There is a lurking feeling that hovers in the back of our minds these days that I think most of us would agree on. That feeling is that our representative democracy isn't really either. We've seen the signs of it as the lines on the road have slipped behind us over the years, but something today in particular suggests that we finally have arrived. I'm going to just point out what I see and let you chew on it.
The Democrats
At our core, we progressives stand for a few very basic very clear values. We want our government to control the playing field and enforce equitable rules on the environment from which our free market then prospers. We consider programs such as social security, medicare, and core regulation of industry to be critical to maintaining a bottom line below which no person or corporation will fall. A progressive makes no apology for building a robust, strong government that is held accountable to strict rules of law protecting the rights of individuals and the ability for diverse people to coexist without unnecessary infringement on one another. Progressives use government as a referee – an entity that can step in and stop the game if the public health or welfare is compromised and define the rules of engagement between corporations and individuals without setting foot on the field unless those rules are broken.
The Democratic party is not progressive.
The Democrats have a much larger tent than the Republicans and have bought into a myth that has hurt them badly. Instead of standing for progressive values, the Democrats define themselves as 'not Republican'. They exist to the left of the Republicans, but not because of their principles but because that's the place to oppose the other party of power. Over the last thirty years and particularly in the last five, Republicans have been shifting to the right: becoming ever more narrow in their interpretation of what it is to be American and ever more permissive of corporate misbehavior. Instead of standing on their own principles to fight this shift, the Democrats have always gladly moved into the ground vacated by the Republicans as they move right, grabbing at the independent and moderate vote while steadily being led further and further right in the process. The result is that Obama has more in common with Ronald Reagan than he does with Kennedy or Roosevelt.
Democrats have so tightly embraced their role as a counterpoint to the often heavily principled and highly ideological stance of their opponents that they regularly forget what they are supposed to stand for themselves. This allows the Republicans to define the message and the terms of the discussion. Democrats then find the place just left of the clear dividing line in that policy and occupy it – even if that place would have been far far further right than they would have taken a few years earlier. In this way, Republicans often beat Democrats before the first vote is cast by controlling the message and defining the outer boundaries of the issue – any of which would be acceptable to conservative voters. At the end of the day, a recession is not the time to cut spending or balance the budget. Yet Republicans managed to get Democrats to cut billions MORE than the Republican opening bid by taking a radical stance. Instead of standing on their principles, Democrats fell back on the original Republican proposal to counter the new radical bid, and when the measure passed, the Republicans still won.
When Democrats truly trounce Republicans, driving them from office, they turn on each other, fighting and bickering as the truth about just how disjointed Democratic ideals have become. The kind of ideological focus we're seeing in Republican governors across the nation right now would never happen under the Democrats. Not because the Democrats are better than that, but because their common purpose isn't very common at all.
So who do the Democrats actually represent? We know who they oppose, but they don't seem to do so on ideological grounds. They stand against the corporate laissez faire attitude and narrow social acceptance of Republicans, but they offer no concrete stance on their own feelings on these measures. They have no overarching message on social issues or fiscal ones that gives voters a reason to say they are Democratic if they don't have a Republican position to define themselves against. So Democrats are 'the rest of us.' Those people who can't abide the Republican approach.
'We're not them!” is not an inspiring political battle cry.
The Republicans
Republicans are supposed to be fiscal and social conservatives. They are supposed to stand for down-to-earth practical people who look to what has worked in our past to make reliable decisions about what we should do with our future. Republicans stand for individual initiative and responsibility, private enterprise, and small government. They believe the best of America rises when individuals are left alone to pursue their dreams without interference. Socially, they see 'American' as something people become. It is not diversity, it is uniformity FROM diversity. It is a set of values and attitudes and lifestyles adopted by immigrants or taught to children that leaves their previous cultures and beliefs behind as they embrace their new nation.
Where the Democrat's representation problem comes from a lack of identity, the Republicans suffer an equally powerful disconnect from their voters due to money. The Republican party has always been smaller in the last half century than the Democrats simply by virtue of the fact that they stood for something while the Democrats stood for 'everyone else'. This meant Republicans were more and more dependent on large sources of money instead of large numbers of donors. Those sources came in the form of corporate interests. While both parties are heavily influenced by lobbyist groups, Republicans receive a disproportionate amount of funding from corporations made all the more possible with the 2010 Citizens United decision.
