Grayson's Teachable Moment for Democrats

by: Chris Bowers

Thu Oct 01, 2009 at 17:00


Usually when Republicans and conservative media join together to throw a coordinated hissy fit against something "outrageous" a Democrat has said, it resulted in apologies (John Kerry in 2006), resignations (Van Jones) and public condemnations in Congress (MoveOn.org). Yesterday, however, Republicans actually backed down from their hissy fit when Rep. Alan Grayson stood up to them. Even as Grayson intensified his rhetoric, Republicans withdrew their resolution to condemn him on the House floor.

There were several important differences between this and most of the other attacks from the Republican manufactured outrage machine. Other Democrats in Congress could stand to learn from them:

  1. Grayson specifically chose to use rhetoric that echoed earlier rhetoric used by many prominent Republicans. Lesson: Throwing Republican rhetoric back at them can potentially be more effective then just condemning Republican rhetoric.

  2. Too often, Democrats allow policy discussions to be derailed by Republican rhetorical excess. By contrast, Grayson used his rhetorical moment to shift to a policy argument about tens of thousands of people dying from lack of health insurance.  Lesson: rhetorical moments like these can allow you to control the debate, as Republicans long ago learned

  3. Many Democrats in congress are oblivious to the existence of the progressive netroots or even progressive media. As such, they think no one will be around to support them if they pick a fight like this. Alan Garyson, by contrast, hired Matt Stoller, thus making his office more aware of the netroots than anyone else in Congress. His non-apology yesterday was targeted directly at the progressive netroots, and earned him $100,000. Further, progressive media like the Huffington Post and the Daily Show immediately produced reams of quotes and video showing Republicans using the same sort of rhetoric over the summer.

    Lesson: If you want to pick a fight, and if you understand the medium, progressive media and the progressive netroots can help you.

It is a landmark moment for a freshman Democrat from a marginal, R+2 district to win a rhetorical fight with the Republican smear machine like this. Hopefully, it will become a teachable moment for other Democrats in Congress.
Chris Bowers :: Grayson's Teachable Moment for Democrats

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Grayson's Teachable Moment for Democrats | 29 comments
rhetoric / actions (4.00 / 7)
representative grayson's rhetoric was great. i heard his floor statement live and cheered.

he's raised over $100K. now grayson needs to make his actions match his words and sign on as cosponsor of hr 676 or some other universal healthcare bill. supporting only legislation that leaves millions without healthcare and continues to condemn thousands to death each year is not good enough.

Yep! (0.00 / 0)
I'm glad Grayson is showing strength and courage in telling it like it is, but as with any politician, his actions need to be consistent with his rhetoric.  In that vein, I'll post the GovTrack.us link to his record so far:

http://www.govtrack.us/congres...

I highly advise checking out the information on who has given him money, and what legislation he has sponsored, co-sponsored, supported, or opposed.  That will tell us everything we really need to know about him.


[ Parent ]
Here's a link to where he's gotten his money from. (0.00 / 0)
http://www.opensecrets.org/pol...

It would help more to know what specific companies have given him money, but overall it appears standard for a Democrat, which is to say, neither comforting or too alarming.


[ Parent ]
Brilliant! (4.00 / 7)
Grayson threw the nasty language back at the GOP... And actually spoke the truth. Jeez, I wish my Congresscritters had the spine he does.

Want to save marriage equality in Maine? Ask me how! ;-)
About Democrats learning from this? (4.00 / 6)
Don't worry, Chris, they won't.

They don't want to.

That's the core problem.  If they wanted to, they could have adopted these strategies long ago.  They simply don't want to compete.  They'd rather be Repbulican-lite.  It's easier and much more profitable.

REID: Voting against us was never part of our arrangement!
SPECTER: I am altering the deal! Pray I don't alter it any further!
REID: This deal keeps getting worse all the time!

Many do. They are still left out of the media when they do make statements. (4.00 / 2)
..and many are still living in the past.

I am more than sure that there will be lots more 'truth telling' going forward.

On a little side note we need to start celebrating heroes around here that arent 'wearing Dem blue because it makes getting bribes easier' Democrats, so we know that their are people who deserve our respect, who are people of service.

"All politicians are corrupt" is a lie.

