Dan Carol
Post-Katrina Reality Check
So it's a pleasure to be doing a guest blogging gig for DMI. There aren't many groups out there who are trying to move message and policy on middle class issues and investment economics, let alone doing it in a way that isn't dry -- but in fact is creatively framed and understands to the core that message has to actually move people to move policy. To which I say, bravo. Because we need a new breed of think tanks and DMI is a real harbinger of the right direction.
What to write about? Well, I could moan and groan about the state of the world here on Day 1407 (or whatever day it is) of the Bush Administration but thought I'd use this week to instead try and sketch out where I think progressives stand in the post-Katrina moment.
Today I am going to take a crack at outlining the situation from 10,000 foot level. Then in subsequent days I will try and offer up some ideas and solutions to fix some of the identified challenges.
So where are progressives? Well, I don't think they sit any worse off than any other political group or institution. That's because I think that Katrina is just the latest example of massive institutional failure in our society that is leading to a complete realignment of which organizations people trust. This time local-state and the federal government have taken a well-deserved and severe hit in public confidence, joining past crises that have shaken our trust in churches safely watching over our children, in schools educating our kids to compete internationally without more reform, in baseball players not lying over steroids, and our business leaders not ripping us off a la Enron and Worldcom. Hell, even the Red Cross took on some water in New Orleans for failing to move fast enough at the Convention Center.
But while progressives and Democrats will be struggling to build brand loyalty in the years to come, so will Republicans and conservatives whose Halliburton-S&L privatization schemes of the last 20 years don't look so hot anymore.
Thus at 10,000 feet, the first challenge for progressives post-Katrina is simply to understand that no political grouping right now --us included-- has the credibility to be trusted to fix anything. Frankly, it's all up for grabs --for the foreseeable future skeptical citizens will be looking at message ping pong between well-meaning proposals for New-New-Deals involving what will be perceived as potentially wasteful Big Guvment from Democrats versus more of the same "let Halliburton fix it" pablum from Team Cheney and the Cronyists on the right. Voters won't want either of these options -- they will want to see something new that seems no-nonsense and trustworthy. So until this realignment of loyalties takes shape, the only institution that people will trust to perform effectively and restore the semblance of order is probably the military. Weird, huh? More on that come Tuesday.
Where else do progressives sit post-Katrina? Well, our second challenge is to figure out how to justify investment spending in an era of permanent federal budget deficits that will crowd out new money for infrastructure and domestic spending on us. That'll be a post for Wednesday.
Perhaps most importantly, progressives are also split between calls for justice in the wake of Katrina and calls for jobs. They are also split emotionally between justifiable ANGER and an absence of HOPE. (In case you didn't follow it, what went down this weekend at The Millions More March is big stuff. Russell Simmons, the Progressive Baptist National Convention, Harry Belafonte, the NAACP and Louis Farrakhan are all really-really ticked off and their Gathering grows.)
How can we bridge these two calls for action? Can we? Will the change come from faith or from framing -- well, I'll save that amen post for the end of the week.
Dan Carol: Author Bio | Other Posts
Posted at 11:21 AM, Oct 17, 2005 in Progressive Agenda
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Comments
Dan's right.
Six weeks after Katrina, rescuers are still reporting no signs of the Democratic Party. Even back in Washington, where mobs of rich, white Republicans are amassing atop the Capitol building frantically awaiting Coast Guard airlifts out of a city awash in a flood of cronyism, corruption and incompetence, Democrats are nowhere to be found.
With only just more than twelve months until the 2006 congressional midterms, Americans watching the nightly news coverage of the Republican Party’s implosion in slow motion – and it’s not over yet, folks – are beginning to wonder whether Democrats might actually retake both the Senate and the House next fall. However many miles lie between now and then, and the Democratic Party not only can’t seem to find the road, they don’t even seem to own a map.
Recent post-Katrina and post-indictment polls, while unsurprisingly finding Republican approval ratings reaching new lows, are surprisingly finding Democratic approval ratings tanking as well. Simply standing by as the other guy falls down is not proving the way to appear taller.
The Democratic Party has spent the last almost five years doing little more than aiming cannon fire at the Republican armada, albeit quite often justifiably. But as those once unsinkable Republicans are finally taking on water, Democrats, for too many years having offered no big ideas of their own to set them apart and keep them afloat, are sinking right alongside them.
