Will Rogers Was Right

Will Rogers famously said “I don’t belong to any organized political party, I’m a Democrat!”

In what should be a tsunami year for Democrats, both leading Democratic presidential candidates are essentially tied with John McCain in the polls. 

Let me see, now, do I have this right or am I in some alternate universe: 

Home values are tanking and foreclosures are skyrocketing. Gas is moving inexorably toward $4 per gallon in time for summer vacation. Wheat prices have tripled in ten months and everything from bread to pizza to eggs, chickens, pork, and beef– anything made with wheat or fed by it - has shot up along with it. Anything transported by truck goes up in price nearly every day – my wife just told me even the cheapest paper towels are now $1.50 per roll. And anything imported (what isn’t?) gets much more expensive as the dollar becomes devalued in comparison to the euro and the yen – the dollar is no longer “sound as a dollar.” 

And John McCain – he who has promised four more years of Bushenomics – is tied with the Democrats?????!!!!!

The war drags on into its 6th year. Al-Qaeda is resurgent. We have many fewer allies than six years ago. More people hate us. Oh, right, I forgot. The surge is working. We’re losing “only” thirty dead Americans per month instead of 100 or more. That must be such a comfort to the families of the thirty. Never mind the 565 Iraqi civilians killed each month. Who counts them anyway? The total cost of the war – all borrowed from our grandchildren’s future earnings so tax cuts for the very wealthy can be continued now – is estimated at two to three trillion dollars. I know, I know, the Bush Administration estimated the total cost of the war would be “only” 150 to 200 billion dollars, all to be eventually repaid by Iraqi oil profits. Hey, what’s $2,998,000,000,000.00 among friends? After all, Exxon-Mobil will make about $13,000,000,000 profit these first three months of the year. And Dick Cheney’s Halliburton spin-off KBR has figured out a way to avoid paying those pesky Social Security taxes on the employees it pays with no bid Defense Department contracts. That should be of some comfort as you spend $65 to fill your tank to go to the store and buy a $4 loaf of bread. 

And John McCain – he who has promised to stay in Iraq 100 years if that’s what it takes to drive out the Al-Qaeda fighters who weren’t there before we invaded – is tied with the Democrats?????!!!!!

The Republicans, some of whom believe GOP means God’s Own Party, the party of family values, moral righteousness, and conservative principles have brought us gay bashing, Larry Craig, Mark Foley, David Vitter, and the trashing of constitutional liberty in the name of security. Mike Huckabee, who may yet be their Vice Presidential candidate, promised to change the Constitution to conform to his notion of God’s will. Never mind the separation of church and state. That radical Thomas Jefferson must have been a communist. 

And John McCain – he who sucked up to the bigoted Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson and actively sought the endorsement of the anti-Catholic nut case “Rev.” Ted Hagee– is tied with the Democrats?????!!!!!

How can this be? Why is it so? The answer I think lies somewhere in the long tradition of the Democratic Party and Democratic politicians doing almost everything possible to lose elections. In the last 40 years there have been only two winning Democratic candidates. Jimmy Carter – a nice man but a terrible leader – was driven out of office after one term. Bill Clinton – a good leader but perhaps not so nice a man – squandered much of his presidency and got himself impeached though not convicted. In 1968 many liberals sat out the election because they were pissed off at Humphrey. The result was Nixon. In 1972 the nominee was George McGovern – a great man but a lousy candidate – and we had a convention that began the fairness rules which have now evolved to the point where it seems impossible to pick a candidate. 1988 should have been a Democratic year given the cyclical nature of presidential elections. The candidate was Michael Dukakis who ran on competence and offered the famous Howdy Doody in a tank picture, squandering an early 18 point lead in the polls and giving us George I. In 2000 Al Gore was convinced to run a poll driven, sound bite campaign free of his prescient passion for the environment - “you don’t want to sound like a tree hugger, Al” - and the result was George II. In 2004 John Kerry the war hero somehow allowed himself to be transformed into John Kerry the windsurfing wimp. 

And have we (yes, in case you haven’t figured it out yet, I am a yellow dog though despairing Democrat) learned anything from all this? Have we profited from our defeats and finally learned how to win and win with enough of a Congressional majority to actually govern rather than fight rear guard actions in preparation for the next election? No, not on your endangered pension we haven’t. Instead, we seem headed toward a convention in which the candidate with the most votes, the most states, the most delegates, and the most appeal to independents and Republicans may lose the nomination. And in getting there it appears we will – again – fight each other so viciously that the eventual nominee will be so crippled as to prevent recovery. And the beneficiary is, of course, John McCain and the ‘Publicans. And we will yet again – as difficult as it is to imagine - honor the proverb and snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. If so, it won’t be just the loss of another presidential election. It will be the loss of an opportunity to transform our civil life, our politics, our party and our country. We will have failed to seize the opportunity to come together, heal as a nation, and actually do something about our many problems at home and around the world. 

Will Rogers was right.