We’re Hyperventilating From Sucking It Up

We’ve been suckered into believing that there are but two ways to look at the upcoming mid-term elections, strategically and philosophically. Strategic advice is coming from the political party hacks and the incumbents who will be defending their seats, and their advice is, don’t run against us and don’t support primary challengers because it will hurt the Party. How exactly do you hurt a dead donkey? Philosophically the incumbents have got nothing, they have long since abandoned any progressive ideals they may have once possessed. If the primary challengers can develop a winning strategy to match their progressive message, we’ve got a winner, a philosophy of governing packaged for mass consumption.

There is a lot of anger and frustration in the left wing of the Party and this is what primary challengers are hoping to cash in on and what has the party hacks a little scared. Just like Republican candidates can’t win unless the Fundamentalist preachers can drive their flock to the polls, Democrats can’t win without us. Up to this point they have been able to browbeat us into submission with fear mongering and name calling, but now we’ve had enough. We’re willing to make you lose to get a little respect, how about that? This ain’t a game of chicken, we’re serious this time.

Party unity requires negotiated compromise and up to this point, we on the left have been kicked to the kid’s table while the “adults” have made all the decisions. There hasn’t been compromise, there’s been dictation. We have compromised enough of our ideals in order to further the DLC’s great moderation experiment, and it hasn’t worked. We’re tired of being bullied and we are no longer content to be seen and not heard. We’ve tried it your way and your way sucks, time for something new.

We on the left are the true heart of the Democratic Party. We are the keepers of the flame, the protectors of the values and defenders of our greatest achievements. When all we hear from the American people is that the Democrats have no core values, no plan, no forward thinking agenda, who better to turn to than the left wing of the party for the ideas and the message that will resonate with the people. We are the center, we know exactly what we stand for and we are the solution to our current minority status.

Every time the pulse of the American people is taken by pollsters, the responses indicate that the country is headed in the wrong direction, that healthcare costs are out of control and eating into our disposable incomes, employment is a big worry as we watch our jobs outsourced to the far reaches of the globe and our production of goods decline steadily each year and we are growing tired of being an occupying force in Iraq, a boondoggle that is draining our national treasure at an alarming rate. The American people are rightly worried about our economic future and we have been brought to the critical edge by Republican policies and Democratic complicity. Republicans are on the wrong side of the issues and if incumbent Democrats want to hold onto their seats, they better get on the correct side, and fast.

The big problem for incumbent Democrats is that there are plenty of good primary challengers. So far the advice from the Party has been that we on the left need to suck it up and support the incumbents lest we lose the seat to a Republican. God forbid the incumbent Democrats should have to explain their votes in support of the Bankruptcy Bill, CAFTA, the Patriot Act and authorization of the use of force in Iraq. If they can’t sufficiently defend those votes, they must face reality and accept that they have not been on the side of the people for a very long time. If they lose in the primary to a progressive candidate with real values, a real agenda and a message that resonates, what exactly is the problem? Are centrist Democrats going to abandon the party and vote Libertarian? Perhaps they should take their own advice and suck it up and support the nominee, whoever it is?

There is no reason to believe that a progressive candidate would have a hard time going head to head with a Republican. In fact, the opposite is true. Paul Hackett ran for Congress in a predominately Republican district in Ohio on a solidly progressive agenda and he almost won (damn those Diebold machines). There is every reason to believe that this will be a winning strategy all across the country. Progressive candidates can show every voter how our philosophy of governing will benefit them directly. More money and benefits for them, a shift in the focus of government from protecting corporate profits to protecting the American worker and less government infringement on our freedoms. And that’s just for starters.

Unlike incumbent Democrats, progressives will take on big Pharma and give us a prescription benefit that makes sense and will save billions of taxpayer dollars by negotiating bulk prices. Progressives will tackle the healthcare crisis and push for single-payer healthcare that will cover all Americans and make our paychecks go twice as far. Progressives will stop regressive tax policies that favor the wealthy at the expense of the poor and the middle-class. Progressives will put money where their mouth is and fund the research and production of alternative energy sources. Progressives will divert money currently wasted on imperial exploits in the Middle East toward massive public works programs that will re-build our infrastructure and put Americans back to work at decent wages. Progressives will fund education in order to make our children the best and the brightest again. And progressives will strengthen the social programs that provide a safety net for the most vulnerable among us. After all, we are the ones who instituted them in the first place.

That, my friends, is a winning strategy. Mealy-mouthed incumbent Democrats cannot challenge the Republicans on any of these issues because they too have been instrumental in dismantling the social safety net, instituting policies that benefit corporations over people and sending our young people to fight in an immoral and unnecessary war. Centrist Democrats have lost their credibility with the American people while Progressives have been out of power so long that our message will sound almost new. We can toot our own horn and remind people of what we have accomplished in the past, Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid, the forty hour work week, workplace protection, fair housing, civil rights, voting rights, coal mine safety, school lunch programs and the list goes on. Most of the good that government does has come from the left, while the centrists don’t even have a horn to toot. It’s time we vote our conscience and support progressive challenges to entrenched power because it’s not only philosophically sound, it’s also strategically smart.