Lessons Learned from the Dean Campaign and the Past 7 Years
Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 09:24:06 AM PDT
In some diaries, people have said how the excitement of the Obama campaign reminded them of their first connection with the netroots, Howard Dean. I guess there were lessons learned from that one: how internet popularity didn't necessarily translate into votes, that at a certain point we needed to step away from our computers and get involved in our communities doing the work for the campaigns we support (never got a chance to do much unfortunately; Howard was out before California had its turn), and most importantly, to stay humble and hungry.
The only thing I would add is that we progressives continue to stay involved in politics at all times, not only during elections.
I think progressives are much more prone to be disgusted with politics than repugs. We tend to be more idealistic and sometimes more rigid that way. It's like that old saw about sausage and legislation; we don't want to know how it's made. We also tend to have a more ambivalent relationship to authority and power, whereas Repugs have fewer qualms. We're also human; we get burnt out, I know I have. We have to get over that and realize that it's our responsibility to stay involved and to keep watch over our representatives, especially the ones we elect.
As much as we want to blame that other 51 percent (or less) that voted for Bush in 2000 and 2004, we have to realize that we're partly to blame as well. As a group, we had the numbers, but for whatever reason we didn't have the time, energy or interest to turn out and vote. There were a number of reasons for this: we didn't have a candidate that excited us, and the structure of the Democratic Party back then was even more heavily tilted toward the corporate oligarchy (although that's slowly changing now with the power of the netroots). Add to that the perceived mismanagement, corruption, and undue corporate influence-peddling during the Democratic reign of Congress during the '80s and '90s.
Thus, much of the Republican power grab in the past few decades was facilitated by the fact that we helped create the conditions in which it could occur. We were apathetic or had short attention spans and we didn't hold OUR representatives accountable when they caved to special corporate interests and the newly empowered Repugs. We have to do better than that. If the general public just sees Democrats as just another party run by big-business and lobbyists, can you blame them if they can discern no difference between us and the Repugs? That's part of the '90s that I don't want to go back to.
I think the Obama campaign is a once-in-a-lifetime, but what do after he's elected? No candidate in the near future has his star power, so will we be able to rally around them just as enthusiastically as we have for Barack? We have to find a way to keep engaged with politics (even with lower-wattage politicians) and stay organized, without devolving into the single-interest politics of the past (vote for her because she's a woman, vote for him because he's African American). We have to make sure that the party reflects progressive values by supporting progressive candidates directly through Act Blue instead of the DSCC or DCCC. OK, the DNC still gets my support because of Howard Dean and his 50-state strategy.
As a party and as citizens, we have to be better and do better, otherwise the public cynicism and dissatisfaction with politics and Washington D.C. will be justified. This is the same discontent that brought Howard Dean from outsider to the head of the DNC; to take the power away from Washington elite (the Penns and McCauliffe's of the world) and brought it to the grass roots to all the 50 states. It's the same anger that makes people think that all politicians no matter what party are the same; they're all crooks, serve corporate interests instead of the people who vote for them, are only there to enrich themselves.
I hope that we've also learned the lessons of the past 7 years; that it's important to stay involved in politics no matter how difficult and ugly it gets, that having a Dem in the White House matters, that it's not just quantity but quality, that we need to vote for progressive Democrats who are working for the people not for self-interest or the interests of their corporate funders. Even when we elect a Dem president and increase our numbers in Congress, we need to stay engaged in the process and let them know we expect them to reflect our values, that they work for us.
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