9 Comments: HACW

by: elwood

Mon Mar 24, 2008 at 18:14:41 PM EDT

Back in November 2007 - when the Democratic Senate unanimously colluded to ensure Michael Mukasey would become Attorney General, approving 'no filibuster' rules by unanimous consent - I said here that I was leaving the Democratic Party. More precisely I said that it had "spit me out" by this action. I intended to re-register as Undeclared on my way out of the voting booth in the January primary.

I'm back - or rather, I never actually left.

It certainly isn't because Michael Mukasey has proven me wrong in his tenure thus far. He has refused to launch an independent investigation of the US Attorney firings and he has refused to act on the House Contempt of Congress citations of Miers and Bolten. Both of these issues were on the radar in November - but the Senate didn't demand a commitment on them before confirmation. (All the Democratic Senators were complicit in this: Clinton and Obama, but also Dodd, Biden, Feingold, and Bernie Sanders.)

So, why am I still a Democrat? Disjoint observations below the fold.

1. Logistical: I was wrong about election procedures. The only people who can vote then become Undeclared on primary day are the people who walked in as Undeclared and enrolled in a party by voting. The "back to undeclared" table is only for them.  To leave the Party would mean a trip down to City Hall for me - and I didn't get around to it.
2. Proximate cause:  The House Democrats - and maybe even some clever Senators - are actually taking a stand on FISA. They have blocked telecom immunity (which is not about protecting the phone companies, but about preventing exposure of the Administration's crimes). They did this despite "soft on terror" cries from the Administration and polls that say they could lose some voters and not gain others with this vote on principle. The fight isn't over and some House members may still get cold feet (though both Hodes and Shea Porter have never wavered on this). But we have actually seen the House take an important stand that campaign aides may have warned against.
3. Process of elimination: I'm drawn to politics at both ideological and practical levels. There is nothing in the ideology of twenty-first century Republicanism for me. The renunciation of short- and medium-term practicality by third-party movements rules them out for me. That leaves the Democrats.
   
4. Political theory: "Voting with your feet" is not the only way - and maybe not the most effective way - of fixing things. Schools and roads are generally good - and they are generally good - because we can't easily escape them and we demand quality. Having decided that there are no better choices among political parties for me, that logic tells me to engage in the Democratic Party despite its flaws and work to improve its operation. (Cue Leonard Cohen: "They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom, for trying to change the system from within...")
5. My misplaced diagnosis. The cowardice of the Mukasey vote is just another example of Our Stupid Politics. IMO that stupidity is only partly related to party and ideology.  Blaming the Democratic Party for it is a bit like blaming the Red Sox for the Designated Hitter rule. Sure, they are complicit - but they don't have the power to change the rule on their own. Nor does the Democratic Party have the power to unilaterally fix our political culture: voter behavior and media laziness must change too.
6. Solidarity. We crusty old Yankees confront a certain duality all the time: Rugged Individualism versus Community. But even the most autonomous of us must recognize strength in numbers and heed Ben Franklin's "We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately."
   
7. Local integrity. It was the cowardice and complicity of our Senate Democrats that drove me out - but active Party membership is really a bottom-up affair. Like the Catholic who is comfortable in the local parish, less comfortable with the Bishop and still less so with the Curia and Pope, I'm a Democrat who can cheer most of our local representatives who gave us civil unions and  kindergarten while tolerating the ones who have moved on up.
8. Sheer cussedness. What kind of a wimp was I, to walk out and let the two-faced smooth-talkers in the U.S. Senate take over my Party?  Not without a fight, guys.
9. Urgency. This election will either institutionalize the neoconservative coup and its New American Empire or begin the slow and painful process of reclaiming our country and our Constitution.  That is the stark choice between John McCain and either of our potential candidates.  This is by far the most important election of my lifetime. That amplifies all the factors above.