WE'VE MOVED! Democratic Convention Watch is now at http://www.DemocraticConventionWatch.com
There was an interesting tidbit buried in a WaPo article yesterday. It's by neo-con David Frum, and it is his contention that the election is over and McCain shouldn't bring the party down with him. At least, that's what most people got out of the article. the part that caught my eye was this:
[t]he political culture of the Democratic Party has changed over the past decade. There's a fierce new anger among many liberal Democrats, a more militant style and an angry intolerance of dissent and criticism. This is the culture of the left-wing blogosphere and MSNBC's evening line-up -- and soon, it will be the culture of important political institutions in Washington.I read that section, read it again, and thought: I know those people. I know some of them personally, and others by reputation. But I do not subscribe to the the notion that the militant far left is representative of the big tent that comprises the totality of the Democratic Party.
Unchecked, this angry new wing of the Democratic Party will seek to stifle opposition by changing the rules of the political game. Some will want to silence conservative talk radio by tightening regulation of the airwaves via the misleadingly named "fairness doctrine"; others may seek to police the activities of right-leaning think tanks by a stricter interpretation of what is tax-deductible and what is not.
**IF** we win, and believe me when I tell you I do not in any way take that as a given, we the Democrats will need to decide how to govern, and what principles will guide the implementation of our platform. (And if you haven't read our platform, here it is.)
If you are reading DCW, you have an interest in the 2008 election. For some of you, this is your first election, for others, the first election in which you have taken an interest, and maybe gotten involved. For still others of you, this is just what you do, and you've been waiting for YEARS for a cycle like this.
This year is unlike others because the world is different. Take DCW. During primary season, this was the only site to accurately list a sourced list of Super Delegate endorsements. While the MSM used secret sauce to derive their number, DCW had a hard list, name-by-name. This was possible not only because of the diligence and hard work of Matt and Oreo, but also because of the power of the internet, and the willingness of people all over the globe to contribute data when they came across it. Had Super Delegates been an issue in 2000, it would not have been possible to do what Matt and Oreo did. It would have been possible in 2004, but nowhere near so as in 2008.
Frum's "angry left" has a home on the internet. You probably know who they are, and where to find them. I speak for the DCW team when I say, this is not us.
What about you: are you part of Frums "angry left"? Are you looking forward to the country moving forward? In what way? What are you hoping your (potential) new government will do first? Do you think your day-to-day life would change if we had an Obama administration? If you were part of the government, what would YOU like to legislate and implement? And do you plan to stay engaged after the election is over?
Floor is open.
Logging you in...
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Karen Anne · 858 weeks ago
"You’d think the 100,000-person throng in St. Louis shows it’ll be a slam-dunk for Obama, but before the Rhode Island primary, he had four times the crowd Hillary drew here, and she still won big, so the jury’s out."
Plus he had another column of readers' letters in response to his column criticizing Palin (this is a rightwing guy) and the letters read like Puma City, which has mostly died out elsewhere online. The RI electorate is probably as (okay I won't go into detail) let's just say we have corrupt morons in the state legislature and someone keeps them there, so I have been a bit worried about if it is actually as safely blue as it looks.
ollie · 858 weeks ago
In terms of culture: I hope that Obama can do for intellectuals what Reagan did for dummies. Maybe it will be "cool to be smart" and the Forrest Gump ideal can die.
And maybe, just maybe, the Republicans can purge the anti-intellectuals from their midst and we can have the return of a once proud party; it isn't healthy that one party all but has a lock on my vote.
Karen Anne · 858 weeks ago
http://fish.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/26/the-powe...
jsgammato · 858 weeks ago
I plan to express my anger clearly. It is up to my elected officials to understand it and convert it to some sort of bipartisan coalition-building. I am not a politician. I am an angry citizen who will vote for a calm politician who understands my anger.
Mike in Maryland · 858 weeks ago
What do I hope will be the first policies of a new Obama administration? Whatever President Obama, Vice President Biden, and their advisors consider the first policies that need to be addressed. I have a wish list, but I know that not all of them will, or even can, be addressed even in a four or eight year Obama Presidency. I trust that the new administration will do their best to do what's best for America, not just for certain segments of America and forgetting what the effects of those policies are on the rest of America and the world.
