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Today, the left appears powerless. The Democratic Party has moved to the right side of center-right. And in doing so it treats the votes of the left as something it can take for granted. It treats the left with outright contempt, referring to them as 'idiot liberals' when they don't realize there's a camera pointed at them.
But the situation is not hopeless. In fact, the political position of the left is actually quite strong.
The balance between Democrats and Republicans in the country is quite close. The last two Presidential elections have hinged on the results of just one state (Florida in 2000, Ohio in 2004). This means changing the outcome of just one state, and not only the one that finally decided the race, can change the outcome of the entire election. Changing the outcome of just a few Senate race, or a handful of House races can change which party holds the majority in those bodies.
What this means is that the Democrats can not afford to lose anywhere. Each party is struggling to hold on to what its got, and then win just a little more than last time from the other. Neither the Democrats nor the Republicans have any margin of error. And this is what gives the left power.
What the left needs to do is to attack the Democrats precisely where it hurts. Pick the races that are going to be close, and then throw concentrated efforts into third party races in those districts. And make it personal. When running against a Democratic incumbent, make it absolutely crystal clear that this campaign is being mounted precisely to defeat them for the actions they've taken while in office. Make it clear that this Democrat is going down because he supported the war, or because he supported telecom immunity.
The goal is to show political strength. That is the problem the left has today. It has shown no political strength at all in decades. Since the 1970's, it has mostly just meekly supported whatever candidate the Democrats had in the race. The Nader campaign of 2000 is the one exception to this on the national stage. And the reverberations of that can still be felt.
The Democrats will never take the left seriously until they know we can hurt them. That has to be the goal. The inflicting of pain on the Democratic party. Make it expressly clear that they've lost the say the Presidency precisely because the left was so mad with them because they wouldn't end the war. Make it completely clear that they've lost the majority in the Senate because they wouldn't oppose or prosecute the Bush administration crimes. Make it precisely clear to the Democrats that they've lost this election because they lost the support of the left.
The first reaction of most people to this would be, 'oh my gawd, that means the Republicans will be elected!' And, yes it does. But stop and think a bit more about that. First there's the very real question of just how much better the Democrats are than the Republicans. But even conceding that the Republicans can at times be worse than the Democrats, lets continue to think this through.
What's going to happen fairly early on in the next election cycle? The Democrats are going to come to the left and try to get the left not to do that to them again. Aha! Now that the left has shown that it can exercise some political power, it gets treated like a player in the game. Now the left is sitting at the table negotiating with the Democrats. And both sides of the table know that the left can defeat the Democratic dreams of power in the next election if it chooses to. So, what do you want to ask for? Because now by defeating those Democrats in the last election, you now get to ask for almost anything. And the Democrats will want to give it to you.
I know what I'd ask for. I'd try to get political reforms to open up the system. All the stuff the 3rd parties have talked of for ages. Instant run-off voting, campaign reform, election systems reform. Long term, that gets more for the left in terms of getting into a chance to really hold political power than a 'win' on any one issue. But, with lives at stake, I'd say getting an end to our wars from such a negotiation wouldn't be a bad thing either.
From where we sit today, its hard to picture the Democrats giving any of that to the left. But remember, after defeating their dreams of power in one election, they are going to know we can do it again in the next. We will literally hold their chance at political power in our hands. We can ask for anything we want, and suddenly the Democrats will be trying to find a way to give it to us.
So, while it may seem counter-intuitive, the real path towards change in this country lies with defeating the Democrats. It does not lie in helping the Democrats win, that only leads to more of today's status quo. The key to obtaining real change in this country lies in doing everything we can to defeat the Democrats.
And besides, we'd get to have some fun doing it. We'd get to support candidates who really do believe in our views. We'd get to run campaigns that really matter, and that are right in the thick of the action. And we'd get to retire from politics a few Democrats who really need retiring. Another benefit from this, we get to hone our own campaign skills by working with tough campaigns in tough races. Not only would that be fun. And not only would it be fun to get to dance on the Democrats graves for a change, but that's yet another way in which the left would come out of such a strategy stronger politically.
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