Change
"We must break up the banks and never again let them get so big that they distort our politics and take down the economy.

[ Parent ]
Paul Rosenberg quoted President Truman (4.00 / 2)
If they stop lying about us, we'll stop telling the truth about them.
and I loved it. While wikipedia says it was
"I will make a bargain with the Republicans. If they will stop telling lies about Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them."
-Adlai Stevenson
The point is still the same. And it is still true. The Republicans dont have any points that aren't lies.  

Grayson didn't just protect himself by not backing down, he advanced himself, made his e-election more likely, made the case for health reform strongly, sat the Repubs back on their screaming scheming heels and got national attention.

This is indeed an object lesson. Now we need to email this article to every Democrat in congress. Who's up for that job? If we had personal e-mails all the better. No one has to share the better email addresses, just do it and say you've done it. Or just do it.


Change
"We must break up the banks and never again let them get so big that they distort our politics and take down the economy.

Grayson implementes Consfucianism's Rectification of Names, (4.00 / 6)
in other words, the society is best served when leaders call it like it is.
Very True (4.00 / 7)
On point #2. It seems that when suggestions such this have been made int he past, they are brushed aside with a reference to the idea that using GOP rhetoric is akin to accepting GOP frames and so should be avoided.

I hope this example will lead to a less knee jerk reaction to using right wing phrases.

For example, "Death Panels". An apt description of those in private, for profit insurance companies that search for ways to deny claims, is it not?


"It sounds wrong...
     ...but its right."

Shorter (4.00 / 8)
1) Bullies don't like to be bullied.

2) Appeals to emotion trump reason.

3) Grow a pair and you'll get some.

Health care reform = Employer payroll savings = More hiring and more jobs!

The meek will NOT inherit the earth. (0.00 / 0)
The bullies will have already taken and destroyed it.

I got burned giving to Tester, so I haven't given.  Now that I know Grayson and Stoller are a team, I'll send a few bucks.  

They're asking for another four years -- in a just world, they'd get 10 to 20. ~~ Dennis Kucinich  

[ Parent ]
Hopefully This Will Be Catching (4.00 / 10)
Coming so soon after the ACORN sellout stampede, there couldn't be a better time for Dems to get the message that it's time to stop doing the GOP's work for them.

This ain't rocket science, folks.  It's common sense plus guts.  That's it/

"Senate passes expanded GI bill despite Bush, McCain opposition"

If anone can get through- it's Grayson. (4.00 / 1)
We've had a star or two shine through the fog before, but only momentarily.  Russ Feingold was a great example.   But he/they ultimately caved in to higher priorities.

Pelosi has turned out to be a strong leader, but the Right loves to pick on strong women
Let 'em try making Grayson flinch- he's a leader who just gets better and bolder.

Grayson is his own self made man, with a hot personality and a winning smile who chose to be in Congress solely for the benefit of his constituents and the rest of America.
I doubt if other Democrats have the guts to stand up on their own.  
But they'll surely find some big beautiful and broad shoulders in Grayson, to stand behind.



Nationalism is not the same thing as terrorism, and an adversary is not the same thing as an enemy.

[ Parent ]
Pelosi is NOT a strong leader. (4.00 / 1)
Not unless you consider that she prefers to actively help the GOP.  After all, she did refuse to defund the occupation of Iraq and categorically refused to impeach the shrub and his gargoyle.  What's more, she has helped the other right-wingers in the Democratic Party as well as the Rethugs to prevent serious efforts to move bills such as H.R. 676 forward.  And do I even need to point out her willingness to pass the horrendous FISA mess that let telecomm companies off the hook for illegally spying on us and ramming through the bailout of the banks?


[ Parent ]
Strong women are vulnerable on basis of their being women (4.00 / 1)
I can't argue your specific points about Pelosi's leadership right now, but the comment was "the Right loves to pick on strong women." On that point I agree, and disagree with you.

It's akin to Obama being vulnerable to attack because he's a person of color.

Manifestations of bigotry in this day and age have become so subtle that it's a real challenge to expose them. Here, where we are talking about people in the center of POWER CIRCLES, it's doubly difficult.

I believe we cannot know the reality of what it's like to deal with daily life in the POWER circles that Pelosi and Obama occupy.

