Last night Madman and I exchanged ideas about many things, including the nature of the Democratic party. The exchange set me thinking about the Democratic Party, but the press of time and obligations kept me from expanding beyond the debate about Sen. Webb’s response to the State of The Union Address. Before I had to move to school-related work, I jotted down these names: James Webb, Howard Dean, Paul Wellstone, Barbara Jordan. These people seemed to me to be what the Democratic party could and should be.
It’s an odd group, but then, the Democrats are an odd bunch. Republicans have always had a easier time defining what they are for and against. An elephant is an apt symbol for the Republicans because you always tell where an elephant stands. Just look for the trampled plants and small amimals, and the huge piles of dung.
Now, the Democrats , thanks to Thomas Nash, are the donkeys. I was a city kid, and when I first saw the elephant and donkey cartoons, I thought the donkey was a mule. I like the idea of a mule as a symbol of the Democrats. Stubborn, determined, independent, and smart. Kicks like a, well, a mule, when messed with. Part horse, part donkey, a mongrel for our mongrel nation. Poor farmers had mules. Rich farmers had horses. (The sterile thing is a bit of a problem, I admit.)
So, there you have the Democrats – ornery, independent, stubborn, tough, hard-working. No rajah would ever ride a jewled studded donkey.
Which leads me to the four Democrats I mentioned. They stand out in my mind as people who spoke plainly and eloquently for the common man and against power and privilige. Howard Dean built a campaign around the emerging blogosphere. He grew personally as much as the blogsphere did during the 2004 campaign. He rallied people and together the Dean movement began to replace the discontent, frustration, and isolation so many people were feelling with an active community that is still growing and expanding and changing this country.
Dean was derailed by his own missteps and by the Democratic establishment. But he didn’t quit. He worked and took over the party. He has withstood the establishments attacks on him by ignoring them, and continuing to work for the people. 2006 turned out pretty well. With Dean in place, I expect that 2008 will be better.
James Webb is still a new kid on the block, but his start is promising. His Wall Street Journal op-ed, hard on his unexpected victory over Sen. George Allen, was a chastisement of the corporate elite in their own journal of choice. His State of the Union response was riveting. (I’ve painstaking analyzed it in Booman’s story of the 01/24/07.) Webb speaks for the poor and oppressed. Because of his family background and historical bent, he understands and empathizes with the poor whites of the South. He does not excuse nor support the racism that has too often marked poor whites in the North and South. But he understands the social forces that have led to that racism and his message is able to reach poor whites in the North and South, not because it is “coded,” but because he understands what generation after generation of being kept underfoot feels like. He understands the class system in America and clearly excoriates those at the top. He is a Senator to watch.
Paul Wellstone died too young. His death was a tragedy to his family and the country. He was a rare voice in the Sanate for the powerless and the oppressed. The Senate is the locus of establishment power in Washington. It’s members as nearly always wealthy, white, and male. Women and minorities are making inroads, but change is slow in the Senate. In the Senate, Wellstone stood out like a small, Jewish, radical adademic at a Presbyterian-Episcopal-Baptist leadership conference. But he wouldn’t shut up or sit down. When the Emperor had no clothes, Wellstone would point and laugh. The country has needed him tremendously these past few years. This naked Emperor has had too many fearful flatters.
Finally, Barbara Jordan, another great loss years before her time. When this country last faced the kinds of Constitutional threats we face today, when Nixon shredded the Constitution and spread The Viet Nam War across SouthEast Asia, Barbara Jordan’s moral vision and fierce intellegence called his actions into question.
I was a young teen at the time, mesmerized by the Watergate Hearings. My father had voted for Nixon for three times because he couldn’t vote for him four times. When the evidence of the hearings pointed more and more inauguably to the criminal nature of the Nixon administration, my father held out as long as he could. And then Barbara Jordan spoke with the rolling majesty of an Old Testment prophet, her voice like the peal of trumphants that destoyed the fortress walls around the White House, her intellect and moral stature lifting the country from the depths of Nixon’s madness. My father never mentioned Nixon again.
That’s my Democratic party. Strong voices from across the map. Voices for the small against the big, the weak against the strong, the powerless against the powerful. The Democratic Party needs to speak for the voiceless and to serve the oppressed and forgotten. I hope that now we will see new Democratic voices step forward and lead the charge.
