Reading the essay, I have to tell him, that it's not about everything being inspired and lovey-dovey. We cannot be sunshine patriots here. We cannot abandon our efforts on account of the fact that it's not all an organic movement anymore.
He talks of authenticity. We certainly want that, but sometimes we got to realize that folks will attack that, attack our morale, and by doing that, help frustrate substantial gains on our part.
Is our purpose to feel that warm confusion, that space-cadet glow, or is it to change this country? You can't tell me letting them win is a responsible way to achieve our aims.
Let me rephrase the question. Let's consider a few years from now, when our kids are learning about history, and we're talking about all the silly, stupid, or bad things the Republicans did.
They ask, "You guys won these two elections, why did you let them take over again?"
"Well, son, I guess we just lost our enthusiasm. The other side dumped on us alot, and our leaders didn't do as much as we felt they should. So we decided we should punish them for not being authentic."
Does that just not strike you as pathetic?
"Didn't you believe in your stands on the issues? Didn't you know the Republicans would do terrible, stupid, crazy things?"
"Yes, son, of course we did, but it was all part of keeping the Democrats accountable."
Of course, that leaves out one small part:
"But didn't the Republicans need to be held accountable to, not let back into office until they learned their lessons?"
"Well, son, the Democrats in Washington were just so weak, we reasoned that there wasn't really a difference."
Which leads to another epiphany from the mouths of our babes:
"But dad, wasn't that what people said when Bush was elected?"
And I guess that's the question.
I think it's a perfectly reasonable thing to say, given the current state of the Republican Party, that even just having the Democrats there as checks on Republicans is a preferable alternative. I don't mind people wanting to hold Democrats accountable, but we have to learn how to do that and hold the Republicans accountable, too, and the same time. Things will not improve with added Republicans. We shouldn't need another increase in Republican takeovers of seats to tell us that.
We shouldn't need enthusiasm or any of that other garbage, to motivate our votes. We have the last decade. We have a war that shouldn't have been mismanaged, and one that shouldn't have been started. We have monstrous deficits brought on by a broken economy and revenue system.
We had the major economic meltdown of our lifetimes, for crying out loud. If we think the Republicans are a safe alternative to anybody, we're kidding ourselves. The Republican's Epistemic Closure have made them dangerous managers of policy of any kind, and that should be all the encouragement we or anybody else needs to show up at the polls.
We're not playing in the simple sandbox of pithy politicking here, where we can get everything if we try hard enough in single steps. We have to realize that we're playing chess here, and if we allow our pieces to get sacrificed needlessly, we're going to lose the game. Rather than complain about the fact that we're not knocking over all the pieces in one move, we should be considering what the necessary steps are to win the game.
That's not to say that we should play the game cynically. To do so would be to lose a piece. Rather, I think we should be laying down the footholds and handholds for later parts of the climb.
My life, about thirty years at this point, has framed the rise and fall of the Republicans, and its been the observation of my life that Republicans did not win their power overnight. They made progress, sometimes slow, sometimes fast, because they had the passion to move things forward regardless of whether everything was going their way.
There are limits to that artificial approach, to that deliberate approach. I'm not saying that we should abandon "hope", abandon heart and soul in our poltiics. I'm saying that should not be the bedrock we choose for the foundation of our political movement.
It's not enough that we fight to prevent a return to the mistakes of the last decade within our own party, we must also keep the Republicans from doing the same on their end.
Don't stop holding Democrat's feet to the fire, but don't let the Republicans get their feet clear because we got too concerned about internal politics.
(h/t to Zonk on the correction of Winter Soldier to Sunshine Patriot)