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this is not a post about polls or really even politics at all ... this post is an effort to analyze what i see as key issues facing the Party ... it's sort a personalized, introspective look at how we relate to our fellow Democrats ...
fwiw, here's my "pulse of the Party" ... i'd really be interested to know how you see things ...
the post, which is long, is divided into three sections: I. Do Democrats have a process to work for common ground? II. Does it matter how we, as Democrats, see the world? III. Where are we now? Are we "winning"?
I. Do Democrats have a process to work for common ground?
We have lots of arguments within our party ... we fight about Iraq ... we fight about how aggressive our leaders are or are not and how they should be ... we fight about winning elections versus ideology ...
some accept the premise that everything can be resolved by holding a primary election ... if my guy wins, we do it my way; if your guy wins, we do it your way ... i no longer accept this ... this winner take all approach to getting my views and values represented is unacceptable ... it's way too black and white ...
here's a hint: i will not support any candidate who does not reasonably represent my views on the issues i value most ... this is not a threat; it's a plea for better communication and better representation ...
The voice of the people, all the people, must be heard by those who aspire to represent us ... if they don't come to our communities, throw them out ... it they don't demonstrate interest in hearing from you, throw them out ... it is beyond outrageous that most elected leaders, moreso in the Senate, rarely hold free, public forums ... this is inexcusable ... it's bad politics and it's bad government ...
Within the party itself, do most Democrats believe the Party hears their message or do most believe decisions are made far, far away by people who are badly out of touch with their concerns? again, it's inexcusable ... we battle between the left and the right; it's nonsense ... it's also nonsense to expect party loyalty ...
From the very top of the party, i had hoped Howard Dean would scream bloody murder ... i had hoped he would do it very, very publically ... get your fat DC asses back to your districts on a regular basis and start talking to the people you represent ... maybe they would fire him ... maybe they would think it inappropriate for the Party Chair to tell Senators how to behave ... tough noogies ... i've been very disappointed in Dean because of this ... the point isn't to "bash" Dean ... is his "50 state" strategy a good thing? perhaps it is ... but his failure to push hard, and publically, for intra-party dialog and better representation is a major flaw ...
Question 1: Has the Democratic Party put the necessary processes into motion to encourage a real dialog in pursuit of intra-party common ground?
II. Does it matter how we, as Democrats, see the world?
Perhaps you see bush as incredibly inept ... you make posts and speak often about what a bungler he's been ... at ever opportunity, you speak of his incompetence ... you point to his failure to bring democracy to the Iraqis or his monumental failure to get the budget deficits under control ...
But sitting under that big old Democratic tent, way down there at the other end of the tent, there are Democrats who see the world very differently ... They don't see bush or those controlling the levers of power as incompetent at all ... In fact, they see this view of him as a very dangerous view ... They see this view as sending a very dangerous message to the American people ... Take Iraq as an example ...
bush and his Big Oil friends have procured for themselves, by some estimates, as much as 85% of Iraq's future oil revenues ... does that sound like incompetence to you?
the problem with making the "incompetence" argument is that it implicitly accepts as legitimate the reason we are in Iraq at this time ... it says "maybe we shouldn't have gone in, but now we have to help achieve stability or bring democracy or whatever objective is cited" ... it suggests that if we had competent leadership, bush's very legitimate objectives in Iraq could then be achieved ...
so, even if we are on the same side in opposing continued occupation of Iraq, we oppose it for different reasons or at least partially different reasons ... does this matter? yes, i'm afraid it matters plenty ...
what the "incompetence" view fails to do is "out the motives" of the evil right-wing cabal ... it makes no effort to properly educate the American people about what is being done by their government ...
In fact, it perpetuates the myth that the US is still "the good guys" ...
What's not clear to me is why the "incompetence" wing of the Party chooses the position they do ... it's certainly possible that they simply disagree with my view of bush's motives ... but i think it contains at least an element of political fear ... it's a risky business criticizing the motives of your own country during a "war" ... the republican spin machine will immediately talk about how those lefty Democrats are anti-American and how they are undermining the noble efforts of our heroic fighting men and women who are putting their lives on the line for freedom and American values ... but spin doesn't tell the truth ...
Until we are able to educate the wrongs being done by the evil, greedy, imperialist, corporate cabal, we will never make real progress in this country ... bush will go down but they will not ... and they will merely work in the shadows through their lobbyists until eventually another right-wing republican, this one with a "competent" track record, returns ...
The problem with "winning elections" instead of "outing the evil" is that nothing is learned by the public ... those who don't learn from history are condemned to repeat it ... if the lesson we teach is that bush is incompetent, what is the argument for the next election and the next and the next and the one after that???
The way we see the world does matter; it matters very much ... we as a Party need to be a movement fueled by the right understanding of current events ... again, until we find a way to reach a common understanding, our unity will be weak and our long-term outlook weaker ...
III. Where are we now? Are we "winning"?
it's really very hard to say where we are right now ... the devastation the neo-cons have caused will last for a generation or more ...
viewed as a half-empty glass, one could quite realistically see mostly darkness and very little hope ...
and this may well be the correct assessment of our condition ...
but i guess i see myself as something of a "counter-puncher" ... with the right message, i.e. outing the evil they've done, i believe a momentum can be built that will wash them out to sea for generations ... i feel an energy i haven't felt since the mid to late 60's ... not the hot, passionate, in the streets anti-Vietnam protests but the gathering of students, lefties, civil rights warriors, intellectuals, musicians, and now, bloggers, from which the mass movement of the 60's eminated ...
we've been very small ... we've been distracted ... we've been apart from one another ... a writer here ... a professor there ... an occasional documentary now and then ... there was no core; there was no synergy ... it's becoming increasingly clear something has started to gel ... the net is a huge asset ... to plant our seeds, i.e. our vision, we no longer need to achieve the very difficult task of mobilizing hundreds of thousands into the streets on a regular basis ...
our movement can be built one little post at a time ... we are the MSM or soon will be ... and if those on TV or in the press ignore us, they will quickly become irrelevant and they will surely fail commercially ... in the end, they cannot afford to do that ...
there's no denying how much destruction our weakness and the deep slumber of our brothers and sisters have enabled ... the holes have been dug very, very deep ... the evil ones have not been incompetent or unsuccessful; they've been competent, evil and very successful ...
we are all going to suffer from the crimes and the greed of the evil ones; still, while the pain they caused will be great, i'm still optimistic ... i take great comfort in seeing this fledging movement growing everyday ... and i have no doubt, none, that we will crush them into dust and that we will soon be returned to power ...
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