Chris Bowers and Matt Stoller of MyDD have opposing viewpoints on whether to challenge Lieberman in the Primary--conveniently arranged in sequential posts. Combined, they raise the fundamental question of what the progressive blogosphere, and progressives in general, should be doing to retake the party.
::Come on over::
Matt is reluctant to challenge Lieberman on the grounds that the progressive blogosphere is not yet fully established. Its role is uncertain, its allies superficial, and its tangible effect limited. Matt worries that Lieberman's stature and home-state popularity will force the DNC, Reid, and traditional Democratic allies like Labor and environmental groups to line up against blogs. Do we want to pick this fight?
So should we pick this fight, and should Lamont [challenger] get crushed, we will once again be thrown into the 'loser' bucket and be dismissed as weirdos on the internet. But that's not the real reason I'm concerned. My concern is about what we stand for as a group, and how we define ourselves. One of the things Crashing the Gates laid out is how we're a different group of lefties. We aren't 1960s and 1970s liberals who act in a reactionary fashion against those who don't share our point of view.
Yet, in picking this fight against Lieberman, we're not really running 'on' something. I see no thread of articulated principles here that would justify a Lieberman challenge. The Sierra Club at least looks at your environmental record. What do we look at?
Chris, on the other hand, looks at recent and long-term polling that suggests that liberalism is on the rise and concludes that now is the time to strike. The parties, he contends, have become little more than "ideological coalitions," of which the conservative coalition is bigger. Due to this fact, it becomes essential to offer the liberal coalition true liberals as candidates and true liberals as leaders. Humping the center, as Lieberman does (often from behind--i.e. the Right), does nothing to help the liberal coalition. In fact, it dilutes it. Because people are so polarized, they aren't impressed or moved by bipartisan gang bangs. The Parties are, in essence, gay and only like porn of their sexual orientation.
In a state like Connecticut it is essential that Democrats produce a strong liberal Senator. The base is strong there so it makes little sense to waste a sure seat on a wavering liberal. The time has come, to apply Chris' Lieberman position to the rest of the party, to cleanse any safe seats of politicians who do not galvanize the base as a whole. To stick with my porn theme--which I had no intention of using when I started this post and I intend to stop--if a constituency is all liberal porn fans, the Party had better offer them something hardcore; enough of this Cinimax bullshit.
I love that MyDD has such different opinions on the front page at once. In this case, especially, I think it encourages deeper probing of important issues. What do we want the progressive blogosphere to be? Matt mentions Redstate, which gets phone calls from the RNC, as an example of how a blog can matter. He also questions what the progressive blogs have actually done in terms of changing the outcome of events. They're a source of funds, but are they a source of input?
I think the primary reason that progressive blogs don't find themselves talking to Howard Dean everyday is that they aren't the homogenous mass that the conservatives are. The fact that some bloggers are so vehemently attacking Lieberman demonstrates that this is not a community of DNC lapdogs. Feingold speaks our language, Lieberman doesn't. You don't see conservative blogs cannibalizing their own like progressives do. That's fantastic, in my mind.
Unless the progressive blogs undergo a sea change towards homogeny and subservience, there is no way that they can be wholeheartedly embraced by the Democratic establishment. If blogs want to have an effect on the Democratic establishment then they need to be a force in the outcome of events. In politics, fundraising is almost everything. Channeling cash to progressive candidates is a huge force, but it's not enough. Bloggers need to get involved with those candidates by voting, volunteering, and showing up where they are needed (bus 'em in). To be on the radar screens of today's decision makers--and to become the decision makers of tomorrow--progressive bloggers (and their non-blogger progressive friends) need to stage an electoral coup against the center by running primary challenges, guiding the debate away from the middle, and forcing candidates to define their liberalism.
I think the result will be a shift towards more liberal candidates and a shift of people who believe that they are the center towards the left. I think many people will find that they are progressive if they are given the right choice in an election.
If Connecticut and Lieberman end up being the first skirmish in the coup, fine. There is an end that progressives seek, and that's a more progressive Democratic Party. If you can't start with the safe seats, then where can you? I'd love to see Lieberman explain his support of conservative positions and watch the electorate respond. Chris, you want to take this one home?:
If our long-term goal is to make liberalism / progressivism the equal of conservatism in this nation, Joe Lieberman is exactly the wrong person to be representing the progressive states of Connecticut. Joe Lieberman is a conservative, and as such he supports a foreign policy, an economic system, and a cultural system that are antithetical to the progressive and liberal values. Even aside from the way he undercuts the Democratic Party, and reinforces the Republican Party, at almost every turn the established news media desires, he is not representative of our values. In the final count, any challenge to Lieberman must arise from a strong, publicly stated belief in progressive values first, and a challenge to his status as party underminer second. We made some real positive gains in 2005, but as long as the Joe Lieberman's of the world are our ambassadors to the public, progressives will never be able to close the ideological self-identification gap to historic, single-digit lows in time for the 2008 elections and beyond. Progressivism is on the rise, and that is the ultimate reason why progressives should challenge Joe Lieberman in a Democratic primary.
Crossposted at The Baltimore Group, Philos and Tigers, oh my!