Democrats and progressives are crying doom over the party's defeat in Massachusetts. The loss, we're told, is a blow to Barack Obama's political agenda, and so it is. They say it's a shame that yet another rightwing zealot who advocates torture is now in the Senate, and so it is. But it is precisely that agenda that led to the loss, and the shame. It is that agenda which has resurrected a rightwing party that was dead in the water, and empowered its most extreme elements.
And what is Barack Obama's
agenda? What is his political program? It breaks down into three main elements:
unwinnable wars, unconscionable bailouts, and unworkable, unwanted health care
"reform" that forces people to further enrich some of the most despised
conglomerates in the land. It is, in every way, a recipe for moral, economic and
political disaster. It is a gigantic anchor tied around the neck of the
Democratic Party, and it will drag the whole lumbering wreck back to the bottom
in short order.
It also provides a fertile breeding ground for the
willful, belligerent ignorance of the Right to thrive. With such an egregiously
stupid and destructive agenda at work in the White House, opponents need only
say that they are against it, and they are guaranteed a wide following. Who
would not be against unwinnable war, unconscionable bailouts and
unworkable boondoggles serving rapacious elites? The actual positions held by
these opponents the actual policies they will pursue once in power are given
little scrutiny in such circumstances. The opponent represents change from a
hated status quo and that's enough. Later, when their odious positions come to
light, it is too late.
Where have we seen this dynamic at work before? Oh
yes, it was way back in November 2008. Barack Obama represented change from the
hated status quo, from the agenda of the ruling Republican party. And what was
that agenda? Why, unwinnable wars, unconscionable bailouts and the assiduous
service of rapacious elites. The actual positions held by Obama the actual
policies that he would pursue once in power were given little scrutiny. Except
by a precious few such as Arthur Silber, who long ago warned that Obama's election would be ruinous
for genuine progressive change, that he would merely put a new gloss on the old
corruption while disarming dissent from 'progressives,' who would feel bound to
support the president against his rightwing enemies even if it meant "holding
their noses" and supporting bad policies like the health care reform bill or the
Afghan surge.
Once again, the question
arises: Is this a winning agenda?
It is not just Obama's agenda, of
course. It is the agenda of the Democratic Party: war, empire, and corporate
profit à ¼ber alles. Is this really worth defending, even with a held
nose? Yet progressives and liberals will continue to insist that, bad as it is,
we've got to keep supporting the Democratic Party because there is no
alternative, because otherwise, Tea Party torture mavens like Scott Brown or
Sarah Palin will get elected.
But as we've already noted above, it is the
Democratic agenda itself that is opening the door for extremist opponents, who
then exploit the genuine dissatisfaction and genuine suffering caused by that
agenda. The fact that these opponents also support the same core agenda means
that the nation will keep ping-ponging back and forth, with an electorate hungry
for change desperately chasing anyone who promises it only to rush back in the
other direction when the 'change agent' proves to be just another stooge of the
status quo.
This destructive, corrosive dynamic this ever-worsening
death spiral is what progressives are actually supporting and enabling when
they "hold their noses" to support Democrats. The Republicans and Democrats are
now simply two factions of the same party the party of war and greed. To
support one faction, no matter what, with held noses or open arms, in such a
locked system only perpetuates and exacerbates its worst elements.
Oh,
but there's no choice, we are told, with earnest handwringing, by our leading
progressives. Third parties are not viable in our system, we are informed by our
savvy progressive realists; there can be no effective political movement outside
the two main parties. Indeed, no less than Digby herself has declared that the only alternative to working with this
closed system (which means, in practice, supporting the Democratic Party) is
violent revolution: "Pick up your muskets, kids, or STFU."
And so this
is what we've come to. This is the "progressive" answer to any genuine,
non-violent rejection of the Democratic faction's agenda of war and greed: "Shut
the f*ck up." My, wouldn't Martin Luther King Jr. be delighted with that?
Wouldn't Thomas Jefferson revel in such delicious eloquence, such deep
thought?
Look, I know it's not easy. I was born and raised a Yellow Dawg
Democrat myself, and remained one for most of my life. I know what it's like to
be hardwired for supporting Democrats, come hell or high water, giving them
every benefit of the doubt, turning a blind eye here, making a furious
rationalization there. These tribal loyalties are very difficult to lay down; it
really can feel like turning your back on your family. And of course the
belligerent, bellicose, willfully ignorant Republicans are loathsome and
dangerous.
But there comes a time when you must face the truth or be
lost to truth forever. There comes a time to recognize that the Democratic Party
and Republican Party are part of the same corrupted entity. There comes a time
to recognize that the Democratic Party's agenda is not only ruinous in itself,
unworthy of the support of anyone who cares about justice, peace, liberty and
the pursuit of happiness it is also empowering those very same loathsome and
dangerous Republicans. There comes a time for even the most partisan tribalist
(and I have been one) to accept the hard judgment of reality: that the
Democratic Party is part of the problem, not the solution.
To say that
there is no alternative to supporting this locked-in, closed-off, two-faction
system of war and greed is an act of craven surrender to that system. To dismiss
all hope for forging genuine alternatives to this system -- whether these be
other political parties or more general movements aiming not for political power
but for broader changes in social consciousness -- is a counsel of despair. It
condemns us, and the world, to yet another generation of violence, chaos and
corruption, another long, long journey away from the light. It is, as noted
above, a recipe for disaster in every way.
But if you want more Scott
Browns in power, then by all means, keep pushing that Democratic agenda. You'll
soon have Scott Browns and Sarah Palins running out of your ears.
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