10 Truths Every “Progressive” Had Better Learn for 2012 and Beyond

Albert Einstein once defined “insanity” as “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

He also said, “Man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be.”

I think everyone will agree that Einstein was a smart guy about most things, not just relativity. It is in that vein that I pose some simple questions for left wingers.

When did the political junkies on the left – unfortunately, the loudest of our ideology – become so goddamned stupid, politically speaking?

Why are so many people with little or no expertise – just a goddamn blog or a radio show – looked upon as icons by so many of these idiots?

Given that the left has been on the outside looking in, politically speaking, for forty goddamned years, at what point do we reassess our “strategy,” (and yes, I use the term loosely), because it’s obviously not working?

Lastly, when in God’s name will this loud and very stupid segment of the far left EVER figure out that we live in a democracy, that we are not the majority, and that the reason why we almost never win elections is because no one likes the far left very much?

In the last 40 years, we have watched as the Democratic Party was taken farther to the right than at any time since before the Great Depression, yet many on the far left can’t seem to figure out why that’s the case. Here’s a clue ., even as they look at their voter registration card that proudly proclaims their affiliation with an obscure “third parties” or worse, “independent.”

This blog is about cutting the crap, and while right wingers are full of it, there is a large contingent of liberals out there, most of whom tend to be white, tend to be, um, let’s just say, not poor, who have college educations and opinions about everything, but don’t seem to have any real world political experience; just a head full of theories and ideals. Seriously, they are just incredibly ignorant when it comes to how politics actually works. Oh, sure, they can quote John Locke and Thomas Jefferson by rote, and their high ideals seem admirable, but how admirable are their “ideals,” really, when they do absolutely nothing to make sure those ideals become policy and/or law. The sad fact is, they have no idea how to get things done, politically speaking. They are admitted “news junkies,” and they claim to follow government closely, yet they make some of the dumbest goddamn assertions I have ever heard in my life.

These are the people who think Barack Obama was elected as our wizard, not our president. I used to laugh at the wingnuts who laughed at libs because they thought President Obama was a savior of sorts, but I stopped laughing during the health care debate. Apparently, there are a bunch of loudmouthed libs out there who truly think the president can just wave his hand, and all of the problems caused by the Bushies just vanishes.

The sad thing is, they dominate the political discourse on the left, and they make it seem as if all of us are stupid idealists, and I’m getting sick of it.

I am 52 years old. When I was 14, I was already into politics and process, and my mentor at the time was a liberal Republican. Yes, there were such things in 1972. MOST Democrats were pretty liberal, but we also had a large contingent of Democrats who were legacy Dixiecrats, although they had been defecting to the GOP for a few years by then. It was a perfect opportunity to grow a politically progressive coalition in Congress, and liberals just plain blew it. For whatever reason, the progressive movement that spawned the civil rights, women’s rights and gay rights movements and ended the Vietnam war seemed to just vanish.  Part of the problem was that a large number of (mostly white) liberals abandoned the Democratic Party and started entertaining delusions of grandeur, imagining a “revolution” in which a “third party” would rise up and take down the two behemoth parties. Between the early 1970s and now, affiliation with a major party has been cut nearly in half. Only the dumbest among us would think this is a good thing.

Here are ten truths we need to consider if we’re to move forward as progressives. In fact, if we don’t understand and acknowledge these truths, the neocons will continue to dominate the debate, and we will keep moving backward as a nation. I will elaborate more on these in future columns, but here’s an overview.

Truth #1 – In a winner-take-all electoral system, having two major political parties is rare and should be treasured. Three major political parties is a fantasy.

If you doubt this, name one other non-parliamentary democracy that has two strong major political parties. And in nearly 250 years of history, when have we ever had three major political parties?

Nearly a third of the American electorate is registered with a “third party” affiliation or as “independent.” The last number I saw was about 31%, and that sounds about right. Start with the basic reality that 31% of the vote will never win an election., even in a three-way race. But compounding that problem is the fact that the 31% is so splintered as to be completely useless as a voting bloc, in any case. That number includes such disparate groups as Libertarians, Socialist Workers, the Modern Whigs, the Communist Party, the Boston Tea Party and at least 30-40 other parties, as well as those noncommittal souls who simply call themselves “independent.”

But worse, that’s 31% of the electorate that has ZERO influence over the major party processes. Oh, sure; politicians play to them a little, but only in a really close election.

