…where is fancy bred. In the heart or in the head? ….
It is engendered in the eyes, with gazing fed, and fancy dies in the cradle where it lies. Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act 3. Also Willie Wonka with Gene Wilder.
How is cynicism bred? When the heart loses to the head. Me, Joseph.
Or Democratic Party bosses. Me, Joseph.
“Without a vision, the people perish.” Etched in the rotunda of the Missouri capital (also Proverbs, 29:18)
When Kos issued his recent decree regarding all debate and candidate discussion on DK should focus on Hillary and all good Democrats had to get behind her (the presumptive Democratic nominee months before the election), I sighed deeply and resigned myself to another disappointment. It was just one in a long, long, long history of expectations that were left unrealized.
It almost rang a bell on DK history, where decrees were issued and people exiled into the Siberian forest of other non-DK blogs. But when your history is long and the times past, remembering an event can become difficult. Of course, his intentions were right. We all need to focus on the actual race and we all need to get along. There is a lot at stake once the nominee is selected. But before that selection and election process is over, with Bernie still breathing strong, it was a way premature proclamation.
But to me he tipped his hand. For me, it revealed he was part of that “official” Clinton/Democratic Party bullshit to pressure Bernie and his supporters to “give it up.” Once Markos was on the outside. Back in the day he was an outsider fostering debate, discussion and support for Progressives and Democratic voters. I went to DK – well – daily (UID 8716, March 2004). It was my primary source for the other view point on what was happening outside of mainstream media. But this is no longer 2004. A person named Markos was once just a “blogger” but is now on the mainstream media as a representative of “the people”.
I am not saying he sold out to the Democratic Party bosses (e.g., Wasserman-Schultz who sold out to …, not the everyday Democratic voter). He was right, we all have to come together when this process is finished, but it looks that he didn’t trust the very process of which he is a part. It was just another attempted murder in the cradle.
There are facts that seem to be lost on “the party”. A lost party, with non-elected delegates and mandates from blogs such as DK, is not attractive to new, young voters. Those Democratic voters who have grown up in the last 20 years have a world view and a comprehension that is completely different from anyone that “controls” the party, the party elders. Even if the “party elders” have children in their early 20’s, those born in the last 20-25 years have life viewpoints and experiences that can only make sense to them as a group. The difference between our older generation and the millennium generations is a great as the beat / hippy generation and generation of their parents. The older generation just didn’t “get” us, remember?
That the Party is completely lost and dysfunctional I’ve known for years. The party spectrum is so WIDE because everyone not a Republican Social Conservative who wants to make a difference by their voting or their activism is a de-facto member. And schisms are the natural by-product of spectrum. That is what is happening with the Republicans. They have at least 3 major groups under one party. The fiscal conservatives who have a moderate and more open position on private lifestyle issues, the fiscal and social conservatives, and the bat-shit crazies who push the party into the realm of total a Christian fascism based society. What is playing out in the Republican Party should be a closely watched and reviewed by the Democratic Party with a “there but for the grace of god, go I.”
Recently I was discussing Bernie with my son. We are both full Bernie supporters. My son is 21 and graduates from College in 4 weeks. He worked on Obama’s first campaign with me. He worked (independently of me) on Obama’s re-election. He worked on the Occupy Little Rock movement. He’s met Tom Hayden (the one from the SDS days married to Jane Fonda). He’s met and really appreciates and admires Bill and Hillary. BUT, he really wants Bernie to win and, like before, he volunteers for the effort in California.
In talking with him about the entire situation, he schooled me, on his peer’s viewpoint of the process, of their view of Bernie and Hillary and the cultural and political environment from his viewpoint. To his generation, Bernie brings that VISION that the party has been lacking for years and years. He has the goals that the goals and vision that the millennium group hold, equality for everyone socially, livable wages, staying out of peoples private live, and an open and non-corporate / non-big money government. To him, although he like Hillary, the “pragmatism” that she brings is part of the weight that holds the party down.
My son and I, we vote our VISION of where we want the US to be. To really be a great nation, rather than the lip service given to that, we to address the homeless, the hungry, the underpaid and the economics that underlie those structural deficits. We do not respond well to threats and fear tactics, which is what the whole we can’t let the Republicans win reason is behind Hillary.
Let’s face it, while the party has platform that addresses HISTORICAL issues (like abortion and equal pay and equal opportunity), Democrats also have a history of being reactionary to Republican pushes. And usually that reaction is too little and way too late.