I believe that one of the biggest problems with today’s Democratic Party is that it doesn’t ask itself, “How do we win?”
I mean, it does ask this question in a limited sense, as in, “How do we win this upcoming primary? How do we win this upcoming general election? How do we win this open seat?”
But the Republican Party plays an entirely different game. When it asks, “How do we win?” what it means is, “How do we defeat our opponents utterly and permanently, so that they have nothing left and no chance of ever staging a comeback?”
And that is not a question that the Democratic Party is asking.
To be honest, it seems impolite even to consider such a thing. It’s good, in a way, that we hesitate. Fairness matters to us. Kindness matters to us. We want to win, but something in us recoils from wanting to destroy our opponents. Nevertheless, if fairness and kindness matter to us, we have to do what it takes to thwart the opponents of fairness and kindness, not just one at a time but across the board. And if we want to do so according to our own standards, we have to be thoughtful and analytical about what, exactly, that’s going to require.
We have to be strategic, not just tactical. Tactics are the tricks and techniques employed to accomplish objectives. Strategy is the long view, the big picture, the identification and prioritizing of objectives on the path from here to there.
The Republican Party is both strategic and tactical. Have you read The Shock Doctrine yet? If not, stop reading this diary, go read The Shock Doctrine, and come back when you’re done. That, right there, is the Republican strategy in all its gruesome glory. All it’ll take is one good electoral tidal wave in a year divisible by both 4 and 10 to drown our dreams of liberty, equality, justice and dignity for all.
What does the Democratic Party have? Tactics. Sometimes. When we’re lucky. Rarely, however, a coherent strategy.
As Democrats, or as independent progressives who vote Democratic, we need to know what we’re fighting for. We need to be able to say what we’re fighting for. We need to know who and what our opponents are and what they’re fighting for. And we need to know how to defeat them, utterly and permanently, so that the forces of injustice and heartlessness have nothing left and no hope of achieving a comeback.