(
crossposted at newsrack blog)
In the wee hours of Wednesday morning, as progressive blogosphere favorite Ciro Rodriguez went down to defeat against Henry Cuellar (DINO-TX-28), Chris Bowers at liberal supersite
MyDD suddenly recognized a fairly important feature of the Texas Democratic primaries:
I'd like to point out that Texas apparently has an open primary system, where Republicans can actually vote in a Democratic primary, and vice versa. Given this, Ciro almost certainly won the day among registered Democrats, and at the very least would have forced a runoff in a closed primary. As someone who has always been an advocate of clsoed [sic] primaries, I submit this election as Exhibit A. As disgusting as it sounds, if Cuellar wins the Democratic primary without a run-off, it will be because of the Republican vote.
Well, how do you do -- light dawns on Marblehead. Not saying I knew it before tonight,* either, but then I don't make it my business to run a site where Olympian pronouncements about voter registration tallies, poll weighting schemes, and "viability" are delivered unto the unwashed masses on an hourly basis.
But if the open primaries problem really just dawned on the pros at MyDD and elsewhere, then Rodriguez' loss isn't just a defeat, it's a debacle -- firedoglake et al notwithstanding -- more akin to doomed Union regiments storming the stone wall at Fredericksburg than losing a battle worth the fight. Not only were everyday Republicans free to foul the results, it should be remembered this was an internecine fight courtesy of Tom DeLay and the least favorable districts computers could draw. Talk about unfavorable terrain. No wonder "Democrats In Name Only" like Henry Cuellar have climbed out of the political ooze to take their place as DINOs in the swamps of American politics.
If this was a Fredericksburg level debacle, one is forced to contemplate a second explanation for the evolution of DINOs: their opponents may just be too small and too, shall we say, unskilled to defeat them. Not unskilled in policy prescriptions, political rhetoric, or Internet and database savvy, mind you, just in political tactics. Think of not-so-smart opossums attacking a brontosaurus or a T-Rex** -- it makes no sense, they're trampled and killed. Then think of smart opossums eating dinosaur eggs -- that could work. Too late now, though -- there are a lot of trampled opossums down in TX-28.
What should big-time liberal bloggers -- the likes of Atrios, dKos, myDD, firedoglake, Gilliard -- be up to in the first place? It should be dawning on them (and more to the point, their readers) at some point that, at least for now, they're not giant-killers or kingmakers, except under very, very, very rare circumstances.
Instead, they're catalysts for and harbingers of change -- fairly slow, opinion-changing, community-building change. That's a terrifically important, even revolutionary role. But it's more about morale and spirit and direction than about full frontal assault -- more Tom Paine than George Washington. And Tom Paine should be listening to Paul Revere and the rest of the B-list revolutionaries a little more often.
Now, of course if one of them reads this, they might say, "screw you, I'll write about and endorse whoever I want." In fact, well they should. But it's another question whether their readers ought to follow them over every cliff, and ignore every candidate they do.
I've mentioned Chuck Pennacchio before. He's running for the U.S. Senate in the Democratic primaries in Pennsylvania. His chief opponent is Bob Casey, Jr., a guy who will be the American Heritage dictionary illustration of "DINO" if he's ever elected. While the last I heard from MyDD about him was that Pennacchio wasn't "viable," I now see that neither was their favorite son, Ciro Rodriguez. Republicans titrated blogosphere donations with ones of their own, and they showed up in sufficient numbers for Cuellar to put him over the top. So either MyDD should admit "viability" isn't an issue, or that they're not very good judges of it in the first place.
If so, what's left? Same as it ever was: saying what you're for, finding candidates who are as well, and building from there. I'm not saying Ciro Rodriguez wasn't such a candidate -- he was. The point is, so is Pennacchio. The point isn't whether you can guarantee either one will win -- evidently, you can't. But of the two, Pennacchio isn't the one fighting on terrain mapped by an archenemy of the Democratic Party, Pennacchio isn't the one campaigning in a system where essentially Republicans can affect the outcome of a Democratic primary, and Pennacchio isn't the one who already had name recognition (Rodriguez is an ex-Congressman). His battleground is on better terrain than Rodriguez' was, and he needs our help more.
Ironically, MyDD's Chris Bowers rightly took the Pennsylvania Democratic party to task yesterday for not fielding candidates in every congressional district. It's ironic because Bowers, Stoller, et al seem to have forgotten or never fully recognized what the point of that is: it's not merely a way to force Republicans to spend money everywhere, it's a way to contest their ideas everywhere. Likewise, in intramural fights, DINO Democrats need to be opposed everywhere, so they can either vocally and effectively defend where they want the Democratic Party to go -- or go extinct in a fair fight with Democrats like Pennacchio. The Pennacchio campaign is for the sake of the party Atrios et al wish they had, not just for the thrill of shaking things up.
It's high time bloggers and their readers gave Pennacchio a look -- not because he might win, but because he should be heard, and that's what bloggers can help out with. Natalie Davis recently posted a long, informative interview with him; check it out, and fix yourself a nice DINO egg omelette.
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* Bowers gets the details a little wrong, but the big picture right. The University of Texas' Texas Politics site explains 'open primary' as follows: No permanent record is kept of which party ballot voters select or have selected in the past and voters are not required to declare a party affiliation. Hence, voters can vote in the primary of their choice. The effect is that people who would choose to register as Republicans in other states are more free to make the tactical choice of spoiling, excuse me, voting in a Democratic primary in Texas.
** In some imaginary Jurassic Park XXXVIII, if not in actual evolutionary history. Bear with me.
NOTE: "Light dawns on Marblehead" line and photo pilfered from The Poor Man Institute.