Don't Mourn, Organize

By Pat Hayes in Prospect, Oregon. Pat is a "volvo driving libertarian free market green constitutionalist whose jobs have been logger, Volvo/VW/Audi mechanic, policy wonk, labor and community organizer, and whose loves are spouse, the kid and the dogs."

I am very pleased that we did not win this election! A Kerry win would have only delayed the inevitable collapse and cleansing of the Democratic Party.

If Kerry had eked out a narrow win, and don't think it would have been any more than a narrow win, the Ds would have been faced with an unwinnable war, a half-trillion $$ annual deficit, a Social Security/Medicare system headed for collapse, etc. The Rs with increased House and Senate majorities, an increased partisan ideology and a vast well-organized grass roots network would have made a Kerry presidency ungovernable.

Barring some form of Republican blood-letting between the business neo-cons and the ideological moralists that implodes the Rs, I believe it unlikely that progressive/moderate Ds will exercise significant federal power for the next 3 or four election 4 year cycles.

That's good. It is good because it will (or should) force us to return to our communities and organize on a block by block, issue by issue basis. That's going to be a challenge because we have precious few folks who are willing to do organizing work for the long haul. Of the hundred+ folks involved in political, union and community organizing that I knew 30 or so years ago less than a dozen are still hard at work. As Paddy will attest, political change requires a long-term commitment. The Rs started this strategy with Atwater, Norquist, et al with Nixon's southern strategy. Thirty years later it has finally been brought to fruition.

So what to do. Every single contributor to this site should be a precint committee rep, should be a leader in local Democratic clubs, should be active in community/social/cultural/religious organizations, should empty their wallets to develop a statewide full-time permanent organizing network.

If you want to inspire the proletariat to do great things then you're gonna have to get used to the idea of being a leader.... For The Next Fifty Years! ...or until you filled the pipeline with next generation of leaders.