Dear Candidate...

Democrats across the country are getting fed up with their party.  After loyal Democrats like me tell them again and again to get tough (and it's not just me) what do they do?  Russ Feingold, who really, really wants to be president, votes to confirm judicial sphinx John Roberts.  No matter how he tries to justify that he has cut himself off at the knees.

While we sometimes lament the often disjointed actions of Democrats, and envy the ability of Republicans to operate in lock-step, we have to consider the cost.  Their coordinated politics comes about because all Republicans to some degree or another depend upon a few centralized power brokers.  The DeLays and the Roves who hold the keys to K-Street divide up the corporate largess between all the party politicians.  It should be no surprise that the lion's share goes to their compatriots most loyally willing to spout today's talking points, and the ones who won't play get excommunicated.  While this gives them a lot of power, it does so at the expense of democracy.  Congressmen represent corporate interests not their constituents, and spawn a vast army of cronies who have to be paid back with appointments to be slack-jawed administrators or judicial bench-warmers.

Whenever the Democratic Party has consolidated power like this, as with the party "bosses" of yesteryear or to some extent the DLC today, we see the same type of corporatism and patronage (although nothing like the degree of the GOP).  The Democratic Party right now is more of a loose association of free agents, many with strings tied back to their corporate donors but with their traditional support from organized labor greatly weakened.  The bad thing is that in addition to their minority status, which makes it next to impossible for them to initiate legislation, their willingness to fight losing battles is dictated by the median spinelessness of the entire herd.  If an injustice doesn't rise to that level then none of them will respond for fear of personal blow-back.

Before the uncoordinated Democrats will fight back we have to see either Republican outrages get more outrageous, or the median spine get stiffer.  As GOP excesses have gotten more and more out of hand, we start to plumb the depths of how spineless the median Democrat really is.  If there's going to be any meaningful opposition to this regime, the opposition party has to be tempered and honed.

But here's the good news.  Because the Democratic Party isn't centrally controlled it's possible to use the normal apparatus of democracy to change it.  Of particular importance for the 2006 elections are the primaries, where localities will select candidates to run against each other in the general.  By the time the general election comes about it's too late -- a rational liberal voter given a choice between a spineless Democrat, a corrupt Republican or the third-party vote vacuum will find themselves doing little deliberation.  But the primaries are different.  Here there is a real opportunity to set up candidates who can distinguish themselves from the usual invertebrates while remaining "electable."

How can they do that?  One simple slogan: "I will investigate."

The GOP-controlled congress has suppressed or voted down any investigation which might highlight the incompetence or corruption of the current administration.  They didn't investigate war profiteering.  They didn't investigate (unless by "investigate" you mean "white wash") the federal government's response to Katrina.  They didn't investigate (despite their promise that they would) how the policy makers used or misused intelligence on Iraq in the lead up to war.  They wouldn't investigate the Downing Street Memos.  All of these investigations are fully justified -- no, essential -- and shining sunlight into the White House would burn its occupants as surely as if they were vampires.  Although some key DINO enablers might get caught up as well (and good riddance), it really doesn't take much spine to start an investigation.

What it takes is a majority.

If you're a Democratic candidate for congress -- and you should take a long hard look at your incumbent before you decide you're not -- this slogan could be for you.  I'm not suggesting that you build your campaign around it; "Bring Them Home Now" might make a far better one for that.  But I do want to convince you of the advantages of incorporating this into your campaign rhetoric.

1) It cannot be criticized as a radical or extreme position.  You're not saying that you want to "Impeach Bush Now!", it's just calling for a return of Congressional Oversight, one of the constitutional duties of the Congress which has been sadly neglected by corrupt Republicans.

2) But what if your core supporters do want to impeach Bush?  The slogan can act as a "dog-whistle" for the base.  A dog-whistle phrase is one that appears innocuous on the surface and yet supporters understand as something that represents their deepest desires.  The right wing has a lot of these (like "strict constructionalist" for a judge who hates abortion and gays, or "Dred Scott" for abortion) which seem dry and technical but which smoother rabid supporters in Pavlovian drool.  Say "I will investigate" and appear moderate, but the base will wink and say "Oh yeah, he'll impeach."

3) It's a great talking point.  Think of the speeches you could write where each paragraph starts "I will investigate...".  It gives you a springboard for explaining what's wrong with not only all the right-wingers in Congress but the wimpocrats as well.

4) It bridges the emotional and the intellectual.  One of the signature failings of the modern GOP and this administration in particular has been it's rejection of reason, science and expert knowledge where it would do the most good.  Embracing "investigation" doesn't just have to be about political gain, it can be a commitment to restore inquiry and the spirit of discovery into governance.  And, of course, political gain.

5) It places your primary opponent on the defensive.  Especially if they are an incumbent who has voted for highly dubious legislation, as virtually all of them have.  Will they investigate the consequences of their own votes, or the sources of those legislation?  Will they investigate, in essence, themselves?  I think not.

6) It amplifies the climate of scandal in Washington.  Seems like all the bad news for Republicans these days arrive in articles that contain the word "investigation."  And you, dear candidate, are bad news for the Republicans.

So as you consult your advisers and convene your focus groups, I humbly suggest that you consider incorporating a version of my slogan -- "I will investigate" -- into your campaign.  It condemns all that is bad and wrong about the a faith-based corporate-crony plutocracy, and all that is good and right about reality-based constitutional democracy.  What it takes to investigate is a majority, and I think if enough Democratic candidates commit themselves to publically baring their spine, we'll have one.

- jack*

Comments

[Zenji]

hear hear! This is an excellent idea and well put.

[Ma'at's Feather]

I like it!