With all due respect to BooMan (I love you man!) I have seen the Democratic Party over the course of my lifetime move from the party of “can-do” (remember Kennedy and going to the Moon? LBJ and passing civil rights legislation?) to the party of “Don’t hurt me Mr. Republican Conservative Talk Show Host, I promise to be Good.”
Well, to be honest that’s not completely fair. There are many good progressive democrats, and many who fight hard for their beliefs and policies. However, far too many of the old guard are (A) “We Like Big Business too, so Give us some of that PAC Money Mr. CEO” DLC types; (B) “Let’s stick my finger in the wind and see if it’s safe to come out of my bunker today” types; “Flat Out Conservatives who Just aren’t as Conservative as the GOP Crazies” and (D) “Living in the past when I had Republican friends in Congress” and “Why can’t we all just get along” clueless types.
Truth be told, with rare exceptions (Nancy Pelosi come on down!) most National Democrats will not give the time of day to their base supporters: Unions, progressives, even minorities. They see us as a problem to be hidden in the closet, unlike the Republicans who make an effort to feed and nurture their base supporters and at least keep them somewhat enthused. I suspect we need a complete changing of the Democratic Old Guard until things will really change for the better.
I’m not recommending a “Tea Party” from the left. There’s no need to go there, but we need a new breed of Democrat, one who doesn’t shy away from his or her values and principles and who embraces the party’s base.
I don’t like everything Alan Grayson has done so far, but damn, I do love that he doesn’t just sit there and take it. He doesn’t try to play nice with the ever increasingly right-wing extremism in Congress, running for office on a platform of hate and white racism.
And why should he or any Democrat be afraid to call out the Republicans for their ties to Big Corporations, their extreme positions on civil liberties, and their unthinking racism, homophobia and rhetoric that evokes violence toward and hatred of religious minorities, liberals, black people and anyone who supports social justice. He ( and a few others) call them out for their heartlessness, their corruption, their idiocy, their lies and their failures.
Too many Democrats these days are running scared. Scared of the Republicans. Scared of Big Business. Scared of being associated with “activists” and liberals. Scared of their own accomplishments (preventing a Depression, saving jobs, health care reform) and scared of calling the GOP out for the damage they did for eight years and have continued to do by their obstruction of Obama’s policies, even ones that the GOP itself had previously endorsed.
I guess they never learned that the best defense is an aggressive offense. They are like the French trying to sit behind the fortifications of the Maginot Line hoping for the best while the German Army ignored those outdated defensive measures and blitzed their way to victory in little more than 6 weeks.
Well we have about 6 weeks until the election. Time to go on offense. Obama at least is finally making the effort to fight back, but too many Democratic officials and candidates, afraid of what Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh might say, are keeping their heads down. You don’t win elections that way. You lose them.
You lose big time.