"Stop Talking About Wanting To Unify The Country"

A warning to any Democrat running for President:

If Democrats want to unify the country, they should stop talking about wanting to unify the country.

That's one of the paradoxes of living in a highly polarized political culture. What once might have sounded uplifting and public spirited now sounds banal and naïve. Democrats need to propose a distinctive account of the country's past and present and an alternative vision of its future — one that contrasts sharply with the one emanating daily from the White House and the president's Twitter account. Positioning themselves above it all, as ready and eager to work and compromise with the party of Donald Trump, can't help but make them sound weak and defensive. It certainly won't defeat the president and win back the Senate from the GOP in 2020. The time for such pabulum is over.

This has it just right.  There are few people in this country (as least those aware enough to bother to vote) who think a politician of any party is going to unify the country at this point in our history.  Decades of toxicity injected into our political bloodstream by right- wing eliminationist rhetoric, lies and fear- mongering have done their work too well, giving us a revanchist political party with a truly existential threat in Donald "Rump" Trump.  There's no convincing a large swath of America that has been taught and conditioned to hate liberals and Democrats above all else.  This isn't about "civility." As we and others have said before, it's about winning by having sane policies and then out- organizing, out- messaging, and out- voting them.  Over and over again. Period.

BONUS:  Jon Chait has a similar take.

(Photo:  We'd rather you be Russian than American.)

Monday Reading - Democrats Finding Their Backbones

Is it possible?  Democrats actually standing up and fighting for progressive policies?

Paul Krugman takes a crack at why this might be the way of the electoral future:

Part of the answer is that Democrats, despite defeats in midterm elections, believe — rightly or wrongly — that the political wind is at their backs. Growing ethnic diversity is producing what should be a more favorable electorate; growing tolerance is turning social issues, once a source of Republican strength, into a Democratic advantage instead. Reagan was elected by a nation in which half the public still disapproved of interracial marriage; Mrs. Clinton is running to lead a nation in which 60 percent support same-sex marriage.

At the same time, Democrats seem finally to have taken on board something political scientists have been telling us for years: adopting “centrist” positions in an attempt to attract swing voters is a mug’s game, because such voters don’t exist. Most supposed independents are in fact strongly aligned with one party or the other, and the handful who aren’t are mainly just confused. So you might as well take a stand for what you believe in.

E.J. Dionne, Jr., focuses on Hillary Clinton's role in this new, muscular, progressive offensive:

... Clinton is trying to forge a new consensus and is unashamed to pile up policy proposals: on family leave, child care, college affordability, incentives to employers for higher wages, immigration reform, clean energy and limits on the power of wealthy campaign donors.

Her platform is more progressive because the political center is in a different place in 2015 than it was in 1991 when Bill Clinton touted his “New Covenant.” Americans are more socially liberal now. The financial implosion of 2008 fostered a deep skepticism about Wall Street. Growing resentment of inequality, stagnating wages and blocked social mobility is justified not by ideology but by the often-bitter facts about contemporary capitalism.

Hillary Clinton’s kickoff here on Saturday sent all these messages. The venue itself, Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park, oddly captured the vast diversity and glorious contradictions of the country she hopes to lead.

Doubtless, we owe a lot to principled progressives like Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Sen. Bernie Sanders for being the conscience of the party (i.e., "the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party").  That their fight for progressive values has led the way for others to follow should not be lost in the discussion.

Are We Confident In Our Confidence?

Ronald Brownstein writes in "Why Democrats Are So Confident":

It was a revealing convergence Monday when the five-member conservative Supreme Court majority delivered the Hobby Lobby contraception decision even as President Obama announced that House Republicans had officially shelved immigration reform. 

Both disputes reaffirmed the GOP's identity as the champion of the forces most resistant to the profound demographic and cultural dynamics reshaping American life—and Democrats as the voice of those who most welcome these changes. 

And both clashes captured a parallel shift: While Republicans took the offense on most cultural arguments through the late 20th century, now Democrats from Obama on down are mostly pressing these issues, confident that they represent an expanding majority of public opinion.

Beyond the Hobby Lobby decision and Republicans' scuttling of immigration reform, Democrats must do a better job of engaging public opinion on other issues where the majority is in agreement with them, such as gun control, marriage equality, equal pay, and climate change.  The "rear guard" right-wing victories being won in the Supreme Court and in some benighted red states are just that - victories by a philosophy in denial and in retreat.  As we've said many, many times before, Democrats need to be confident and forceful in their appeal to voters, because not only is adopting a defensive crouch self-defeating, but more importantly because a growing majority of voters agree with them on the issues.

We're not as sure as Brownstein is that Democrats "are so confident."  We'd like to see them going on the offensive and staying there for a change;  that would show us "confidence."