Political parties are the ultimate democratic institutions, folks. They are organic; they represent the politics and the views of the people who populate them. If they are not doing something you want them to do, it’s either because you’re not there, or you’ve been outnumbered. The only qualification for membership is that you be registered to vote and you need to write your affiliation when you register. That’s it. If you’re a rebellious teenager or a college student, and you join the Socialist Workers Party to piss off your mom and dad and a few professors, that’s cute. But if you’re in your 30s or older, and you’re registered “independent” or to a third party, you’re actually a major reason why our system is broken. You’re pathetic, and you don’t understand how our system works. Basically, if you want the Democratic Party to move left, then you need to move it left. You need to register as a Democrat, attend every meeting , and vote for everything you could possibly want. You may not get it, but that’s democracy.

If you’re wondering why the Democratic Party moved to the right, it’s because liberals have largely abandoned party politics, and a large number of them continue to stand on the sidelines and watch as right wingers – the dumbest people in the world, – run rings around us politically.

And that brings us to Truth #2.

Truth #2 – Political parties do not and will never try to attract your vote by appealing to you.

This has to be the dumbest thing I hear this group of progressives say,; my jaw drops every time I hear it. I know you’ve heard it. “Well, if ‘the Democrats’ want my vote, they’re going to have to (insert desired action here). If they don’t (insert desired action here), then I won’t vote, or I’ll vote for (insert the name of some obscure candidate who can say anything he wants because he knows he won’t win here).”

That’s not a threat, folks, especially from these liberals. See, in order for that to be a threat, politicians have to normally be able to count on your vote in the first place. The far right will vote for anyone with an “R” in front of their name in every election. When they’re pissed off and don’t vote, then Republicans are in trouble. That’s how it works. You vote for Democrats in every election, and you withhold your vote, then they know something is wrong and they appeal to you to get you back.

Such liberals rarely vote in the first place, and often, when they do vote, they vote “their conscience” (I’ll get to this line of bullshit later), which means voting for someone like Ralph Nader, who has less than a snowball’s chance in hell of winning any national election, or Dennis Kucinich, who runs  in every presidential election and may be the one person who has less chance of winning than Nader.

Here’s the deal, folks. Threatening to withhold your vote from someone can only matter to someone if they have come to count on your vote in the first place. That’s why Democrats work hard for black and Hispanic votes, but they don’t alter their message to appeal to whiny white liberals.

Which brings up another truth:

Truth #3 – If you’re a white liberal blogger or other far left pundit, you are probably NOT “the Democratic base.”

A lot of people make up the democratic “base,” but if your voter card doesn’t say “Democratic Party” without any adjectives, or worse, you’re not even registered to vote (yes, that happens more than you’ll ever know), then you are, by definition, NOT part of the Democratic Party’s “base.” If you have ever voted for Nader or Kucinich, you are also not part of the “base.”

The Democratic base consists of people who can be counted upon to consistently vote for Democrats, even if they have to occasionally hold their nose to do so. It is a diverse group, and includes a large number of moderates. In fact, I would say the Democratic base consists of mostly moderates who are middle-of-the-road, politically speaking. See, the “base” of a political party is, by definition, the voters it can count on to vote for them in pretty much every election. That’s where the term “base” comes from. Most of the loudest lefties in the country can’t be counted upon to vote for anyone consistently; to rely upon them as a “base” would be politically stupid.

Truth #4 – Not all progressives think the way you do, and your ideas are not the only ones that work.

One of the great things about being a progressive used to be the diversity of opinion on our side. All right wingers like to think in lockstep, they can’t tolerate diversity of opinion, and they need validation. On the other hand, progressives used to be able disagree without the disagreement itself becoming a major issue.

Unfortunately, when I read the liberal blogosphere and listen to a growing number of (again, mostly white) progressives discuss issues, they are far too quick to label those who disagree; they don’t listen well to differing viewpoints,;and they are increasingly dismissive of anyone whose opinion doesn’t conform exactly with theirs.

In other words, an increasing number of left wingers sound an awful lot like right wingers.

I am a liberal. I am a progressive. I believe in progressive principles, period. Yet, much of the these (mostly white) self-described progressives refer to me often as a moderate, because I believe in a quiet revolution of ideas, and I don’t engage as much in personality politics. If I were king of the world, everyone would make a living wage, tax rates would be reasonable for everyone with everyone paying according to what they actually produce for society, and not just how much cash they generate. We would all be free to get the education we need to follow our dreams, without going heavily into debt to do it. Everyone, including the poorest among us would be able to count on food in their bellies, a roof over their head, and access to medical care, period. There would be a huge, comprehensive energy grid, with a mix of energy production sources, based on what is practical where you live, and the internal combustion engine would be on its way to the scrap heap of history. The death penalty would be history, and the mission of prisons would be rehabilitation once again. While I love eating meat, we should be eating a lot less of it, and we should endeavor to produce it in as humane a manner as possible. And the environment has to be the number one concern when we do anything; we owe it to future generations to preserve this place for them.

