January 29, 2005
Moving Forward
[I posted this on my own blog back on November 6, but it still seems relevant.]
America has made a grievous error.
I’m not going to spend much effort analyzing why. As Matthew Yglesias notes, “these things are multicausal. Elections are complicated.”
When elections are very close it's easy enough to make the argument that the results hinged on one particular cause (e.g., the Massachusetts gay marriage court decision), but there are dozens of factors that moved significant chunks of votes one way or another. It's simplistic to single out one or two as being crucial.
I was surprised by the result. Nonetheless the best I was hoping for was a 52-47 break for Kerry. Either way we're talking about a closely split electorate. A real surprise would have been for either candidate to have a 10 point margin of victory. It's really remarkable how the media pundits imbue the opinions and feelings of what is really a small minority of voters - those voting for the first time, or those who remained on the fence until the end - with so much meaning. Of course they are very important, because they have a great deal to do with the ultimate result. But let us not confuse their decision with the decision of the country at large. An overwhelming majority of Americans voted the way they had planned to vote two years ago, even before we knew who the Democratic nominee would be.
Too much of all that; what now?
In the last several years millions of progressives have made connections through organizations like MoveOn, Democracy for America, and countless other issues oriented groups which have been energized by a commitment to fighting against disturbing trends in our nation's governance. As awful as a continued Bush presidency is likely to be, it does provide a nucleus around which to rally our resolve. Bush may talk about reaching out to those who voted for his opponent, but the fact remains that his agenda for this country remains an anathema to many of us who value economic justice, stewardship of the environment, respect for various cultures, scientific inquiry unburdened by the agenda of profiteers, consumer protection, and world peace.
But let's be honest. Many if not most of Bush's supporters share a large portion of those values, and earnestly believe we are mistaken about how best to get there. If what is heard most from the 'left' is how stupid and ignorant the yahoos that voted for Bush are, then we will marginalize ourselves, and give credence to mockery from the other side. Plenty of intelligent and compassionate people made a weighted decision that the country would be better off with Bush than with Kerry. Plenty of them don't even particularly like Bush. Attacking Bush's supporters is simply counterproductive. Attacking the 'religious right' generically as zealous hypocrites, when they know themselves, and know that they do care about the less fortunate in our society, and even in poor nations around the world, simply cements their belief that we 'on the left' are the arrogant know-it-alls who don't, in fact, know it all.
What needs to happen instead is to focus investigation on policy and its effect. Bush will be able to enact a great deal of legislation in the next four years which will have deleterious effects on many undeserving victims. We will need to find those stories and tell them, relentlessly. We will be well served to be civil in our discourse, but we need not avoid harshness when it's warranted. And I'm afraid it will be frequently warranted. We need to define our alternative policies and get our representatives to vote for them. Filibusters may be occasionally appropriate, but if they become the order of the day, Democrats will just be seen as obstructionists and lose further ground in Congress in 2006. It is better to vote against the bad bills and lose, and let the blame rest squarely where it belongs when the results of those bills come home to roost. There's no particular reason to believe bipartisanship will be strong in the next four years. Alliances with moderates across the aisle could be important in removing some of the worst pieces of legislation, but I don't hold out much faith for that being a major source of solace.
We also must continue the organization and movement that is now one of the strongest progressive movements America has ever known. We have tools at our disposal, and the Bill of Rights has not yet been overturned. If the administration overreaches in stifling our free speech rights, I still believe a majority of Americans will cry foul, even if they don't agree with our speech.
The arts will remain a major source of free expression, and one that can reach across ideological boundaries. We should expect an explosion of activity from creative people the world over, whether it's street theater, web humor, public poetry slams, or more conventional writing and theater presentations.
Personally, I will continue my crusade to push the point that reasonable people can have radical ideas, and society can benefit by synthesizing wisdom from disparate perspectives. Good people abound throughout society, including positions of influence in government or the boardrooms of industry. Alliances with these people are essential in keeping our hope alive.
The results of this election are a bitter disappointment. Some grieving is appropriate. But as I keep hear people saying, tomorrow the sun will still rise. People will still strive to move forward and great hope always remains. Throughout history there have been heroes and sages, people who persevered through monumental hardship to accomplish great strides. They provide enormous inspiration to those of us who may see obstacles to our progress as overwhelming.
