Lesson Politicians Learn-- FDR, Bill Clinton, Alan Grayson

Some people say Arkansas' 3rd congressional district in the northwestern part of the state is the reddest CD in The South. It may have been at one time but even if it isn't any longer, it's certainly the reddest district in Arkansas-- by far... and has long been. The only Democrat who's even come close was a young Bill Clinton who ran in 1974 against long time incumbent John Paul Hammerschmidt and got 48% of the vote. It's been all downhill since then. Right now Blue America is supporting another young candidate, Ken Aden, for that seat and he's running against an elitist and unpopular freshman, Steve Womack. Ken just completed a 253 mile run through ten counties to bring hunger awareness to people there-- and to collected cans of food to help feed hungry families. Blue America is giving away a guitar signed by the band Filter to one lucky supporter of Ken's efforts.

Back to 1974 for a moment. Or, more to the point, 1976. Instead of getting trapped in a treacherous congressional maze, Clinton's remarkably close defeat led immediately to him getting the Democratic nomination for Attorney General, an easy victory and then, two years later, to the governorship. In 1978 Clinton became the youngest governor in America. Two years later, as he joked, he became "the youngest ex-governor in the nation's history," having lost, 52-48%, to a ConservaDem who joined the GOP just in time for the race. He started running again the day after he was defeated. To understand the lesson that Clinton learned from his 1980 rejection by the voters-- and he was a very smart man who would have looked very closely for lessons from the experience-- let's take a look at some of the issues that were raised against him. He had angered a lot of people by doing what he thought was the right thing a leader should do-- like increasing taxes on gas and on annual auto license fees to pay for road construction. Voters didn't like that. To this day Clinton insists that the license fees cost him re-election although he also aliented many of the most powerful business interests in the state. The trucking industry was hard hit by those increases (as well as by his opposition to raising the weight limits for big rigs on Arkansas highways. Even back then the poultry industry was a major power in Arkansas and they were as angry by the highway weight issue as they truckers. The state's powerful timber interests flipped out over his opposition (which was unsuccessful) to clear-cutting forests and he managed to alienate the state's banksters by his overtly populist suggestion that idle state funds be distributed among banks based on their lending policies. Utilities went nuts because he tried bringing a populist perspective to the regulation of rate increases, and he was at war with the state's largest electric utility, Arkansas Power and Light, over their successful effort to make Arkansas ratepayers bear a large share of the costs of a big nuclear power plant in Mississippi. Those interests got their revenge in 1980. Clinton learned to temper his populism. He learned to not act without taking polls. He learned to suck up to the rich and powerful. In 1982, he was again elected governor and kept this job for ten years.

When he was reelected there was barely a trace of the young populist and in his place was Clinton the ConservaDem icon and DLC leader. He was for competence tests for all teachers long before Michelle Rhee. No one will be surprised to know that while he was governor he pushed welfare reforms aimed at forcing welfare recipients into the workforce-- even before Mitt Romney invented the concept. And he was proving his conservative bona fides and a tough-on-crime approach with showy displays of capital punishment long before George W. Bush did the same.

Most Democrats seem to always think the lesson to be gotten out of defeat (or victory or anything else) is to move right and to adopt conservative talking points. Most but not all. I asked Alan Grayson what he learned last year from his defeat at the hands of the corporate interests he had offended with his populist agenda. His perspective was nothing like Bill Clinton's. In fact, he told me there were no worthwhile lessons to be learned from what happened.

I represented a district that had been Republican for 34 years. I did the job in the way that I considered best for the people who were depending on me, knowing full well that it would invite vicious attacks from the other side, and it did. I was treated to a $2 million carpet-bombing from the health insurance lobby, $2 million more from the Koch Brothers, etc. But if you want to do the job properly, you have to accept that you might lose it. That's the way it goes. If I return to Congress, I won't do anything differently, because I'm still willing to take it or leave it-- as long as I can get things done for people who need help. If that makes the Koch Brothers hate me and attack me, then as FDR said, "I welcome their hatred." If all you care about is just being a Congressman, then you're no good to anyone but yourself."

If you read that and groked it, you'll know why Digby, John and I laugh when anyone tells us that some other candidate besides Alan is "the most important campaign of the year." There are plenty of important campaigns... but more important for the progressive movement than Alan Grayson's? I don't think so. If you'd like to see Alan back in Congress-- back doing the kind of job he just described above-- you can help here. He'd never saddle us with NAFTA to please some big corporate interests... or to stop them from hating him.