The Positive Case for American Democracy and Electing Democrats

1. Ghosts of Elections Past
   1. The Ghosts of Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale
   2. The Ghost of Jesse Jackson
   3. The Ghosts of Lord Nelson, Karl Rove, and Rick Wilson
   4. The Ghost of Election 2024
2. What Should the Democratic Agenda Be?
   1. The Corruption Commission
   2. A Joint Committee on the Epstein Files
   3. Immigration
   4. The Economy
   5. Foreign Policy
   6. Climate Change
   7. Democracy
3. Image Attribution

What Happened To The Democratic Party?

I was listening to Alex Wagner interview Heather Cox Richardson on her podcast, Runaway Country, At the end of the show, Richardson posed the question, “What is the positive case for American democracy?” She expressed her desire for Democrats to make that case as part of the reason they should control Congress..

Serendipity: I was corresponding with friend of Ye Olde Blogge, Chuq, and read his excellent post, What of the Democrats? He lamented the lack of answer from the Democrats to Trump’s authoritarian corporatist push.. This led me to read a year-old post of his with a similar topic. Long story short, I started thinking about Jimmy Carter’s loss to Ronald Reagan in 1980, oft cited by many pundits and scholars as the beginnings of our long descent into anti-democratic single-party minority-rule autocracy.

Ghosts of Elections Past

The Ghosts of Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale

In answer to Carter;s landslide loss and the even bigger shellacking that Reagan gave Woefully Mundane in 1984, Democrats went full Reagan-lite with Clinton’s own corporatist New Democrats and Third Way bullshit. Remember, the shift in our political focus resulted from Nixon’s destruction of our economy through the temporary stimulus of slashing interest rates, Carter’s struggles in both foreign and domestic policy, Reagan’s dirty Iranian tricks, and Clinton’s craven capitulation shaped our political landscape.

The Democrats looked at the losses suffered in 1980 and 1984 and thought, the only way forward is to become more like the Republicans. The progressive base will have to stay with us because there’s nowhere for them to go, and we’ll pick off enough Democratic and Republican centrists to win! And, winning, after all, is the only thing that is important in a democracy, so ends justify the means.

The Ghost of Jesse Jackson

It’s no coincidence that Jesse Jackson ran in 1984 and 1988 and did well. He finished second in the 1988 presidential primary. It’s almost as if his dying wish was to remind us of our folly in the 1992 election, urging us not to repeat the same mistake now. Jackson’s candidacy and success should’ve reminded us that Reagan’s victory was rooted in racist dog-whistle politics and not corporatist pro-business “conservative” fiscal policy. In fact, Reagan blew up the deficit through Voodoo Economics better known as Trickle Down.

The Ghosts of Lord Nelson, Karl Rove, and Rick Wilson

As Lord Nelson allegedly said, “Never mind maneuvers, go straight at them!” Or as the despicable Karl Rove’s Swift Boating of John Kerry’s honorable Viet Nam wart service against him or Rick Wilson’s disparagement of Max Cleland’s literal loss of limbs in Viet Nam shows how to use an opponent’s strength against them. While we don’t need to use the strategy as fuel for rat-fucking our opponents as those two unapologetic unforgivable bastards, may they both die broke, cold, alone, and miserable and land in a very deep and richly deserved level of hell.

The Ghost of Election 2024

At best Trump had a modest electoral college win in Election 2024,. Even though the electoral college margin of victory for the winning candidate has been growing since W won by five EC votes in 2000, his 86-vote margin still ranks as modest historically. The shift in the popular vote may have netted him a majority of votes for the first time since W in 2004, he still only won by one and half percentage points. And while he may have won all seven swing states in some cursed coincidence, the shift in voting ranged from one and a half points in Wisconsin to 5.8 in Arizona. This is hardly the stuff of mandate or resounding defeat. In fact, most pundits acknowledge that Harris was making up ground rapidly as the election drew to a close, causing many to speculate that if she had had a campaign longer than 107 days, she may very well have won.

What Should the Democratic Agenda Be?

There’s no reason to throw in the towel on our policy beliefs and remake ourselves in Trump’s image. We shouldn’t be afraid of taking on the issues that he won on — the economy and immigration. In fact, givenTrump’s record, Democrats should run on those issues. Instead of hiding behind vague promises — not that Democrats have said fuck all about what they’d do if given control of Congress — they should be working on the bills or at least the concepts of the bills that they will produce in two weeks they will pass if given control of one of the chambers.

In my view it should break down like this:

The Corruption Commission

Democrats should propose a Warren Commission-type investigation into corruption affecting our politics, dating back to Obama or W. The emphasis should be on getting to the truth and being fair. If Obama and Biden have nothing to hide, an independent commission of out-of-office reputable Democrats, Republicans, and Independents could examine the evidence. It seems to be the only sane path forward.

A Joint Committee on the Epstein Files

We need a big splashy investigation into this complicated matter. It should be similar to the Joint Committee on #COVID19 or the Select Committee in the House that investigated the 6 January Insurrection. Even if it doesn’t happen, just proposing it demonstrates that Democrats are serious about prosecuting whatever malfeasance is hiding in the files no matter who committed it

Immigration

Democrats need an immigration policy that closes the border and deals with the undocumented immigrants that our economy depends on. Trump has exposed the inanity of mass deportation. We need those people to do jobs that most Americans won’t take and to pay taxes ($97 billion). Most Americans resoundingly reject the cruelty of his immigration policies, the prison-industrial complex, and the concentration camps. Democrats should pound Trump and the Republicans with that from now until we are rid of these despicable practices and advocate a humane practical solution that gives the undocumented a path to legality.

The Economy

Democrats should pledge to return to sane economic policies. Most voters realize that tariffs are driving inflation and that Republicans are transferring the nation’s wealth to the one percent. To counter Republican disinformation, Democrats need to get out in front and proactively drive the narrative.

Foreign Policy

We should be screaming about the dangers that weakening NATO puts us in. We needn’t be decrying siding with Putin and the favors that Trump’s done for Xi and the Saudis. Republicans can just soil our wits with lies, accusations, and bothsidesism. We should point out that Europe paying for more of its defense and becoming more independent of our military protection is a good thing, but that we should reinforce our mutual defense. We can’t commit superpower suicide and retreat off of the world stage and limit ourselves to a regional power. We don’t need a detailed Foreign Affairs wonky explanation of it all, we just need an appeal to common sense.

Climate Change

It is clear that Trump and Republicans are prolonging the agony of climate change by promoting fossil fuels. A clear, common-sense approach is needed: because everyone can see the increasing severity of weather events. We can and should lead the world towards renewable energy. However, we don’t need an overly detailed scientific approach here. We don’t need to get bogged down in arguments about being beholden to Putin and the Saudis, either. We need to appeal to common sense.

Democracy

We don’t need Chicken Little running through the streets screaming about fascism and Nazis. Such an approach only leaves us vulnerable to disinformation and wildly combative counter arguments. We do need to emphasize American values: voting, equity, and a more perfect union. We need to emphasize the lack of voter fraud. We shouldn’t engage in nitpicking about voter ID laws but rather champion the fairness of past elections.

What’s wrong with the leadership of the Democratic Party that they can’t seize the moment and make the bold moves necessary to right the sinking Ship Wreck of State that Trump and the Republicans have saddled us with.

These are my thoughts on what the Democrats should be doing. I’d love to hear your thoughts and opinions in the comments!

Image Attribution

The image was found on Citizen Jack using a Creative Commons search.