[ Parent ]
It likely will only be (4.00 / 8)
transformative if Grayson wins his race. In some ways it's a test case for this new kind of unafraid Democratic politics.

The controversy seemed very well thought out and coordinated (thanks, Stoller?) from the statement to the mock apology to the media-fundrasing blitz. That's not to take away from it; on the contrary, that's called good politics.  

Also (4.00 / 2)
he picked an area of GOP vulnerability. The examples mentioned by Chris--Move On, Van Jones, Kerry--plus Dick Durbin all involved national security. Again: good politics.
[ Parent ]
A lot can happen... (4.00 / 6)

 ...but if the Democrats pass a toothless crap health "reform" bill with no public option, 2010 will likely be a very bad year for the donkey.

  The Dem congressmen in marginal districts, most of whom are blue dogs, will be swept away. But I'm willing to wager that under such a scenario, Grayson will be one of the few red-district Dems to keep HIS job. Why? Because (a) the base will come out for him; (b) his very un-Democrat refusal to cave probably made a good impression with a few swing voters, and (c) he actually understands that if his voters had wanted a Republican in that seat, they would have voted for one.

  He could still lose. But I'll bet he handily outperforms the blue dogs.

"We judge ourselves by our ideals; others by their actions. It is a great convenience." -- Howard Zinn

[ Parent ]
Great post n/t (4.00 / 2)
matthew yglesias has a good take (4.00 / 7)
which echos some of the things in 1) and 2).

I think the real issue-and the real import-of Grayson's statement is that it involved breaking one of the unspoken rules of modern American politics. The rule is that conservatives talk about their causes in stark, moralistic terms and progressives don't. Instead, progressives talk about our causes in bloodless technocratic terms. This is also one of the reasons that Ted Kennedy's stark, moralistic attack on Robert Bork's legal theories are for some reason often cast by the MSM as some kind of illegitimate smear campaign. The reality is that it was just him talking about a conservative the way conservatives relatively talk about liberals. Like Grayson he characterized his opponents' views polemically, but wasn't offering any kind of wild factual distortions. But moralism from the left is very unfamiliar to American political debates.

http://yglesias.thinkprogress....

Is that true, though? (4.00 / 2)
It seems I see no shortage of moralism from Dems. (As opposed to morality.) What I don't often see are truth-exposing remarks nasty enough to draw blood and get publicity, followed by a proud non-apology.
[ Parent ]
Moralism from Dems? (0.00 / 0)
Agreed - we don't see truth-exposing remarks enough, but your comment that we don't see moralism from Dems, as opposed to morality (?), even more confuses the issue.

What are you talking about?

First, what is the difference between moralism and morality, in this context?

Second, you've seen no shortage of moralism from Dems...Can you give an example?

This is the point of the post you criticize: Dems don't typically use a moral analysis to present issues, and we should.

[ Parent ]
Progressive Policies = Moral Policies (4.00 / 3)
I think progressives bring the "bloodless technocrat" label upon ourselves because too many of us draw a false distinction between emotion and reason when it comes to liberal causes. I see emotional appeals described in cynical terms as a tool to manipulate the gullible masses. Why? Is there something about progressive issues that is somehow inherently amoral?
[ Parent ]
No, Conservatives cast their issues in emotional terms (0.00 / 0)
Progressives would do well to learn from Conservatives' success.
[ Parent ]
I heard Grayson's statements (4.00 / 4)
Both the original, and the apology, played on Michael Baisden's nationally syndicated radio show this afternoon (with praise), so I think this is something that also got traction in the African-American community.


New Jersey politics at Blue Jersey.
and Baisden said he wants Grayson on the show (4.00 / 2)
I imagine he called Grayson's office, but if not, and Stoller reads this, he should get in touch. I only heard a bit so I don't know what else was said later in the show.

New Jersey politics at Blue Jersey.
[ Parent ]
My god (4.00 / 2)
I've been waiting years for them to learn this lesson!

Grayson must have some really good advisers or something...

Show support for Grayson here (4.00 / 1)
Republican Nemisis (0.00 / 0)
Remember This

Its about time somebody learned something in a position of power from the left-center and did something with it.

Grayson's Teachable Moment for Democrats | 29 comments
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