Toward A Democratic Majority: A National Identity
Sat Feb 18, 2006 at 12:23:54 PM PDT
Contrary to what GOP propagandist Ken Mehlman asserts, the netroots of the left don't want to push our party more left. We don't want the part to be more liberal. Simply put, we want it to act like a national party.
Currently, the Democratic members of Congress are drifting about discombobulated from their core. A centralized mission and focus is admittedly lacking; it's not just a right-wing myth. What is a right-wing myth is that this lack of mission comes from a deficiency of ideas. That simply is not true. Democrats have innovative proposals for education,health care, national security, and more. But these are bills primarily introduced by individuals, with a handful of co-sponsors. They get introduced, and then are referred to committee where brilliant Democratic ideas languish and die a slow, bureaucratic death.
In my legislative research, the one thing that has struck me as odd is how Democrats fail to attach their name--as a group--to even the most benign of proposals. For example, S. 11, the 'Standing With Our Troops Act', has 25 Democratic co-sponsors. But there are, of course, forty-four Democrats in the Senate. If you know full well the bill is destined to die in committee and you won't get a chance to vote on it, why wouldn't you add your name as a co-sponsor to go on record as supporting the bill? In my opinion, every Democratic bill should be co-sponsored by every Democratic member of Senate or House.
But, touching now on the larger issue, this is just one example of how Democrats don't function as a national party. In sharp contrast to the GOP, the Democratic Party is struggling to act like a unified party instead of a loose affiliation of liberals in Congress. Members of Congress need to understand that being a liberal and being a Democrat are not the same thing.
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Our caucus is full of liberals. Let's take our good friend Joe Lieberman. There can be no argument I think that his record generally is a liberal one. Maybe not Kucinich liberal, but liberal nonetheless. He has a 100% rating from NARAL. A 0% rating from the fundy Christian Coalition. A 100% rating from the American Public Health Association, in large part because he supports national health care for children and poor adults. His positions on other issues are more moderate, as is the case with many members of Congress. Yet the party's base feels betrayed by him because, while he make vote liberal, he doesn't act like a Democrat.
Our party doesn't need ideological purity. We don't need more "liberals" in our party, we don't necessarily need to move it more to the left; we need more Democrats. We need our representatives to realize that there is a national entity called the Democratic Party which requires their allegiance and support. That allegiance and support doesn't stop when a vote is taken and shouldn't manifest itself only in the chambers of Congress. Being a Democrat means you represent the party 24/7. When you're on Sunday talk shows, when you're at the President's state of the union, any time your mug is smiling at the American people, you are an ambassador of the Democratic Party and should act as such. What does that mean?
It means accepting the fact that you are a member of the opposition party. Too many Democrats in Congress embrace our status as the minority party, while failing to realize that they are simultaneously the opposition and have a duty to their constituents and party to act as such. It's easy to understand why they embrace minority rather than opposition status. When you're in the minority, it becomes an effortless excuse for inaction. Rationalizing away our failures by blaming them on our minority status prevents us from viewing them as a failure of conviction and courage. But that is exactly what they are.
Refusing to embrace a national identity is a symptom of meekness. It is a preference to remain a single player with singular obligations. In reality, it is the national party which bears the burden of fighting for national interests. When it comes to such core national issues, like say, the constitutional crisis that occurs when the President asserts absolute power, members of Congress must embrace their national identity to stand up and speak in unison against this powergrab. Thus, papers shouldn't read that Byrd is circulating a petition, or Rockefeller is pissed. Rather, the headline of every newspaper should be "245 Democrats Demand An Investigation."
Acting nationally to protect national interests. That's what being a national party is all about.
Only when liberals in Congress begin acting as Democrats will voters realize that the Democratic Party is one which is coordinated and courageous enough to stand up for their interests. When voters know that if they vote for a candidate with a "D" by their name, that candidate will have the strength of the entire Democratic caucus behind her, only then will we gain enough public confidence to once again see majority status within our grasp.
