There has been a great deal of discussion lately on the state of the Democratic party. Should those of us who are progressive defect and start our own party? Should we work to change the Democratic party? Can we change the Democratic party? What are we going to do to get our country back?
Let me clue you in on something many of you already know: I am an outsider. I came into politics because I felt I had to do what I could to get George Bush and his cronies out of office and someplace where theycould no longer do damage to my country and the Constitution it is founded on. Even though I hold many of the same beliefs that are in the Green Party’s core statement of values, I side with the Democrats out of pragmatism: They are the one organization big enough and rich enough to take on the Bushistas.
Or so I thought. Some days — like yesterday — it sure doesn’t seem like it. But, like Booman, I happen to believe that a third party will not do anything but split votes that should be going to defeat the Republicans. If there’s going to be a third party in this country, let them pull votes from the Republicans.
And then I had a flash of out-of-the-box thinking. I came up with a way that we progressives can eat our cake, and have it too. Follow me past the break to see my plan, and let me know what you think.
Before I lay out my plan, let me tell you how the plan would be implemented.
One weekend this summer, Howard Dean would call an emergency Democratic National Convention. Party committee members, elected officials and high-level operatives would be invited to the convention, with mandatory attendance — but it would be a closed session. No one not invited would be allowed to attend. Media members would be held incommunicado until the very end of the convention, when Dean would make his blockbuster announcement:
The Democratic Party has been dissolved. As of the end of the convention, it would no longer field candidates, and would no longer have any legal status except as a caretaker shell charged with disposing of the assets of the party.
In its place, Dr. Dean would institute a new party. Let’s called it the Progressive Party, even though there have been several other Progressive Parties and there may currently be one in existence. It’s just a name, and this is just a proposal.
All national assets of the Democratic Party would be transferred to the Progressive Party. In addition, all state Democratic organizations would now operative under the Progressive banner.
The Progressive Party would unveil a set of core principles it would expect Progressive candidates to support as members of the party. Individual elected officials would be free to accept or reject these principles as they saw fit, and those who chose to not accept them would be wished well in their future endeavors elsewhere.
And then, we Progressives would get to work.
Now at this point you may be wondering if Omir has cracked under the strain. Why would you obliterate the Democratic Party in one breath only to restart it in the next?
The answer is fairly complex, but it comes down to this: The Republicans have spent 40 years demonizing Liberals and Democrats in this country, to the point where it is taken as an article of faith that Democrats don’t stand for anything, are weak and spineless, are soft on national defense, and are borderline traitors only because they aren’t organized enough to find the border. With this simple stroke we take all of that away. From that point on the Republicans would have to start trying to demonize the Progressives by saying they don’t stand for anything . . .
Ah, but wait. Remember the part about the core set of principles? I stole that idea from the Green Party, and I think it’s a great idea. It tells you up front what the Greens stand for. This way, when a Republican says the Democrats are soft on terrorists, our talking head can say, “Wait a minute, you’re talking about a party that no longer exists. You may not have noticed, but the Progressive Party stands for a strong national defense. It says so right here in our Core Principles. That stands in sharp contrast to the Republicans, who have actually made America’s defenses weaker by . . . ” and then launch into the laundry list of the ways Republicans have harmed this country’s ability to defend itself.
I don’t mind stealing ideas. In fact I stole the main idea for this diary from a favorite business tactic: reinventing the business. Just as an example, about the time the Surgeon General’s report on tobacco came out, tobacco companies started finding themselves vilified by Certain Outside Parties. Kraft Foods, for instance, suffered by its association with tobacco giant Philip Morris. The solution? Relaunch! Philip Morris was effectively reborn as Altria Corporation. Philip Morris USA is still a division of Altria, but now only one among several. Problem solved!
Many businesses have risen from the ashes by reinventing themselves, sometimes with new names. Movie stars carefully put their images together. Whoever heard of Melvin Kaminsky before he changed his name to Mel Brooks? Would anybody think Marshal Mathers wasn’t Jerry’s brother if he hadn’t changed his name to Eminem? So why can’t a political party do the same? This would give the new party a fresh new start. “Democrats? No, that was a different party. We’re Progressives. We do things differently!” It would give progressives a chance to choose new colors, a new icon, and most importantly, a new direction by articulating the core principles mentioned above and sticking to them. By making sure these core principles are inclusive items Americans have shown they want and need — health care, education, opportunity, community, a strong economy, a strong defense — the party would give Americans a reason to vote Progressive that’s better than “We aren’t Republicans!”. It would also jettison the baggage the Democrats have been saddled with for the past 40 years and more. No more a party of atheist surrender monkeys, no more a party of traitors and sellouts, the Progressive Party would work toward those goals the Democrats should be working toward, but are prevented from now because they’ve been cowed into submission by the Republicans.
Howard Dean could continue to do what he’s working toward now with the Democratic party — rebuild it from the grass roots up. Only now everything wuold be rebuilt on the bones of the old structure. We wouldn’t have to start from scratch to create a national party like we would if we were to form a new party out of whole cloth and elbow grease.
And as an added bonus, no longer would Republicans be able to use “Democrat” as an adjective, as in “the liberal Democrat agenda.”
There would be officeholders who would be unwilling or unable to go along with the change. That’s fine, but they would then be on their own. They could remain Democrats if they liked, but the term would cease to have any real meaning with no money or party structure behind it. Some would probably feel more comfortable as Republicans, which actually would be a good thing in my humble opinion. Some of the more centrist Democrats defecting to the Republican side might help bring the GOP back from the brink it teeters on now. Some former Democrats might prefer to be independent rather than sign on to the set of Progressive core values. That’s fine too, but I’m willing to guess that the vast majority would sign on with the program and that the local Progressive parties would be able to field replacements for them. To paraphrase George Patton, when you’ve got them by their wallets, their hearts and minds will follow.
I’m sure there are plenty of other reasons why this is too good an idea to ever take hold, not the least of which would be the inevitable disruption that would come of making such a radical change. But tell me this: Would it not be better to have a bit of disruption than to continue with things the way they are? Is the possibility of a strong, coherent alternative to one-party rule that could be competitive not in 40 years, not in 8 years but most likely in 2 years or even right now not better than the disorganized mess that has been the state of Democrats since the days when Will Rogers declared that he was not a member of any organized political party?
Think about it.