photo: valleygirl_tka via Flickr

There has been a lot of false equivalence going around today. This idea that both sides of the political spectrum are engaged in speech that is designed to inflame and that there can’t possibly be any kind of correlation drawn between the eliminationist rhetoric on the Right and the actions of Jared Loughner.

I’ve already covered what I think is the good evidence for this in a previous post, so I won’t rehash that but let me take on the idea that both sides do it. Michelle Malkin has up at her site some pretty nasty things about Sarah Palin that some from the left has posted or said. Some of it is flatly disgusting. Go take a look yourself.

Let’s get the thing that needs to be said out of the way right away. The depictions of violence against Sarah Palin on not acceptable. The folks who have fire bombed animal researchers houses are criminals that deserve nothing by prison time and they discredit their movement. There is no excuse for violence ever in politics.

But here is the thing, some of the folks that Ms. Malkin has pictures of up on her site where arrested for disorderly conduct at anti-war rallies, not for acts of wanton violence with weapons or the attempt to do so. Does that excuse the fellow who threw tomatoes at Sarah Palin, nope, not a bit, but being arrested for disorderly conduct is not at all the same as heading up to the Freeway with the intent of shooting up the Tides Foundation. They are without doubt in two separate categories.  . . . Read the rest of this entry →

It is easy to cry “A Pox on both your Houses!” when looking at the political mess we see in Washington. The anger that Liberals, Progressives and just plain old Democrats feel right now at the President and the Party Leadership is fairly earned. We have time and again a willingness to negotiate down from a position of power, and I have to say that it is due, to my mind anyway, the lack of experience this president brought to the job.

True, no one has any experience being president before they land that job, but President Obama was a little less experienced than others. He was in the odd position of being good enough to get the job, but perhaps not good enough to do the job that needed to be done. In any case that is all in the past, we can’t change it.

It is not all the president’s fault, that is clear, the way the Democratic Caucus in both Houses of Congress have acted has helped to hamstring him. We should have been having this fight about taxes before the election, not after in a jam packed lame duck session. The weak willed failure to address the issues that would excite the base was part and parcel of the electoral drubbing Democrats received this November.

Still this would not have been as much of a problem if there were strong leadership from the White House. I understand the idea of respecting Congresses roll in the development of legislation, the thing is Congress is always going to be fractious and defocused by its very nature. Three people can barely decide what movie to rent, let alone 535. The fact that there is one president who can make up his own mind and then provide direction for his party means that his views should prevail. This requires leadership, using both the carrot and the stick to move the agenda forward. We have seen too many carrots for the opposition and not nearly enough sticks for the recalcitrant Democrats.

So the question becomes ‘What Now?” If the party and its members are massively unhappy with this president what do we do? There is a lot of talk about a primary challenger for the President. I don’t have a problem with this idea, after all it is part of the process and why shouldn’t we take advantage of the process? The thing is it is a simple answer to a complex problem.

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Okay, we got beaten. We did, there is no getting around it. What is important is why did we get beaten? Is it a repudiation of liberal policies? No. Is it that the nation is center-right and wants government to be that way too? No, else the voters would not have put the Republicans in the driver’s seat. The reason we lost as a party is a political failure on our part. We did not excite our base and the Republicans did excite theirs, it really is that simple.

In the last four election cycles the party with the most excited base won. 2004, 2006, 2008 and this cycle all saw the base of the party who won turn out and that swept along the low-information independents. I am not talking about folks who have left one party or the other but still vote for them, but the real independents. To quote Blazing Saddles, simple farmers, the common clay of the New West, you know, morons.

“Originally posted at Squarestate.net”

This group of folks will flock to the banner of whatever party has the most energy coming from their base. They will be like folks who never pay attention to sports then root for the presumed front runner as soon as the play offs start. They don’t really know which party is doing what; they only know what they see on TV and make their choice accordingly. There is no point getting mad at these folks. They are not going to change and the way to win them is to win your base.

We, as Democrats, failed to fire up our base. Our elected Dems spent too much time trying to woo Republicans and failing to put a headlock on our Blue Dogs. We did not talk about the 300 billion in tax cuts that everyone (okay almost everyone) in the U.S. got from the stimulus. We did not talk up the benefits of the stimulus in real terms, but instead went for the “less jobs lost” meme which is too easy for Republicans to dispute.

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This election cycle does not look very good for Democrats. There are structural problems of having won seats in the House that we might not have taken if we had not had the massive outpouring of support for President Obama’s campaign. There is the issue of the economy where voters tend to punish the party in power, regardless of if it was they who drove the economy into trouble or not. There is the mid-term issue where the party that holds the White House historically loses seats. All these combined with a base that is unhappy (with some good reason) with the way that a historic majority has compromised so many of their priorities and values.

