"Well, we got screwed again." --my Uncle Dan, this past Wednesday
There's been a lot of self-flagellation in the last week or so, some constructive, some not. There are plenty of people out there that are describing this as the Democrats' version of the "Goldwater moment," that being the 1964 election when a radically conservative candidate was summarily rejected by the American electorate.
While I don't think the analogy applies on an exact sense -- 55 million people, after all, did vote for change this past Tuesday -- there are a few parallels there in terms of our ability to get our progressive ideas heard more effectively in a time that is being dominated by the regressive elements of our society.
(Consider that by 2008, we'll have had 12 years of Democratic presidents in 40 years, compared with the 1933-1969 period, a 36-year stretch in which the only Republican president, Dwight Eisenhower, was a moderate Republican, having initially been approached by both parties. Hell, even Nixon, who came next, started the EPA and OSHA. In addition, if you haven't had the chance yet, take a look at the USA Today county map located here:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/vote2004/countymap.htm and compare it to the 2000 map. It's virtually unchanged. The only state that seems to be moving in our direction of its own accord, demographically, is Colorado.)
Because of that latter point, instead of the previous post-loss discussions (should we move left? should we move right? should we stay where we are?), the discussion seems to revolve around "morals" and "values," catch-all phrases for all that is undefiniable. I don't think this discussion is totally misplaced, but one thing is for sure: we're not going to give up our positions on topics like abortion, and I sure as hell am not going to sell out the gay community for the purposes of reaching people who on just about every topic, I have nothing in common with. (And it's one area where I'm proud of John Kerry--I'll have more to say about him later.)
No, I think where we're losing the discussion and therefore, the votes among "middle America," so to speak, is in terms of horse sense -- that is, positions that strike people as "value-oriented" even if they're not necessarily social positions. The positions Republicans are taking -- or rather, the positions that Republicans are promoting, even if they're betraying them -- imply a "horse sense" that we're not articulating . It's that old discussion of reaching hearts and minds instead of just minds, and it's clear we have to reach both. For instance, "cutting taxes" is an easy, common-sense statement that's also very simple to get across, and it reaches people on a gut level: "you get your money back." Whether it's equitable (as recent tax cuts have not been) is another story -- but it's a simple message, easy to define, with a discernable benefit. Just the same, "fighting terrorism" reaches people on a gut level -- and judging by the support for the war in Afghanistan, that cuts across many, many boundaries when it indeed is the right thing to do (the fact that more than half the country no longer believes it was worth it to invade Iraq also shows a sophistication that the Bush Administration believes does not exist in this country, and it's an advantage we need to exploit in the next four years).
"Right now in Washington, you have two parties. You have the Democratic party, which is a party of no ideas. And you have the Republican party, which is a party of bad ideas."--Lewis Black in Concert
I think our failure marks, more than anything, our inability to present a compelling vision of what we stand for, what this country should stand for, and articulating that vision by reaching people through their better natures, i.e., their hearts and their guts, or rather, reaching more people this way (because the 55 million people who did vote for John Kerry clearly aren't having any problems being reached cerebrally, and Kerry reached me on an emotional and a gut level too.)
The media -- and particularly the right-wing media -- has taken great pleasure in expressing the idea that we on the Coasts are somehow removed from this. And a lot of them seem to think that it's the result, somehow, of us simply having a differing -- or more specifically, inferior -- morality.
In a word, bullshit. I grew up in a middle-class Jewish household with family members who rolled their coins and deposited them in the bank, a family of tradesmen who knew the value of hard work without complaining that someone owed us a living, people who held their faith close to them even if it didn't run their lives, who knew common sense, right from wrong, and the need for personal responsibility -- particularly that family members, neighbors, and community should stand for one another, help each other out when needed, all the while standing on your own feet to get things done for yourself. Smart people, all of them, and no different than most other people in this country, and by no means "elitists." They represent to me what a progressive government should be: one that doesn't leave its citizens in the lurch, but at the same time, doesn't just leave people on the dole indefinitely, one that tells you to get up off your ass and get some work done, but that, in the end, there's a safety net, a helping hand when needed. Democrats, all of them, and even if there were a couple of Republicans mixed in (although I can't name any), they were responsibility-oriented types who would cringe at what the current administration is doing. (Some of these principled types are still out there: former New Hampshire Senator Bob Smith, one of the most conservative senators of the last 20 years and someone whose social positions I find abhorrent, endorsed Kerry because of Kerry's common sense approach to problems...and I'm sure he swung more than a few votes in New Hampshire.)
