Wampum

one and one and one is free

I'm getting a lot of letters currently, none of them actually personal, more of the you used to be a max contributor, so you're probably in the target market kind of letters. The general outline is help determine the future of the Democratic Party, check one of three boxes and/or sign here and send the signed check.

In Maine (and possibly elsewhere), the party apparatus in Augusta and Portland are running scorched-earth campaigns against Progressives. Baldacci creamed Pingree in the secret pre-primary for Governor, then pulled the final GOTV in Cumberland and York to cut Jonathan Carter's numbers, and push Pingree down well below the MOE in her race against Susan Collins. Its only gotten worse since the '02 cycle, and the knives will drink again in the '06 cycle. I don't know why the Ku-Dems bother to stay in-Party.

I'm not a Maine Democrat any more. I stood for Kucinich at the caucuses and went to the State convention as a Ku-Delegate, but I am not a Maine Democrat any more.

So I'm in a quandry about the who-should-chair-the-DNC thing. Dean or ¬Dean, as a nominal Green.

I'm not in a quandry about what the Opposition should be when the electorate decides, as they must, in two, or four, or more years, that continuity in time of war isn't their choice. When the knock on the door is the telegram from the War Department, that moment will come. FDR's moment came when the knock on the door was the three-day-pay-or-quit. The Roosevelt/Morgenthau program was deficit spending, and there was no middle ground, no "reasonable position" with the Hoover/Mellon program of deficit reduction.

The Opposition should be the Opposition. Not for "stay the course with" the Incumbency. Not for "principled differences from" the Incumbency. Opposed. The Democrats are not the Opposition. Opposition isn't Party, any more than Incumbency is Party. Opposition is what most Americans deride or ignore, until they deride or ignore Incumbency, and make Incumbent Opposition, and Opposition Incumbent.

Dean lacks this in the its-the-economy-stupid space, the Roosevelt/Morgenthau space.

Dean has this in the its-the-war-stupid space, what I think of as the Roosevelt/Hull space. The don't-rush-to-the-wrong-dance space.

In October 2002 I was drafting a memo for the Internet Engineering Task Force, and listening to the rhetorical run-up to the invasion of Iraq. Paul Wellstone would be silenced forever in just a few days. The newsreaders and the normative voices of NPR were giggling at one old man trying to stop the vote for the war. I added this note:

This draft is dedicated to Robert C. Byrd, Senator from West Virginia.

Robert C. Byrd was a member of a certain organization. Abenakis had issues with Gov. Howard Dean.

At present, a majority of Americans say they don't belive their country ought to get into a land war in Asia, but they believe their country can can wage and win a land war in Asia.

At present, a majority of Americans say they believe in distribution of wealth, but they belive this can be achived through policies that concentrate wealth.

If Dean chairs the DNC, the Democrats in Maine can continue to treat Progressives as they do today, but like the window in the Treaty Wampum between the Mic'mac and the Vatican, which places an open window in the walls of the Church as a condition for the Church to be on Mic'mac land, Progressives will be free to pass in and out of that window carefully set in the walls of Party. If Simon Rosenberg chairs the DNC, the same is likely to be true also. A window in the walls of Party. I don't think the other candidates for chair of the DNC see a blank wall, let alone the lack of, or necessity for, a window.

The knock on the door may take much longer than one cycle. It took the French from 1954 to 1962 to internalize what 117 minutes of film makes self-evident. Dean-as-Chair may not deliver any branch of government in the midterms, or the next general. ¬ Dean-as-Chair also may not deliver any branch of government in the midterms, or the next general. At some point however, unless the United States can wage and win a land war in Asia, and distribute wealth by concentrating wealth, an election will go to the Opposition.

The Dean or ¬ Dean issue is really about what the Opposition is, when the Americans choose to make it Incumbent. Will enough of it be "inside" the Democratic Party, or will the real transfer of power, and the transfer of shared fates, have to wait even longer? Bush followed by a stay-the-course, peace-with-honor Democrat is a real possibility in '08, and that's at the $150bn-1kKIA-10kMEDEVAC annual burn rate, unadjusted for domestic economy or policy, or additional military deployments.

When the Americans look for a better choice, will it be actually available at the ballot box?

Dean for DNC. Warts and all. Abenaki first, nominal Green second.

Posted by EBW at January 27, 2005 09:19 AM | TrackBack