Our Obligation

Our man, Charles P. Pierce, on why "[t]he Democratic party has an obligation to beat the Republican party so badly, over and over again, that rationality once again becomes a quality to be desired:"

"Not to put too fine a point on it, but the Republican party, root and branch, from its deepest grass roots to its highest levels, has become completely demented. This does not mean that it is incapable of winning elections; on the contrary, the 2010 midterms, as well as the statewide elections around the country, ushered in a class of politicians so thoroughly dedicated to turning nonsense into public policy that future historians are going to marvel at our ability to survive what we wrought upon ourselves. It is now impossible to become an elected Republican politician in this country if, for example, you believe in the overwhelming scientific consensus that exists behind the concept of anthropogenic global warming. Just recently, birth control, an issue most people thought pretty well had been settled in the 1960s, became yet another litmus test for Republican candidates, as did the Keystone XL pipeline, to which every Republican presidential candidate pledged unyielding fealty despite the fact that several prairie Republicans and an army of conservative farmers and ranchers are scared to death of the thing.

"In Washington, there is no leadership anymore, no 'Republican establishment' to which anyone can appeal. The ferocious strength of faith-based know-nothingism in the party's base has resulted in a stubborn refusal to adopt even those ideas — like an individual mandate for health care, or cap-and-trade as an energy policy — that began as Republican ideas.

"In the states, we have seen a staggering overreach on the part of Republican governors in the Midwest regarding labor rights, wildly restrictive voter-ID laws aimed at solving a problem that doesn't exist, immigration statutes that are leaving lettuce to rot in the fields because nobody's left to pick it, and a welter of preposterous antiabortion statutes. And behind all of that, a party base that has constructed its own private history, its own private language, its own private logic, and its own wholly rounded private universe." (excerpt from May 2012 issue of Esquire)

Tenacity, courage of one's convictions, the willingness to fight hard and, of course, resources. That's what Democrats need to bring to the table election after election after election.

Monday Morning Reading

Today's Monday read is a leftover from Sunday's Kaplan Daily. Joan Williams writes about how the Democrats need to learn some basic messages about how to speak to working-class families. There's no question Democrats need to make a better case for why their economic policies are vastly preferable to middle-income, working-class families than the Randian, Social Darwinist policies being touted by the teahadist Rethuglicans. It's an interesting piece that we hope is being absorbed at the White House and DNC.

Dem Wins Special House Election...

... and pins are heard dropping all over. Thanks for the media coverage, "mainstream" media! And the Rethug made this a "referendum" on the health reform law! I guess this doesn't conform with your storyline of the year: Republican resurgence!

"Don't Ignore Your Base"

Colbert King has that message for President Obama in his op/ed today. How many times does he have to be told? And, moreover, how many times do Congressional Democrats need to be told?

In other words: Pass.The.Damn.Health.Care.Bill.Now.

Plouffe to the Rescue?

We see it as good news that Obama campaign mastermind David Plouffe is going to be rejoining the Administration as its polling and uber-political coordinator with the DNC, the various Congressional campaign committees, and statehouses. Indeed, Plouffe's opening shot, an op/ed in today's Kaplan Post, seems to be setting just the right tone for how Democrats should be girding for the 2010 midterms and beyond. (Aside: also check out Devilstower's excellent piece at Daily Kos.)

The first point Plouffe makes: "Pass a meaningful health insurance reform package without delay." This runs counter to the prevailing meme in the Village, which has been unduly influenced (as usual) by Rethug spinmeisters - as an example, the Post's Outlook section today has two crowing pieces from Rethug pollsters/advisers about how and why the Rethugs are back, bay-beee! Yes, and please explain why 56% of voters are unhappy with the GOP's direction, versus 19% who are happy with it (Public Policy Polling, Jan. 2010)!

Want more proof of the "run for your life" CW among the Villagers? Look no further than the Post's lead editorial today, calling for "Health diplomacy," (i.e., wasting even more time trying to find a few Rethugs to support a watered-down reform bill) which was clearly written by editorialist David Ignatius, who has an amplifying op/ed ("An Obama Plan B for health care") on the opposite page! Dems would do well to ignore these "helpful suggestions," which are clearly intended to preserve the status quo and the Rethug worldview. As Plouffe says in his op/ed's final point, "Instead of fearing what may happen, let's prove that we have more than just the brains to govern--that we have the guts to govern."

Amen, brother.

School Daze

Tristero, over at Hullabaloo, wonders why Dems aren't unloading at the crackpots making an issue out of Obama's upcoming school address ("work hard, stay in school," etc.). Given the Democrats' disorganized, deer-in-the-headlights non-response to rampant Rethug fear-mongering and hysteria this summer, one wonders why anyone would be surprised at the relative lack of forceful push-back on the latest craziness. This is how it starts: letting a virus into the body politic. It follows then that this is how you end up losing the debate; this is how you lose elections.

