| On the five-year anniversary of his death, via Harold Meyerson I want to recount something about Paul Wellstone that really stands out to me right now:
So they flocked to him -- gays, lesbians, union members, hard-scrabble farmers, environmentalists, peace activists, Native Americans, blacks, Latinos, Scandinavians, Lutherans, seniors, students, students and students . . . The volunteers were swamping this campaign from the start. On an August weekday morning, Wellstone's state headquarters in St. Paul had more people bustling purposefully around than you'd find in a normal senate candidate's headquarters on an October weekend. By early October, the campaign had a coordinator on every dorm floor at the University of Minnesota and the state's next two largest college campuses. Campaign organizers were confidently predicting well over 10,000 volunteers getting out the vote on election day, not counting the thousands of union activists turning out union members in their own parallel GOTV campaign. Unions and environmental groups were sending operatives to the swing states all around the country, of course, but more were going into Minnesota than anywhere else, for the simple reason that qualitatively, one Wellstone was worth several of his Democratic colleagues. Students were pouring over the border from Wisconsin. A number of my own acquaintances were flying in on their own dimes to help out in the closing weeks; on the Friday Wellstone was killed, I lunched with a friend whose wife was to go up there the following day.
Wellstone had generated the energy of what many, myself included, often call the contemporary progressive movement before it had really coalesced on a national level or in many different localities. And he earned this energy, this support for his campaign, because he stood with his allies. He didn't throw the netroots, liberals, immigrants, the LGBT community, unions or other progressive constituencies under the bus in order to win. He stood with them. He kept his promises to them. He didn't use them as foils or strawmen to highlight his own centrist or difference with the American left. He stood with his allies. He was his brother's and his sister's keeper.
Compare this to other Democratic leaders:
"The bloggers and online donors represent an important resource for the party, but they are not representative of the majority you need to win elections," said Steve Elmendorf, a Democratic lobbyist who advised Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign. "The trick will be to harness their energy and their money without looking like you are a captive of the activist left."
And
And, predictably, the lowpoint of the weekend was provided by Emanuel who-- in much the same way he told Democrats last year to play down the anti-war message, causing several who listened to him to lose their races-- demanded candidates inoculate themselves against expected GOP attacks by moving to the right on immigration.
Also:
In this election, both the Religious Right and the secular Left were defeated, and the voice of the moral center was heard.
Or even:
"I think there's tremendous agreement and awareness that getting the majority and running over the left cliff is what our Republican opponents would dearly love," Ms. Tauscher said, adding that this was something "we've got to fight."
It isn't even so much the ideological disputes, or even an angry response that I feel when seeing these quotes. Even beyond any of that, I simply feel like Democrats who are willing to throw their own allies under the bus, while simultaneously attempting to exploit those allies for personal gain, are just being assholes. I mean, who treats people like this and still expects to be friends with them afterward? Who acts like that? It is just straight up betrayal for personal gain. There is nowhere on Earth where that sort of behavior is considered a virtue, except for perhaps the Democratic Party, where we all need Sistah Souljah moments in order to appear credible, or something. Unless you betray your friends, you are not worthy of holding public office. That is the ultimate disfunction in the Democratic Party right now, well beyond anything else. It is also one of the main reasons I miss Paul Wellstone. He knew that we were all in this together, and he served as his brother and his sister's keeper, right until the end. |
