Building the party
Kos has an interesting postmortem of the TX-28 primary battle which was made a national issue by blogger money. What I find most noteworthy about Kos's posts recently is the focus on the party machine, and taking control of it, rather than any particular idealism about individual candidates. I think he and other such folks will be changing the way Democrats operate in the coming years, and probably represent the best way for the party to compete on even footing with the GOP.
My fear, though, lies in that one of the biggest problems with the Conservative movement is that their party is now so corrupt and incapable of actually achieving what its leaders set out to do 30 years ago; rather than a government-shrinking laser, it is instead a schizophrenic hydra vaguely directed by various parties of extremists on the right., randomly destroying the institutions and freedoms of the republic. It got that way because it looked to mercenaries like Karl Rove to build its power, idiots savant who knew how to construct a ruthless party machine but had no real understanding of the necessity of guaranteeing the realization of the ideals which originally begat that search for power.
I have no doubt that Democrats like Kos could build a party that could beat Republicans. I have fear, though, that focusing too much on this party may leave us in the same sorry state as the GOP, worthless to anyone and dangerous to everyone.
My fear, though, lies in that one of the biggest problems with the Conservative movement is that their party is now so corrupt and incapable of actually achieving what its leaders set out to do 30 years ago; rather than a government-shrinking laser, it is instead a schizophrenic hydra vaguely directed by various parties of extremists on the right., randomly destroying the institutions and freedoms of the republic. It got that way because it looked to mercenaries like Karl Rove to build its power, idiots savant who knew how to construct a ruthless party machine but had no real understanding of the necessity of guaranteeing the realization of the ideals which originally begat that search for power.
I have no doubt that Democrats like Kos could build a party that could beat Republicans. I have fear, though, that focusing too much on this party may leave us in the same sorry state as the GOP, worthless to anyone and dangerous to everyone.
posted by onlooker at 4:25 PM
2 Comments:
I share your concern - Democratic victories will prove pyrrhic if we don’t have firm progressive principles undergirding our campaigns and candidates.
However, I would argue with the assertion that the “real” conservative movement has failed. The center of power for the GOP has always been (and always well be) country club plutocrats. They ultimately have a singular goal – to make as much money as humanly possible. They do this by promoting a never-ending agenda of lower taxes/fewer regulations.
Many are certainly interested in shrinking government (with the notable exception of corporate welfare programs) – but largely as a means to that end (true believers like Grover Norquist excluded). As long as the tax cuts keep flowing, I doubt many of Bush's Rangers and Pioneers will stop giving in protest of the big government boondoggle that is the Medicare prescription drug bill.
BUT the folks that have really been play’d by the GOP are the Christian conservatives.
As the always brilliant Amy Sullivan recently noted, the Reagan White House set the tenor of how the GOP powerbase would deal with the party’s evangelical base:
"The battle plan sounds very familiar today: The Christian Right rallied its followers around issues like abortion and school prayer; the White House offered “insincere gestures of support” while instructing congressional leaders to place relevant legislation in permanent limbo; and White House aides made sure the Christian Right constituency was “maintained in a state of perpetual mobilization.”"
The movement conservatives may have failed, but the “real” conservative movement has been a rip roaring success.
An astute observation. The lesson we should learn, then, as non-elites within our own party, is to watch out for our own version of the country-club plutocrats, whoever that may be. In our context, what motivates those who will have the real power should we succeed in electing Democrats, and in what ways can we expect them to falsely pander to the rest of us?
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