DO DEMOCRATS HAVE CORE VALUES?

Last week I went over to a friend's house for a little get together he was having for Jerome Armstrong and Markos Moulitsas Zuniga in honor of their recently released book, CRASHING THE GATE-- NETROOTS, GRASSROOTS AND THE RISE OF PEOPLE-POWERED POLITICS. Arianna Huffington served (ably) as an mc and Jane brought Ned Lamont along, an extra bonus for anybody-- and at this party, that was everybody-- who would like to see America's best interests served by the defeat of George Bush's favorite Senate Democrat, the execrable Joe Lieberman.

Before I run away into an anti-Lieberman tirade, let me reel myself in a bit and talk about something Lieberman knows absolutely nothing about whatsoever: Democratic values. I don't mean the values of the corporate whores Inside the Beltway, like Rahm Emanuel or the swinish Democrats who are joining with Republicans to sell out the free Internet to the big bribing Telecom corporations. I mean the values of the Party of FDR, Eleanor Roosevelt, John and Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Harry Truman, Howard Dean, Russ Feingold and, most important, by far, the values of the working men and women who make up the actual grassroots Democratic Party and are daily betrayed by the Rahm Emanuels and Joe Liebermans and Joe Bidens in DC.

The highlight of the CRASHING THE GATE soiree was when Markos elucidated-- in a way Inside the Beltway Democrats never seem able to-- the elusive Democratic values slimy politicians can never quite get:

opportunity
    fairness
    investment (in people and our future)

Zen moment, everybody. It's simple, even elegant and it's why we all vote for the Democrats instead of the Republicans. It's even why I forced myself to eat a live skunk pull the lever for the odious and despicably reactionary Joe Lieberman for Vice President in 2000. The Democratic values: "Opportunity, Fairness, Investment in people and our future." The Republican values: Selfishness, Narrow-minded bigotry, Greed, Fear. Um... I'll stick with the first guys, please.

When I met Barack Obama (pre-Senator era) he struck me as super-smart and a true believer in the American dream and these all-American values. He's been a bit of a disappointment so far-- I mean be admits Lieberman is his mentor and his voting record could be better, a lot better-- but he's still one of the smartest Democrats in the Senate. So I was even more disappointed the other day at his smart ass quip when someone accused Democrats of not standing for anything. "That's not true," he shot back. "Democrats do stand for anything." Ha ha. I'm sure your colleagues on the other side of the aisle and over at Fox were rolling.

When Ruy Texeira and John Halpin say the Democrats' most urgent need is to stand for something, they're focusing inside the Beltway. Someone like Rahm Emanuel, or even a more progressive Democrat like Chuck Schumer, will never stand for something value-based. These are power players and their values are winning. We need people like that-- technicians who know how to win political and electoral wars. But that doesn't mean people like that should be involved in determining policies and other matters of importance. Rahm Emanuel is a crude authoritarian thug-- not unlike his GOP mirror image, Tom DeLay-- and he fights like a mad dog in the gutter. Right on, Rahm. But when it comes to setting Democratic Party policies, people like that should be talked to about the core values that Democratic grassroots supporters stand for, not asked to remold them in his own perverse image.

Forget the craven, self-serving politicians and careerists-- especially the proven enemies of grassroots Democrats and our values: the professional losers known as "consultants." As Armando wrote on Daily Kos Sunday, "Progressives need to fight for what they believe in-- and put the common good at the center of a new progressive vision-- as an essential strategy for political growth and majority building."

Democratic elected officials and strategists-- and even boosters-- don't understand how powerfully the perception of Democrats "not standing for anything" (a canard currently embraced by nearly 60% of Americans polled on the matter) drags down the Party when it comes to elections. "No identity," explains Armando, "translates into no character. No personal integrity. No vision worth fighting for. No domestic agenda. No national-security agenda. No basic understanding of the problems facing everyday citizens. No contrast with the other side. No reason to vote for progressive candidates."

This doesn't sound like my Democratic Party. And if we're going to win in November, despite the Rahm Emanuels, the Jane Harmans, the Jim Marshalls, the Melissa Beans, the Nelsons and the consultants who should have been fired long long ago, this shouldn't sound like anyone's Democratic Party outside the Beltway.

(Note on the art: Adam claims to be off drugs, although he defines drugs with a great deal of elasticity. If they comes from a licensed doctor-- oh, and do they ever-- he doesn't consider them "drugs." I'll let you be the judge.)