See what I mean? I’m very liberal, and proud of it. But I am constantly attacked by these ridiculous self-described “progressives” because I don’t give a flying fuck how we get where we need to be, as long as we get there. But I’m frustrated, because quite honestly, those loudmouth liberals with the strongest opinions have become one of the greatest obstacles to progress in this country, and it’s killing us slowly. I know, there’s a tendency to blame the right for everything, but they can’t effect their policies unless they win elections.

Of course, neither can we.

Truth #5 – Fighting is overrated. Most voters want discussion and action.

“Why doesn’t Obama fight?”

“Why don’t ‘the Democrats’ have a spine?”

Let me disabuse you people of something. RIGHT wingers love a fight. Right wingers need red meat thrown at them on a regular basis just to feel alive. The vast majority of the populace of this country doesn’t want to see a fight. They hire politicians to get things done, not to have temper tantrums and call each other names.

As I have pointed out on this blog many times, a major part of the Republican strategy is to piss people off enough to make them stay away from the polls. They say the stupid shit they say because they are HOPING to stir some trouble. They don’t call Obama a Kenyan socialist because they actually believe he’s either Kenyan or a socialist. They call him that because it fires up their idiotic base, and because they KNOW that we’ll react to it, and in the process blow another non-issue up all out of proportion, and take the debate away from the issues that truly matter.

When lefties talk about getting down and dirty and being just like the right, it’s because they believe that being negative is what wins Republicans elections, and they’re right. Unfortunately, that’s not how to win elections for Democrats and progressives. Republicans are a minority in this country; there are more Democrats than Republicans registered to vote, and there always have been. the only way Republicans can win election is by making sure their base – which is made up of a lot of truly ignorant and hateful people – turns out, and to depress turnout among everyone else.

President Obama won by a large margin, despite his race, because he REFUSED to go negative. Get it?

Truth #6 – We can’t get progressive policies in place without winning elections. and Truth #7 – We can’t have a progressive country until we create a progressive mindset.

These two go together.

I know I keep mentioning it, but again, we live in a democracy. I will continue to say this a lot, until liberals actually seem to get it.

Yes, I know; you have come to believe that being popular is roughly equivalent to having “sold out.” Unfortunately, if you want to get something done, you have to hold office. And in order to hold office, you have little choice but to appeal to as many people as you can, and to get as many votes as possible. This doesn’t mean “selling out” or “caving” (which is another one of those words the left tends to overuse and over-value); but it does mean that you have to get the majority on your side. And that means adjusting your message to appeal to a majority of voters. That means tailoring our message for a broad audience. That means speaking to people in a language that they understand. And that means communicating to everyone in terms that appeal to as many of them as possible.

In order to win elections, we have to speak to people, and teach them why what we believe is actually best. It’s not enough to point out that right wingers are full of shit. Most political moderates know that right wingers are full of shit. The reason we keep losing elections is because we don’t fill the knowledge vacuum with anything. When right wingers say, “global warming” is a myth, “no it isn’t” is not enough of an argument to get people to ditch their cars and put solar panels on their roof. When right wingers say “illegal aliens are taking our jobs,” it’s not enough to simply claim that they don’t.

Seriously, folks; we have GOT to stop talking to the right wing and start talking to the American people. And we certainly have to stop calling people stupid when they don’t do what we think they should do.

And this leads directly to…

Truth #8 – If we want to get elected and have influence over policy, people have to like us.

It’s a sad fact that a large number of people – probably a majority, but I don’t want to go that far without hard numbers – think liberals are assholes.

And why wouldn’t they?

We are always on about how horrible things are. The right sucks. Fox News sucks. The environment sucks. The rich suck. “The Democrats” suck. Cars suck. Anyone who doesn’t think exactly as we do sucks.

Now, we all have at least one relative or person we have to deal with on a regular basis who’s like this. No matter what happens, they are always negative. Here’s the question; do you tend to avoid them, or do you invite them to dinner as often as possible?

I want you to go to your beloved liberal blogs and I want you to count the number of “doom and gloom” articles and compare them to the positive, hopeful articles. If you listen to the loudest, most obnoxious liberals out there, you would swear that the government was being overrun by fascists and “corporatists,” that the climate is going to cause the destruction of the earth, and other shit like that.

