Hey, we’ve never met but trust me I’ve been holding up my end at the base of a lot of Democratic pyramids going back to my days at the Ron Brown DNC. So allow me a little slack -- as this is going to sting a little. But it seems like the only way to get through these days in our world is to make a stink or pitch a fight, publicly, so I’m gonna take my turn. I do mean well.
I obviously have no say in whether you run or not, and actually I don’t care if you do or don’t. I assume you will – so maybe a little frank advice can’t hurt.
I want you to understand that you are in a big political pickle. You are the presumptive 2008 Democratic nominee and like it or not, you are a permanent LIBERAL ICON, (just ask the Republican talking point machine) and you are also in a permanent shooting war with party liberals because of your tendencies to “moderate” in a certain style. The current conflict with the liberal blogosphere didn’t just start in Ohio when you spoke to the DLC last week, it just re-fueled it. So you’re getting it from left and right, and this squeeze is only going to get tighter and tighter.
I want you to understand at the deepest level that you won’t get out of this pickle by continually trying to re-position yourself along the traditional left-right political axis. We are in the midst of a massive realignment in how folks engage in civic issues and politics. In the new era we live in -- where political parties are declining brand names forced to compete against other causes and issues for market share -- the lineup of “independent” folks who are “in the middle” changes from issue to issue, like a game of musical chairs. (Read Gary Hart or this piece in the Boston Review for more on this emerging reality of strange bedfellows and networked, do-it-yourself politics).
The new strategic axis to think about, if you have to pick a single, two-dimensional theory of this game, is Change v Status Quo. Remember what James Carville wrote on the wall of The War Room (“change v. more of the same”) – it was right underneath “it’s the economy, stupid”. And now it’s number one.
So please, stop trying to figure out how to be in the middle of the old political spectrum, and instead consider becoming an uncompromising vanguard for defining dynamic change in the post-DLC era. Re-read David Sirota’s Da Vinci code, the latest in a long line of useful clarion calls from Jim Hightower and others for a new grassroots politics of passion that actually wins in red states. Remember the unlikely political success of a Paul Wellstone, or a Ronald Reagan and even a Ross Perot who was after all, key to your husband’s 1992 election. And should you choose to embrace and define the emerging parameters of a “new middle,” you will no doubt find some really strange bedfellows waiting there, like your new health care buddy Newt Gingrich (I loved that one by the way).
Now for the tough love part of this rant. I want you to know that I think that both you and your husband are the most selfish politicians I have ever seen, and I do think that it should be OK for folks to question your strategic voice in our Party after the events and outcomes of the last 12 years -- without fearing shunning or stoning from the Democratic-Clinton Taliban.
Some personal disclosure is in order. I am fine to be categorized as a semi-bitter progressive curmudgeon who like many others, still smarts at the thought of your husband’s abandonment of the $18 billion Putting People First economic agenda in the 1993 budget, the complete abandonment of the opportunity to do real campaign finance reform when we had Democratic control of both the House and Senate, and the tragic signing of the 1996 Telecommunications Act which loads of folks – from both sides of the aisle – fought against because of just the sort of Fox-Sinclair-media consolidation madness that has happened since its enactment. Oh, and did I mention NAFTA?
Curmudgeons are easily dismissed and ignored, so feel free.
But as a lovable curmudgeon who also cares about winning, I’m here to temper my criticism with some well-meaning counsel so that we can advance core values like ensuring starting gate equality via public education, championing a new investment economics through programs like The Apollo Alliance, and fighting a smarter war on terror that sure as hell extends beyond the death dance in Iraq.
First, for your own sake let alone my two children’s, I sincerely urge you to orient your future positions and policies unconditionally towards what you think in your heart is truly best for our country, and our world, no matter the political consequences to you or the Democratic Party. That might tell you to keep running and stand up for the DLC or stand down for someone else, I’ll trust you to make that decision.
Should you be wondering how to begin repairing the recent left-wing DLC damage, there’s actually a smart way to start, real fast. Stand up tall for media reform and against Big Cable in ways that your husband and Al Gore repeatedly failed to do. Consider making a wonky-sounding issue like an Open Community Internet a priority issue for you – link it to September’s return to school if you’d like. This is a cornerstone issue for serious media reformers from Bill Moyers to the SEIU’s Andy Stern to the local librarian—who all get that we must make high speed Internet access the new universal pathway to education and opportunity, not a new wall between the classes run by Rupert Murdoch and Company.
Aligning yourself with a better and more democratic media system will certainly lose you Comcast/Big Cable financial support but it will make you lots of new political friends in places all over America who are tired of pay-for-play, insider policies that screw the average Jane and Joe. And trust me, they are an impressive army fighting for a sleeper cause. What’s also interesting about this issue is that since Simon Rosenberg of the New Democratic is allied with Comcast and lobbying the FCC on the wrong side of this issue, you’ll get a political bank shot because The Daily Kos and his pro-NDN crew going after you of late will need to stop being so sanctimonious for a while.
Besides, I’d like to think that’s my turf (sanctimony) anyhow. :)
You could take things further by telling all the bloggers and Democratic disputants – on all sides – to quit focusing on what we disagree on and focus on what we do agree on to repair our breaches in leadership and policy: more farm team and candidate development in states and cities, a living wage, regional workforce training and more state-based investment in public education and infrastructure like a Green New Deal. There’s even useful talk of various mid-term gatherings in Colorado and elsewhere designed to further expand a New Alignment Agenda we can agree on. I’d sure suggest you add these events to your 2006 speaking calendar -- along with the usual Jefferson-Jackson dinners and cattle shows -- as they take shape in the months ahead.