The Young Turks

A couple of weeks ago Cenk talked about an op-ed (or blog) he read warning Obama supporters not to be “sore winners” over Clinton’s concession.  And that got me thinking about what kind of “winners” it looks like will be in our attempt to take the presidency and make further gains in congress.  I suppose many of us are still a little mad at being marginalized by characterizations of our positions as something less than patriotic or even moral.  (You remember that last one don’t you: “Can someone who calls himself a Christian be a Democrat”?  What that question is really saying is that the rightness and goodness some imbue Christianity with is confined to only the conservative way of thinking.)  And some of us are still perturbed at having our opinions during the roll-up to Iraq straw-manned as nothing more than liberal-touchy-feely-mushin ess.  And then there is the spending and spending and spending.  That was the one that personally got me the most upset – not because I think the deficit and debt are more important than the lives lost in our current foreign-policy misadventure but because being called a “tax-and-spend-libera l” by a “spend-and-spend-cons ervative” betrays just how divorced from reality many Republicans really are.  Then of course there are the Cleland/Hussein/bin Laden ads from the 2002 midterms.  And how about Orrin Hatch berating Clinton on national TV for not doing enough about al Qaeda after the 11 September attacks when he had complained barely a year earlier that the Clinton fixation on getting bin Laden was bordering on obsession!  Or how about the general observation that in spite of being touchy-feely libs we were right on practically all of the important issues.  I could go on and on but you probably get my point. 

Here is the thing: We’ve got a lot to be mad about, a lot of axes to grind, a lot of scores to settle, and quite possibly the votes of the independents to boot.  In fact, many people think we are going to murder the Republicans in the next election!  But I am not so sure we will murder them, I am not so sure we should even try, and I am not so sure exacting a pound of flesh won’t backfire on us in the long run.  This is because there are still plenty of districts out there that will always be red no matter how disappointed with Bush or leery of McCain segments of the Republican base may be.  But a red district isn’t necessarily the worst possible outcome – having a Republican party that embraces the radical agenda of the last 7 years is.  In other words, like it or not, there will be Republicans in the next congress.  The only real question is whether they will play nice in the first couple of years of Obama’s first term.  As Cenk often asserts, there are reasonable and smart Republicans and as CQ reports, it appears that they are trying to regain control of their party (Ota, Alan. “Moderate Republicans Express Concern Over Push for Conservative Agenda.” 16 Jun 2008.).  So given our options, I think it is in our interest to do everything we can to help Republicans embrace a moderate party platform and agenda. 

Some may disagree with this assessment but here is why I think that it would be a tactical blunder to start pushing our leaders to pay back the conservatives for the shabby way they’ve treated us for the last 10 to 20 years.  First, the landscape is changing.  Think about it: The stigma of “liberalism” is not scaring people like it used to – so much so that conservative radio has started replacing the word “liberal” with “socialist.”&nb sp; Also and more importantly, the Republicans’ “Democrats-are-soft-o n-defense libel” is no longer as effective with independent voters.  Second, the general voter has had to do a lot of growing up over the last several years.  It really does not seem like the childish tactics and name calling commonly used by the Republicans are going to them a lot of good so why should we adopt their plays?  Third and perhaps most interesting, the evangelicals, who prior to the conservative take-over of the SBC could be fairly liberal on some issues, are slowly beginning to talk about the social-gospel again (e.g., helping the poor) and worry about the environment (which we all know is a strong suit for the Dems).  Don’t get me wrong on this last point, I am not saying evangelicals are here yet but I really doubt that many with show up on Election Day and I further doubt the votes of those that do are going to break as strongly in favor of the Republicans as they have in the past. 

And so the hard-core conservative has only one possibility of remaining politically viable, which is to transform the liberal from an individual who always wears socks with his Birkenstocks into “angry-Marxist-revolu tionary-liberal” (or perhaps more accurately, “angry-Marxists-revol utionary-black-power-libera l”).  I know it sounds really goofy, but in the wacky world of Republican politics, we can be both at the same time and no one seems to worry about contradictions or intellectual incongruence.  And the one thing we can do to help the hard-core conservative is to take our eye of the ball and focus on revenge when we should be focusing on good policy and bringing the message home for the independent. 

Now, I am not saying we should take on a more conservative set of policy preferences – not at all.  What I am saying though is that we’ve got to let the people who have voted Republican in the past couple of elections save a little face.  Don’t make them feel like idiots for getting caught-up in the messianic cult of personality conservative radio created for Bush.  Don’t focus on avenging the Republicans’ sins – focus on fixing them.  And as much as it pains me to say, don’t even hint at congressional hearing that involve administration officials.  Not until after the general election, anyway.  I think if we do these things we will see three huge benefits.  First, we will be better able to target independents.  Second, our inroads with the independents will force the Republicans to adopt a moderate policy platform and agenda.  And finally, a moderate Republican platform will disincline the true-believer-hardcore-cons ervative from voting Republican because, ironically, he will feel betrayed. 

So here is my final point.  I think Obama knows what he is doing.  I also think Reid and Pelosi do too.  And I think it would be a huge mistake for us, because we are angry, to force their hand too early.  And so with all due respect to Cenk, his important work, and his wonderful show: I think he needs to lay-off Reid, Pelosi, and other Dems until after the election.  They all know what kind of support they can expect from their base if they don’t deliver on their end-game.        &nb sp;