(Maybe they should hire Bill Moyers to spine 'em up.) (h/t Democratic Underground)

(Image: Democrats' Deer Leader)

Health Care Wednesday

We have two items for your consideration today - HuffPo's Jason Linkins on the anonymous White House aides dissing progressives about the public option. Now, to these craven asshats, we're the "left of the left," which in the real world makes them... Rethugs. These geniuses were shocked! shocked I tells ya' to find out the public option is more than Obamas's "sliver" in the overall reform package. To paraphrase Barney Frank (below), what planet were these people living on for the past 6 months?

In another take, the Onion reveals the direction our "leaders" are taking us (h/t to Germantown correspondent Brian - your check is in the mail!).

Magical Moments in History

"We've got them injuns right where we want 'em", quote we're magically attributing to Gen. George Armstrong Custer, Little Big Horn, Montana, just prior to his "great victory."

"Wouldn't a Clinton-Obama ticket be just peachy?", thought magically attributed to the game-playing, losing Clinton campaign and being swallowed by too many magical-thinking Democrats. Of course, this is an insult to Obama and his supporters who are ahead in primaries won, delegates won, and popular vote won. The sense of Clinton entitlement is becoming so thick you can cut it.

Just Words

As voters go to the polls in Wisconsin, and caucus in Hawaii, Robert Farley at Lawyers, Guns and Money has the best summary analysis of the faux Obama/ Deval Patrick "plagiarism" kerfuffle the Clinton camp has tried to inflate in the last 24 hours. Senator Clinton, you and your staff are not showing a lot of confidence if you are using wispy "nontroversies" (h/t John Ridley) like this one to gain an edge -- any edge. You just look desperate. Are you?

Chesapeake Primary Day Postscript

The icy, rainy weather didn't keep the Democratic crowds down in Maryland, DC, or Virginia. It was a clean sweep for Sen. Obama, and not just that. It was a rout, with Obama garnering a minimum of 60% of the vote in each jurisdiction. His speech last night in front of a full house of 18,000+ at the Kohl Center in Madison, WI, was enough to generate some straight, middle-aged, white goosebumps for this Hackwhacker. Talk about transcending race, gender, politics, what-have-you!

This week features contests in Hawaii and Wisconsin, both of which Obama is expected to win. It will be difficult for the Clintonistas to turn around the momentum he's building in every region of the country, among all demographics.

Another reason to rejoice: progressive Democrat Donna Edwards unseated Rep. Al "No" Wynn (Hack-MD) by a substantial margin in the 4th Congressional District. This Hackwhacker is 2-for-2!

Chesapeake Primary Day

Today is primary day in Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia -- the so-called "Chesapeake Primary" (or "Potomac Primary" if you can't spell "Chesapeake"). This Hackwhacker will be going out shortly to cast his ballot for Sen. Obama and for Donna Edwards, who is running a progressive campaign against incumbent Rep. Al Wynn (Hack-MD). My brother Hackwhacker is "Ind-isposed" -- boooo! (But I love him anyway.)

If the weather doesn't get too nasty today and the polls are accurate, it should be a big day for Obama in all three jurisdictions. Polls close in Maryland at 8:00, so we should know shortly after that if it's even close.

Recommended Reading

Two op/ed articles in today's WaPo deserve to be read, one by Andrew Bacevich ("Surge to Nowhere") the other by Paul Starr ("Watch it, Democrats. You Could Still Slip Up"). The Bacevich article is a healthy antidote to op/ed vomit from Fred "Surge" Kagan and Michael O'Hanlon also in today's WaPo, counseling "patience" in Iraq. Bacevich's essential point is that, "surge or no surge, the Iraq war remains an egregious strategic blunder that persistence will only compound."

Starr's piece cautions Democrats to back off the racial/ gender politics which will only divide the party and give the Rethugs wedges to use in November, and rather focus on the deteriorating economy and "the manifest failures of conservative Republican leadership."

Sunday Happiness

This morning's WaPo is full of happy news... seriously! On the front page, we have "Splintered GOP Seeks Unifying Presence," wherein we read:

"For three decades, the Republican presidential nominating contest has served to unify the national party's coalition of social, economic and foreign policy conservatives in advance of a general election fight with Democrats. This year, it is ripping that coalition apart."

Let 'er rip!!

Then we have the report of the Concord (NH) Monitor's anti-endorsement of Willard "Muff/Mousse/Flip Flop Mitt" Romney:

"If you were building a Republican presidential candidate from a kit, imagine what pieces you might use: an athletic build, ramrod posture, Reaganesque hair...you'd pour in some old GOP bromides-- spending cuts and lower taxes-- plus some new positions for 2008: anti-immigrant rhetoric and a focus on faith. Add it all up and you get Mitt Romney, a disquieting figure who sure looks like the next President and most surely must be stopped."

