Ok, say we're Libertarian Democrats, Progressive Democrats, Liberal Democrats, call it what you will. I know we need a catchy label, so I nominate: The Party of Now (Batteries Included).
I'm a big fan of the late Jewish author Chaim Potok. In one of his books, In the Beginning, the protagonist, David Luri, a brilliant but somewhat heretical orthodox student, is confronted by his even more brilliant Talmud teacher. It is the 1950s, not long after the Holocaust, and the Jewish community is struggling to find meaning in what has happened. The teacher intimidates everyone in the class with his fire and extensive knowledge of this difficult and ancient field of study. At one point he asks a student a question, and the student repeats some well acknowledged traditional answer, even though it makes no sense.
The teacher scoffs at the student, who protests that the answer he gave was from a great Talmudic authority. The teacher replies that if that great Talmudic authority was in the room right then he would tell him to his face the answer was nonsense. The classroom gasps in amazement that their teacher could be so radical.
Then the teacher turns to the class and says, has it all been said? Is there nothing new for us to add? Have we no living waters of our own? David Lurie understands what the teacher is saying and it frightens him, because he knows he is going to have to leave the safe haven of tradition and chart his intellectual and spiritual journey into unknown territory, where his classmates and family will see him as a betrayer of what they believe.
So what does this story have to do with politics?
I have read an exhausting amount of diaries trying to encapsulate what the Democratic Party stands for. From "liberals" such as Peter Beinert and the rest of the TNR gang, I have been astonished with a feeling of reading old and dusty, outmoded notions being feebly dressed up as real solutions to the problems we as Americans face today.
I don't completely agree with Kos' "Libertarian Democrat" idea, but I do feel he is in tune with the fact that we are living in new times that demand new solutions.
As a community, Daily Kos has gone back and drunk deeply from the well of wisdom of our forefathers -- I've read great comments on what the leaders of the past have said, much wisdom (even in tag lines!) and it is very inspiring to read these thoughts.
But there was a time when Jefferson and Madison and Adams and Washington were winging it, too. Sure, they had the canon of Western thought up till that time to turn to, the deep well of wisdom and methods that proved over time to be enduring. But at a certain point they had to take a great risk, add their own living waters and try something new for a new time in history. And that they did. We have a Constitution to show for it, and one of the most remarkable forms of government ever seen in human history.
Now that government, and Constitution, have been greatly damaged. Once again we must add our own living water to the well. And it is a risk, there is no guarantee, ever, of success.
But my money is on people like Markos, like Armando, like Georgia10, SusanG, McJoan, DarkSyde. I am betting on Josh at TPM, on Atrios, on Jerome at MyDD. I am not betting on the Peter Beinarts, the Francis Fukayamas, the Joe Kleins. Their contribution is dust, inert, lifeless. If George Washington was in the room with me right now, I'd say the same to him.
And you know what? I'll bet he'd agree.