The Progressive Pledge

Well.

The news today from the March 4 primaries is a bit disappointing. I have to admit that although Barack Obama would be at best my third choice for President (after Kucinich and Edwards), I prefer him to Hillary Clinton. After Edwards dropped out of the race I had to think long and hard about whether I could vote for either of the two candidates left in the Democratic Primary. After reading their campaign sites and doing some soul searching, I’m pretty sure at this point I could place a vote for Obama, but am pretty sure I can’t say the same for Clinton.

The setup: Reading the policy positions on the web sites, and thinking about where change happens on the federal level, I’ve realized that many of their proposals are nice to read, but will be impossible for them to achieve as President without the Congress making them happen. Health care, economic proposals, energy efficiency, etc.: these are all legislative prerogatives. So while it’s nice that they want to try to do all these things, the bottom line is that they just can’t, unless there’s a progressive majority in Congress doing the heavy lifting.

So, much of what they can accomplish in office will depend on what comes out of the legislature. I can see in general three different possible legislative outcomes:

1. Their proposals come through Congress intact and unscathed.
2. Bills are passed which implement some but not all of their proposals. In which case:
   1. The partial implementations make conditions better; or
   2. The partial implementations make conditions worse (for example: mandated health care coverage [which puts a huge wash of insurance premiums into the insurer's pockets] without regulation [such as requiring companies to issue coverage despite pre-existing conditions]).

   OR

3. Bills are passed which end up being more progressive than what the President has in mind.

Here’s how I would ultimately want to tell the difference between Obama and Clinton: I want each of them to take The Progressive Pledge:

I pledge that if elected, I will work with Congress to achieve my stated goals. If I am presented with an implementation which is more progressive than what I have outlined, I will sign it into law. If I am presented with a partial implementation of my proposals which ends up being less progressive than my proposals, I will veto the partial implementation and send it back.

Any candidate which starts with progressive proposals and which can take that pledge has my vote in November. Unless there are more than one such candidate? – boy that would be nice, to have a choice.

Not a good idea – Loyalty Pledge

The Democratic Party is trying to nullify your influence in the primary process by asking for a loyalty pledge. It would be a bad idea to take them up on it.

According to Wikipedia, a loyalty oath typically comes at a time of stress, crisis, or conflict. One has to wonder whether that crisis or stress is internal or external to the Democratic Party. For example, the Party could argue that the current Administration has caused various crises domestically and in foreign relations, that the candidates for the Republican presidential nomination will likely continue policies which extend and exacerbate the situation(s), and that this is a time to strengthen the Party by a show of solidarity.

However, the crisis may also be internal. Unfortunately for the Party, the candidates from the Democratic nomination for President differ in their policies recommendations; the expressed policies of some of the candidates may in fact also extend or exacerbate some of the problems engendered by the current Administration. Voters in the Democratic primaries and caucuses actually have a real opportunity to express how they feel about the current crises facing America, and by their choices for the nomination, express their priorities. Do you want a candidate who will reverse course from the current Administration, in effect being diametrically opposed to all the Administration’s tenets? Vote for Dennis Kucinich or John Edwards. Were you initially in support of, but currently frustrated with the Iraq war? And still rather hawkish on Iran and Pakistan, and do you want tepid health care “reform”? You may prefer Hillary Clinton. Are you a candidate for change, despite your voting record in the Senate? You might choose Barack Obama, who was endorsed today by John Kerry, a man with so little conviction and charisma that he could not defeat a wildly unpopular sitting president.

Wouldn’t it benefit you as a liberal or a progressive to express support for the Party and whomever is their eventual nominee? No. It might help the Party advertise how “strong” it might be in the general election; how many votes its nominee might be able to count on. But keep in mind one very important fact: once the Party can ‘count on’ your vote, you have lost any ability to expressed a nuanced opinion of the candidates’ positions. Simply put, if you commit now, they don’t have to listen to you any more. Especially if you don’t have any big money to bundle or contribute.

If you believe that there is any difference between the candidates on issues which are important to you, make it clear to the Party that they either need to support sympathetic candidates, or put pressure on their nominee to support your position, or you will ‘walk’. You can only have influence within the Party as long as your defend your right to vote for someone else: the Republican, a candidate from another party, or for no one at all.

And how depressing is this news? What is happening to the Democratic Party – it is intent on eating itself? I hope the Party in TX loses this case. If they don’t, I hope they lose a large number of members and accelerate their slide into insignificance. This is a state party which doesn’t support candidates for state-wide office, has state-wide candidates who endorse Republicans for governor, Lt. Gov, and Speaker of the House, and when they do run candidates, make absurd choices like Tony Sanchez. They might as welll just fold up their tent and go home.