An Open Letter to the Democrat Party

There was a time, only 30 years ago, when the Republicans were actually in danger of becoming a minor party in this country. After the Nixon/Watergate debacle, Republican candidates were virtually unelectable. The Republican leadership recognized this, and went to work with a single-minded focus to rebuild the party. Of course, it did help to have Ronald Reagan in their arsenal. Reagan was the consummate media manipulator, and the rest of the Republicans learned from him. The Republicans also learned that the very best defense is a good offense, and that is why, for the past 20 plus years, they have relied upon the politics of attack, confrontation and division to drown out any attempt at a “normal” political dialogue. In fact, the polarization of this country into the media driven “red/blue” classification system leaves little or no room for the political compromises that make true democracy viable.

The Democrat Party has to first and foremost stop the internecine warfare that erupts with every major race. Our internal debate needs to become centered upon the issues and not upon the personalities. And, once a candidate is decided upon, we all need to put away our differences and support that candidate—enthusiastically. Above all, Democrats need to understand that politics in a pluralistic democracy is all about compromise. It is rare that we will get all we want on any issue, but that is OK. It is better to take small steps in the right direction than to take no steps at all. That is the understanding we need to develop as Democrats. That is the lesson the left wing of our party truly needs to come to grips with.

However, even if the Democrats do unite behind a candidate, or slate of candidates, the Opposition still has a weapon of surpassing power: the Neo-con talk show hosts. These people make their living by being as lurid and intransigent as humanly possible. They scream their attack rants and leave no room for reasoned discourse. Any disagreement, any hint at debate and they launch into another polemic about how libruls (sic) are anti-American and are destroying the country. The problem is that through showmanship and sheer volume, they grab the attention and the minds of many of our fellow citizens. Reasoned discourse, because it involves thought, will always lose to demagoguery, which bypasses the brain’s higher functions.

The year 2006 puts both the House and the Senate up for grabs. If the Democrats, if the people, are to limit the damage the Bushites are doing to our country and the world, the power of the demagogues will have to be broken. Either the Democratic vision will have be so strong and put forth with such a unified voice that it will be impossible to ignore, or the Bushite talking heads will have to be countered in their own style.

Once upon a time, our leaders lifted our hearts and eyes by giving us a vision of what could be. Franklin Roosevelt did this in 1932 and John Kennedy did this with his commitment to place a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s. It is time for the Democrats to form a vision of what could be in 50 years, and then begin to work consistently towards that vision. The steps need not be big, but each and every thing done should move us incrementally towards the goals set forth in the vision statement.

Here’s a hypothetical example of how this would work. The majority of mainstream scientists now firmly believe that global warming is an incontrovertible fact. They also are in virtual unanimous agreement that human production of greenhouse gases is a significant contributor to this global phenomenon. We acknowledge that, as a major industrialized nation, the U.S. is a major contributor to the problem. Therefore, we commit to reducing our production of greenhouse gases by to 50% of our 2005 totals by the year 2055. To do this, we are going to have to change how we produce electricity and how we power our transport. In short, we are going to have to find alternatives to fossil fuels as our primary energy sources. Now, there are alternatives that could be harnessed and made competitive with fossil fuels over time.

The problem is that, initially, these alternatives are not economically competitive. They will have to be partially funded and subsidized by…us. Because that is, in essence, what the government is: the will and voice of the people. In time, these alternative sources of energy will become a robust and vital part of our economy if we authorize the government to act as midwife and nanny to them during their formative years. The benefits of doing this range from slowing/reversing global warming to balancing our trade to doing a little redistribution of wealth here at home. (And let us not forget that many of what are now “old” fortunes were built on this same principle. The railroads, as only one example, were built because the builders were given huge tracts of land which they sold for huge profits.)

This is the challenge: either establish a new vision for the country and begin to work towards that vision, or accept the Bush agenda which will lead to an entrenched aristocracy with most of the wealth and power in their few hands. Think of England in the 17th Century as the social model the Bushites are working towards. The major difference will be that there won’t be a New World for the oppressed and exploited to escape to. The choice is ours, and the time is now.