Defeating the destructive Republican agenda
posted 3-18-2008 - 7:55 pm

 
A colleague and I have been having an on-again, off-again e-mail conversation as the Democratic primary process staggers on. Mostly, it's been about the policy topics that haven't been discussed in any detail and the relative merits of the remaining candidates. But it's also been about the need to press forward the progressive agenda and, more to the point, derail the Republican agenda, which has been harmful to the average American and destructive to the long-term economic health of the nation ever since Jimmy Carter left office. We and the economy got a brief respite during the Clinton years, but the damage done since by the Bush family Know-Nothing probably wouldn't allow another such respite, even if the other Clinton got elected with a decisive majority in both houses of Congress.

The need to press forward with that progressive agenda at all costs and begin to undo the ultraconservative Republican damage seems to be temporarily lost on Senators Clinton and Obama, as is the importance of their spending much more time and effort criticizing Dubya Bush and John McCain, seeing how the latter will get a free ride for five months if Hillary and Barack dump on each other instead. Still, what seems to grab Democrats the most at the moment is the extreme polarization between Clinton partisans and apologists on one side and Obama partisans and apologists on the other. The fact that both candidates have issues they have yet to fully address appears only to have sharpened this bitterness between the two Democrats' supporters — at a time when both candidates can least afford it.

I've even seen this polarization and attendant sniping on a few of the journalism listservs I belong to, instead of the more balanced analysis I've come to expect from my brethren in the press. Yet my friend and I, no matter how pointed our discussion, are still speaking to one another regardless of this continuing dialogue. Which is what gave me the idea to reprint the latest installments of it here, with the thought that it might help others who can't seem to choose between or agree on Clinton vs. Obama think through some of the issues involved.

Our exchanges often seem to be fueled by columns or reportage in the New York Times, although items from the Washington Post, Slate and Chicago Tribune occasionally also make it into the fray. The exchange below was prompted by a Paul Krugman column entitled "Deliverance or Diversion?" that ran earlier this month. A full listing of his columns can be found here.

The exchange began with a mailed link to the Krugman article from me:

 
X —

Read Krugman, then ask yourself: what will Obama will do, or at least attempt, his first month in office? Where will the change begin? What issue besides Iraq will he grapple with first? Do you know? If you don't know, why aren't you worried? I'm an unapologetic progressive, and Krugman is right about one thing: given the last 7 years, this election OUGHT to be about the drastic differences between the Democrats and the Republicans. If you can't make the case for that now, when can you? It ought to be about philosophy, issues, policies, who should have influence as opposed to who does, consequences. About agendas.

The Republicans have never forgotten that they're all about the conservative agenda, no matter who they had at any given moment as their figurehead. Democrats forget, until a Republican president whacks them upside the head and reminds them. Yet Bush the Lesser is still in office, and already the Democrats have forgotten IT'S ABOUT THE AGENDA, STUPID! Instead, we're given a cult of personality, the bright-eyed novice versus the woman everyone loves to hate. Once she's out of the picture, how long do you think it'll take the GOP to start bashing and deconstructing Obama's cult of personality? A nanosecond, maybe??

Obama has hard work ahead, and it's like he thinks he can get by on confidence and vagueness alone. Preaching unity and togetherness is fine for getting through the primaries. Once they're over, it's time for bloody-mindedness: he needs to show detail by detail where and how the Republican agenda has failed the nation since 1980, and just how much we've lost because of it. We're worse off since Bill Clinton left office, and Obama has to point that out, chapter and verse. Most of those college kids weren't even born when Bill Clinton became president. They need to get up to speed, and fast.

Cheers,
P

 
To which my friend replied, more to my attached comment than to Krugman's column per se:

 
P —

Exactly what serious Republican opposition has Hillary Clinton faced?????? Very few people even know who ran against her in New York (oddly and just as an aside, one columnist the other day said she had no primary competition in 2006, which she did, a journalist in fact: Jonathan Tasini). Krugman for some reason doesn't like Obama. He likes Hillary. I cannot speculate why. I have a feeling he has become friends with her, being from the same state and all.

She got where she is because people liked her husband.

People seem to like Obama much better than they like her. We know what we will get with Hillary. Her health care plan was such a failure that it helped propel the Gingrich era into being, the remnants of which we are still contending with. Her campaign has been a mismanaged mess, and she has gone from whiny to teary to angry to sarcastic to mean to lying to fear mongering. She has become more and more like Bush every day. For a Dem, she has been a disgrace — playing the race card and the fear card.

I would like to give Obama a chance to do what he says he can. He seems sober, even, friendly and very intelligent. He surrounds himself with good people, [Tony] Rezko notwithstanding. His campaign has been masterful. Until a few months ago, hardly anyone knew who he was outside of Illinois. He is funny looking, and he has about the worst name you can have in this country. The fact that he has come so far speaks to a solid and competent person there ... a truly confident and self-made man (a little like Bill Clinton, in fact). I have faith that he will have innovative ideas, inspire young people to be a hell of a lot better than they are. I think if Hillary wants to get things done her way, a perfect job for her would be majority leader in the senate, where so many of our progressive hopes and dreams die.

love, X

 
This prompted the following response from me:

 
X —

You know I love you, doll, and like I've said before, I have no problem with [either Clinton or] Obama getting elected — in fact, I desperately want a progressive to win because the progressive agenda needs to become absolutely entrenched if there's to be any hope of turnings things around in this country; but if we progressives can't look at Obama's shortcomings frankly and discuss them bluntly now while he has a chance to fix them, he hasn't a hope in hell against the Republicans. And he DOES have shortcomings: he ducks questions just as readily as any other politician, he has more than just a touch of hubris, though he masks it faster than either of the Clintons, and I'm not about to canonize the man. As for faith, that's bloody well not enough against Republicans. I'd rather see some solid strategy instead, and the strategy for beating them is way different than it is for beating another Democrat.