This dependency on corporate and wealthy funding has slowly driven a wedge between the Republican party and it's voters. While the interests of small business and deregulation has always also been an interest of large business, the reverse is rarely true. Large business interests usually have no value to small business and middle class Republicans. The result is that the actual legislation of Republican lawmakers influenced by large business interests have been wildly out of touch. In 2010, the Republican majority hit the house with a jobs mandate. They have yet to pass a single jobs bill but while screaming about Democrat spending excesses, have refused to cut oil subsidies to the most profitable industry the world has ever known or even close tax loopholes on private jets.
The most visible evidence of the disconnect between the Republican party and their voters has been the Tea Party. Let's be clear: The Tea Party is a conservative revolution against conservatives. To grasp this in light of the Tea Party abject hatred of Obama and the liberals, you need to understand that in conservative politics, the worst thing that can happen to you is to be labeled liberal. This means if you're going to raise hell as a Republican, you have to do so by being more conservative and more orthodox than the conservatives you're opposing. When conservatives fight, they scramble to show how true they are to the mainstream conservative ideology. The Tea Party did exactly that claiming the government – not just Democrats – had betrayed their trust. They proceeded to decimate Republican primaries nationwide and enrage Karl Rove.
Whether or not they know it, this is a grass roots movement centered in disenfranchisement. These conservatives are tired of a political party that claims to represent them but seems to be doing nothing for them. Where the Democrats are scrambling for identity, the Republicans have found theirs – and it isn't in service to the bulk of their voter base. The internal revolution the Republicans are seeing is a product of a growing schism in the party fueled by a irreconcilable disconnect between the source of Republican funding and the people who have to do the actual voting.
Identity Crisis
Our two major political parties are in an unprecedented identity crisis. They are lost somewhere between the money and struggle for power and the job they are supposed to be doing. The battle between them has become more important than the prize. They are willing to burn down our democracy and destroy our way of life to ensure the other side loses. It is a regressive politics that is held prisoner by the two party system our government is based on and the sheer volume of money that moves through the process of campaigns. If we are to protect what we value about being American, we're going to have to be honest about the people we support and the ideals we stand for instead of loyal to the party we've always voted for.
Tomorrow I'll talk about the specific kinds of politics we must take a stand against and the kinds of sacrifices we may need to make to protect healthy politics in this country going forward.
The Democrats
At our core, we progressives stand for a few very basic very clear values. We want our government to control the playing field and enforce equitable rules on the environment from which our free market then prospers. We consider programs such as social security, medicare, and core regulation of industry to be critical to maintaining a bottom line below which no person or corporation will fall. A progressive makes no apology for building a robust, strong government that is held accountable to strict rules of law protecting the rights of individuals and the ability for diverse people to coexist without unnecessary infringement on one another. Progressives use government as a referee – an entity that can step in and stop the game if the public health or welfare is compromised and define the rules of engagement between corporations and individuals without setting foot on the field unless those rules are broken.
The Democratic party is not progressive.
The Democrats have a much larger tent than the Republicans and have bought into a myth that has hurt them badly. Instead of standing for progressive values, the Democrats define themselves as 'not Republican'. They exist to the left of the Republicans, but not because of their principles but because that's the place to oppose the other party of power. Over the last thirty years and particularly in the last five, Republicans have been shifting to the right: becoming ever more narrow in their interpretation of what it is to be American and ever more permissive of corporate misbehavior. Instead of standing on their own principles to fight this shift, the Democrats have always gladly moved into the ground vacated by the Republicans as they move right, grabbing at the independent and moderate vote while steadily being led further and further right in the process. The result is that Obama has more in common with Ronald Reagan than he does with Kennedy or Roosevelt.
Democrats have so tightly embraced their role as a counterpoint to the often heavily principled and highly ideological stance of their opponents that they regularly forget what they are supposed to stand for themselves. This allows the Republicans to define the message and the terms of the discussion. Democrats then find the place just left of the clear dividing line in that policy and occupy it – even if that place would have been far far further right than they would have taken a few years earlier. In this way, Republicans often beat Democrats before the first vote is cast by controlling the message and defining the outer boundaries of the issue – any of which would be acceptable to conservative voters. At the end of the day, a recession is not the time to cut spending or balance the budget. Yet Republicans managed to get Democrats to cut billions MORE than the Republican opening bid by taking a radical stance. Instead of standing on their principles, Democrats fell back on the original Republican proposal to counter the new radical bid, and when the measure passed, the Republicans still won.
