Liberals faced a pretty dark time when several Democrats voted for Bush’s torture legislation and effectively signed away habeas corpus. We felt deeply betrayed by the notion that _any_ Democrats would sign off on such a disgusting piece of legislation.
My anger prompted me to leak my idea for Liberal Democrats, and I was excited by the supportive responses it received. This is how I described it:
The idea here is to provide voiceless Democrats and potential new party voters with membership in a group that speaks a focused liberal agenda to the Democratic Party. It’s also going to show the Democrats just how successful a return to liberalism can be for the party. While groups like MoveOn.org and ActBlue have done a great job mobilizing money and people to achieve immediate election results, there’s no group out there protecting the long-term Democratic product. I think we can fill that need.
I’d never been more sure that the Dems had lost their way. I wanted to help them find it as fast as possible, lest we be forced to give up this country and its founding principles for good.
But two very interesting developments cropped up within a few weeks of that darkest hour. First, Nancy Pelosi started explaining a positive Democratic agenda (positive in the sense that it was more than “not Republican”). It’s short-term focused, but appealing to immediate voter needs right before an election makes sense. The agenda is a solid start:
Put new rules in place to break the link between lobbyists and legislation.
Enact all recommendations made by the 9/11 commission.
Raise the federal minimum wage to $7.25 an hour.
Halve the interest rate on federally supported student loans.
Allow the government to negotiate directly with pharmaceutical companies for lower drug prices for Medicare patients.
Broaden stem cell research supported with federal funds.
Require that new entitlement spending or tax cuts be offset with entitlement spending cuts or tax hikes.
We also learned that the Democrats’ political silence was caused by the Republicans in control of Congress. Republicans shut out the Dems in every possible way, many of which were unprecedented. This has nothing to do with the Dems who jumped ship on the torture bill, but it helps explain why they seem so impotent in general. Add in the growing prospect of the Democrats taking back one or both houses of Congress and we could be near the end of that darkest Democratic hour. The party appears to have turned a corner.
I had hoped to launch LD quickly in 2006 and get in the mix before this Tuesday, but that wasn’t particularly realistic. Fortunately, the Dems are doing fine in the short-term. But our long term prospects, particularly when it comes to the White House, remain murky. That’s why we still need people managing and promoting the long-term Democratic product.
The bulk of the work lies ahead. We need Democrats to grasp the broad popularity of liberal ideas. We need voters to understand that the ideas they support are in fact liberal. We must pave the way for real solutions to problems faced on the environment, health care, and governmental transparency by bringing the party and its potential constituents together under a shared vision: liberalism.
That means there’s room for a project like Liberal Democrats, and if we use the next year to develop, we can be making plenty of noise by the time Americans go to the polls in 2008.
Tomorrow, I’ll talk about the some of the details regarding the formation of Liberal Democrats, what makes it unique (hint: think “open source”), and what the early part of 2007 will look like. With any luck, next year anyone who is interested will participate in crafting a new form of political communication.
Marc, I applaud your thoughts on this, but…
Given that the Democrats will probably not have enough votes to pass any but the most “innocuous” legislation, let alone get the Chimperor to sign it, what can they really hope to accomplish during the next 2-years?
It’s been mentioned many times – with the power to subpoena witnesses serious investigations into the many Reichwing scandals, as well as the many impeachable actions of the Cheney Administration could finally begin. Other than that (which many of us will feel is a positive development – a feeling that many will not share), what other positive things will they have to power to do?…
It remains to be seen how well the Democrats do Tuesday. If the Repugs manage to steal this one too, both Houses, it’s over. I don’t even know what to do then. I’ll think about that in two days if it happens. Not too likely (I hope), but– we already know the system’s broken, the question is just how broken is it?
Anyway, if the Dems DO manage to take the House at least– hell, even if they manage a clean sweep– we the people still have to find a way to convince them that, damn the torpedoes, now’s the time to grow a spine.
So crossing my fingers, on Wednesday morning I’ll be all about joining you on your quest to save the world by saving America by saving democracy by saving the Democrats by saving Liberalism.
MikeEss, I think if the Dems simply learned how to put up a fight, instead of rolling over all the damn time, the masses would respond to that in a way that really helps the chances of any Dem candidates (including presidential) come 2008. And if the Dems can’t manage to take 2008, well, gosh, this goose is cooked.
Yeah, at this point I’m holding my breath on the voting machines issue. Hope you voted absentee, Quin.
You never know, Kinky could be a spoiler.
“I think if the Dems simply learned how to put up a fight, instead of rolling over all the damn time”
That is truly the single most frustrating thing about the Dems of the last 6-years (or, really, since 1994…). If they fought tooth-and-nail, even knowing they will lose in the end, at least they would have proven they were tough.
