What is Not to Be Done?
My momma told me as a young boy, “Son, don’t ever become such an arrogant fool that you think the world wants (or even worse, needs) to read your manifesto.” Sorry, Mom.
Not really a manifesto, actually, as much as my off-the-cuff, rambling, frustrated attempt to think in a forward fashion. It’s presented in two parts. First, what not to do. Coming up next, what to do.
1) Let’s not resort to “Kerry lost because he didn’t do X” when X equals some pet peeve or favorite issue of mine. Democrats did an excellent job of suppressing their tendency to do this since Kerry won the nomination. It’s silly and counterproductive, so let’s not start.
2) What Scott said about the Kerry campaign. It was a good (but not great) campaign waged by a good (but not great) candidate. If you have a carefully argued, substantive argument to the contrary, with evidence for your various premises, by all means let’s see it. Otherwise, let’s not go down this counterproductive and annoying route.
3) There should be healthy disagreement amongst Democrats, but let’s do it right (more on that later). One form of intra-Democrat bickering I really don’t want to see would be something framed as “left vs. center.” First of all, this divide is entirely confused, as seen in the primary season; Dean was seen as the standard-bearer of the left when his political record was clearly to the right of Kerry. This indicates the left v. center debate was primarily about message and tactics, rather than substance (although that debate was also about substantive positions on Iraq, but those substantive positions were essentially tactical anyway, given the lack of leeway an inheritor of the Iraq disaster would actually have). Healthy debates about message and tactics are essential at this point, but they’ll make a lot more sense if we’re clear on what we’re actually talking about. Actually policy debates between the left and the center of the Democratic Party can wait until we have the luxury of choosing between them. For now, we can all agree, I hope, that whichever wing of the Democratic party you’re not in would be better than the reactionaries we’re now dealing with. As such, the left and center of the party are, currently, best viewed as resources to be mined in the struggle to limit GOP power and regain power ourselves. They both have something important to contribute. Neither side has any business objecting to the message of the other side, assuming that message is an effective one.
4) Don’t take this as an excuse to bash the Democratic Party from the perspective of an dissafected outsider. Dude—this is your party. You don’t have anything else. With the possible exception of a the San Francisco city council, the Greens are pissing in the wind, not engaging in politics. I underwent a bit of a political transformation this year—from disgruntled, contrarian member of the Democratic coalition to capital D Democrat. I’m not going back. No, my political values didn’t change much. In my heart of hearts I’m still a dirty little socialist. Many others went through similar transformations, from a variety of different perspectives. We’re a broad coalition in which we’re all minority members of some sort. We’re part of that coalition because we realize our interests and values are better served by it. We’re facing a coalition that’s far less demographically and somewhat less ideologically diverse than we are. That gives them an organizational advantage, but we can neutralize that advantage simply by deciding to be united. We’re all Democrats now—we don’t have a choice. Embrace it. Live it. It feels surprisingly good.
5) We’ve got to try to speak to the culturally conservative parts of the white working class we’re missing. We cannot, however, try to out-homophobe the homophobes. It’s immoral and impractical (who’s going to buy the imitation when they can still get the real thing?). Moreover, it’s a breathtakingly cynical strategy based on the worst stereotypes about the very people we’re targeting. Are they homophobes and bigots? Sadly, yes. But they’re more than just gay-hatin’ machines (press the button, out pops the vote!), and there are other ways to appeal to them. To disingenuously appeal to their worst traits suggests we have no faith at all they have and good and just impulses to appeal to. If that turns out to be the case, we’re all fucked anyway. For most of these people, thankfully, I’m not convinced that’s the case.
6) Don’t despair, at least not too much. Every thoughtful, compassionate and serious person worries about events which lie beyond their control, and they should. But it’s no good for anyone if we succumb to fear and anxiety about such matters. Don’t try to figure out precisely how much damage is likely to be done. It’s unnecessary, impossible, and debilitatingly depressing. We’ll cope, fight, and despair as the situation dictates, and we should prepare for that. The world I live in is full of beauty, wonder and love. It was yesterday and it will be tomorrow and next week and next year, and there’s not a damn thing George Bush can do about it.