Last week was truly a wonderful moment in modern American politics. But there are some flies in the ointment…
The spin coming out of the so-called Moderate camps inside the Democratic establishment. The DLC, Blue Dogs, “liberal hawks” and “socally conservative” Democrats are doing and saying everything they can, working as hard as they can to put out a coordinated message that, somehow, these elections were a victory for “moderates” who are empowered to “govern from the center.” Time to smash that meme. Time to lay waste to that ill-considered, false, and self-serving garbage NOW, before our victory is watered down and replaced with more of the same old triangulating, guaranteed-to-lose milquetoast BULLSHIT.
First, some basic facts:
This election was a massive victory for ALL Democrats at ALL levels of government. This includes the extremely unlikely unseating of 6 (count them, SIX) incumbent Senators. The rate of incumbency re-election in the Senate, is historically very, very high according to Cook political Report. It includes a massive overturn in the House, on par with the largest of electoral waves in recent history. It includes a huge realignment in the State Houses and State Legislatures, making it easier to lock in and cement these gains through redistricting…
All parties concerned deserve their fair share of credit. Schumer, Emanuel, Reid, Dean, Clinton, Kerry, Feingold, and so many others contributed in their own special ways.
But now we are seeing, and having been commenting on the fallout. Everyone wants to be the genius, everyone wants to take credit, and everyone wants their strategy to be the one that made it all happen.
The slime and smears and crowing from the Democratic Right have been particularly egregious, pernicious, and nasty:
Schumer and Carville and others hammering on Dean and progressives, Rahm claiming victory for himself and his cadre, Lieberman trying to claim that “both parties are on probation” and any number of spinners, shysters, and smooth-talking bullshit artists claiming that this was a Centrist victory, that Dean, the rabble-rousing progressives, and the dirty bloggers were at best irrelevant and at worst cost us an even more stunning victory.
Bullshit!
Let’s do a headcount…shall we? Let’s talk about the fact that Tester and Webb were NOT the pick of the establisment, and in fact were opposed by those same folks at one point or another.
Let’s talk about the fact that of the incoming House class, nearly 40% are likely to caucus with progressives, either explicitly as members of the Progressive Caucus, or implicitly, regardless of which group they join, that 60-70% were netroots challengers, blue-district challengers to Repubs, or explicitly, openly progressive-minded.
Let’s talk about the fact that a number of those were a) initially opposed by the DCCC, b) ignored for the bulk of the campaign by the DCCC, and c) sneered at by a large number of establisment “wise men” (and they most are men, althought they are not particularly wise).
Let’s talk about the fact that a significant number of Emanuel’s candidates (and Schumer’s) LOST, despite getting special treatment both in primaries AND in the general. Let’s talk about the fact that Tammy Duckworth (whom I personally liked just fine, and hope that she had won) was specifically recruited, pushed by the DCCC NATIONALLY, boosted by Clinton and so many others…and the recipient of MORE than 3 million dollars for a HOUSE campaign…lost. And Cegelis spent her time organizing for other regional candidates. Dan Seals lost. How many others? Perlstein has the goods ($$)
Let’s talk about the fact that (as some are just noticing, and that Paul Krugman has just stated so explicitly) there is a very strong streak of economic and progressive populism and clearly liberal tendencies among both the new class of Senators AND House members just elected to Congress.
This trend is scaring the “moderate” technocrats to death – they HATE populism, they HATE progressivism, and the combination is anathema to their elitist fantasies.
Anyway, you’ve all been reading the same stories and watching the same games as me, so where am I going with this??
Here is the key question:
How can we, the netroots coalition, cement and extend the gains we helped make happen?
My answer is very simple, and it consists of several components around a unifying theme:
- Every single one of us should immediately find, and join, our local Democratic Party branch.
- When we join that branch, we should bring with us as many like-minded friends, colleagues, family members, cohort as possible.
- Once we have joined, we should begin running for local, county, district, and state office within the Democratic Party – chair, vice chair, treasurer, secretary, precinct captain, whatever.
- Get progressives into state Democratic Party power positions. Nominate progressives as state representatives to the DNC and to the various boards, councils, and committees of the state and national Democratic Party.
- Build the Democratic Party brand by getting the party directly engaged in civic projects – information for citizens about their government services, activities around the community such as cleanups, school support, local fire department support, community projects, community aid, and etc.
- Stack the membership of these local Democratic Party branches, stack the memberships of the state party branches, and cement the gains we have made.
The absolute BEST way to get the Carvilles, Shrums, Emanuels, Elmendorffs, and other such incompetents, schemers, and incompetent long-time losers to shut up and sit down is to make damned sure that they CANNOT get any traction at any level of the Party infrastructure.
When it comes to shutting down the people we just elected, when it comes to shrugging off the gains made by our wing of the Democratic Party, when it comes to stifling the voice of the voter and the voice of the base, these people will stop at nothing…so we need to stop them cold, and we need to do it now.
So, find your Democratic Party club, branch, local, or form your own. Join up in force. Stack the deck and load the bleachers with your like minded allies. Write motions, write platform planks, write resolutions, and get them passed in state and national meetings. Get yourself and your allies elected to leadership positions in the party infrastructure. Find, contact and cultivate candidates for local, county, state and federal office. Make your local branch of the party a group that has the respect, trust and admiration of your community – fundraise for a new school building, a new piece of fire equipment, help organize a park, river, or road cleanup action. Help locals get their concerns to legislators that can help them with zoning, with pollution, with legal issues.
We helped propel the existing party to newfound power and prominence…that existing party had a bit of a facelift – populism, economic and social justice, and a bit of old-fashioned progressivism has taken a slightly larger role in the public face of the Democratic Party…
In order to cement and extend those victories, one of the major and most important things WE can do is to become the heart and soul of the local Democratic infrastructure, and to extend that control upward from the roots.
It’s up to us.
