they do in the minority, what we should do is hold them to their stated convictions when they again become the majority. If upon retaking the majority, they do not immediately pass strict, effective electoral reform, then we should be angry.
While the regressive Republican policy positions may be national disasters, we can learn much from their political strategies. They learned while in the seemingly permanent minority that they could have success by adopting an incrementalist campaign strategy, focusing only on the most unpopular aspects of Democratic positions (hence "partial-birth" abortions; the "death tax"; "frivolous law suits"; "special rights" for homosexuals). I'm not suggesting that we need to mislead America the way they do. I'm suggesting we need to realize that it is far better to accomplish some modest improvements than to insist on the whole enchilada and wind up with them in power, taking us back to 1870. Denial is a luxury we just can't afford.
I look forward to working with ALL of you to move forward an agenda we can agree upon for the benefit of our community and our nation."
DEMOPHOENIX
Thanks for posting this and providing the full context. This is a very important discussion.
ReplyDeleteI actually think that as long as it is being discussed the progressive community's needs may be met without having to ACTUALLY leave the party in droves. I just think elected officials need to know that they can't take us for granted.
ReplyDelete