This is a hard cold fact that Democrats have trouble hearing… the Democrats and Republicans have lead together. To-gether. Not one and then the other, not in combat, but together.
When people say that Democrats are just as bad as Republicans, this is not just about both being equally bad… that is not the real gist of the problem. Given a comparison, the Democrats have long been better.
The problem is the partnership, it is, exactly, a “good cop bad cop” system. Did Carter distance the US from the Shah?
Recently, elsewhere on the net, one supposedly moderate but hawkish conservative reacted to my perspective on torture (it’s not tolerable) with a very blunt answer… they believed me, and they would rely on people like me to fix the mess and back off of a pro-torture policy when the time came. Meanwhile, it’s cowboy.
From a petty political perspective this is similar to a prediction that the US will sicken of these practices… it will wise up and choose a civilized path again. But no, it means that we progressives are just one side of America’s mouth. There is only one thing to think about such an approach, we are the carrot, they are the stick, and we cannot pretend we are not a part of this system where liberalism and conservativism are nothing but two sides of a behaviorialist approach to oppression… we’re the cop that gets the suspect a glass of water, but we don’t stop him getting beat, and we don’t turn down the pay check, and we don’t create progress, not that way.
I see the real task for progressives as breaking this cycle. I don’t want to be the guy America can point to and say “see… this one doesn’t want to kill you all” just long enough to convince the world to extend some trust again and then again it’s back to the bad cop.
This is what really leads my most activist friends to have no hope for Democrats… it’s not that they don’t realize the benefit of Democratic policies, but they picture their role perpetuating the overall system. They see their role softening and making palatable practices which might create a violent reaction if not softened this way. We are here to let steam off the oppressure cooker, and there is not much room to deny that, I’m sad to say.
The Dems have their balls in a vice because they not only have no power in Congress, but they have a war to contend with.
If they want money for their states or districts they have to play ball, they have no power to investigate wrong doing.
But torture is the GREAT opening. The post 9/11 policy constituted a high crime against the constitution of the United States.
They have little defense, especially for how long they carried it out…and it still is probably crossing the line.
Abu Gonzales was a true test and many Dems failed it miserably.
I think we’re in the midst of a rebuild, from the ground up. In any major rebuild project, the first thing you do is get rid of anything in the path of construction [demolition phase]. That’s where we are now. We have a platform with rotting planks, and a foundation cracking under stress.
Democrats need to guide the process rather than trying to steer it; ask the people what they want, don’t tell them; look for the best candidates – the new lawmakers – among those actually doing the work, even if they’re “outside” the party; and back them up with resources only the party has. It’d be a good start.
Unless everyone agres with it which I doubt.
But I agree with it: Good cop bad cop.
Except it’s clear that the radical left doesn’t play that game which is why they are happy to say they support the Palestinians against the Israelis (no liberal bullshit about 50-50) or that the Iraqi resistance have a perfect right and duty to defend their homes against US imperialist aggression (mot blather on about how the US can’t possibly leave right now because that might be bad, m’kay?) and in general anyone describing the Democrat party as the “good cop” is obviously not signing up for that duty so it’s a little dishonest, or rhetorical of Pyrrho to suggest that he is such a person.
is a relic of the Cold War.
The Republicans went over to the attack as soon as Clinton was sworn in, but the Dems have tried to abide by the loyal opposition framework of the Cold War.
The loyal opposition is essentially bought, by providing lucrative careers to politicians and staffers once they leave the Hill, and by how the politician’s campaigns are financed to get to the Hill in the first place.
That is why I believe that the way forward is through primary challenges to sitting Dems, based on a comprehensive clean-government, anti-corruption platform.