As a supporter of Barack Obama, I get a lot of flak for pointing out the alternatives to him as President, to Democrats as the majority. Folks have bombarded me in the past for insisting that we consider things this way, because, probably, they think of it as an argumentiam ad baculum, a fallacious appeal to fear.
From my point of view, though, and this is why I don't think of it as a bad argument to make, we really should fear letting the Republicans have more power, given what they do with it. Some thought it wouldn't be harmful to let Bush become President, that the Republican's wins in 2010 would simply be a learning experience.
In both cases, though, allowed to do their worst, Republicans have done their worst, and I really care about the policy implications of that. I'm heartsick at all they have done. I don't just support Obama because he is a Democrat, or because I somehow think he's just perfect. I support Obama because he's a much better alternative to any of the Republicans out there. Republicans who I feel will trash the country even worse than Bush did, if they are allowed. After the last decade's worth of disasters, I have little patience left over for more of their leadership.
I used to have a lot more accommodating attitude, back in 2000. I really didn't like Bush winning, but I was prepared to endure that, willing to wait four years to beat Bush, because I really thought that the modern President, if they screwed something up, wouldn't be so politically moronic as to screw something major up, and if they did do something that stupid, they'd be quick to correct it to reduce the political exposure. I really thought that the system could correct itself, after a fashion.
I'm no longer so trusting. Part of it is the kind of politics Karl Rove promoted, which set Republicans on a course of reckless disregard of policy failures, in the name of avoiding political ones. One disaster after another, one deliberate defiance of calls to moderate whatever went wrong after another. That was what the Bush Administration was to me, and that is what the Tea Party and the Republicans who chase after it (damn near all of them, at this point) represent to me, in terms of alternatives.
I mean, I look at these people, and I contemplate what their leadership will mean for the country, and it genuinely scares me. I don't have the heart or the patience to wait another four years for better Democrats, because the alternative to them these days are Republicans I wouldn't trust to open a tin can without cutting their own throats with the lid.
As a person who does some novel-writing and and screenwriting on the side (nothing published yet), I've read quite a few books on the subject, some better than others, and one that really stood out to me was Robert McKee's Story. Now one idea he had that I've taken to heart as a principle of drama is that the worst conflicts aren't the ones between good and evil, because that's really no conflict at all. He states that the worst conflicts are those between two mutually exclusives goods, or between the lesser of two evils. See, if there isn't a clear path, then of course, the way out of the dilemma is much more interesting, much less obvious.
I'm sorry, or perhaps glad to say that when it comes to elections, I'm more or less unconflicted. These days, unless the Democrat is hiding money in his freezer, or like Lieberman, perpetually screwing the party, I'm supporting the Democrats, because what I saw of the Republicans over the last decade has scared me out of ever being passive in the face of their power again. I don't mind getting rid of bad Democrats, but I do want a Good Democrat replacing the bad one, if at all possible.
And for fuck's sake people, no more Republican majorities for a couple decades, okay? I wasn't sitting on the beach with a dacquiri, toasting that debt deal. I only supported that monstrosity because of the threat of Default. I sure hope Obama and every Democrat out there rams this God-forsaken debacle down their throats with a front-loader. Blow that majority out the airlock and nuke the planet they land on from orbit, just to make sure.
Surprised at my vehemence? Well, maybe you assumed that I backed Obama and the compromises because I wasn't angry enough at the Republicans. The reality is, I'm nothing short of furious about what they've done with the country.
However, at the same time, I believe we have a country to run, and that takes precedence even over important short term politics. We can talk about liberals with a conscience, but if we have principles about our politics but not our actions, we're no better than the Republicans.
Yes, that gets complicated, and that's what we should talk about here. But I think it is best if we all have a goal in mind, that goal being to change the paradigm of government as it rules this country.
Not just take back the country. If we take it back, but don't change people's minds for the long term, it's just going right back to the insane clown posse (the GOP, not the band) that's ruined so many things in this country. We need to reclaim the center, and that includes the parts that have been wedged away from us by various issues.
And I don't just meant catering to a quasi-republican ideology. That doesn't mean trying to push uncut, pure liberal ideology on people who have been conditioned for years to reject it, and getting mad when it doesn't work. That means presenting people with liberal ideas and policies that lead people to naturally support them, and defending them on first principles and closely derived supporting premises.
