| We had in 2008 and may have in 2010 even more (1) Texans who only weakly identify with our party, (2) Texans who find the very idea of political parties disgusting, (3) Texans who weakly identify with a GOP that does not exist today, voted for Barack Hussein Obama, but have not embraced a baffling and often unattractive Democratic Party, as well as Texans who identify with other parties like the Green or Libertarian micro-parties, but who we need to vote for at least one Democratic candidate now and again.
Even those as do identify strongly with our party are not going to know many of our candidates on the ballot by name or anything else. None of those weak-identity voters are going to vote straight Democratic in the 2010 without some pretty good positive-policy reasons for doing so. And, few of anybody are going to attend our conventions, if there is no hope or change we can believe in there either.
All of these fundamental problems we have are aggravated by backwards-looking scab-picking. That is self-indulgent, at worst, as I ought to know.
Democrats today comprise an all-chattering, semi-governing party in less than half the actual echelons (levels x branches) of government. We are conspicuous but not disciplined or powerful. We let the GOP raise money as a governing party and run against us as the opposition party, screaming over budget deficits they ran up and Texas House calendars they controlled.
And, in 2010, weak identity and poor discipline are going to be huge hurdles for us to overcome as historic problems (i) fail to yield to half-baked "deals", (ii) continue to gnaw at our credibility, and (iii) provide opportunities for charlatans and demagogues within and without both parties.
So, what is to be done?
Criticism of Democratic candidates (i) should be issue-specific and (ii) focus on pretty much one, decisive issue and any one time.
I am here at Netroots Nation listening to the most energetic Democratic leaders we have face up, drill down, and push back on the most critical issues of the day and of, to be blunt, three generations of us. There are an array of issues on the table but an overwhelming consensus that the distinction between health-care and health insurance "reform" will be decisive for this economy at this moment, for this party in 2010, and for the Obama administration in 2012.
Settling for health-insurance reform is clearly regarded here as a ... FAIL!
If there is not a strong public option in the final bill, there is a progressive caucus in the U.S. House that will vote against a fig-leaf bill that the GOP will have extracted from weak Democratic leadership but will not vote for after having discredited them.
The consensus here is that grass-roots Democrats have to learn how to "whip". That is "whip", not "whine".
So far, that means drawing a line in the sand -- Texans understand that metaphor, right? - at inclusion of the public health-care option in the legislation that is passed and signed this year.
· Those Democrats who can articulate and advance that cause should get disproportionate support in fund-raising and media. Lloyd Doggett and Garnet Coleman come to mind.
· Those empty-suit Democrats who cannot bring themselves to do anything like that and wallow in personal or identity politics and constituent service should get the neglect they deserve and fall back on their personal war-chests, consultants, staff, cronies, and so on. They should get silence and neglect, not even the attention of backwards-looking scab-picking. If they want to be a party unto themselves, so let them be, ... for the time being. If and as we govern more credibly, they will be challenged and defeated in primary elections. Even gerrymandering won't save their sorry butts.
· Those Democrats we have already elected - self-perpetuating incumbents who ran for office once a long time ago - who break ranks and deliver their procedural or substantive votes and their very souls to the health insurance lobby get primary opposition, not whining and protests, ... actual opposition now!
That is the way a governing party works in the face of ferocious, disciplined opposition. That is the only opposition we have now and all we will have, if and as we govern more credibly, for the next thirty years.
OK, so our party establishment in Texas does not work this way now. They perpetuate collaborative, uncompetitive, traditions of the one-party state they once dominated. The all-consuming, large-donor trial lawyers - Atticus Finch on steroids -- have no stake in health-care reform and a symbiotic relationship with insurance companies. So, the incumbent-protection drones in Austin and Washington support the least moral member of the Texas delegation, whoever that is, exactly. So, all of those have precisely nothing at all to say about the public option and hire flacks and spokes-models to crank out pink noise.
Only, they are not the party, we are. The pathetic little operation in Austin does not matter much either way on anything and can be swept away in one evening in Corpus Christi. But, Texas Democrats - the real party -- will win or lose, whip or whimper, on health-care long before then.
The key to whipping is focus: At Netroots Nation we have the usual collection of left issue and identity caucuses. They are all lining up here to whip health-care or getting whipped back.
It is awesome seeing labor not abandon EFCA, LGBT groups standing up on DOMA and DADT, and even the few Democrats like myself who talk way too much about arcane national security and economic policy issues ...
... listening to detailed instructions, muting ourselves a bit, and quietly lining up in solidarity with each other and party leaders to ... whip health-care reform!
To paraphrase the self-styled genius, Newt Gingrich, ...
Whip Now, Whip Here, Whine Later ...
John Robert BEHRMAN
Committeeman
SD 13 |