Whether it is your intent to support Democrats or not, the time to get involved in the process is now. If you just can’t stomach your particular Democratic candidate, then find a way to work for the ones that you can. Nothing is more important than protecting the liberal and progressive members of Congress, if the long term goal is to move the nation to the left politically.

Some of my friends talk about sending a message to Democrats by not supporting them this cycle. I have and continue to argue that they won’t learn that lesson from losing seats. However, there is another component that might (probably won’t, but might) increase the chances of them hearing this lesson, that is if the most progressive or liberal candidates are the ones who retain their seats.

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When one is looking at any system, whether it is a business process or something even more complex it always helps to know what the end state is or what the purpose is. This holds true when we are talking about our government as well. What is the purpose of government? If we do not know what that is, then all policy will be a reduced to tinkering at the margins and flailing.

Conservatives have a pretty clear, if sadly simplistic, view of what the role of government is. They will talk (endlessly and in an ever rising register) about how the federal government is only for the defense of the nation and that nothing else should really be in its purview. The problem with their assertion of States Rights (aside from the racist history behind this idea) is that they don’t really want their state government’s to do a lot either. It is this kind of thinking that gets us into the situation where Republicans want, as David Corn of Mother Jones said, “Small government and Big Oil”.

"Originally posted at Squarestate.net"

Liberals and progressives don’t get off the hook that easily. Knowing that there is a role for government in the lives of the people we must have a more comprehensive and nuanced view of the purpose of government be it local, state or federal. Knowing this, there must be a clear underlying purpose for this institution we as a group value.

Obviously this one essay is not going to answer this question, but the intent here is to get the conversation going; to spur those of us on the political Left to define what it is we think the government should be tasked with. By knowing this and being able to articulate it we take away one of the conservatives complaints about us Dirty F’ing Hippies, namely that we want everything to be run by the government.

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Last week the Dog wrote a post about laying out the difficulties of starting a new political party to the Left of the Democratic Party. If you want to read it you can find it here. The challenges are extensive to say the least. Since the Dog thinks that is a bad idea he urged those who might be thinking of this path to stay and work within the Democratic Party. While not everyone agreed (we are all Liberals after all) there were a couple who pointed out while the Dog was showing a problem, he did not really offer the means to a solution. This is a fair observation and so the follow is some practical advice for those who want to take over the Democratic Party and move it more to the Left.

Getting Started

So you have decided to take over the Democratic Party? Great! Let’s start with a reality check. You are not going to take over the national Party in one fell swoop. Unless you have about 1 million fellow travelers who all are on the exactly the same page this is going to take some time and a lot of work. However, any attempt to influence the national policy of a nation of 305 million is going require both of those things, so don’t let that get you down, just focus on where you can be effective and grow you efforts.

Now, let’s be really clear, what you are about to embark on is to become a politician. You may not be facing the voters in general, but you are getting involved in an organization that operates on democratic principals. This means majority rules voting and in many cases hard core parliamentary tactics. You are going to have to be able to persuade and be ready to compromise from time to time to move your point of view forward. This is going to be true no matter what party you get involved with, new or old, so again, don’t let that deter you, just recognize it.

In order to have the fastest level of effect, you want to start actually outside the Party. You are going to try to get elected to the County or State level Executive Committee, to do this you will need supporters, especially if you are not well known in the Party now. What you need is a group of folks who have the same desire you do to change things and you need to be organized. On the internet it is easy to find folks who think like you do, but how do you find them in your neck of the woods? The Dog has a couple of ideas that might help you.

First off, don’t reinvent the wheel. Look for any group which labels itself as a Liberal or Progressive Caucus in your County Party. There may or may not be one, but if there is they are the folks you want to hook up with. If there is not one, well that is probably the first thing you need to do, found one. Still it does no good to found a Caucus of One, so you have to find like minded folks. Luckily there is a place where you can start!

Use the Social Media sites like Face Book and the DFA site to find the folks in your area. They are simple to use and they are a great place to get a feel for how many folks think the way you do in your area.

Drinking Liberally was founded to get like minded Liberals together in the days when it seemed like the entire country had gone all the way to the Right. Many large and not so large cities have more than one branch of this group. Go there, buy a drink and start chatting up the Liberals and Progressives about the changes you want to make. See if you can find folks who are ready to do some real work to change the Democratic Party. You are likely to find those who are already involved, but there are always some who are ready to be activated and become activists. Start getting them to coalesce around the idea of taking over the County Party. Yeah, that’s right, you are going have to start at the County level to get to the State level.

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