To read what Krugman wrote and say, 'well, Hillary hasn't ... etc.,' is not an answer — it's a dodge and a debating tactic to change the conversation, and unworthy of true analysis. Frankly, it behooves Obama's partisans to be braver and smarter than that. I'll be happy to go into Hillary's problems separately, but 1) there are already plenty of people doing that in detail, and 2) it won't fix Obama's flaws to debate anything about Hillary. Enough on that.

Finally, if you think the Clintons' health care failure rather than a consistent and tenacious Republican agenda and war machine (dating back to Barry Goldwater) helped propel Gingrich or ANY Republican into office during the Clinton years, you are SADLY misinformed, perhaps even hallucinating, and need to do much better than that (you forget: I was covering health care policy in detail before, during, and after the Clinton years, and the failure of health reform, while it demoralized many including me, had nothing to do with the interim election; Republican preparedness, money, strategy, and effort did). AND you need to read David Brock's book "The Republican Noise Machine," which should be required reading not only for every dewy-eyed liberal naif (especially those under 30) but for every member of Obama's campaign staff, right down to the janitors. I'm dead serious.

The Republicans are down, they are dirty, they're unforgiving, they're rabid, they're tenacious, they're powerful, they're disciplined about their attack methods, they have more money than God, they have a long-term agenda that they've pressed for FIVE DECADES(!) and will continue to push for decades more, they have a deep and abiding hatred of all things liberal or progressive, they have an unbelievably extensive smear organization in place, and they won't rest until every liberal and progressive has been wiped off the face of American politics. How do you think they turned FOX News into a propaganda factory?? Any liberal who doesn't believe that this war machine is dedicated to his or her destruction is divorced from reality and needs a whack upside the head — which the GOP's war and disinformation machine will be happy to give them. WE NEED NOT ONLY TO COUNTER THAT MACHINE BUT TO PREVAIL AGAINST IT, which takes just as much work and tenaciousness and strategy as the Republicans are willing to spend.

The Wikipedia references won't even begin to give you an idea of just how insidious, relentless, and extensive this Republican network is (shit, their funding rivals the CIA's — The American Spectator was getting outside money to be able to pay Brock a $300K a year salary just to dig up dirt on the Clintons and nothing else; when have you EVER heard of liberals doing that??), but you should read the entries anyway:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Brock
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Republican_Noise_Machine

Politics is not a business for sissies or the sadly uninformed. Mr. Nice-little-goody-two-shoes Obama hasn't a clue about that war machine, and he needs to get up to speed NOW. We need somebody who can smile and nod and kiss babies and answer substantive questions while he's mercilessly riding roughshod over the Republicans, wittily exposing their tactics and lies point by point, and pounding them into the earth. We need a savvy, unapologetic, RELENTLESS progressive Democrat, someone with sharp teeth he's willing to sink into the GOP agenda. Faith??? No thanks — I'll save that for *after the election, provided a Democrat gets in. Until then, what's needed is gimlet-eyed, steel-spined, disciplined, intelligent, skeptical, shrewd, relentless bloody-mindedness aimed at the Republicans — because that's *exactly what they're going to be aiming at us. Heaven help us ...

Now get out there and read that book!!!! {D

Love ya, sweetie.
P.

 
This, of course, just begged for a retort from my colleague:

 

> but if we progressives can't look at Obama's shortcomings frankly and discuss them bluntly now while he has a chance to fix them, he hasn't a hope in hell against the Republicans.

Well, he has a chance to "fix them." I also think that he will be far more energetic and effective against the Repubs (who polling says the Repubs like as well as they like McCain — see the Washington Times)... Hillary is a dirty dog for saying the things she has been saying about Obama the last two days, esp. 'I have lots of experience, and John McCain has lots of experience, and Obama has a speech in 2002.' Is that the way to get a Dem in the white house??? She as much as endorsed McCain. She's worse than [Sen. Joseph] Lieberman. She is ONLY out for herself, and she is a disgrace. I used to like her, but now I see everything the crazy Repubs and Dick Morris say about her are true. I hate to say it — but i have to believe my own eyes and ears.

love, X

 
This, in turn, resulted in a response long enough to qualify as a separate blog entry on my op-ed blog, PoliticalEye:

Barack, Hillary, supermajorities, and keeping up with the primaries

We will, of course, be continuing this discussion — right up to the Democratic convention, probably even the November election and past that, if a Democrat gets elected. Those Cabinet choices and judgeships will be all important for derailing the GOP and religious-right agenda.

Meanwhile, we hope this gave you food for thought. Please don't hesitate to send the link for this entry to your friends and colleagues. We like notoriety!
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