I'd like to offer some reflections on the current state of the Democratic nomination as it relates to us in the netroots in 2008.
I'm going to try to be fairly straight up in this diary so forgive me ahead of time if I don't mince words.
My goal with this diary is to explain, to the best of my limited knowledge and ability, where we are at in 2008 and our possible role and limitations as grassroots/netroots bloggers.
Like I said, my ambition here is to be as forthright and straight up as possible.
Here goes...
First, two big things happened today.
- Wyoming (the state whose delegates put Jack Kennedy over the top in 1960) set records for participation in a Democratic presidential nominating caucus and, in the process, Democrats in Wyoming chose Barack Obama and gave him what will ultimately be a three delegate margin at the Democratic National Convention.
- IL-14 held a special election to choose who will fill Dennis Hastert's vacant seat and a netroots-powered Democrat, Bill Foster added his name to the long list of Democratic hopefuls we've backed and supported. Let's watch the returns tonight hoping the wind in Foster's sails carries the day. They are counting the votes now. (WooHoo!!!)
Both of those things are important. 2008 isn't just about the presidential nomination. It's about the House and the Senate, it's about State Legislatures, it's about Governor's races and it's about funding and fueling Howard Dean's 50 State Strategy at the DNC.
Every one of those items is vitally important to Democrats in 2008.
(For the netroots, I would also add an organization called Progressive Majority which focuses much-needed dollars on up and coming progressive candidates all over the USA. I can vouch that the had an impact here in Oakland where Abel Guillen is making progressive change on the Peralta Community College Board.)
I'm saying all these thing to provide some context to what follows.
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it's not who you are voting for, it's about your commitment and your activism
I'm frustrated that we in the netroots allow the conversation to devolve into what are, frankly, futile discussions of whom we would or would not vote for. That's simply not the point, and never has been.
Markos or Chris Bowers could easily paint a picture of the arc of Democratic netroots activism since 2002. That arc is long and imperfect, but have no doubt, our destination is sure. It's not our votes alone that will reform the Democratic party and our nation, it's our donations, our canvassing, our activism, our local blogging and our energy that makes the critical difference.
Let me tell you something about the battle for the nomination of the Democratic Party in 2008. It has been down and dirty, and, behind the scenes it will only get more so. Harold Ickes, Howard Wolfson and Mark Penn don't mess around. Like their buddy, Terry McAuliffe, they could give two shits about the netroots. They are in it to win it and they mean that.
There's a reason that Senator Clinton's campaign picked up and ran with the divisive Republican "latte-sipping, liberal" frame: it works for them. Let me not mince words, to these guys, the thought that some blogger on DailyKos.com is threatening not to vote for Hillary is laughable.
They don't care. Their goal is to kick our ass back to where we were in 1998, which was pretty much nowhere.
When we debate about withholding our vote from the Democratic Party, they laugh out loud. You see, in their mind, they own the Democratic Party. It's theirs. If we in the netroots threaten to leave, to withhold our votes, we lose. That much is crystal clear.
What am I saying? I'm saying this: cut the crap discussing withholding your vote...this is your party, this is our party, and this is a party that is much bigger than the netroots alone. But we do have crucial role to play and we won't play that role if we get caught up in discussions of purity and identity.
Simply put, we in the netroots should be bigger than that. And we have a job to do in 2008.
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get contextualized
This protracted nomination battle is hurting our 2008 efforts. It's hurting fundraising at the DNC, it's taking attention away from downticket races and primaries at a critical fundraising and grassroots juncture, and it's dividing us and costing us talented people when we should be uniting to defeat John McCain and the GOP.
All that is true. And responsibility for this state of affairs has nothing to do with us in the netroots or the admirable presidential campaign of Senator Barack Obama. This is indeed a tight race for the nomination of our party, but despite losing states, delegates and the popular vote, only one side has consistently tilted the playing field and used unscrupulous scorched earth tactics against a fellow Democrat.
We are in a battle for the heart and soul of the Democratic Party and we in the netroots have one small, but crucial role to play. Our job is to be the ones who bring this party together and focus on the future, with our activism, our donations, our blogging and our boots on the ground. We are the ones who give our positivity, our insight, our vision and our passion for progressive reform to a cause that we all know is bigger than any one presidential candidate be it John Edwards, Howard Dean or Barack Obama. That cause is the cause of reform of this party. We want to take this party from a party of acquiescence and capitulation to a party that stands up proud and fights effectively for real people, for every last American: be they soldiers headed to Iraq or single moms turning on the lights at 5AM or seniors looking out the window from a long term care facility.
We are in it to make a difference in people's lives. We are in it because we give a shit about our planet, our Constitution and our government. It's that simple.
That's our job and this has been our moment. Are we going to let Harold Ickes pull strings behind the scenes and gut this movement with backroom deals? Are we going to let Terry McAuliffe and Mark Penn slice and dice this nation into four more years of a Democratic party that is willing to stoop to any level...no matter how low...to override the energy, the passion and the commitment of grassroots democracy in the service of everyday Americans?
I don't think so. I hope not.
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let me be real
Barck Obama is just a guy from Chicago. The real agent of change is you.
