Promoted by Steven D.
Originally posted at Liberal Street Fighter
A HARE one day ridiculed the short feet and slow pace of the Tortoise, who replied, laughing: “Though you be swift as the wind, I will beat you in a race.” The Hare, believing her assertion to be simply impossible, assented to the proposal; and they agreed that the Fox should choose the course and fix the goal. On the day appointed for the race the two started together. The Tortoise never for a moment stopped, but went on with a slow but steady pace straight to the end of the course. The Hare, lying down by the wayside, fell fast asleep. At last waking up, and moving as fast as he could, he saw the Tortoise had reached the goal, and was comfortably dozing after her fatigue. Slow but steady wins the race. – The Hare And The Tortoise
This country is run by lazy, self-satisfied people terrified of any change, especially the Vichy “leaders” of the Democratic Party. They slumber while the underpinnings of our public square are dismantled by a rapacious radicalized Republican Party, convinced that no one can challenge them in their cozy sinecures. Public works and social programs are de-funded in favor of corporate privatization or handed over to “faith based” organizations, in defiance of this country’s Constitutional prescriptions separating church and state. As the extremely wealthy prosper, more and more fall behind. As corporations run amok, as their former lobbyists running the very agencies that are supposed to regulate them, the average citizen is left with less and less recourse or help if they themselves run into trouble. Civil liberties disappear, under assault from the two faux wars on drugs and terror. All of this enabled by so-called Democrats like Hillary Clinton. BOTH parties support our military adventurism and our slaughter of innocent civilians and torture of suspected “enemy combatants”. If they don’t support these things explicitly, they certainly support them with their mealy-mouthed recitation of lazy talking points.
Can we take some hope for change from this report? Feingold emerging as alternative to Clinton.
Because of the sharp stands he has taken on divisive issues, Feingold’s potential candidacy is proving to be a Rorschach test, perceived very differently by different elements in the party.
On the nation’s most popular liberal Web site, the Daily Kos, Feingold has been dominating straw polls among the blog’s readers, winning the May-June poll with 44% of the vote. (Clinton, under fire on the left for backing the war, got 2%.)
“He kind of understands where people are in this political moment in the rank and file of the Democratic Party . . . that (politicians) need to be bold, to stand up for what they believe in,” said Eli Pariser, executive director of the liberal group MoveOn.org, which claims 3 million members.
Pariser said when his group surveyed its membership recently, Feingold ranked among the four or five most popular political figures, along with Bill Clinton, Al Gore and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama. Pariser said the organization is a “long way” from deciding whom it might support in 2008, but cited Feingold, Edwards and Gore as Democrats who could “catch the wind” on the left. Gore has said he has no plans to run.
Sanity and a real chance for a new liberal populism, (not the fake “libertarian progressivism” promoted at some other places) rests on a dark horse run by a leader with integrity like Russ Feingold, and the obstacles that will be placed in his way will be formidable.
Doubts inside the Beltway about Feingold’s viability have been pronounced.
In May, the non-partisan National Journal surveyed a group of more than 100 Democratic insiders – a mix of consultants, activists and members of Congress, many of them highly experienced veterans of presidential politics.
The question was, “Who has the best chance to be your party’s nominee?”
Feingold finished behind 10 other Democrats, some of whom have drawn far less “buzz” and attention from the party rank-and-file.
In a similar barometer of insider opinion, ABC’s political unit in March gave Feingold the worst odds among 11 Democratic candidates of winning his party’s nomination. Among the biggest marks it cited against him: a perceived vulnerability on national security issues, low name ID, poor endorsement prospects, and doubts about whether, if nominated, he could return the White House to Democrats.
“I think there’s heavy skepticism (among insiders) that someone like Russ Feingold can win a general election,” Elmendorf said.
Despite the popularity of Senator Feingold at the “left wing noise machine”, we can all count on little help coming from Little Caesar and his phalanx of thread bullies (see Marisacat for snarky, link-loaded posts about the blogheeling operation being run there in favor of the status-quo-favoring center-right). The Clarkies, Warner whores, Clinton aides and other assorted and sundry former Republicans are terrified of a real liberal becoming the Democratic Party’s chosen candidate. However:
State polls show progress
But Feingold has found encouragement in a series of independent state polls done by Strategic Vision of Atlanta, a Republican outfit that is churning out regular public surveys to market itself to future clients. The firm is polling almost monthly on the ’06 and ’08 elections in Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Washington, Florida and Georgia, providing a unique source of early presidential trend lines at the state level.
The trend for Feingold among likely Democratic voters is up in virtually every one of those states since last fall. In Washington state, where Feingold traveled in May, he is up from 4% in September to 8% in February to 11% in June. State party chairman Dwight Pelz called that an “impressive showing,” since Feingold “is clearly the least known” of the top Democrats in the poll.
In New Jersey, Feingold is up from 1% in October to 6% in April to 8% in June. In Pennsylvania, he has gone from 1% in September to 6% in March and June.
Feingold did less well in a Des Moines Register poll May 29-June 1 of likely 2008 caucus-goers, drawing 3%. He travels to Iowa next Saturday and Sunday.
Setting Wisconsin aside, in six states where Strategic Vision polled in June – Washington, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Florida, Georgia – Feingold averaged 7% among likely Democratic voters. That put him behind Clinton (who averaged 33%), Gore (18%) and Edwards (14%), but ahead of 2004 nominee Kerry (6%), former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner (3%) and numerous other Democrats at 1% or 2%.
McInturff calls Feingold’s showing in these state polls “a legitimate little blip” and says that “you cannot underestimate what it means to be in high single digits as a starting point.”
But he and other analysts note that a Feingold candidacy will face many questions: his ability to match the financial and support networks of national figures such as Clinton and Edwards; how much he could raise on the Internet; and the political costs and benefits of taking lonely positions (censure, withdrawal from Iraq, support for gay marriage).
“I’m not doing this in order to position myself. Those positions are my positions, and they are underrepresented” in the party, Feingold said.
That last sentence demonstrates why REAL liberals, leftists and progressives should rally behind a Feingold candidacy. There is NO voice now for real progressive, liberal community values now with any power on the national stage. Senator Feingold could be that voice. We need such a voice, because there is a great and terrible pressure building up in this country as more and more people watch their hopes and dreams be swept away by corporate hegemony. If a liberal, progressive populist doesn’t arise to offer the people a way to fight back, a populist demogogue from the right certainly will. When there is no wide-ranging debate across the political spectrum, polity breaks down and social upheaval becomes an increasing threat.
A candidacy like Feingold’s might be our last hope to head that dread possibility off.
