Spineless?

I have been trying to suss out why MoveOn was condemned by both the Senate and the House. The majority party Democratic Senators and Representatives voted to censure one of their central fundraisers and organizers. The first law in politics states that you don’t shit on your own. What gives?



Proxies are a vital element of contemporary American politics. They are able to mobilize your base, get out the vote, and fundraise. Another function that is indispensable is that they can say things that a politician cannot, thereby moving debate in your direction. They can say things out of the mainstream and take the heat for it, deflecting heat from party regulars while giving politicians room to spin the debate.

The MoveOn advertisement was, by this light, pretty standard. This lets the politician start the pivot and attack dance. The pivot and attack dance goes like this:

"When offered the opportunity to cudgel your own side, you pivot and attack. How about, “glad you mentioned that…I think an ad is about as relevant to George Bush’s growing collection of toe tags as a haircut is to the problems facing this country.” Or, “thanks for the opportunity to discuss this, Chris. I personally would not choose the word “betrayal” to characterize General Petraeus’s lack of judgment or skewing of the facts to perpetuate the war, but I do think we should be looking at the fact that this was the bloodiest summer ever in Iraq and asking ourselves if the assessment we’re being given about the situation is realistic…”

The script was not followed in this case. The majority party in the Senate allowed a bill to come to a vote that basically censured itself. This very same majority party split down the middle and half of its members voted to censure MoveOn.org. Why? The Democrats kneecapped themselves. Color me skeptical, but something really hinky has happened. Let’s tick off the options:

1. The Democrats are morons.
a. They forgot how the Kabuki of modern politics is played. I cannot believe this. This is one of the fundamental skills of politics. These people have made it to the Show. They have been able to play the system long enough and well enough to make it to Congress. Don’t even try this excuse.
b. They got played. The minority party sponsored abhorrent legislation. Somehow the majority party let this come up for a vote. They then voted for it because they thought the vote would protect them.

2. They are ethical. They knew that there were costs to this vote, but they honestly felt that they were rising above partisan interests with this vote. The belief is that they must play honorably because being elected brings responsibilities to uphold their office. They got into office to “do good.” Everybody complains the incivility of politics. The expectation is that only by making sure your house is clean can you can advocate for everyone else to do what is right. The Bush Administration is so dirty and partisan and petty that the Opposition feels that it must be above that.

3. They wanted to say “Fuck You” to MoveOn.Org.
a. They are in on the Con.
i. Some Democrats really should be Republicans. Many members of the Democratic Caucus (And I’m looking at you, Blue Dogs.) are really Republicans in disguise. Because of the way their districts are structured demographically, and their calculus of the Math, they’ll use the Democratic label as cover while voting for their real interest.
ii. They’re bought by the same people who bought the Repubs. In this scenario, Dems and Repubs are just so much window dressing for the Big Money interests that really run this country.
b. The Fight over the MoveOn was merely a public airing of an internal Democratic internal power struggle between the Progressive Net Roots versus the more “old-line” Democratic Leadership Council. By this argument, you’ve got a running battle for the control of the Democratic Party. The Net Roots have been building their influence within the party over the last few years, and the DLC wants nothing to do with the Dirty Fucking Hippies.
c. Patraeus gave the Democrats more than MoveOn.Org did. After 9 months of futility he gave them limited troop withdrawals. The Dems are gonna use these drawdowns to sanitize Iraq as an issue for 2008. They get all the advantages of having an unpopular war going, but none of the backlash for it, since they can claim to be bringing the troops home. By this light, MoveOn got in the way of a free lunch.

"Although they won’t say so openly, a modest drawdown comes as good news to Democrats as well. Accused with considerable justification of having done nothing to end the war since taking control of the Congress in January, they can now point to the drawdown as evidence that they are making headway. As Newsweek’s Michael Hirsch observed, Petraeus “delivered an early Christmas present” to congressional Democrats."

4. Who knows. The United States jumped the shark on September 20, 1977. Happy Days has ruined everything for everybody. We are on an inexorable ride down the slide to the sewer. All sorts of stupidity and venality will just keep on piling on to this once-golden City on a Hill. It will only get worse and never ever better again. So you might as well just do the honorable thing and off yourself ‘cause life just sucks.

In all fairness, we really do have to listen to Paul Krugman on this one.

"It’s also – as I can report from my own experience – a result of asymmetrical intimidation. Quite simply, if you point out character flaws in a conservative, there will be an all-out effort, involving major media as well as blogs and talk radio, to discredit and ruin you, personally. This just doesn’t happen on the other side.
So journalists feel that it’s safe to ridicule Democrats, even if the supposed character-defining episode never happened; they choke up and shy away when it comes to Republicans. That’s why even the most grotesque stuff, like Giuliani’s claim that he’s a rescue worker too, or Romney’s remark that his sons are serving the country by helping him become president, doesn’t get picked up."

If that is the process affecting journalists, how much is internalized by the Dems themselves? This is complex and allows a look into much deeper issues about the way politics currently is being run in the United States.

More to follow………….. Spineless.rar