As it is, they’re surrounded by the odor of death, defeat, and cowardice that undermines everything they wish to accomplish…
Basically, it’s “Spine or Death”. Either stand up and start kicking the Reichwing straight in the balls – with no hope of passing anything positive until Jan 20, 2009 – or give it up…
On the wimpiness issue, Digby wrote a bad ass post that tells you everything you need to know about that.
The Democrats are being played for fools. Many of their major political consultants are fucking Republicans. I’m not kidding. I’m firmly convinced that Marshall Wittman, for instance, is a plant put there by the Republican party. I’m serious.
Amanda, that’s the thing – If Kerry said (firmly, without backing down an inch) that he said nothing to apologize for and stuck to his guns, the wingnuts would still be pissed, but there would be people that would start to respect the showing of spine.
Sometimes seemingly “pointless” fights (short-term) end up paying off (if properly handled) in the long run because they establish a record of principled stands. That’s a basic part of “branding” – making sure people know where you stand and that you will always stand up for what you believe.
That’s why Dean over Kerry, Gore over Hillary, etc…
That’s why they need a group like LibDems. We can be their grassroots branding consultants!
I’m digging it. (Also wildly procrastinating on stuff I have to get done.) A lot of other bloggers are moving into political consulting, but it’s the same old game, because they’re sticking to the old model of hoarding knowledge and being an “expert”. I love this idea, a real grassroots thing. There’s a ton of talented people who don’t really want to use all their talents as consultants, but would be willing to do a little work here and there for the good of the cause and have no need to have all the back-patting and idiocy that full-time consultants have to go through.
For instance, this project is very much the sort of thing I see coming out of this idea. But of course, the topics would be positive, forward-looking, pro-something instead of just anti-Pat Robertson. Nothing against anti-Pat Robertson art, of course. It’s a purely good thing.
Marc, it’s definitely a holy quest.
The Reichwing has done an incredible amount of damage over the last 40-years (the last 6 being the icing on a shit cake), and it’s going to take a hell of a lot of work to begin to put things
rightstraight…I’ve been ready to leave the country for the last year. There’s enough hope in Tuesday’s election that I’ve decided to see if things turn around. If we’re a country worth fighting for, most of us will fight…
(Marc, Amanda, Kyso and Pam – I admire the balls you guys have to do this under your own names. Thanks for saying what needs to be said…)
Mike — Kyso’s not my name. It’s a nickname I use to keep my blogging seperate from sciency type publishing that I’ll start doing in the next year or so.
Sorry Kyso, it sounds like a real name and I assumed it was. The admiration still stands…
Don’t thank me. Marc’s the one who says all the stuff that’ll get us arrested by the secret police. I’m just an accessory.
Kyso, the dolphin thing alone should get you on SOMEBODY’s list…
The Gitmo food is one thing, weather another, but – NAKED PYRAMIDS!!!
NAKED PYRAMIDS!!!
Two words I’ve never seen together.
Oh. Abu Ghraib. I got the idea of Khufu’s Great Pyramid in the raw…whatever that means. Blah.
mmm… Guantanamo.
Please, I’m sure we’ll get put in a special luxury camp for white people. Perhaps they’ll be nice enough to assign everyone bunks based on blogrolls.
Maybe in Aspen or Malibu?…
BTW, I think it’s really great that the military gives prisoners cheerleader training while they’re locked up. Keeps their minds sharp and give them a good trade if they ever get released…
[...] Yesterday I explained why I believe we need a group dedicated to promoting liberalism to voters and the Democratic party alike. A quick recap: —Liberal ideas are already extremely popular. Overwhelmingly, Americans want environmental reform, health care coverage for all, and transparent governance. —The language of liberalism gives voters a shorthand way to describe a unified platform of those issues to politicians. —Unfortunately, identifying with “liberalism” has been criminalized. Most people shrink from the word. —Any politician who attempts to address those popular issues will be tagged with the unpopular liberal label. —Thus, if we want politicians to address the issues that matter to us, we must make liberal a good word and not a bad one. —If they want to achieve long-term political success, Democratic politicians must stop embracing the conservative talking points of security and terrorism and create their own agenda. —The surest bet of all would be to adopt strong positions on the popular issues above: environmental reform, health care coverage for all, and transparent governance. —To do so, Democrats will have to reclaim the word liberal, both to express to voters what they stand for and to prevent that label from crippling their initiatives. [...]
[...] I know and like her initial plan of action. But why couldn’t she talk the talk? The right political rhetoric has a tremendous impact on our culture — just ask the Republicans who’ve made it a science. [...]