Why we primary: to de-incentivize, conservative, corporate behavior among elected Democrats

by: Chris Bowers

Fri May 14, 2010 at 15:00

Joe Sestak has a strong record in Congress, supporting health care reform, clean energy, and a woman's right to choose. If he wins the primary on Tuesday, it'll send a powerful message that voters want Democrats in Congress who'll proudly lead the fight for progressive legislation.

Yeah, that's pretty much it.  Let me offer a slight re-phrasing, however.  The reason progressives need to keep engaging in progressive primary challenges against Democrats-pretty much wherever and whenever they are available--is to provide a counterweight to the massive amount of incentives elected Democrats have to engage in conservative and / or pro-corporate behavior.

Let's review what those incentives are, quoting at length from a snarky post I wrote last year, (but hey, just because you are joking doesn't mean you aren't serious), "BREAKING: I am now a conservative Democrat."

After several years of trying to "retake" the Democratic Party and make it more progressive, today I am giving up and becoming a conservative Democrat. Upon careful consideration, the benefits packages are simply too heavily tilted toward the corporate wing of the party. Check it out:

• It would be pretty sweet to be able to endorse someone other than a Democrat for President, and then have the Democratic leadership do whatever it takes to keep me in the Party. I mean, if you do this as a progressive, then you are pretty much screwed for life.

• Being a conservative Democrats gets you ten times the media mentions that one gets being a progressive. You chances of appearing on Sunday talk shows also skyrockets.

• Being a conservative Democrat gets you more money, too. You can proclaim that you are a conservative Democrat, and still have small, progressive, grassroots donors be by far your top contributors. Hard to argue with receiving both enormous big dollar fundraisers held in your honor and huge amounts of money from small progressive donors. So really, who cares if bloggers complain about you. Their readers are still going to fork over huge amounts of money.

• If you are a conservative Democrat, you get to hold up, water down, and threaten whatever Democratic legislation you want. And there are no repercussions. In fact...

• If you are a conservative Democrat, you get frequent meetings with the President and proclamations that he is one of your own. If you are a progressive, you have to stand at the back of the line, and then get threats about never hearing from the White House again if you step out of line.

• Further, if you are a conservative Democrat, you can also refuse to pay your Democratic Party Committee dues, and still receive disproportionate expenditures from Democratic Party Committees. That is just a straight up good deal.

• Being a conservative Democrat also makes you far more likely to receive a major cabinet appointment. Not even counting the Republicans, New Democrats outnumber Progressives in President Obama's cabinet by 7-1.

• Finally, if one of those crazy progressives decides to challenge you in a primary campaign, if you are a conservative Democrat you can also count on the endorsements of 95% of your congressional colleagues, the entire party leadership, and virtually every progressive advocacy organization. They will stand by you.

So really, why would anyone be a progressive Democrat given the different bonus packages that are on offer? I think my move makes a lot of sense. Every Democrat should be a conservative.

The threat of being defeated---or at least seriously challenged--in a primary election is one of the very few counterweights progressives can offer to this massive list of incentives elected Democrats have of acting in pro-conservative, pro-corporate ways.  There may be benefits to sounding progressive on the campaign trail, but as far as governing in a progressive manner goes, not so much (except for, perhaps, not creating a sucky economy that results in a sucky electoral environment for incumbents).

Now, there need to be carrots, too. Rewarding the efforts of members of Congress like Alan Grayson can also serve as a form of incentive.  If Congresscritters see that being a progressive leader can result in positive outcomes for your efforts at re-eelction and passing legislation,  that will also help serve as a counterweight to the bullet points listed above.

But, right now, with several primaries looming over the horizon, it is time to get out the stick rather than the carrot.  We need to make the following six upcoming primaries as painful as possible for these six Democrats who have spent most of their careers catering primarily to conservative and corporate interests.  We need to do this in every district, and not just run up a white flag saying "oh, its OK to suck up to conservatives and corporations if you are from a red district." That easily translates into "we are cool with you sticking it to us whenever it is politically expedient for you to do so," a proposition that defeats the entire purpose of de-incentivizing pro-corporate, pro-conservative behavior among elected Democrats.

Set out your stick, and get your primary on.  Here are six campaigns for you to join (help out in as many or as few as you wish) between now and June 22nd:

Primaries on May 18th

• Join Joe Sestak, running for Pennsylvania Senate against ConservaDem Arlen Specter

• Join Bill Halter, running for Arkansas Senate against  ConservaDem Blanche Lincoln

• Join Shelia Dow Ford, running for Pennsylvania's 17th Congressional district against Blue Dog Tim Holden.

Primaries on June 8th

• Join Marcy Winograd, running for California's 36th Congressional district against Blue Dog Jane Harman

Primaries on June 22nd

• Join Elaine Marshall, running for Senate in North Carolina, and facing a run-off with future ConservaDem Cal Cunningham

• Join Claudia Wright, running for Utah's 2nd Congressional district against Jim Matheson.