As AFSCME's dumping of Dean shows, co-option is alive and well in Washington DC. Dean was against the War. We are all against the War now, especially those who voted for it. Dean was out in front in favor of balancing the budget. We all are now. Especially the ones who sat by while it got unbalanced. The platform of the Democratic Party is going to be more Dean than beltway. So why isn't Dean headed for the White House? Why wasn't Eugene McCarthy?
The problem with running on issues is that issues can be coopted easily - especially if done in a shallow kind of way. Washington isn't against the war yet, they just want questions answered about WMD. Questions that were, in fact, answered before we went to war. Suddenly everyone in DC is standing around acting like someone else's job was to do due dilligence in checking out the story of WMD. Ditto the budget, ditto ditto everything else Bush has touched.
It's a sign of a lack of political fundamentals, and the belief in Washington that television will bail them out every single time.
This works, until it doesn't - just as an arrogant Democratic Congress felt the Republicans could never take charge, until they did. Just as the Gore campaign decided that Nader couldn't hurt them, until he did.
This easy feeling of superiority is not, however, going to last. It is a result of a temporary boost - after Dean is put away - though he did far better than expected in Washington State - and before Bush has landed on them hard.
In this moment it is time to build some bridges, time to realize that the same crawling fear that many of us have felt in our gut, is there in the guts of many Washington insiders. They too have felt the pressure from right wing media, and from waves of angry phone calls from people who are out of the mainstream, but on the same wave length as Fox News.
The same anger we feel, they do to. They are afraid that what happened to Dean -that relentless pounding based on biased readings and negative attacks - will happen to them in a close race. They look at the television attack, and thank god they weren't at the center of it.
There is common cause between the insiders and the outsiders on this, and on a host of other basic issues that relate to the fair play in our Democracy. These bread and butter process issues are something that unite both the active parts of the political net, and the inside of Washington DC.
On the other hand, there is a need for both groups of people to draw those personal connections which make powerful political alliance. Daschle drives around his home state for a reason - because it is the only way to get the dust on his boots - the handshake is where the politics puts down its roots, because, in the end, all of politics is about trust, and all trust comes down to that handshake in the end.
Are you angry? Good - so are many of our Senators and Representatives in Washington. Do you feel frustrated about how little can get done? Good, so do most of them - they openly say "we need the people to push" - they can't do it without that pressure from the outside.
So where to start? I've got a suggestion, and a simple one - the Senators looking for election should open their doors a crack to the blog world, let some of us interview them, blog the results, and get things moving. The blog interview works - it is power, and draws a connection. The eyes out here are different from the establishment press. We are less interested in "gotcha" questions - and more interested in how the tough decisions are going to be made.
What this is about, in the end, is values. There is a perception out here that the people in there don't share our values. There are lots of people who want to vote for the Democrats, but are worried the Democrats don't share their values. The fall of Bush is less from economic pain - the US has been through much worse - and more about the growing understanding that the Bush League does not share fundamental American values like integrity, responsiblity, paying your bills and hard work. This is a playboy presidency, a intrapreneurial executive - insiders only please. These aren't American Values.
The internet works to the extent that we represent the cutting edge of American values - progress, innovation, community, discussion, respect for knowledge, merit and accomplishment. Now is the time to make the alliance between inside and outside.
The message is simple - the Republicans are the crony party - the Democrats are the party of professionalism. Professionalism means believing in the rules, folllowing the discipline, even if you don't like what it says. Professionalism means not fudging the numbers, or distorting the results. Professionalism means always doing your best.
Professionalism is what makes America proud of our military, and of the best of our institutions. People trust the professionals, they trust their doctor to be straight with them, and they trust professionals to build their buildings, run their portfolios and teach their children.
The Democratic Party has a mission, to make America, again, the nation that believes in professionalism - and conducts itself in that solid way that made American military and economic leadership the center of the alliance against totalitarianism, and in favor of the advancement of prosperity, democracy and liberty.
Professionalism is progressivism, and Americans will respond to that.