The stupid thing about all of this is, people agree with us. Democracy Corps., the organization run by James Carville and Stanley Greenberg, in its last pre-election survey, showed that John Kerry (or rather, the Democrats) had the edge in terms of being better on the environment, the economy, raising middle class standards, protecting retirement and social security, health care and were tied in "having a hopeful vision of the future." And our deficit in taxes and foreign policy was minimal -- just 4 percentage points -- which means we're not far off on those areas at all. (The survey is here, in case anyone wants to know: http://www.democracycorps.com/reports/surveys/Post_Election_Survey_November_2-3_2004.pdf )
"If I can change...and you can change...everybody can change!"--Rocky IV
Ok, so that quote is a cheesy one.
So, where do we go from here? There's a lot of people who are wringing their hands over the failure to "get out the vote," or the failure of all these progressive groups to get the job done and get rid of George W. Bush. We shouldn't be doing that! The fact is, America Coming Together, MoveOn.Org., the New Democratic Network, David Brock's Media Matters for Democracy, Air America, and the bloggers, including the Mydd.com and dailykos.com Web sites did a hell of a lot to counter the constant right-wing spin we get from the airwaves we get these days through demagogues like Sean Hannity and the rest of the hypocrites who run Fox News.
And the campaign coverage from venerable news organizations in the last few months leading up to the election from the Washington Post, The New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly, ABC News, the L.A. Times, and others showed that with enough prodding, the media can get back to its real role -- comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comforted, and pointing out the contradictions in statements that exist from politicians, no matter what side they're on. (The Bush people were incredulous over a Washington Post article that took statements by the president and, in that same "same-day" story, criticized and dissected them.)
Our job with regard to the media is not to stop: by continuing to write letters to the editor, forming or posting our own blogs, as some of my friends already do, emailing the Media Matters people with tips when we see examples of the spin that comes from the GOP that isn't being countered. That grass-roots effort was responsible for upending the Sinclair Broadcast Group's scheduled airing of a nasty anti-Kerry documentary that, as a result of an advertiser boycott and intense public pressure, turned into a pretty balanced program, from what I've been told (the right-wing bloggers were reportedly furious). I worry that, at least in the early days of Bush II, Part II, that the press will become complacent, and any time five minutes can be taken to email someone chiding them for lack of sufficient skepticism in what the administration is doing, it would benefit (again, Media Matters for Democracy is a great site for this...just don't spend too much time there...it'll make your blood boil.)
Our second job -- as an extension of this -- should be to take back our language! I'm being tired of told that an institution that produced the Interstate highway system and fought successful wars (and acheived peace) across the world, in addition to coming up with the Earned Income Tax Credit and many other successful programs, is useless. I'm sick of being told I'm immoral and being lumped in with the likes of do-nothings like Paris Hilton, who I find revolting. I'm sick of being told I'm a traitor just because I think the president is an idiot for going into Iraq seemingly without any plan. I'm sick of hearing about so-called "lazy f*cks" who are leeching off of our welfare system. Has anyone ever met any of these people? Ever?
"There is nothing idealized or romantic about the difference between a society whose arrangements roughly serve all its citizens and one whose institutions have been converted into a stupendous fraud. That difference can be the difference between democracy and oligarchy."--Bill Moyers, speaking to the Take Back America conference in June
Mostly, though, we have to take back the country. Most of all, I'm sick of people who say the government is useless being put in charge of that government -- the last four years have told us that if you put people in charge of the government who fundamentally hate the institution, you get no government. Which is what we have now: a group of people who believe that any institution that doesn't serve the ruling class is one that needs to be undermined or budgeted out of existence (or arrested). But it's our institutions that keep us strong, even though at times they don't work (and then need productive leadership to get them to work).
It's why George Washington didn't want to be the King, even though there were some who suggested it.
