Yesterday, under the full glare of the sun and at the day’s peak of the heat we have been experiencing, I ended up standing on hot asphalt in a parking lot having a debate with a Democratic friend about the party’s prospects in November. When we encountered each other, she’d asked a general question about my opinion of party prospects this November, and I’d started my answer with a concern about where progressives stand in all of this – i.e. virtually no progressive position has been forwarded since the last congressional election.<\/p>\n
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She swiftly countered with “politics is the art of the possible,” an answer that I hear thrown out so frequently to progressives from Democratic Party strategists and insiders that I have come to regard it as the catch-all talking point excuse for doing nothing at all that might be viewed as even remotely attempting to forward any aspect at all of the progressive agenda.<\/p>\n
Now, here’s the thing. I’ve known the person who stopped me for quite some time, and she and I have talked politics on enough occasions and at such length that I would not hesitate to call her thinking on issues progressive. So I was a little taken-aback to hear her instantly respond with the party’s most-canned talking point to any and all complaints from progressives about what they are getting out of Democrats.<\/p>\n
But then she spoke eloquently, sincerely, and at length about her work for Gore during the election that first foisted Bush on us, pointing out that what that election got us was eight long and bitter years of Bush-disaster, and asked me to think long and hard about “what is the alternative?” All of which served to make me check myself for a moment, think about the fact that she’s been fighting the long fight within the party longer than I have, and try to explain my thoughts on the progressive position in the Democratic Party.<\/p>\n
I said I thought she was right that we – progressives – should “think long and hard,” but on the other hand see no indication that the party is thinking at all about progressives. I offered up the health care bill as just one example of how I think the party is almost completely in bed with corporate America, will time after time throw average Americans under the bus to appease big corporations – in this case insurers who are pretty roundly and soundly hated by the average American so could have been a great test-target – and will then turn around and suggest that that is all that could have possibly been achieved within the “art of the possible” framework they would have us believe. <\/p>\n
Whereas progressives sit back and watch Republicans start wildly far on the right, and concede toward the center, and then watch the Democrats start dead center, or even center-right-ish and concede toward the right and wonder over and over again how we will we ever know what could have been possible? What if we’d started the health care debate with single-payer and conceded toward the center? Hard to believe we would not have at least ended up with a robust public option rather than a giant giveaway to insurance companies.<\/p>\n
To that, my friend agreed – or at least she agreed that Democrats use all the wrong strategies.<\/p>\n
Meh, me I’m more cynical. I have a hard time believing that the people currently running the country that is currently running the world can’t grasp the basic concept of bargaining – a concept that has been grasped and engaged in by reasonably intelligent humans, even illiterate and uneducated ones, in everything passing for a market, even if that market just amounts to trading your pig for beans on the village green, since the dawn of human history.<\/p>\n
But I didn’t say that to her, what I did say was that I have a hard time believing progressives are ever going to make headway against the corporate stranglehold on the Democratic Party if they are not willing to walk away. If “consider the alternative” is an effective and foolproof means of getting some of the most dedicated activists within that party to consistently work to elect corporatist Democrats, then what is the incentive for party leadership to ever take action on progressive issues or concerns?<\/p>\n
The conversation pretty much ended there, and we have yet to see how November will turn out. I don’t think the party is giving even the most errant passing thought to where progressives will stand this November, beyond having their handy “consider the alternative” and “art of the possible” talking points ready to trot out if they get challenged. I think Democratic Party leadership is very focused on independent voters, so will continue to pitch centrist positions.<\/p>\n
Because as long as progressives continue to go back to the one who is beating them up, merely because the alternative of hanging out there on our own and with no immediate prospects for supporting ourselves is so frightening, we’re going to keep taking that beating.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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