I am a former Hacketthead. Partly because we feel we made a star out of Paul when we helped bring his within an inch of victory in OH-02; partly because we are inspired by the concept of Fighting Dems; partly because we are trying to "crash the gates" of the glacially incontinent Democratic party; but mostly because we felt he had the best chance to seize a Republican-held Senate seat, we gave him our support and our money. I can understand how my fellow Hackettheads feel like we got nothing in return.
In the never-ending Hackett diaries here at DKos, I have been preaching "keep your eye on the prize: winning the Senate seat in Ohio" and start supporting Sherrod Brown. Many others are saying that Brown needs to "show us why we should support him."
So what does Sherrod owe us? I think he owes me nothing.
Let's go back a little further: why are we here? To try to take over the Democratic party like the neocons took over the Republican party 25 years ago? To be a voice for progressive ideals? To connect with like-minded democrats and find mutually suportable candidates? To fight the current administration with all of our might? We each will have a different answer. But no matter which answer best fits you, wouldn't having a
real progressive like Sherrod Brown win the seat be something we'd want?
If we demand that Paul would have had a better chance to win, aren't we admitting that winning is the real goal? And if so, wouldn't attacking Brown or boycotting the race be hurting this goal?
The oft-quoted Mother Jones article fanned the fires about dirty deals and swift-boating. But it assumes, without offering any evidence, that 1) the Party needed Hackett out of the race and 2) the "establishment" and/or Brown were the ones doing the swiftboating. Neither of these makes logical sense to me. In fact, it makes perect sense that the DeWine camp is the guilty party-- they have most to gain by getting Hackett out of the race and-- whoo-hoo!-- have us eviscerate Brown for them. What a deal! High fives to Rove again!
Yes, many of us are mad at the "establishment." If we punish them by helping make a DeWine victory a self-fulfilling prophecy, aren't we cutting off our nose to spite our face? I can't take two more years of this Republican theocracy. My personal opinion is that Reid and Schumer were doing what they thought best for our chances of taking the seat and trying to work out something so that both Brown and Hackett could serve in Washington.
Brown owes me nothing. Schumer and Reid may, but we'll save that fight for after the elections. He is a candidate whose politics I like and who has a good chance to win if we all work together. I don't want to wake up on November 8th to find DeWine gleefully hold court in a 50-50 split Senate.
I am still a big fan of Paul Hackett and I can hardly wait for another chance to support him. He now is giving his support to Brown and so will I.