In this state-of-the-Dems article, there’s a lot of deserved back-patting and strutting among Democrats, about standing firm in the face of the Republican onslaught against things that make life less miserable, like Social Security. But here’s some truth from the other side:
Brian Jones, the Republican National Committee’s communicationsdirector, said Democrats’ strategy of obstruction is emblematic of whythey have suffered in recent elections. The Democratic Party, he said,has not been able to communicate its vision effectively to voters, andnow finds itself declaring victories when it slows or stops Republicans– not when it achieves things for the American people, Jones said.
”They’re mistaking their obstructionism for progress," he said.”They’ve become completely reactive, and essentially devoid of newideas. It may be a cathartic exercise, given their lack of success inrecent elections, but ultimately it’s going to be a losing strategy."
Thanks for that, Mr. Jones, but I might replace "going to be a losing strategy" with "continues to be a losing strategy".
The Democrats are starting — just starting, mind you — to put together an agenda of stuff they’d like to see happen:
That list includes items such as affordable healthcare, opportunitiesfor children to attend universities, accountability in government, andmaking sure troops go into combat with the equipment they need — allareas where Bush and his fellow Republicans have potential politicalvulnerability.
Well, that’s all decent, but doesn’t really answer the questions: What kind of country do you want? What kind of life do you imagine living in it? How does your dream-country act in the world at large? We’re a little lacking in the vision thing these days. It’s understandable, considering how badly we’ve been getting our butts kicked for the last 35 years — as a party, we’ve been defining our expectations downward for a long time now. When we couldn’t do vision anymore (post-Vietnam, JFK, RFK, and MLK), we settled for integrity (Jimmy Carter). When we didn’t have that anymore, we settled for power ("triangulation"). Now we have none of the above, so we’re settling for unity. Pardon me for thinking that feels a little bit hollow.
But look at the conservative grassroots base, AKA the religious right: You can’t say they’re not aggressively outlining a vision of the kind of country they want. But I have to imagine that a society based on compassion, enlightened self-interest, and functional institutions is a more attractive vision than one based on hierarchical power, doctrinal rigidity, and the hope for an imminent Apocalypse. Can we get 51% to vote with us on the former? I hope so.
Fairly soon I’ll write about "the vision thing" with regard to our Governor’s race. In the meantime, I’m pondering the question: What do we want?
I think you’ve put this better here than I’ve seen it out on even the big name bloggers.For too long, when people say: “The Republicans have a motto – ‘less governm,ent, lower taxes, strong tradition, strong military’ – what’s ours?” People, on DailyKos, and other places, misunderstand the question and come out with a bland response like “Equality, Liberty, Justice”. I think our number one priority is to stop having a laundry list of positions. Our positions get us to 48%, but to get farther we need more. We need to become salesmen – take those issues and sell them to the people, justify them and explain them, then bring them together into a vision – here’s mine: – Economic Opportunity – All Americans should have the ability to pay for college if they work hard enough to get in, all Americans deserve a basic minimum quality of life to live off of and get started – not a handout, but an investment in their future. All Americans have a basic right to healthcare. – Get the governemnt out of the bedroom – Personal choices should be made personally. Government should not be stepping into painful decisons such as abortion. – Promote science and development – Government should foster the development of new technologies, not stifle it. Legalize governemnt-funded stem cell research, etc. – An Intelligent War On Terror – Invading countries solves nothing and angers our allies while provoking our enemies, we need to properly fund special forces and covert intelligence units so they can track and eliminate terrorist cells – by stopping our invasions of countries, we can get them to work together with us to expose terrorists within their countriesthere’s probably some i missed, but those are the basics
Well, I know I bolded my “frames”… but actually I didn’t mean to put my phrases forward as political selling points. I really just want us to think about what we want. For us. Right now. You know, like … “I want to not be in school debt up to my eyeballs.” “My Dad works in NYC; I want him to be safe from terrorism.” “I want a school for my kid that is superb — not adequate — superb.” etc.In our enlightened self-interest, we should give ourselves permission to be extravagantly greedy.
I have a slightly religious take that helps me with vision. Jesus and his life has a great deal to say to me about what kind of society I want; He said a lot and his witness is formidable as recorded in the Gospels. But this wisdom was not original with him, but came out of the experience and the vision embodied in the Torah (= Old T.)which gives it even more authority. For instance Rabbi Hillel an older contemporary of Jesus, to sum up the Torah, said, “Don’t do unto others as you would not have others do unto you.” Then there’s the Ten Commandments, by golly! “Love your neighbor as yourself.” “Don’t lie.” “Don’t kill.” Seems there’s as much or more material there for progressives than anybody.Just take those three literally, for the moment, as absolutes to obey. In the real, practical world lives are cheap, in war and poverty and many other circumstances, false witness is convenient, and our young women neighbors if they are poor, are in practice forced to conceive and bear children that they don’t want and ruin their life prospects.My point is that taking basic religious thinking really seriously as PRACTICAL guides, you can derive and justify Head Start, Social Security, and every other sound progressive measure without apologizing. Thank you for hosting my guest blog.
So, how does the minority make progress (instead of stemming the regress)? After all, the Dems can’t even get bills to the floor. They can propose ammendments, which means that either (a) they obstruct some regression, (b) get a little of what they want at the cost of passing a bill they don’t want, or (c) don’t even get the ammendment.How can the democrats deliver on any promises/proposals/visions for an alternative America if they don’t have the ability to even force a vote on those promises/proposals/visions?
well put
Part of Charley’s point, I think, is that we should be looking well beyond what we can accomplish this legislative session in Congress. The religious right, after all, was working on their world view long before they had any hope of getting it enacted – as was the rest of the so-called “conservative movement,” with their thinktanks, foundations, and whatnot. Sure, we can’t expect to pass much legislation at the moment – no doubt the best we can hope for is to stave off bad ideas from the other side of the aisle. But I agree wholeheartedly with Charley that the folks who are setting the agenda for the next 20 years of the Democratic party need to be thinking bigger than blocking Bush’s social security plan, important though that is.