Get people interested in and invested in Liberal ideas on their merits, rather than trying to sell them on liberalness that only folks in our particular choir would find a compelling quality. Don't let the conversation be dominated by political principles, dominate it with practical principles. Instead of letting Republican say we can't afford to spend what we're spending, turn that argument on it's head, citing merit by merit where our deficit expenditures have helped save the market from further deficits and further downturns. Hell, for good measure, wrap it up with Rick Perry's mostly government-driven "Texas Miracle."
The problem for Democrats these past few years has been that we've allowed ourselves to be put on the rhetorical defensive, and complaints about weakness, GBCWs and "I'm going to take my ball and go home" tactics are not any kind of solution for that problem. Nor should we wait for our politicians to get the idea on their own. They'll simply default to what's been their political instinct for the last few decades, which is to dilute the liberalism with conservative triangulation in order to make it past a public that at least superficially wants assurances on debt and things like that.
And as good a handle on things as Krugman has, we shouldn't be depending on what he says to sell our ideas, because he's both a known political quantity, and more use to explaining things to us than otherwise.
We need to point out to people that the great widening of the breach on the debt and deficit came with the collapse of the economy. Remind them of how the economy and a sensible fiscal policy helped to close that the last time, and how all of the Republican's policies on things, tax cuts and spending cuts, failed when last they were tried.
But most of all, we need to lay out for people in rather simple language, what the results of Republican policies will be, on the merits, if they succeed. Remind them that since this year started, the economy has gotten more unstable, the fiscal picture more grim, the consequences for them deeper and more bitter. Remind them that despite running record deficits for the last few years, doubt didn't start being cast on our credit rating until the idiots on the right started threatening that America wouldn't pay its investors back, and that otherwise, we've been able to borrow cheaply, and at low cost to ourselves GDP wise.
Get your head into the right place as to who's to blame for the obstruction. Everytime we place the blame on our own weakness, it takes a message that Republicans are the wrong choice, and makes it that more ambivalent of a choice. A person like me, who understands who's getting in the way of needed legislation, who's peddling the worst policy, whose policies are responsible for the monstrous deficit, understands the choice is clear. A person who hears a Democrat saying that there's no difference, who is told that the reason legislation didn't get passed was weak Democrats, who gets an earful from the Republicans about how this deficit is all the Democrat's fault might not be so motivated as I am to just vote straight ticket Democrat.
Our messaging is a joke, if it doesn't work to motivate people to vote Democratic. Republicans, however narrowly they do it, however tin-eared they are at it, still push rhetoric that clearly intends to motivate people to vote for Republicans and against Democrats. Now, you can complain about the ambiguities of what the President's saying, or what some Congresscritters say on our side, but if you do so, then turn around and start trashing your own party, you've missed the point of what you just said. Sure you can say, the President should make that distinction more clearly.
But you should look at the President's agenda, and the policies that his competitors in the GOP would push, and decide for yourself whether it really is true that Obama's rhetoric is no different. I think you'll find that the words and actions of the Republicans are generally worse than that of the Democrats. I think you'll find the merits you need to make the argument that Democrats are superior, for all their flaws, to their adversaries.
I've kept on saying what I've been saying because I cannot understand why we're getting so conflicted about taking the fight to where it really needs to be, why we're failing to understand that the results of this election are what matters, not simply whether somebody tells us what we want to hear.
I think we have a lot to truly fear from the Republican retaining or growing their power, and I will keep on pointing this out, as others object to voting for the people whose election and re-election would genuinely improve the atmosphere in Washington toward progressive legislation. When fear is justified, at the very least, any alternatives given should do something to truly and really confront what is feared. If you think I'm wrong, I would like to see you come out with a plausible plan of action that will succeed in changing things for the better with the Democrats we have in Washington and out in America. The goals are simple: regain the House Majority; strengthen and maintain the Senate Majority; Keep the White House in our hands, and hand the Republicans the ringing defeat which they deserve on all levels for the damage they've done to our country and it's reputation.
I'm sick of Republicans holding onto power, and afraid, too, of what it will do to our country. If you folks find objectionable the things they're doing, and you don't like the prospects of seeing it continue, join with me and other Democrats in concentrating our efforts on defeating Republicans and Republican nominees.