Posted on 12/21/2002 5:15:53 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
It's hard for a progressive playing the game of politics these days not to feel like the fix is in.
First, the nominally progressive Democrats lose even when they win. This year, reminiscent of Al Gore in 2000, Oregon House Democratic candidates won more votes statewide than Republicans -- 18,000 more, enough to hold a one-seat majority if every vote counted equally -- and still failed to take control of the chamber by five seats.
Worse, the horse, or rather the donkey, that the two-party system would oblige progressives to bet on don't run. This year, even the pundits noticed that Democrats lack vision, but the truth is they've been running on fumes for more than 20 years.
The Democrats' malaise goes back at least as far as their profound misinterpretation of the Reagan phenomenon. Ronald Reagan was popular not because the country was lurching to the far right, as the Democrats concluded, but because he had a strong, clear, optimistic vision. The strength of those convictions made up for the fact that, as just about every poll of his entire presidency indicated, most Americans didn't share them.
Instead of fighting back with a forceful vision of their own, one that appeals to the majoritarian American belief in progress and fair play, Democrats have steadily wilted to the right and let Republicans define the terms of political debate.
Take Oregon's race for governor. Kevin Mannix did so much better than expected because he ran with energy, conviction and rhetoric that almost sounded like ideas. Kulongoski boldly campaigned as guess-what's-behind-door-number-3. The only thing that saved him was the Democrats' last remaining ace in the hole: Most Oregonians fear the Republican right.
That fear is real. For progressives, there's only one thing more terrifying than having all three branches of the federal government in the hands of land-raping, labor-bashing, Bill of Rights-shredding, warmongering corporate henchmen such as Bush, Lott and Scalia: Democrats have meekly let conservatives drag the political debate so far right that such extremists could consolidate their power even when overwhelming empirical evidence put the lie to their fanatical agenda.
That is why our democracy desperately needs the Green Party.
In Oregon, the Pacific Green Party ran only one candidate this fall, in part from fear of playing the spoiler. It's now clear that the greater danger lies in depriving the electorate of an unapologetically progressive vision. Even the Democrats are likely to benefit from our willingness to make the arguments they now seem institutionally incapable of articulating.
Expect to see a lot more Green in the future because, even when the game is rigged, progressives can't win if we don't play.
---Xander Patterson of Northeast Portland is a Pacific Green Party member. He can be reached at xman@bigzoo.net.
I have vertigo...
Xander's got the right idea. Donations to one's local Green Party candidate might be money even better spent, from a strategic point of view, than donations to a Republican candidate.
I certainly want to help get that unapologetically progressive vision out there in front of the electorate. LOL
I had to snicker in 2000 when the dems were moaning and b*tching about Ralph Nader, they were sooooo mad at him cause they thought he cost them the election. Now they know how we felt about Perot.
Absolutely. OEB, please doen't disparage this fine and idealistic person.
GO RALPH GO!.................;-)
Heh, heh, heh
They chopped off the part that added "And we now know that Reagan was right about almost everything."
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