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December 20, 2004
Third Parties? Instant Run-Off Voting? It the Culture War, Stupid!
I'm very sick of people proclaiming "The Death of the Democratic Party" while failing to recognize:
A. The cyclical nature of politics.
B. The power of talking points to become truth.
Everytime someone on our side declares the party to be dead, it's one more blow to the party. In the bloodsport of politics, language becomes a weapon, and words become the new truth - whether or not they have anything to do with fact.
This all leads me into a brief discussion of Third Parties, and Instant Run-Off Voting. I've heard a lot coming out of "Progressive" camps about this, including from several friends of mine. What strikes me is that I don't hear anyone on the other side of the fence calling for a new party apparatus, even though there's a huge difference between the cultural conservatives and the economic conservatives. If additional parties were going to benefit our side, they'd also benefit their side - and yet, I hear nothing about this. The reason is - this is a VERY BAD IDEA. I'll repeat:
Splitting the Democrats into Multiple Parties is a VERY BAD IDEA.
If the Kuschinich-ites run-off and start playing ball by themselves or with the Naderites, then we're going to have two small parties crushed by a behemoth Republican party.
Now this is where Instant Run-Off Voting supposedly comes into play - with IRV, third parties can have their candidates in the race but not take votes away from a viable candidate. At the end of the day, how are we supposed to have message discipline if there's two party appartatuses supporting one candidate (which is what IRV would lead to.) If Third Parties all of a sudden have traction without actually having the ability to get more than 5% of the vote, then the discussion is going to become a lot noiseier than it already is, leading to a message disaster and the continued definition of the discussion by the right wing.
Giving Lyndon LaRouche and Ralph Nader a voice is not the answer, nor is entertaining the whim of every whack-o Kuschinichite who are exactly the same as Republicans except instead of protesting for Jesus they're protesting for Tofu.
My point is this - When the Republicans lose, they don't threaten to leave the Republican Party. They figure out what they did wrong - and fix it. We need to stop trying to figure out ways to spread ourselves thinner, or to find other outlets because we feel that our side isn't "blank-enough." The only way we're going to win is if we work internally.
Which leads me to my next point - the lines in this battle have been drawn, and we keep getting beat because we don't recognize what battle we're fighting. We're in a Culture War - period. We need to recognize that. And that means economic populism must fall away for now - we're not going to win anything by fighting against corporations - that's a distraction. We need to fight against the fundamentalist agenda, and make sure that we protect our rights. We need to be fighting for abortion, free speech, and keeping the government out of our bedroom. And we need to make it clear that this is the fight we're in - we can win this on cultural grounds, but we need to fight it there.
So to my Fellow Dems, here's my proposals:
1. Stop complaining about corporations. We're not going to win that fight. I'm not saying that we should start shopping at Walmart, but the Corporations are a symptom - not the problem. Cultural victories will lead to Economic ones.
2. Jesusfreaks are never going to like us, so we need to stop pretending we can reach out to them. They've drawn the lines in this battle, and picked their "saviour" while we all retch. No matter how many times we say Health Care and Living Wage to them, they're going to come back with Jesus. So let's focus on the fights we can win.
3. The Middle Class and Business Owners are NOT the Enemy. Everytime we discuss punishing the successful, we push away a large bloc of voters who are with us culturally. As a party, we can span economic boundaries to make sure that we worship as we please, and that we can sleep with whom we like. Let's stop talking like it's a crime to be rich, and start talking about how we have the right to say whatever we please in this country.
4. You can't affect policy if you don't win. I understand that it hurts people when they feel that they're not being listened to during a campaign, or that they're being ignored. But it doesn't matter whom you talk to during the campaign if you don't win - policy is not dictated on the trail, who gets to decide that policy is.
I'll have additional thoughts later.
Posted by MikeSager at December 20, 2004 2:06 PM
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