Of course, there’s something missing, as well.

Solutions . Wait; let me rephrase that;

Solutions that don’t require everyone to change everything about their life.

We do have to fix what we’re doing to the environment. But the solution is not to junk every internal combustion engine and replace it with an electric motor immediately.

Yes, it would be nice to watch Bush and Cheney be frog marched and put on trial, but the 20 million people who are currently unemployed would rather see us do something to fix the economy they broke.

And gosh, I would like to see the big banks pay for the stupidity that led to the economic meltdown, but you know what? That’s MY money in those banks, so whatever you do has to not effect my deposits. And what if our big banks became too small to compete in the global marketplace; how might that effect the economy?

Liberals have a reputation as being anti-everything, and the vast majority of voters want to vote FOR something. Voters in 2008 didn’t vote against McCain. They voted for the hope that Obama represented, and frankly, still represents. They voted for competence and vision; they didn’t vote to break up the big banks, so that you would feel satisfied. We are all in this together, and any solution to any problem must balance all relevant realities, not just the ones you think are important.

Which leads us to the next truth…

Truth #9 – Your proclamations of “voting your conscience” are simultaneously meaningless and insulting.

Voting for a third party, or voting for someone who has no chance of winning election and therefore can say any goddamn thing he or she wants is actually stupid enough. But when you proclaim that you voted that way because you “voted your conscience” makes you doubly so.

First of all, MOST people vote their conscience, based on the meaning you give to it. Most people vote in favor of the candidates and causes they think will most benefit the country. To those who voted against gay marriage in California in 2008, that meant voting against “immorality.”

But let’s get real here.

If you, as a progressive, want to see the country move forward, and you vote for someone who has no ability to make that happen, then you’re lying when you say you’re “voting your conscience.” My conscience could never allow me to vote for someone who was incapable of making this country better, and that’s what you’re doing when you vote for, or even promote, a candidate who has no chance of winning.

You are also demonstrating a galling level of gullibility. Think about it; if someone knows he or she isn’t going to win, he or she can say anything they want; they’ll never take office, so they’ll never have to deliver on it. I can cruise the liberal blogs and cull ideas guaranteed to get me tons of liberal votes (and liberal money), and none of it matters, because I’ll never have to act on any of it.

On the other hand, I, as a liberal, have a conscience. I want to move this country in a progressive direction. There are two (sometimes three) candidates who have a shot at winning in any election, and my conscience tells me I have to vote for the one of those candidates who is most likely to move us in a progressive direction. Sometimes, that means voting for someone whom I don’t like; no one said democracy was easy. But if you’re voting for someone who has zero chance of winning, you’re not voting your conscience; you’re voting your arrogance.

Which brings us to our last truth for this session…

Truth #10 – There is no such thing as “the Democrats;” at least as many on the left see it.

We will never progress politically if we are so arrogant as to think that our ideas are impermeable, and that anyone who disagrees with us is “stupid.”

We didn’t lose out in the 2010 election because the electorate is “stupid.” We lost out because we spent all of our time pissing and moaning and bitching because Barack Obama wasn’t the Messiah some had hoped for. We spent the entire time bitching about the fact that the health reform package that was passed didn’t contain a “public option.” We spent the entire time whining about “the Democrats” being spineless and not doing everything that we expected of them when we deigned to vote for them in 2008. Apparently, they should have been so grateful that “we lefties” gave them our votes that they should have kissed our asses and proposed nothing but “progressive” rules and “progressive” legislation.

I’ll get more into this in other columns, but just what the hell did you expect? In reality, 375 bills were passed by “the Democrats” in the House, and kept from being held up for a vote by 40-41 Republicans in the Senate. As I pointed out on this blog, that included quite a bit of relatively progressive legislation. Rational human beings would have blamed “the Republicans” for that and solved the problem by making sure there were fewer Republicans in the Senate. Instead, we spent two years denigrating “the Democrats.”

There is no such thing as “the Democrats.” Democrats represent all sorts of districts throughout this country, and “the Democrats” in rural Kentucky have different priorities than “the Democrats” in Boston or New York. I already got into this in an earlier post, but those of you who are “happy” because “Blue Dogs” lost are complete and utter idiots, because it’s going to be difficult to win a majority in Congress and the state houses without a large number of conservative Democrats filling out the ranks. At some point way in the future we may end up with a progressive majority, but not until we change the mindset of the country, so that progressive politics feels natural.