Tom 53p · 858 weeks ago
Karen Anne · 858 weeks ago
RichW · 858 weeks ago
I cast my vote for Obama last week with an enthusiasm that did have an element of anger to it. Last election my vote was for "anyone but Bush" (even though I voted for him in 2000). This year I am still angry about the loss of life in Iraq and the corruption there that continues to suck money from US Taxpayers. But my vote was more FOR Obama than against McCain. I agree with General Powell who says Obama is a transformational leader.
I hope Barack Obama will not disappoint me.
Fivetree 1p · 858 weeks ago
uplandpoet · 858 weeks ago
I hope we can get to some rational policy about health care, the environment, a sane energy and jobs policy, promoting a GOOD education for all, getting out of iraq, and setting a foreign policy that is non interventionist, but supports the actions of human rights groups everywhere, but all of these things must be done through a prism of getting the american economy back on track!
Ammon · 858 weeks ago
But I also think that there is one morally essential thing that politically would probably be perceived as "angry" and that I don't think the Democratic party will undertake b/c of the political maelstrom that would follow. I think that if we really want to say that this election has been about change, it will be necessary to shine a light on the many illegal and extra-constitutional things that the previous administration did, and try to bring about some kind of justice. Now, I'm familiar enough with how these sorts of things have happened in other countries to know that it is virtually impossible (and probably undesirable) to seek this justice in the court system, but something has to be done to show that we as Americans hold our leaders (and ourselves) up to the same standards that we push on the rest of the world.
I am to the left on just about every issue: civil rights, energy, the economy, education, health care, foreign policy. But even if I were not to so far to the left on all these issues I would still be excited for a Democratic victory and still think this sort of moral reckoning is necessary. As someone who believes that the greatness of our country depends on the greatness of our laws and our institutions (and therefore ultimately of our constitution), I think it is incumbent upon us to ask ourselves what responsibility we bear in the failures of these institutions over the last 8, and that means shining a light on the past.
My fear is that the party leadership will be (understandably) anxious to focus on the prospects of the future.
TMac · 858 weeks ago
And yet a great many on the left side of the blogsphere (including many on this blog) want to take the Christian right or something equally appalling as the ‘representative of the big tent that comprises the totality of the Republican Party.’
"Frum's "angry left" has a home on the internet. You probably know who they are, and where to find them. I speak for the DCW team when I say, this is not us."
Really? Have you read some of the comments and even some of the articles on this blog? I find this blog full of information but it has moments where it is very much the ‘angry left’ that the writer is talking about.
Look I can’t stand the current administration either. I’m sorry that I voted for Bush in 2000, I really am. I’m a centrist republican. I have conservative economic and foreign policy ideals (well the old conservative foreign policy, I have no idea what the current republican foreign policy ideal is). I have pretty strong liberal social ideals. I like that Obama is going to win. I like that Elizabeth Dole hopefully won’t one of my senators any longer.
Just look in the mirror before you start saying someone is wrong or is talking about someone else. Also remember what I tell my incredibly liberal wife and incredibly conservative mother; “what unites us is great then what divides us”. The left has far more in common as the right then either side is every willing to admit.
Anon · 858 weeks ago
GoThen · 857 weeks ago
1. Make sure future elections are checkable. Use paper ballots that can be stored for unlimited time or make the inner workings of the voting machines public. Every voter must be able to see that an election has been carried out correctly and that their vote counts.
2. Reinstate the Constitution. Put the legislature back into power. Take foreign relations from the Pentagon and give it back to the State Department.
3. On hearing the news tonight, put more effort into gun control. Can the Second Amendment be altered?
4. Replace national with global politics. We have so much in common and there's so much we can only achieve together that traditional politics is becoming ridiculous. Think climate, think hunger, think diseases (AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis), think refugees, think nuclear proliferation. And so on. Or as Ban Ki Moon put it: „While recently we have heard much in this country about how problems on Wall Street are affecting innocent people on Main Street, we need to think more about those people around the world with no streets.“
5. Fight corruption. The more I look, the more I see corruption as the main obstacle to change, to action, to solutions. Even Obama will have to pay the price, or have us pay the price, for the corporate money he has taken. It's true, the ways of politics have to change and to take money out of politics is fundamental. Impossible? Let's see.