Don’t Focus

Professor Larry Lessig recently requested that we don’t lose sight of “the goal” – electing Barack Obama as President of the United States. There are a number of ways in which his argument fails, both logically and personally.

1. Perhaps most important is the conflation of avoiding a McCain presidency with electing Barack Obama. These are clearly not the same goals, given that there are more than these two candidates for President. Granted, so far only these two seem to be on the ballots of all 50 states; however, if any other candidate appears on enough ballots to gain 271 electoral votes, then they are viable alternatives to both McCain and Obama.
2. Prof. Lessig asks us to worry first about electing Obama, and then about bringing pressure on President Obama to espouse progressive values and legislation. However, it’s clear that after the election it’s too late for influence, except perhaps as an implicit threat not to vote for him for a second term. If progressives don’t make it clear right now that their candidate must espouse progressive values, then they won’t have any seat at the policy table.Voters faced the same dilemma when pulling the lever for Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1996. Progressives decided to hold their noses and vote defensively, avoiding a GHWBush second term and a Dole presidency. What they got was certainly better than what we have now, or a so-called McBush presidency, but it was not an administration which pushed aggressively for a progressive world-view. I think this was made clear by the abandonment in this cycle of Hillary Clinton as a candidate.
3. Professor Lessig encourages us to have a particularly short-range focus over a long-range focus. The long-range strategy is to use the political system to make it clear to the Democratic Party and to individual candidates that they cannot win the Presidency without the support of progressive voters. Democratic candidates should therefore be courting the Edwards/Kucinich/Nader supporters, not alienating them in an attempt to “move to the (non-existent) center”. You’d think that after Gore lost in 2000 (with Lieberman! as his VP), and John “reporting for duty” Kerry lost in 2004, the party would have gotten the message.In fact, you’d almost have given Barack Obama credit (during the primary) for learning that lesson. It certainly sounded like “change” was synonymous with a new progressive approach to policy. His background would have given one “hope” that he’d buck the typical interests in Washington. Certainly his declarations around foreign policy (“meet with anyone”) were bold and appreciated. However (and I’ll go into these in a later post), we have these missteps:
   • Supporting conservative Democratic Congressional incumbents (Barrow, GA) over progressive primary challengers.
   • Support for corn-based ethanol as a fuel alternative, despite its horrible effect on world food prices and its own huge carbon footprint.
   • Auctioning off carbon credits to polluters (in a cap-and-trade system) and using the proceeds as energy credits for consumers?
   • Uncritical support for Israel’s occupation of Palestine.
   • Opting out of public financing – yes, we all know the system is broken, and yes, we know you can’t win without doing this. But it’s a disappointment all the same. It would be nice to be on the podium with McCain and Feingold and discuss why this might be necessary.

I’ll put more in a subsequent post about this, but I thought I’d plant the seed here. Progressives need to look hard at the promises made in the Obama campaign and evaluate each of them in terms of their likelihood of implementation. The most obvious distinction is between executive and legislative prerogatives. For example, when Obama promises a health-care proposal, it’s nice but it’s hot air, since it can only be implemented by the legislature. And we’ve seen how well that worked for the Clintons. Same with a lot of the education and environmental policies (except those which can be implemented by Executive Order). On the other hand, if you have warmed over Clinton foreign policy hawks as advisors, you can predict where the Commander-in-Chief might stand with respect to Iraq, Iran, Palestine, etc. And of course check out Senator Obama’s voting record on judicial appointments.

I fear that Professor Lessig’s post reads like the first in a series of disappointments; if we’re unlucky, leading ultimately to heartbreak. Much like the couple planning to get married in November, you can’t go into this with the idea that “we’ll get married first, then I’ll work on my partner to change later”. You need to work on your partner first, and if they’re not who you need them to be, then don’t marry them in November.

Vote Edwards on Super Tuesday

An open letter to the Democrats in Alabama, Alaska, American Samoa, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah:

Please consider casting your vote for John Edwards in your upcoming caucus or primary. With Dennis Kucinich out of the race, I think Edwards is the progressive candidate of choice. While I admire Barack Obama’s activism in the past, and his compelling speeches, his voting record in the US Senate is uninspiring, and his campaign rhetoric makes me worry that he’s being coached by the same “center-seeking” advisors who were so successful with Gore in 2000 and Kerry in 2004. There is no political center, and you can’t be everything to everyone. You have to pick a side, and I think Edwards has done that.

Read his web site, his positions and proposed policies. They’re not perfect, but they’re not wishy-washy either. If you want to send a clear message to the Democratic Party that progressives must be heard and cultivated, then please vote for Edwards on Super Tuesday.

Please, Edwards, stay in the race

I’m not sure I agree with Greg Saunders about being ABC (anyone but Clinton); I would still have to work pretty hard to cast a ballot for Barack Obama. So I really want John Edwards to stay in the primaries through the convention.

I want to be able to signal to the eventual Democratic nominee that there is a significant progressive community with policy disagreements which need to be addressed. We can’t do that if we can’t cast ballots for the actual progressives in the party – Dennis Kucinich (despite his bizarre flameouts) and John Edwards. Given only a choice between Obama and Clinton, how do we express our dissatisfaction with their policy choices, except to sit out the primary process? And afterwards, how do we make clear to them that they still need to earn our votes? Do we really need to repeat 2000 and 2004 all over again?

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.