Posted by Walker Willingham at January 29, 2005 05:35 AMWalker,
The results of the past election were not only a bitter disappointment - they have been called very seriously into question.
With all this discussion of why, how and where the Democrats went wrong (and for people like me, who wonder _if_ they actually did, considering the fact that the election was so close while being paired with extremely problematic voting situations found in Ohio and quite a few other states), what really intrigues me is the fact that very few blue column regulars here attempt to highlight exactly why, how, and where the Neo-Con wing has managed to hijack the Republican Party.
It seems to me that our common garden-variety Republican is so busy being instucted (by partisan leaders, Rush, Faux News, bought-and-paid-for conservative pundits, etc., etc.) on how they can attack, disparage, and demoralize any sort of Liberal Thought, and fed blatant Disinformation designed to dull their wits to a degree where they may be easily led like sheep to the slaughter, that they are almost never forced to reckon with the fact that the GOP is now completely controlled by extremists whose actions and behavior bear very little resemblance to “conservatism”.
I also think the “huge numbers of Values Voters” were nothing but an over-blown hype in the past election, although intitially I believed they might be a big deciding factor. The reason I thought this was that the Right talked so much about wedge issues during the election season - issues that were then accordingly echoed by the rightwing mouthpiece of the media.
But now I am under the impression that it was nothing but FEAR which drove the election.
Fear of changing horses during two wars, fear of “mushroom clouds” (even though even the most dull-witted now realize that this was a lie), fear of Terrorism, fear of immigrants who might import more terrorism into this country, fear of gay people - nothing but fear and more fear.
I don’t know how Liberals can effectively challenge this atmosphere designed to encourage American’s to be scared out of their wits, because the Neo-Cons know how to use it so effectively. And, since their actions and decisions seem destined to give people only more, rather than less, reason to fear for America’s future, perhaps it is going to take the Republican’s themselves finally waking up and seeing how drastically and cynically they’ve been manipulated to change the course of the country?
Just a thought.
Adrienne, right on.
There are entirely too many examples to cite, but I think one of the best was when Cheney stood up during the campaign and said if you don’t vote for Bush, we’re going to have another attack on the homeland. (http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/09/07/cheney.terror/index.html)
By threatening the American people with violence for his own political gain, he defined himself as being similar to the people we are supposedly defending against. Dick Cheney is a terrorist. He hasn’t suited up an 8 year old with explosives and sent them to the office of Ted Kennedy for a hug, but does he need to? The underlying principle is the same. Cheney is a terrorist.
The people in charge of our country are criminals. They are the most corrupt administration I’ve seen in my lifetime (Nixon was before my time), and you are correct they do not have the support of the people the way conservatives think, they are merely ruling a slim majority through fear.
There is one thing to understand about good and evil that underscores why the Bush administration is so successful. Good must operate within some confines to win, less it betray itself, and even if winning, loses itself in the end. Evil does not have that limitation. Evil is far more flexible to operate outside the confines of what humanity has come to understand as “good hearted values”. This is why Bush and co. win. The end justifies the means. Condi Rice said it herself last week.
Ultimately, good triumphs over evil, but evil always rules for a time, and always returns in time. Things will probably get worse before they get better. After enough of the American people are imprisoned as suspected terrorists, or we follow more drastic routes like those practiced by the Nazis of WWII, eventually, the world will awaken to the reality of evil run amuck and do something about it.
The scariest part of it all, is that like so many budding dictatorships, Bush supporters think he is good. They think everyone else is evil. This was precisely the mechanics that occurred when the Nazis rose to power in the 30’s. The day to day people who aided in the the roots of the holocaust were convinced they were smiting evil from the land, that they were following a good good man, who pursued the light. They believed they were doing the right thing. Scary, huh?
I pray our nation awakens to the fact we’re being duped, but I lost some faith in our ability when the outcome of this recent election was announced. Still, myself and 100’s of thousands of others continue to work in conjunction with moveon.org, HRC, etc. We still have a long fight ahead of us.
Posted by: Taylor at January 31, 2005 12:47 PM
