For almost 15 years I've been a Tsongas Democrat who decided he was happy with Bill Clinton's success. If the DLC and the centrists could win elections, I'd bite my tongue and work for them, vote for them. I'm still upset with the Naderites in 2000.
But I'm changing my mind. And it's not because I think that by being loud and proud progressives, standing for real principles, progressives will win elections. They won't. They'll lose even more disastrously than Democrats have been losing for the last decade (except for Bill Clinton).
It's time to stand up loud and clear for reducing defense spending, for radical change in energy policy, for gay marriage, for a secular state. See my argument why below the break. I'm curious for feedback.
Two points to begin with. First the Republicans have already established a position of overwhelming dominance in American politics. They are supported by most of the country's capital, by the military, by the very powerful nexus of weapons manufacturers and the military. They control two branches of the Federal government and are on their way to control of the third. They have established the "GOP brand" with white suburbanites and rural residents as the party of patriotism, virtue, order, God, safety, you name it. This branding is NOT fading, in spite of all the negative feeling about Bush. As we've seen on kos recently the Democrats' prospects for gaining control of the House or Senate in 2006 are not that good, and if the 2004 presidential election were run again today, Kerry MIGHT squeak out a win.
The Republicans have already established a position of longterm dominance like that of the LDP in Japan or the 60-year reign of the PRI in Mexico.
The corruption we are all upset about just shows how powerful their gravy train is. They deliver goodies for their supporters.
Second point. Our society is showing classic signs of rapid decline and crisis. We have overextended ourselves militarily but are not willing to make sacrifices, we are in tremendous debt at every level from individual credit cards to the Federal budget, and as www.kunstler.com [James Howard Kunstler] is fond of noting we're completely dependent for energy on dwindling supplies of fossil fuels and we're doing nothing about.
Our moral decline is indicated by the indifference of the vast majority of the American public to the moral issues that exercise us here at Kos - US use of torture, secret prisons, preemptive war, mercenaries who massacre civilians. Most Americans could care less about these issues as long as gasoline remains under three dollars a gallon. The public's readiness to accept scapegoating campaigns against gays, immigrants, and so on is also a sign of intellectual bankruptcy and moral degradation.
We spend more on the military than the next TEN OR ELEVEN powers combined (and most of that top ten or eleven are our allies), but nobody with any power is willing to ask, might it be enough to spend more than only the next FIVE powers combined ... who are all our allies? And here, Hillary and Clark and nearly all Democrats at the national level are useless. They feel that they have to build "national security credentials" by advocating increased defense spending (of course Republican branding has been so effective that no one will believe them no matter what they do). They're right anyway that they CAN'T get elected without supporting more defense spending.
No one is seriously addressing global warming. Wes Clark assumes that we have to post more troops to Iraq, rather than withdrawing, because Iran is emerging as a dominant regional power. No consideration of reducing our dependence on oil, so that Iranian power is less of a threat to us. Like Cheney, most Democrats consider our current way of life "non-negotiable."
From talking to my students over the last eight years, I've learned that astonishing numbers of them have grown up believing that community is impossible, greed is good, and it's every man/woman for him/herself. That lying is OK if it gets you ahead. This is where the supposedly "virtuous" conservative movement has gotten us.
So why stand up strong for reducing military spending, for pulling out of Iraq within the next year, for a radical change in energy policy, for civil rights for gays, for a secular state?
Because the Democratic Party in its present form is going nowhere. We are facing a prolonged period of Republican dominance and crisis that HRC, Wes Clark and the centrists can't think far enough outside the box to stop. There's nothing that can stop that historical reality as far as I can see.
In the long run the existing system, the huge military expenditures, the gigantic debt, the overextension of the military, the dependence on fossil fuels, the shifting of more and more wealth into the hands of a few de facto oligarchs, will crash into reality. What happens then is up in the air. It may not be good. But we can prepare ourselves for that moment by standing up and shouting that defense expenditures are too high, that we don't want and can't afford more wars for global hegemony, that we must aggressively seek alternative energy sources (including possibly nuclear power). We can talk about the necessity of dealing with global warming, another elephant in America's living room no one in national politics will discuss. We will lose elections, but we will be an island in the middle of the insanity. At some point, a few may come swimming towards us.
I'm telling you, we have nothing to lose. When I read about Hillary Clinton sponsoring a bill to criminalize burning the flag and about Wes Clark advocating sending MORE troops to Iraq, I realize that the centrist Democrats really have NO solutions, and no balls at all.