A Progressive Prism

I was born in 1969. I don’t remember the 1972 race, but I do remember my older brother’s faded McGovern-Shriver t-shirt that he proudly wore until it fell apart. When I was in the second grade I cast my first vote for president. I remember the night before, I asked my parents who I should support between Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter. I knew Ford mainly from his bicentennial speech in Philadelphia and the fireworks that surrounded his appearance there. I don’t think I knew Carter at all. I don’t remember what advice my mother gave me, but I can still remember my father’s emphatic endorsement of Gov. Carter. Ford had pardoned Nixon and, for my father, that was an unforgivable offense. The next day, I cast my vote for Jimmy Carter and I have never stopped voting for Democrats in the intervening thirty-two years.

But, with the exception of 1980 when I stuck with my man (despite some fascination with John Anderson), I have consistently supported the progressive wing of the party. In 1984, (the last election in which I was ineligible to vote) I supported Gary Hart. I supported Hart again in 1988 (until the Monkey Business) and Dukakis thereafter. In 1992, I supported Paul Tsongas early, and Jerry Brown late. Although, to be honest, I saw Clinton as electable and did not think Gov. Brown had a realistic chance.

In 1996, I did not vote in the presidential contest because I thought the Clinton-Gore ticket had broken campaign finance laws and stood a good chance of getting impeached (oh…the irony).

In 2000, I supported and volunteered for Bill Bradley’s campaign. I was so disgusted with Al Gore and DLC politics that I did not make up my mind to vote for Gore until the Sunday before the election.

Only in 2004 did I break my pattern of supporting the progressive wing of the Democratic Party. I did not think Howard Dean had the temperament to run a winning campaign. So, in spite of being sympathetic to his cause, I supported John Kerry from first to last.

I tell you all this, as an introduction to the following. Paul Tsongas is dead and Howard Dean’s position as chair of the Democratic National Committee precludes him from endorsing, but Gary Hart and Bill Bradley have something to say to the progressive wing of the Democratic Party.

Here’s Gary Hart:

It will come as a surprise to many people that there are rules in politics. Most of those rules are unwritten and are based on common understandings, acceptable practices, and the best interest of the political party a candidate seeks to lead. One of those rules is this: Do not provide ammunition to the opposition party that can be used to destroy your party’s nominee. This is a hyper-truth where the presidential contest is concerned.

By saying that only she and John McCain are qualified to lead the country, particularly in times of crisis, Hillary Clinton has broken that rule, severely damaged the Democratic candidate who may well be the party’s nominee, and, perhaps most ominously, revealed the unlimited lengths to which she will go to achieve power. She has essentially said that the Democratic party deserves to lose unless it nominates her…

…For her now to claim that Senator Obama is not qualified to answer the crisis phone is the height of irony if not chutzpah, and calls into question whether her primary loyalty is to the Democratic party and the nation or to her own ambition.

Here’s Bill Bradley:

Former senator Bill Bradley, who is a leading supporter of Obama and ran for president in 2000, accused the Clintons of “lying” in pursuit of victory.

“The bigger the lie, the better the chance they think they’ve got. That’s been their whole approach,” he said. “She’s going to lose a whole generation of people who got involved in politics believing it could be something different.”

Bradley believes that Clinton will stop at nothing to tear down Obama even if it boosts John McCain, who was confirmed last week as the Republican nominee: “The Clintons do not do long-term planning. They’re total tacticians and right now their focus is on Obama, not McCain.”

You might expect Hart and Bradley to say nice things about Obama and critical things about Hillary Clinton. After all, that is their role as endorsers. But their criticism goes beyond simple advocacy. They are both passing the harshest judgment on the Clintons. And that means a lot to me. It reinforces my own view that the Clintons represent a kind of foreign body within the host. They are certainly not progressives, but they go beyond that. They are less Democrats, or even a wing within the Democratic Party, than they are a party unto themselves. I really do see them as a kind of parasitic force that has hijacked the Democratic Party for the last sixteen years, and I see the crew that surrounds them as having a nefarious influence on American politics.

When I look at Hillary Clinton I do not see the same thing that her supporters see. Or, rather, I do see it, but I see it as a surface reality, a mirage, the shadows on Plato’s cave. Yes, she is impressive, and she is qualified, and she is tough, and is prepared on Day One. But when I look at her I see Mark Penn and Lanny Davis and Terry McAuliffe and Dick Morris and James Carville-Matalin and Paul Begala and Harold Ford Jr. and Bruce Reed and Marty Peretz. And those are not impressive people. I don’t consider those people to be my allies. I don’t think they are honest people.

I know this is only one of many possible ways of looking at this race. I know a lot of people are invested in Hillary Clinton as a kind of standard bearer for female empowerment. I know a lot of people have mostly fond memories of the Clinton presidency and see nothing wrong in giving them another chance to ‘clean up after a Bush’. I just don’t see this contest in those terms and I never did.

In my mind, the whole point of spending the last three years blogging has been to lend my talents to a party I love, but that had lost its self-confidence in its own principles. The Clinton Team exemplifies everything that went wrong with the party during the Bush years. They opposed Howard Dean for all the wrong reasons, and they have opposed the rise of the netroots at every turn.

If you don’t believe me, listen to the past progressive champions, Gary Hart and Bill Bradley. I trusted them then, and I still trust them today. So should you.