1115.org

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The question remains…
Which MCs will reign?
Which ones will gain?
How many suckers will feel pain?
- Gang Starr “The Question Remains“

Fundamentally, political identity comes down to your view of human nature and how best to use government to manage the result of people being people. If you think people are basically lazy, you sit on the right looking for government to provide favorable conditions for those who overcome laziness. If you consider greed to be the fundamental problem, you sit on the left expecting the government to protect the weak from those who would take advantage of them. Politics is a tricky business. Stick to your guns and people call you stubborn. Refine your positions and you get labeled a flip-flopper.

I’ll admit to a bit of flip-flopping in my time, and I go back and forth on whether greed or sloth is dominant. But I do know which way the wind is blowing today. The greedy have learned that it only takes a small percentage of their wealth to purchase an environment favorable to accumulating more wealth. And you can only blame them so much until you realize that others are complicit.

To one extent or another, Democrats have been an opposition party for much of the last 25 years. Their declining rate of success is troubling, and shows little sign of reversing.

For example:

“Even I have trouble explaining to my family that we are not about killing babies.” - Donna Brazile

For those who don’t remember, Donna Brazile was Al Gore’s campaign manager in this 2000 run for President. She remains a key Democratic strategist. Reproductive rights are a central maxim in Democratic ideology. What kind of party has leaders who can’t convince their own family that their ideas are better.

Another example is Tim Roemer. Roemer is a former U.S. Representative from Indiana who sat on the 9-11 Commission and now would like to be chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Not only does Roemer oppose a woman’s right to choose, while in the House he voted against Bill Clinton’s first budget, voted for George Bush’s first budget, and was one of only 9 House Democrats to support making Bush’s tax cuts permanent. Despite these credentials, Roemer has the support of several major Democratic leaders in Congress including the likewise anti-choice Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid.

What’s the matter? Aren’t there any real Democrats left? You know, the kind who believe in the same things that the majority of Democrats have believed in for the last 65 years?

Oh, that’s right, there are a few left. One of them is even running to be chairman of the DNC.

I stand by all of my criticism of Howard Dean during the primary season. I thought then as I do now that not only would he have been unable to unseat the President, but that even if he had won, he would not have made a very good President. It wasn’t his ideas that disqualified him, just his persona. But his actions since withdrawing from the nomination fight have been nothing but positive, constructive and most importantly Democratic.

Those accomplishments sound kind of familiar. Ah yes, they are the main qualifications of someone who must lead a crippled party out of the wilderness, the next DNC chairman. To be clear, this isn’t a reflexive “Well, we tried it one way, now it’s time to do the opposite” position. But it does seem that the Anybody But Dean stance from many of the Democratic leaders is reflexive to the point that one must wonder if they understand the difference between President of the United States and chairman of the Democratic National Committee. The future of the party is at stake, and it remains to be seen if Democrats can regain majority status and implement the progressive agenda they hold sacred. The Democratic establishment is more concerned with protecting their ever-shrinking turf than providing leadership.

These establishment-types who have lunch and go to parties with their Republican counterparts have lost their way and forgotten what their responsibilities are. Their social relationships (eg. Donna Brazile being friends with Karl Rove) have obscured their vision. There are no deals to be made with this crop of Republican power-brokers. Did they think that Grover Norquist was kidding when he compared Democrats to neutered farm animals? Do they think that Stephen Moore is just messing around when he funds primary challenges against moderate Republicans? Any rational look at the last decade will reveal that these men and others like them will never deviate from their mission. Compromise? Maybe on what brand of cigar to have after dinner. Maybe.

Another Republican power-broker, Religious Right Mullah-of-the-Moment Dr. James Dobson, has warned a group of Democratic Senators who face elections next year that he will target them if they block the President’s judicial nominees. Excuse me? All Democratic elected officials wear targets on their backs, and more and more face serious challenges with each new cycle. Who believes that Dobson would pass up the chance to remove Democratic Senators simply because they roll over for judicial appointments? As long as they (and the Senators up in ‘08) know it’s coming, why not fight judges who will spend half of their lives gutting everything that decades of Democrats have sacrificed to pass? It is their job after all, and Dobson makes is easy to vote their conscience and raise money as well.

The answer to the question “Greed or Sloth?” is obviously “A bit of both.” The path toward the perfect solution goes down the middle, but to get there, Democrats need to fight vigorously for the victims of greed and the principles they have kept since the New Deal. In 9th grade physics, everyone learned that to cool a pool a of hot water, you need a pool of cold water. For too long, Democrats have been trying to cool the pool with lukewarm water. If they payed attention in class, they would know that unless they want to wait around for another generation, they need to use some really cold water.

There are too many people counting on progressive ideas to wait around any longer.