Are DC Dems stuck in a bad habit?

In the past 35 years when Republicans have been in the minority how did they act?  Did they go on the defense to gain control, or did the go on the offense?  They have always been on the offense on everything, and if they find themselves being attacked they use the massive structure of think-tanks, media pressure, and grass-roots organizations they have built up to quickly turn the situation around. 

Their habit is to attack, and the Democrat's habit is to respond by going on the defensive and using the same terminology the GOP uses in their attacks, such as 'the death tax', 'partial birth abortion', 'tax relief', 'climate change'.  When Dems use GOP propaganda terms while on the defense, we all lose.  America loses.  That's all there is to it.

There are a lot of Democrats in DC who have been there for a long time.  They've been on the defensive for a long time and it's become an ingrained habit.  They're stuck.  When newbie Dems arrive in DC, all bright-eyed, bushy-tailed and ready to fight, they are taught submissive posturing by people like Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.  And what do we end up with:  Wishy-washy positions that voters don't understand and lost elections.

Not all of them are spineless GOP appeasers.  On November 2nd something interesting happened in the purple state of Wisconsin.  Senator Russ Feingold (D) won handily with 56% of the vote, while Kerry had a squeaker with only 51%.  Over 140,000 Wisconsinites who voted for Bush, also voted for Feingold, which seems odd since Feingold not only opposed the invasion of Iraq, but the PATRIOT ACT as well.  In fact, he was the lone senator to vote against the PATRIOT ACT.

So what gives?  What do Feingold and Bush have in common?  They both send a clear message to voters.  People know what and who they are voting for, even if they're casting votes for different candidates who are polar opposites.  I would go further and bet a ton of money that a majority of the 51% who voted for Kerry did so because of Bush, whereas those same people who voted for Feingold did so because of Feingold.

Can we teach those old Dem dogs some new tricks, some new frames?  Or do we need to start working on challenging them by getting some new blood in there.  Shape up or ship out, I say! (Not you, Russ.  We like you.)

Comments

[Neo]

The reason why RepubliNazis are in control now is due to not just their willingness (indeed, their inborn tendency) to attack like mad-dogs, but also their "grassroots" efforts initiated 30-40 years ago with the full expectation that these efforts were for the long-haul.

RepubliNazis started to invade school boards and municipal bodies in the mid-1960s, and it took them until the mid-1980s to begin having a strong national presence, and a subsequent 20 years to completely take over the country.

The question facing the Democrat party is not whether its politicians can learn to attack (attack is a mandatory prerequisite for dealing with HitlerBush and RepubliNazis), but whether the current crop of politicians can let go of their greed for power and position _today_ to lay the groundwork for their successors _30-40 years from now_ being in as unassailable a position then are the RepubliNazis are now.

Local activism and long-term thinking among boomer and Gen-X democrats and progressives has been sorely lacking. Contrast this with RepubliNazis who are seemingly born propagandizing fascism along with religious fanaticism in their churches and schools.

BTW, the lack of long-term thinking among Democrats is also what led to the ABB campaign this election (long-termers and progressives would unequivocally rate Kucinich orders of magnitude higher than Kerry), and to the herculean efforts faced by Greens and progressive third-parties in each election cycle---the tendency to always justify voting for the "lesser of two evils, but just this time so that we can later clean house" only leads to the house getting crapped on over and over.

Understandably, engaging in local activism requires a great deal of time, effort, and committment. But without this, Democrats are doomed to oblivion as the butt-boys of the RepubliNazis---their raison d'etre will soon become bending over to get reamed by the RepubliNazis and taking the blame for everything that goes wrong with the RepubliNazis and HitlerBush policies.

From now on:

(a) Concerned citizens should write in "None of the above" in their ballots when their Democrat choice is a RepubliNazi butt-boy. This, of course, assumes that there will even be any elections allowed to take place by HitlerBush and the RepubliNazis.

(b) If concerned citizens choose to run for local office, they should do so as independents.

(c) If concerned citizens have an exceptional progressive Democrat representing them, they should urge this person to resign their party membership and run as an independent. Even Jim Jeffords had the minerals to do it.

(d) Concerned citizens should urge their Democrat representatives and senators to: filibuster or simply walk-out of all legislation, nomination, and Congressional business initiated by HitlerBush and the RepubliNazis. That way, the RepubliNazis cannot point to a voting record that contains inconvenient "flip-flops" (that one struggles to explain away), and progressive Democrats can, when they run as independents, point to their consistentcy to principle.

(e) Finally, all concerned citizens should gird themselves to the eventuality that things are going to get much, much, much worse over the short-term before there is even the possibility of it getting better over the long-term. We have 2 choices:

Allow HitlerBush and the RepubliNazis to brutally rape this country so badly over the next 20 years that no one left alive after that holocaust will or will allow their descendents for a few generations to vote RepubliNazis again,

OR

Try to apply feeble and ineffectual brakes to the HitlerBush and RepubliNazi rampage, continue to let Clinton take the blame for everything even in the year 2050, rubber-stamp evil legislation in the hope of "building coalition" and wanting to "meet Republi(Nazis) halfway across the aisle", and completely destroy this country beyond the point of redemption.

Tough love and bitter medicine: that is what progressives need.

[Sid]

Dean's new organization, Democracy for America, is all about long term and getting progressive candidates onto the school boards, municipal boards, etc.

I think many of the progressives who are now meeting on a regular basis (I'm going to two meetings this week) understand this is a long fight. Some of the people I know are doing it for their kids.

[Heidi-ho]

Actually, I think Harry Reid is doing a fine job. He's conservtive for my taste, but he's got the Dems all lined up correctly on Social Security, and he's ready to fight the judicial nominees of the rightwing brand.