The dailykos community was founded with the mission of electing better Democrats. As someone who was raised in a Democrat family with a father who was actively involved in the local Democratic Party in Baltimore in the 1950s, this goal appealed to me. I remember the Democrats from those days, including Nancy Pelosi's father (Tommy D'Alesandro) who was Mayor of the city during that era. I especially remember Phil Goodman, another Mayor who was also a family friend through my father's involvement in the Dandy Fifth Democratic Club (for the 5th District in Baltimore City). I helped stuff envelopes, put out lawn signs and handed out leaflets at the polling place up the street. I saw these Democrats in person when they had a meeting at our house.
These men - yes, they were all men back then - were proud of being Democrats. They were hard-nosed and tough. They had the Democratic successes of the New Deal under their belts, and saw with their own eyes - and lives - how government could help people. They were feisty and assured in their values just like the Democratic Party leaders of those days and of the next couple of decades - like Truman, Stevenson, the Kennedy's, Humphrey (the “Happy Warrior”), and LBJ.
And now?
Now we have practically no Democrats that have that kind of strength of character and pride in Democratic values. Certainly, not enough pride to run for office on it. In fact, Democrats don't run, they run away. Run away from the successes of their Party, run away from the values that shaped and defined it, run away from their connection with the people, with the humanity that was the hallmark of the Democratic Party. Can you imagine putting the label "Warrior" on any but less than a handful?
And they don’t just run away during election campaigns. They do it all the time, during and between campaigns. It's now a trait of the species. In fact, they no longer look like Democrats. They have mutated and those mutations have have transformed a feisty, stalwart animal into one with a genetic predisposition to always have its tail neatly tucked between its legs. All flight, no fight.
There are now so few politicians that are true Democrats, how can we elect better ones? It's like saying we want to breed better dodo birds. Great idea, but the problem is they are extinct. There is no breeding stock - indeed, no stock at all - to work with.
In reality, the situation with Democrats is not so extreme; there are a few remaining ones out there. So maybe it’s possible to save the species. But the Democratic political infrastructure - the environment - is not conducive for breeding. It is a dying ecosystem and is consequently less and less able to right itself. The entire Party apparatus and its associated organizations are stuck in place, which does not portend well when flexibility is required for self-correction. It is entrenched and not going to allow big changes; indeed, the people who make up the Democratic establishment will fight tooth and nail to keep their jobs and power.
dailykos was a breath of fresh air when it started and the idea of electing better Democrats was a great focus. But is that goal achievable when there are so few real Democrats to work with and the environment that supports the Party, whether we like it or not, is a wasteland stripped of life? Maybe after all this time, it would be worth reconsidering the goals of the dailykos community. Maybe it's time to think about alternatives to the Democratic Party or whether another environment can be created to nurture the few surviving Democrats and revive the species we call Democratic politicians. I don't think the Democratic establishment is listening. In fact, I doubt whether its hearing or its ability to attend to what voters say is still intact, perhaps another another mutation of the species that once was in tune with the American people and now operates in terms of the opposing party rather than its own constituency.