I’m not back yet….
I just can’t get my head around how binary our choices as Democrats are right now. It is all so stupid and reductive. There are Democrats here who were flat out wrong and have been wrong for years about how to fight Republicans, but they can’t budge. It would reveal that they were wrong. That Clinton was the wrong choice, who made poor campaign choices… whatever. That’s yesterday’s news.
I don’t mind revealing when I’m wrong, and I’ve tried to think through what I’ve been wrong about on this blog. So much… where to start? I made a game out of the Republican primary race. I thought Trump was a joke. Wrong and wronger still. As much as I know that it is naive I still thought that “the truth” would matter. Wrong.
I’m still searching for something productive to do or say to get beyond how wrong I’ve been. Hopefully what I come up with will be something to “do” and not something to “say” as I think the old adage from fiction writing is fitting – show, don’t tell.
jason, you taught me the first lesson several years ago (2007? 2008?) when I first started blogging and commenting.
You said that never again after the Saxby Chambliss election in GA would you bring a knife to a gunfight.
Somewhere along the line that’s been forgotten.
It may be hardwired into our DNA, but Democrats sure seem to be programmed to play defense, to strive for the pragmatic 50% plus 1 win instead of the more high probability strategy of projecting confidence bordering on cockiness.
Here is one thing that is wrong: Many liberals who brings a shred of idealism or criticism of Obama and the Clintons to the discussions here have been dismissed or ridiculed by the party loyalists here as being “purists” or “Firebaggers.” Some have even been banned.
And, sorry to say, you have been a part of that.
Populist sentiment was up for grabs in 2016 and Dems handed it to Republicans by default. Republicans’ greatest electoral success came as a result of their purity purges. Maybe it is time to kick the Dem corporatists out of the big tent and focus populist resentment onto the rich and the corporations. Democrats need to take them on with a leader who says “I welcome their hatred.”
A low risk/high reward message strategy that could unify Democratic interest groups? That would seem to be the most pragmatic way forward if you ask me. It would make Tom Carper, DC pundits, and Dem consultants sad though, so there is that to consider.
I’ve never heard the term Firebaggers before, so you have me mixed up with someone else.
As far as “purity” being used as a slur, I’ve been on the receiving end of that one, so it is what I’m talking about above when I say that our choices have been made so binary and reductive.
Why couldn’t I like and contribute money to the Clinton campaign, and also say that it was making some tried and true Democratic mistakes? Because I was a purist, and worse.. a dupe who was unwittingly giving aid and succor to the Trump campaign.
For a while, early on it seemed as though Clinton had picked up something from the Sanders campaign, but then all the consultants and DC Brahmins stamped out whatever left-ward or populist sparks before they could grow into flames.
Taking on corporations and the rich doesn’t have to fall into the anti-business, anti-growth trap. The message has to be something like “Profits, with responsibility.”
Reagan’s Wall Street vs. Main Street distinction can be useful too. Democrats get hung up on whether a policy is good for “the economy” without considering whether that policy is good for Main Street.