{"id":738,"date":"2005-03-02T16:41:46","date_gmt":"2005-03-02T16:41:46","guid":{"rendered":"0"},"modified":"2006-09-28T12:09:02","modified_gmt":"2006-09-28T12:09:02","slug":"political_loyal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/?p=738","title":{"rendered":"Political Loyalty Is Not A Property Interest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over at My DD, Chris Bowers takes on Jeff Jarvis<\/a> and the rest of the Democrat-bashing liberals -I guess including me.<\/p>\n

His basic point? ” target=”browser”><\/a>Party trumps policy. He says:<\/p>\n

Our problem is not ideological, but that they consistently bash Democrats, Democratic positions, and publicly proclaim that the Democratic Party has it wrong on a regular basis (thus implying that the Republican Party has it right, no matter how many nuances and qualifiers are included in their criticisms of Democrats). For example, whenever I have directed my ire toward the DLC, it has been because I have felt their message, not their policies, help to defeat Democrats. Jerome has done much of the same.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

God, this is wrong on so many levels I don’t know where to begin.
\nFirst, and foremost, I’m not genetically programmed to be a Democrat. Loyalty to a political party is not like loyalty to a sports team. I’m not going to push the button for anyone running as a Democrat, no matter what their policies may be. And guess what – neither are most of the voters out in the real, non-campaign consulting world. I would not have voted for a Dixiecrat because they were a Democrat, I didn’t vote for Kerry because he was a Democrat, I didn’t vote to keep Gray Davis in office because he was a Democrat, I wouldn’t vote for Al Sharpton because he was a Democrat.<\/p>\n

The Democratic Party doesn’t own my loyalty.<\/p>\n

What I am is a progressive liberal. That means I do believe that state policies in the interests of the poorer and less powerful are a good thing, and that I’ll judge candidates based on the content of their policies and character far before I’ll judge them on the basis of the letter next to their name on the ballot.<\/p>\n

For the last 50 years, the Democratic Party has done more to support the interests who I support, and so I’ve supported them. That support is not the Party’s property, and I’m not interested in hearing from some hack who makes a living losing elections (and here I’m talking about the core Party apparatchniks, not necessarily Chris) that they think it is their property – and I’m not interested in hearing it from Chris either.<\/p>\n

The current leadership of the Democratic Party is objectively damaging the interests of poor people, working people and small business owners – the constituency it owes it’s allegiance to – by mounting stupid and suicidal campaigns and losing elections. It is losing elections for all the reasons I’ve pointed out<\/a>, and Marc Cooper<\/a> has pointed out, and Jeff Jarvis<\/a> has pointed out, and Norm Geras<\/a> has pointed out …and pointing this out is the reason we “party traitors” are being criticized by Bowers and Willis.<\/p>\n

I want to see a Democratic Party built that can win, and can do so in a way that supports the basic beliefs that I have about how the world should be – free, egalitarian, prosperous. Those are serious ideological and policy issues, and guess what? Most of the country shares those issues with me<\/B>. That’s why the Party keeps losing.<\/p>\n

Listening to whiny bitch Oliver Willis complain because we’re insufficiently loyal doesn’t move me in the lest. Oliver and his ilk need to look in the mirror and realize that it’s them, not Jarvis, Cooper, Geras and me, who are hurting the interests of the less powerful. They’re doing it by building an insular, brittle, and ineffective Democratic Party that looks to keep losing well into the 21st Century.<\/p>\n

Chris says:<\/p>\n

I am a partisan Democrat, not a partisan ideologue. <\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What kind of hollow bullshit is that? What is the Democratic Party, if not some ideological core? A jobs programs for polisci majors and direct mail entrepreneurs?<\/p>\n

I’m hopeful that the netroots will extend out of the Moveon ghetto and start spouting in the red states, empurpling the whole enterprise. I’m hopeful that Howard Dean meant it when he said he wanted the support of guys with Confederate flags on their pickup trucks. But unlike Chris, I only blindly root for the Dodgers. <\/p>\n

The Democrats will have to earn my loyalty. And guess what? I’m not alone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Loyalty to a political party is not like loyalty to a sports team. I’m not going to push the button for anyone running as a Democrat, no matter what their policies may be. And guess what – neither are most of the voters out in the real, non-campaign consulting world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}