The editorial also calls Willard "a phony." Take that, Willard!

Last, but not least, John Judis and Rudy Teixeira present a compelling (and hopefully realistic) view of Democratic ascendancy well into the future, in "Get Ready for a Democratic Era."

With all of the above, and with candidates Democrats are generally happy with, seems like we need to be worried about overconfidence. Because, even though the Rethugs seem bent on cannibalizing each other, they still have their playbook, and they know how to steal elections.

Quotes of the Week

"... the notion, beloved of political pundits, that we can make progress through bipartisan consensus is simply foolish. To be a progressive...means being a partisan -- at least for now." Paul Krugman, in his book "The Conscience of a Liberal," after noting that the Republican Party is under the control of ideologues who themselves are bitterly partisan movement conservatives. Got that, Broderella?

"The core of their rule is a bulldozer approach to reality -- belligerence as an all-purpose style, whether facing domestic critics or the rest of the world...[a big Democratic tent must form] of secularists and moderate evangelicals, budget-balancers and Keynesians, fair traders and free traders... The denizens of the tent will need to remind themselves that outside there dwell barbarians." Todd Gitlin, in his book "The Bulldozer and the Big Tent: Blind Republicans, Lame Democrats, and the Recovery of American Ideals."

Dems Enter Silly Season

Exhibit A: Desperate to get traction, Sens. Obama and Dodd took a remark of former President Clinton's and tried to parlay it into a campaign kerfuffle. Clinton, who was clearly referring to Rethugs' and the MSM nimrods' impact on the 2000 and 2004 elections said he "had the feeling that at the end of that last debate we were about to get into cutesy-land again... We saw what happened the last seven years when we made decisions in elections based on trivial matters. When we listened to people make snide comments about whether Vice President Gore was too stiff [eg., MoDo, Tweety]. And when they made dishonest claims about the things that he said about all he'd done in his life [ditto]. When that scandalous Swift-boat ad was run against Senator Kerry." Obama's campaign tried to turn this into Clinton purportedly attacking his wife's rivals, while Dodd echoed the same theme. Good God, if these pissant tactics come back as Rethug tv ads in 2008, we will know which short-sighted pols we can blame.

Exhibit B: Rep. Dennis "Teeny Weeny" Kucinich introduced an 18-page, rambling resolution on the House floor yesterday calling for the impeachment of Dead Eye Dick. While that's the least punishment we can think of for Dead Eye (something involving waterboarding and electric wires comes to mind), Kucinich knows his own party's leadership has said impeachment was off the table and wouldn't be considered. Thus, Teeny Weeny knew full well his move was only for the purpose of garnering a few minutes of desperately-needed air time for his nearly imperceptible campaign. Who would benefit from such a fruitless waste of the House's time? Hmm.. let's see who supported Teeny Weeny in his effort... why it's the Rethugs, who would have liked nothing better than to have a silly debate in front of the cameras and then get their talking points out saying, "See how the Democrats have been captured by the moonbats? They're wasting time on this when they could be doing the people's business."

Exhibits A and B show what happens when ambition and poor judgment rule over the good of the party, and the country.

Dems Gone Wild

While Rethugs have cornered the market on hypocritical, thieving turpitude, stray Democrats are not immune from Rethug-like behavior. Our two recent cases in point:

Kristian Forland, one of Bill Richardson's Nevada organizers, left the campaign a few days ago after it was learned he had managed Mona's Ranch (a legal brothel) and was also wanted on a felony arrest warrant in California for writing bad checks. (Oh well, Richardson is one of our least favorite Democratic candidates anyway.)

Rep. Bob Filner (D-CA), was charged with assault and battery after manhandling a person at Dulles International Airport the other day. Seems Rep. Filner was upset that his luggage didn't arrive when it should have (welcome to the real world, Baggage Bob!), and he took it out on a baggage claim official. He has an Oct. 2 court date.

Turning Left

In an article in today's WaPo, "Permanent Republican Majority? Think Again," Andrew Kohut and Carroll Doherty of the Pew Research Center paint a gloomy picture for the Rethugs and a relatively bright one for progressive Democrats. Contrary to the wishful musings of Turdblossom and Abramoff bag man/"peewee league intellectual" Grover Norquist, the trending on a variety of social and policy issues is leftward; for example, more support for anti-poverty programs and more skepticism about the tenets of religious fundamentalism. In the question of party support, 50 percent connect with the Democrats, and only 35 percent with the Rethugs. A similar trend is apparent among Independents, who trended heavily (57 percent) to Democrats in the 2006 elections.

The writers caution that Democrats must not assume a permanent majority of their own is theirs for the asking, but rather to present themselves to the American people as the leaders and achievers, in contrast with the incumbent small-bore bunglers.