Tuesday, January 04, 2005
Vertebrates for America
One topic buzzing on Daily Kos this morning regards Russ Feingold's purported exploration of a 2008 presidential run. The conversation-starter came from U.S. News and World Report's "Washington Whispers," which is an unsourced political gossip column, so don't confuse it with an announcement--but I could see it. Feingold is as utterly principled a politician as I have ever observed up close. There are no skeletons in the man's closet--if there were, the Repugs would have found them in two tough campaigns to unseat him. But if he's going to be a successful presidential candidate, Democrats will have to get over the idea that someone who calls himself liberal is unelectable. One commenter to the post says it's about time the party did it.
One topic buzzing on Daily Kos this morning regards Russ Feingold's purported exploration of a 2008 presidential run. The conversation-starter came from U.S. News and World Report's "Washington Whispers," which is an unsourced political gossip column, so don't confuse it with an announcement--but I could see it. Feingold is as utterly principled a politician as I have ever observed up close. There are no skeletons in the man's closet--if there were, the Repugs would have found them in two tough campaigns to unseat him. But if he's going to be a successful presidential candidate, Democrats will have to get over the idea that someone who calls himself liberal is unelectable. One commenter to the post says it's about time the party did it.
you know what I'm sick and tired of hearing? "He's too liberal." The American fucking people are liberal. They support a woman's right to choose. They oppose drilling in ANWR. Hell, on issue after issue, a majority of Americans will side with liberals over conservatives time after time. Social Security? Yup. Education? Got that one too. Iraq War? Yup, though that one took some time. Gay Marriage? Throw in Americans who support civil unions and we outnumber them 2 to 1.The problem, as this guy sees it, isn't what Democrats stand for--it's that they don't stand up for what they stand for.
I remember when being a Democrat meant something. When it meant saying we can take this family all the way to the homestead and no one ever gets kicked off the wagon. I remember when a person who wanted to kill Social Security couldn't be elected county nut shaver, when people who knowingly endanged American lives were tried for treason and thrown in prison where they belong."We can take this family all the way to the homestead and no one ever gets kicked off the wagon." A neater summation of New Deal Democracy you are not going to read anywhere. It would be the Quote of the Day if it weren't for this from another Kos reader: "Russ Feingold had a spine before Howard Dean made it cool to be a vertebrate."
Oh, and I understand you aren't dissing Feingold. I read you loud and clear when you say "The trick is to frame it right, which I think Feingold could do, if anybody," but don't you EVER fucking say being liberal is a PROBLEM. I am a liberal, like FDR, MLK and LBJ before me, and I will not have my desegregating, prosperity bringing, poverty ending, womens liberating, facism destroying, champion of civil rights self be marginalized because you're afraid of the big bullies at the campaign playground.