When Democrats truly trounce Republicans, driving them from office, they turn on each other, fighting and bickering as the truth about just how disjointed Democratic ideals have become. The kind of ideological focus we're seeing in Republican governors across the nation right now would never happen under the Democrats. Not because the Democrats are better than that, but because their common purpose isn't very common at all.
So who do the Democrats actually represent? We know who they oppose, but they don't seem to do so on ideological grounds. They stand against the corporate laissez faire attitude and narrow social acceptance of Republicans, but they offer no concrete stance on their own feelings on these measures. They have no overarching message on social issues or fiscal ones that gives voters a reason to say they are Democratic if they don't have a Republican position to define themselves against. So Democrats are 'the rest of us.' Those people who can't abide the Republican approach.
'We're not them!” is not an inspiring political battle cry.
The Republicans
Republicans are supposed to be fiscal and social conservatives. They are supposed to stand for down-to-earth practical people who look to what has worked in our past to make reliable decisions about what we should do with our future. Republicans stand for individual initiative and responsibility, private enterprise, and small government. They believe the best of America rises when individuals are left alone to pursue their dreams without interference. Socially, they see 'American' as something people become. It is not diversity, it is uniformity FROM diversity. It is a set of values and attitudes and lifestyles adopted by immigrants or taught to children that leaves their previous cultures and beliefs behind as they embrace their new nation.
Where the Democrat's representation problem comes from a lack of identity, the Republicans suffer an equally powerful disconnect from their voters due to money. The Republican party has always been smaller in the last half century than the Democrats simply by virtue of the fact that they stood for something while the Democrats stood for 'everyone else'. This meant Republicans were more and more dependent on large sources of money instead of large numbers of donors. Those sources came in the form of corporate interests. While both parties are heavily influenced by lobbyist groups, Republicans receive a disproportionate amount of funding from corporations made all the more possible with the 2010 Citizens United decision.
This dependency on corporate and wealthy funding has slowly driven a wedge between the Republican party and it's voters. While the interests of small business and deregulation has always also been an interest of large business, the reverse is rarely true. Large business interests usually have no value to small business and middle class Republicans. The result is that the actual legislation of Republican lawmakers influenced by large business interests have been wildly out of touch. In 2010, the Republican majority hit the house with a jobs mandate. They have yet to pass a single jobs bill but while screaming about Democrat spending excesses, have refused to cut oil subsidies to the most profitable industry the world has ever known or even close tax loopholes on private jets.
The most visible evidence of the disconnect between the Republican party and their voters has been the Tea Party. Let's be clear: The Tea Party is a conservative revolution against conservatives. To grasp this in light of the Tea Party abject hatred of Obama and the liberals, you need to understand that in conservative politics, the worst thing that can happen to you is to be labeled liberal. This means if you're going to raise hell as a Republican, you have to do so by being more conservative and more orthodox than the conservatives you're opposing. When conservatives fight, they scramble to show how true they are to the mainstream conservative ideology. The Tea Party did exactly that claiming the government – not just Democrats – had betrayed their trust. They proceeded to decimate Republican primaries nationwide and enrage Karl Rove.
Whether or not they know it, this is a grass roots movement centered in disenfranchisement. These conservatives are tired of a political party that claims to represent them but seems to be doing nothing for them. Where the Democrats are scrambling for identity, the Republicans have found theirs – and it isn't in service to the bulk of their voter base. The internal revolution the Republicans are seeing is a product of a growing schism in the party fueled by a irreconcilable disconnect between the source of Republican funding and the people who have to do the actual voting.
Identity Crisis
Our two major political parties are in an unprecedented identity crisis. They are lost somewhere between the money and struggle for power and the job they are supposed to be doing. The battle between them has become more important than the prize. They are willing to burn down our democracy and destroy our way of life to ensure the other side loses. It is a regressive politics that is held prisoner by the two party system our government is based on and the sheer volume of money that moves through the process of campaigns. If we are to protect what we value about being American, we're going to have to be honest about the people we support and the ideals we stand for instead of loyal to the party we've always voted for.
Tomorrow I'll talk about the specific kinds of politics we must take a stand against and the kinds of sacrifices we may need to make to protect healthy politics in this country going forward.
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