Earlier this week I wrote a long post both complimenting the great new book Crashing The Gates and laying out some strategic choices I'd love to see the emergent Netrooters like Kos and MyDD address, or shape, moving forward.
Then came the Feingold imbroglio -- which aptly illustrates exactly where we DON'T want to go. So here's a much briefer outline of my strategic "straw dog" from the other day.
It will likely anger you as "un-ambitious" - or you can read it as a pretty level-headed roadmap for getting what WE WANT in 2006 and beyond. We can hope that House and Senate Democrats will come to their senses and act like an organized party overnight with a fresh new message, a fife and a drum - picture the English Army in formation -- or we can employ jujitsu strategies that gets the job done with a guerilla mindset.
So...
1-Stop being surprised at how much the Democrats are in disarray from week to week. Until we have a nominee in 2008, a single Democrat voice isn't going to emerge nor will the perfect message. It isn't possible because, for one thing, we don't live in a parliamentary democracy with tight party discipline yet. So stop being upset that Feingold's censure breakout from the 2008 pack is going nowhere - start thinking about how we can throw the bums out another way. Before you grumble another moment about the Feingold imbroglio, remember that great 1970s show Kung Fu with David Carradine, close your eyes and hear the master's advice to us on censuring or impeaching Bush: "do not let your hate of Bush get in the way of smart strategy, grasshopper."
2-Does it make one soft on Bush - or coldly realistic - to say that Impeachment or Censure may make our base of Bush-haters happy, but unless we take back a House of Congress and get subpoena and investigative powers for Henry Waxman and others that these fine dogs (impeachment and censure) just ain't hunting? No one wants show trials more than me. I just want them to matter.
3-So how do we take back Congress? I am with the folks who suggest we give up on the national Democratic Party as a source for coherent national message anytime soon (yes, we should still hope for the best) and instead focus intelligently on helping our best candidates speak clearly and be for big stuff -- in their own voice. But if I am wrong, I am still dubious about any national message that says -- TO VOTERS AT LARGE WHO THINK BOTH PARTIES ARE LAME -- much more than "elect a Democratic House to restore balance to the system because the Republicans are out of control." Beyond that, I think we're over-reaching on the Democratic brand as it sits in voter's minds today.
4-Life after 2006. As good as the Crashing the Gates analogy is, one must recognize that until our new, non-weenie farm team candidates take national and Congressional office in the years ahead, there won't be much there inside the gates. Few Kings, few queens, not rice or beans even in the cupboard. No answer on policies or message either.
Moving forward, besides "inside the gate" strategies, we also need for the Netroots and others out there to consciously create "reach issues" that surely cut Democratic like energy independence, health care, public investment, and broadband for all -- but un-harness them initially from the "taint" of Party ownership until we really fix the Democratic brand and have built true candidate accountability. Because we live in a post-party era, where half of America doesn't vote and thinks both parties stink, where "not left, not right but forward" will be the message that wins right? So whether it's Mark Warner, or Oprah as an independent, or something else we can't predict, I think the next book from Kos and Armstrong should help define the politics of change around "reach issues". And if the Democratic brand is smart enough to embrace that, then that castle can shine on the Hill again.