After the election in 2004 I wrote some strategic pieces here that were overshadowed by the election fraud debate, which is, if you ask me, a shame.
As a way of introduction to this essay about post-election 2006 let me list those pieces for anyone interested as to what was on my mind in 2004. (You'll see, incidentally, that diaries and comments HAVE changed in the last two years, too.):
Hmmm, if any of the above interested you, or if you skipped all that and want to glance at what's on my mind currently...please read below...
I've been at a loss lately to summarize my post-election 2006 thoughts in a coherent way. I put my best stabs at it on MyDD, and, I'd humbly suggest they are worth a read:
I do have one or two new thoughts that have percolating these last couple weeks. Here's what I can best put on the table here on dkos in a fresh, albeit general, way:
I think that folks in the media and on the blogs are underestimating
the constitutional and historical significance of the 2006 elections.
The most significant symptom of that underestimation
is the continued focus on President George W. Bush and the Republican Party. The lame-duck session of Congress, the GOP's last hurrah, has drawn to a close. A terminally-weakened President Bush has put off till after Christmas any new policy initiative in Iraq. As a political nation we are taking a collective pause for the holidays. At the end of that pause, it will be a new era in American politics.
Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
The GOP may well rise from these ashes, but it will have nothing to do with George Bush Republicanism or anything relating to Karl Rove's big lies. That witch is dead. It's lying on the floor of the castle doused in water. Dorothy's bucket is poured out. A big house fell from the sky in Kansas...and the rest, like two pumps sticking out from under a tornado-swept building...is history.
Folks can debate the relative strengths and weaknesses of political parties and branches of government under the United States Consitituion but one thing is very sure: our Constitution was designed to punish political parties that abuse their power. When one party wins back both Houses of Congress in a mid-term election, watch out. The United States Congress may have lately been much abused and the "timid mouse" in the political process: that's about to end. Get ready to watch a mouse that roars.
And, if I might add the one thought that has been occupying my mind these last weeks: get ready for a good old-fashioned battle for the heart and soul of one of the greatest living documents humankind has ever fashioned: the Constitution of the United States of America...the Constitution of the American people. We have a part to play in that battle, all of us.
If I had one message to send to Democrats far and wide it would be this: read this document, breathe this document, understand this document. It is a living thing...it's what's returned us to power: and when Nancy Pelosi walks into the chamber of the House of Representatives as the first woman Speaker of the House that will mean something for each and every one of us. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. (And Rupert Murdoch's minions will be eager to do just that.)
My interpretation of the 2006 elections is simple. Our Constitution mandated mid-term elections on November 7th and the American voters rejected Republican rule. They can blast the Democratic Party all they want on FOX news, for the next two years there is nothing that will change the Democratic Party's majority in the United States Congress. That majority must and will mean a CHANGE in American politics and governance.
And, if you ask me, the next two years are all about the Constitution and a change in policy and legislation and oversight; we must get things done. Let the GOP whine and moan. They abused our nation's political process and accomplished little; now they will have to pay the piper for that abuse...not in crude retributive terms. No, the GOP is facing the force of something simple and basic in American politics: the force of our Constitution and the power of an election to change our politics.
It is up to the Democratic Party to understand this historic mission. It's up to us to understand ALL the Consititional means available to us as citizens. Democracy, like anything authentically reflecting human society, is messy; what matters is both process and, ultimately, results.
To put it simply, there has been a distinct lack of blood flow and oxygen in the body politic. Wind bags and gas bags have ruled the day. Fear mongers have sold cynicism on the street corner and on the airwaves. Politics has been reduced, long since Kenneth Starr, to the lowest of possible denominators. It's time for that to change.
That change will be messy, and fraught with debates. It will reflect, as all true democratic processes have in the past, the multifarious, yet ultimately wise, will of the people. And at the end of the day that core insight is what every single Democratic member of Congress must keep close to their chest. The Constitution itself mandates that Congress reflect the core value of our political history...a value the GOP party seemed to forget: our laws and governance must reflect the will of the people.
In 2006 the American people spoke...on the War, on Health Care, on Corruption, on Renewable Energy, on Oversight; that election conveys a deep legitimacy to the Democrats who control the US Congress. In 2007, it's high time that the media, the GOP and the powers that be understand the force and suasion of that legitimacy. Our majority means something. You can't take that away with cynicism and hype.
I could care less what pot shots they take at Pelosi. When she sits as Speaker of the House it will be one small symbol of something much more deep and meaningful...the fruit of all of our efforts...it will truly be a new day in American politics; it's time to roll up our sleeves and get things done. It will be up to Speaker Pelosi to craft the 60 percent position, to forge that legislation. That is her and our true challenge. Our founding fathers, and mothers, wouldn't have had it any other way.
Come 2007, I'm happy to say without malice or vengeance, following the express mandate of our Constitution, George Bush and the GOP can...finally, joyously, constitutionally...kiss our grits.