This is your party. Nothing I'm going to say here will make much difference if you can't see that. I don't harbor illusions about Barack Obama. He's not perfect, his message of progressive reform doesn't appeal to all ears and ideological tastes. He hasn't hung out much here on DailyKos. He's raised plenty of money from us, and plenty of money from folks who have a lot more dough than most of us here. He is not Paul Wellstone, and he shouldn't be. Paul Wellstone could never have been elected President.
Here's the thing. Much of what happens in the race for the Democratic nomination is out of our hands. We don't control it. It really is up to Barack and Michelle Obama and their team of advisers and allies. When it comes to the 2008 Presidential nomination, so much depends on them, their grit, and their resolve to bring us together as a party and a nation. There's over 1,000,000 of us who have his back, and that's no small thing, but that's also not enough.
We in the netroots do have a role to play. And our role is quite distinct.
The arc of the Democratic party is one that bends towards progressive values, small d democracy and transparency and participation in our government. We all know that. Those are our core netroots values.
In 2008 we need to stand up and be counted. We need to give our energy to all the contests in 2008: to primaries that select future members of Congress, to all the remaining primaries in the presidential nomination race, to neglected downticket races where Democrats in districts large and small continue the process started by Chairman Dean in 2003: taking our country back, one citizen and one district at a time.
There is so much we can do. There is so much to do. We all know that.
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what you can do
Here's a couple things you can do.
- Give $10.01 to the DNC. Howard Dean needs us. And, yeah, Hillary isn't helping.
- Put these links in your favorites bar: the DNC, DCCC, DSCC, DLCC, DGA, Progressive Majority, DFA...and check them once a week.
- Locate the website for your State Democratic Party and while your at it, put a couple local blogs in your favorites bar
- Stay positive in 2008 and, if you support Barack Obama, work till the last dog dies to help him win the popular vote and the delegate count in 2008 in every territory and state. You participation and skill-building is important not just in 2008 but going forward as a netroots activist.
- Share your story with a Super Delegate. And when you do so, speak authentically about your commitment, your activism and your concrete and specific hopes for our future. That means something. Trust me, it's actually is more powerful than you think.
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a closing parable
I offer this ancient parable without commentary as a way of telling a story that relates to our current predicament in the Democratic Party:
Solomon was the greatest king that ever reigned in Israel and was also one the wisest man that ever lived. When he first came to the throne, God appeared to him one night in a dream, and asked what gift He should bestow upon him.
Solomon prayed that He would give him wisdom to govern his people. God was pleased that he had asked wisdom instead of riches, or conquests, or long life. He told Solomon that because he had done so, not only would He make him wiser than any man who ever lived, but that he should be rich and famous above all kings of the earth. If he would obey Him in all things, long life should also be added to the other good gifts which were to be his.
In those days it was the custom for kings to sit in some public place, where their subjects as had wrongs to complain might plead their cause before them, and obtain justice.
One day two women came before Solomon. One of them told him that she and the other woman both lived in one house, and each had a very young child. In the night the child belonging to the other woman died, and its mother exchanged it for the living one, putting her own dead child in her neighbor's bed as she lay sleeping, and taking the living child to herself.
In the morning, the mother of the living child discovered that the dead child was not her child but the woman whose child was dead would not give up the one that she had stolen. The two women stood there before the king, each one contending that the living child was hers, and that the dead child belonged to the other.
Solomon asked for a sword, when it was brought, he told them to divide the living child in two, and give half of him to each of the women. The woman who had falsely claimed the child made no objection to this decision. But the real mother could not bear it. Rather than have her son killed, she was willing to lose him altogether and she cried out not to harm the child and to give the child to the other woman.
The king saw at once which of them the child belonged and he said, "Give her the living child, for she is its mother."
All the people of Israel, when they heard of this judgment of Solomon, knew that God had indeed given him wisdom to do justice among his subjects and they held him in great awe and reverence.
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conclusion
I said that this will come down to who is ready to bring our party together and focus on the future. It comes down to who is truly committed to working to reform the Democratic party keeping our long term interests and fundamental unity of purpose at heart. We are one party. All of us. And even if this nomination goes to the convention in Denver that will be, I think, true. I include every last kossack and netroots activist in that equation, no matter whom you support for the nomination. We know the task at hand. This is about decades of work together to rebuild our nation, this is about coming together to do something new.
Now, in my opinion, I have to say that one side is tilting the playing field. One side is so unscrupulous that they would spite our party so as not to lose a place on the ticket, to gain the upper hand, to tilt the scale.
In some ways there is very little we can do about that. Much of it is out of our hands. But as netroots Democrats we should be prepared to fight long and hard and stay true to the values that brought us to the table: party reform, the 50 State Strategy and participatory democracy that brings more people into the party, not less. There's one campaign that embodies those values and that ethos; I think that's clear. And that's what we in the netroots have brought to the discussion time and again and what we will continue to do for years to come. Our commitment to the party is long. We have miles to go and responsibilities to keep.
I'm not going to pretend that the contest for the Democratic nomination in 2008 will be sugar and spice. It won't be. The hard part is yet to come. The climb is steep.
But 2008 is too important, too significant a milestone for us to take a cynical pass, to check ourselves out of the process. There's too much to do and on too many fronts to fight on. We have come too far and too many have given their all to turn back now. When it comes to being involved, to donating, volunteering, blogging and putting ourselves forward to make change in the USA...we know that, in 2008, our moment is now.
We aren't backing down. Nope, not us.