That pretty much defines the Democrats: just a little bit ahead, not as bad as Bush, doing what we can.
And so, as I turn this problem over and over in my head, I keep coming to the same conclusion: we probably need to think, most of the time, about how to change the country, not the Democrats. If we build a movement strong enough to transform the national mood, then perhaps the trembling leaders of the Democrats will eventually follow. I mean, "evolve." At which point we'll get an end to things like the Keystone pipeline, and maybe even a price on carbon. That seems to be the lesson of Stonewall and of Selma. The movement is what matters; the Democrats are, at best, the eventual vehicle for closing the deal.
The closest thing I've got to a guru on American politics is my senator, Bernie Sanders. He deals with the Democrat problem all the time. He's an independent, but he caucuses with them, which means he's locked in the same weird dance as the rest of us working for real change.
A few weeks ago, I gave the keynote address at a global warming summit he convened in Vermont's state capital, and afterwards I confessed to him my perplexity. "I can't think of anything we can do except keep trying to build a big movement," I said. "A movement vast enough to scare or hearten the weak-kneed."
"There's nothing else that's ever going to do it," he replied.
And so, down to work.
Bill McKibben is Schumann Distinguished Scholar at Middlebury College, founder of the global climate campaign 350.org, a TomDispatch regular, and the author, most recently, of Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet.
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