We shouldn't be upset at the failure of all our efforts to topple George W. Bush. I don't blame John Kerry. With the exception of August, he ran a pretty good race, and got 55 million people to vote for him. He stood tall in the saddle and didn't waver even when he was being attacked with one of the worst political smears in history. He took a complicated position on Iraq -- even though it was the right one -- and could have turned tail and called Bush a liar for the sake of expediency -- but he didn't do that. He's a patriot, and would have made a fine president, and I'm sorry he won't get the chance.
There are more elections, starting in 2006. And the fact is, the progressive ideals that we've put together through all these groups haven't really had enough time to germinate in the public eye: ideas take a very, very long time to take hold -- hell, it took the conservatives 16 years before they found a candidate who really spoke their message (Reagan, 1980). We can't wait that long, but we can continue to articulate our vision so it reaches all classes, all cultures, through horse sense. If that means nominating a Southerner, fine, although it strikes me that Barack Obama could sell snow to the Eskimos, so maybe he's the guy when time comes (I have serious reservations about both John Edwards and Hillary Clinton, which I'll only talk about if you ask.)
Simply, that vision can be thus: we believe that the minimum wage should be raised because it's the right thing to do -- because it benefits families who are struggling to get by and helps them earn more. We believe in better fuel economy and more responsibility from automakers in this regard because it leaves a cleaner planet for our kids. We believe in not running up huge deficits because somebody has to pay the bill (if you had a pay cut, would you run up your credit card bills? No, right? Well, it's the same principle.) We believe that it's wrong to reward people by cutting taxes on investment-related income because it rewards people simply for sitting on their ass rather than working hard. We believe in efficient government regulation so the little guy doesn't feel like they're getting screwed. We believe health care, on some levels, should be accessible to all people because a citizenry does not leave behind its less fortunate and those who need a bit more to take care of themselves. These programs, be they welfare, education, environment, tax policy and the like can be written with safeguards, for sure -- they shouldn't be a trough that people can feed from indefinitely -- and I think there's a way that they can reflect responsibility above everything else. That's what I'd want more than anything.
I have no doubt that the Bush Administration will continue to hang themselves with their own rope (Karl Rove, Bush's campaign manager, pretty frankly admits that his role model of a president is William McKinley, who propagated the robber barons more than anyone else). That reveals an amazing lack of responsibility to the greater citizenry of the country. And this god that the GOP prays to, that being the free market, is a good thing on certain levels (we don't need to regulate washing machine prices, for instance) but in many cases, can result in a tyranny that's just as overweening as a gigantic government, because it limits choices for citizens through the enabling of monopolies, it confers political privilege on the select few who have the money to reach the politicians, the extension of which is the limiting of citizens rights. The horrifying thing about the current Washington establishment is this: the Bush Administration has managed to achieve an amazing duality of massive, overweening government peering into our private lives while still managing to enable the big corporations to do whatever the hell they want also.
But one thing is for sure: we can't simply wait for people to "figure it out." The notion that we needed four more years of Bush for people to figure it out is crazy - simply because of the fact that it's defeatist and hell, there's probably 35% of the population who will never figure it out. It also surmises a certain inferiority among the rest of the country, and that's something we just have to disabuse ourselves of--now. We can't let our progressive ideals be the result of contempt for the rest of society: secession isn't an option. It was tried once and didn't work.
We've got to keep being active, and get more active--and believe me, I'm talking about myself for sure, as there are people on this list who have been doing more for ages than I have ever done. To be sure, a lot of this is already germinating in our society. Like Jacob Riis and Upton Sinclair, we've got great books in the last few years from Thomas Frank, Eric Schlosser, who did "Fast Food Nation," as well as documentaries from Morgan Spurlock, who did "SuperSize Me," and Michael Moore. And we've seen great efforts from the likes of Howard Dean, Richard Clarke, and many others, too.
Remember, Red. Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies. - Andy Dufresne, The Shawshank Redemption
There's lots of work to do. And all of us, if we have time, can volunteer with a number of places, including the New Democrat Network, or a few other places, to continue to work to get ourselves in the position to take back Congress in 2006 and the presidency in 2008, but above all, to move this country on a progressive path. Most people--despite the chattering classes of cable TV "elites"--when they think about it, have progressive ideas at heart, but need to see how it can benefit them, rather than just being done for the sake of change.
I live with hope. And I know things will change, with great effort by all of us.
Forgive me my trespasses...forward to anyone you want...and thanks for listening.