Political parties win elections by winning the battle of ideas, however simplified or even misrepresented they may actually be. They win by offering a vision, even if that vision is sadly little more than one of safety and security. They don’t win control solely because their rivals seem to be losing it. They don’t win by being the lesser of two evils. History shows that when faced with a choice between evils, voters will always choose the evil they know.
Democrats must move beyond being the anti-Bush, anti-Republican party. If that were all it took to win elections, John Kerry would be in the White House, and Democrats would be in control of the Senate rather than having in fact slipped further into minority status last November.
However justified, the Democratic Party's anger-driven, single-minded focus on the person of George Bush, rather than his palpably unjust policies, has been their undoing. An anti-Bush platform, cannot, by itself, hold the weight of all the pressing national needs deserving of center stage. An anti-Bush platform only serves to confirm the negative nature of politics, and harden the assumptions of powerlessness many feel to change what is.
An anti-Bush platform presumes the president as the cause of all our problems rather than, as is more likely, representative of them. Democrats must wake up to the fact that George Bush is just a man, and as certain as no man is an island, no man is either a nation.
Democrats must right now let go of the fallacy that winning the 2006 and 2008 elections will simply be a matter of doing a better job mobilizing their base. Democrats must instead learn to mobilize and persuade, rather than simply continue mobilizing the persuaded. They must face up to the fact that there is no great, untapped reserve of liberal voters out there. The supply has passed its peak, and Democrats must explore for other sources of energy.
To have any chance of capitalizing on the Republican Party's self-inflicted wounds, Democrats must begin laying out a positive agenda beyond just kicking the Republicans while they're down. As good as that might feel, voters, especially the large swath of voters in the moderate middle, are waiting to hear from Democrats about their big, positive, visionary ideas that address multiple problems simultaneously while strengthening progressive and American values. Simply continuing to be the anti-Bush party will only sink the hapless Democratic Party further into the minority.
Posted by: Todd Huffman | October 19, 2005 11:47 AM
Bravo Dan. Another message totally on track. Beyond the blatant disgrace of what happened in the wake of Katrina, it's getting VERY tiresome hearing Dems talk about little else beyond the obvious failure and narrowmindedness of the current party in charge, in addition to the alarming display of (what seems to ME at least) a willingness to cooperate with certain things that should be made more of and called on for the lies they are.
In my opinion, most (not all) Democrats of late have not done much that is of merit or worthy of respect.
I feel that the Dems who fail to light fires and are content to stick to the status quo (perhaps because their bread is buttered by elephants?) need to leave right along with the current Republican administration, especially if the Dems manage to win the next election. The next four years will be hypercritical in regards to the amount of clean up, repair, and rehabiliation that will be required in the aftermath of the worst White House crew in history.
We need people voted in who won't be afraid to see things through, who are willing to stand up to corruption no matter what it takes, and who can relate to, understand, and know how to speak to people across ALL classes, cultures and religions, not just preach to the same choir about the same things that choir has been singing on their own for years now. I want someone who is willing to fight for change, get angry if it's necessary, and even yell if it's called for, because sadly there has been an OVERWHELMING lot to be angry about over the past 5-6 years. We cannot afford another would-be leader who in the face of election fraud promises to fight to the end but then gives up the next day--how frightening would it be for someone lacking conviction and persistence to be making the decisions that effect us all! I don't want someone who votes whichever way guarantees them more funding. The time for passivity has passed, things are too far gone for that to be of benefit any longer.
It's time to be daring, be focused, be truthful and be unwilling to give the destroyers of everything for which our country is supposed to stand even an inch to move.
Posted by: An Ex-Assistant Without His Inspiration | October 19, 2005 02:02 PM
The American Dream is in post op. And it isn't pretty. The Land of Opportunity disintegrated.
HOPE is what motivates us to rebuild, to rethink our priorities and get up yet another day to fight the good fight.
Progressives need to re-create the party to build HOPE and a vision to restore the American Dream and make this again, the Land of Opportunity vs. the Land of Haliburton.
It will take Guts and a Desire that can overcome the reality of todays facts. Do we have it? We better! I've frankly had enough.
Posted by: Mari Anne Gest | October 19, 2005 03:21 PM