I haven't diaried here for a while because the atmosphere has become toxic in these parts. But I am compelled to throw my two cents in on the current state of our politics, and the crisis the Democratic Party now faces.
I have just started in on Robert Caro's excellent three-volume series on LBJ, and Caro doesn't cut corners, going back to LBJ's grandfather and LBJ's father's role as a legislator in the Texas statehouse.
What is not surprising to me is the fact that monied interests have always worked their persuasive magic, going back and back. Caro writes about how the lobbyists in Texas (and this is in the early 1900s) used to have accounts that legislators could use to buy the three B's: Beef, Bourbon, and Blondes. Hell, there used to be open accounts that legislators could run their charges to, and the tabs would be picked up by lobbyists, and these were accounts at whorehouses.
So the fact that lobbyists and the powerful rich used to grease palms is a well-entrenched reality of this nation is nothing surprising. The engine that drives the Republican Party is a well-oiled one, and long-running. Their motives, as transparent as they are now, are not surprising.
What is surprising against the current political backdrop is the fact -- eloquently detailed by Caro -- that there were state legislators -- such as LBJ's father, Sam E. Johnson -- who would reject that kind of graft out of hand, and regardless of the consequences to themselves, would stand up and take principled stands for those things that were good for the people, or against those things that were bad for the people.
Caro recounts how during the outbreak of World War I there was a feverish anti-German rage running through the nation at Tea Party pitch, and in Texas steps were taken to enact anti-German laws that would, in addition to banning German language teaching and other measures, make any comment against America, even in casual conversation, punishable as a crime.
Caro writes that on the day the bill came to the floor the galley was packed with angry Texans who loudly demanded passage of the bill. And he writes that lanky Sam Johnson took to the floor and gave a barn-burner speech against the bill. And, more astonishingly in light of our current political climate, he worked behind the scenes to get it killed. And succeeded.
Sam Johnson was a Populist at heart, even twenty years after the Populist party was dead and buried. And Johnson and a handful of men in the statehouse knew that they fought losing battle after losing battle, eating beans on their paltry salaries while other legislators ate steak and drank whiskey on the dime of lobbyists.
One time a frustrated compatriot of Johnson's half-jokingly asked why the Hell they didn't just surrender. And Sam Johnson responded that the things worth fighting for are worth fighting for in their own right. Win or lose.
That was 100 years ago. And I wonder now, as I look to my own party, where the Sam E. Johnsons are. Where are the men who will stand up and say, "No, it's not right that the burden of sacrifice should fall to those least able to bear it while those who enjoy the greatest privilege sacrifice so little."
We are in a time of severe economic crisis. Millions are unemployed. Millions who are employed work two or three jobs to pay the mortgage or put food on their tables, to put their kids in good shoes and a warm coat in winter. Millions have no such fortune and are wrapped in what Sam Johnson aptly called the "tentacles of circumstance."
And yet, at the same time, the wealthiest in our nation have grown increasingly wealthier. Their profits and the incomes they take from their corporations (even when they fail!) is at a level unseen in our nation's history. At the same time that we produce multi-millionaires and billionaires, we find among the streets of places like Youngstown and Detroit and Birmingham and Yuma and a hundred other towns houses abandoned to foreclosure by those who could not achieve that promise which is America's. The gap, the absolute disparity, between those who have little or nothing and those who wallow in abundance has never -- never -- been greater in the course of our nation's history.
It is appalling. And the lack of political will to even seriously discuss let alone address the fundamental economic problems we face is breathtaking.
I am a pragmatist. And I understand that lifting ourselves from the kind of economic ravine we find ourselves in is not accomplished easily, and it cannot be achieved without compromise.
I worked for President Obama in four states. I saw in him a man who could follow that path. I saw in him a man who understood the depth and the complexity of the problems we face, but who understood that progress is not easily achieved and requires indefatigible effort. And I saw in him a man who could see the benefit of compromise, but who would not, when compromise failed, back away from principle.
I do not fault -- indeed, I applaud -- the President and Democrats for reaching out to the other side. I do not fault -- indeed, I accept -- that in acheiving significant accomplishments the President and Democrats have had to make compromises. That is the inherent nature of politics.
But there comes a point where compromise on policy equals compromise of principles.
We are rapidly reaching a point where the Democratic Party is, in my view, going to be put to the test. Not on the ability to compromise, which they have shown ample capacity for doing.
No, the test that we as a party face comes down to principles now.
Compromising to allow the very wealthiest in our nation to benefit while those who can bear the burden least -- of those who are caught in the tentacles of circumstance -- is a compromise not only of policy. It is also a compromise of the very principles that should remain the bedrock foundation of the Democratic Party.
There are lines, and there are lines. And while it may be difficult to stand up for principle and say to the nation that, no, we will not in these times stand for a tax break for the wealthiest among us, I think the very soul of who we are as a party demands that we do so.
The things worth fighting for are worth fighting for in their own right. Win or lose.
It absolutely pains me to say this, but if the President compromises that away and capitulates to the Republicans on the issue of the tax cuts, he has lost me.
My two cents.