Clark, Hackett, netroots and DLC

[Crossposted at Clark Community Network, with links]

General Clark's 2004 race for president was a unique opportunity not only to bring the U. S. together, but to bring the Democratic Party together. Of course he would have had to unite the Democrats behind him before bringing the country together, but if he had been able to unite Democrats, I believe that as a non-political general with ties to both parties, he could have united the country.

Uniting the Democratic Party is another question and probably more difficult, as the Paul Hackett affray testifies. The gap between the activist base (often referred to as the netroots) and the organization (often confused with the DLC, though there is much overlap) is once again threatening to tear the party apart.


The 2004 Clark campaign was a unique combination of netroots and DLC, that General Clark carefully balanced. Clark not only raised much money on the Internet, as did Dean, but he was propelled into the race by net activity as no other campaign was, arguably making his campaign the most Internet based campaign of all. His ties to Bill Clinton gave him access to so many DLC activists and contributors that Repbublican conspiracy theorists actually charged him with being a stalking horse for Hillary! Ultimately the Clark campaign failed to gain the nomination, but I sense there is still a chance for moderation to combine with passion, not only in 2006 when we have to take back Congress, but in 2008, when I hope General Clark will run again. And I'm also getting ahead of myself. Let me go back to the point.

The DLC attempt to be "Republican Lite" is a formula for disaster in many instances. There is, of course, no arguing with success, and Bill Clinton, who created the DLC and their formula of triangulation in an attempt to destroy or marginalize DSA, SDUSA and other Socialist groups active in the Democrats, was at least a partial success. Whatever one may think of their specific policy proposals, the word "Socialist" is such poison in the US that any attempt to turn the Democrats into a Socialist Party is doomed to failure. Perhaps the Democrats should join the Liberal International, as the Republicans have joined the Democrat International, but the United States is so nationalistic that perhaps they would be better off staying aloof and attacking the Republicans for international ties. Perhaps the party of Jackson should remember its Jacksonian roots.

MY POINT:

The United States, with its executive presidential constitution and tradition of single-seat constituencies, has two large parties that would be coalitions of parties in a differently structured democracy. Building a majority party involves creating coalitions within the party, not circular firing squads. That means we all have to compete cleanly within the party primary, then swallow our pride and support the nominee who was chosen by the majority of our fellow Democrats, who are not really our political opponents, much less enemies. Behind the scenes phone calls by Senators to donors, getting them to pull their money, and even worse, calls to candidates to get them to pull out of races (yes, I'm writing about the Schumer and Hackett affair here) are totally out of line. I e-mailed the DNC asking why I should continue to contribute money but I'm still waiting for an answer. Maybe I'll get it here.

The best way to prevent the kind of "brusing primary battles" that Schumer and others urging Hackett to drop out feared is to adopt something like the Republicans old "11th Commandment" - "Thou shalt not speak ill of a fellow Republican." Or in our case, fellow Democrat. We need to keep ALL negative campaigning and name calling out of primary races and other internal party squabbles. We need to be able to united against Republicans in the general election, and most of all we need to avoid alienating swing voters in the general election by attacking fellow Democrats, who may not be perfect (no one is) but are infinitely preferable to Republicans. DLC is not going to win general elections by alienating the activists, and activists are not going to win general elections by alienating moderates, either.

Honor the fallen

even if some others don't!

Islamists vs. warlords in Somalia

Fighting has broken out in the world's only real existing anarchism, Somalia, between Islamic militants tied to Sharia courts and what the UN calls "a newly created group - the Alliance for Peace and Fight Against International Terrorism - which comprises several Mogadishu-based faction leaders" (sounds like the warlords to me. Hard to tell who to root for at this time. I wonder who the "international community" (i.e. the rich, white, industrial countries) will root for.)

more from the UN: (Reuters has the same story)

"Abdullahi Shirwa, a member of Civil Society in Action, an umbrella organisation made up of over 12 groups in Mogadishu, however, said the fighting was an attempt by the alliance "to arrest the influence of the Islamic courts", which, he said, has brought a semblance of order in areas they control."

Somalinet: has basically the same information rewritten.

BBC reports "Somali warlords battle Islamists" and further adds "Supporters of some of the city's militia leaders have clashed with an armed Islamist group which is trying to establish law and order.

"Their opponents say the Islamic courts are terrorising local people. A top cleric says fighting will continue until the other side surrenders.

"Many of the at least 15 deaths have been civilians hit by stray bullets."

. . .

"Their critics accuse the courts of being behind the killing of moderate Muslim scholars."

I suspect that the best information is, as usual, from the Beeb. Their information is probably as spot on as it always is.

There's a poll on the D-Kos site about it.

U.S. Reclassifies Many Documents in Secret Review

from the NYT, but there are other sources out there, too:

"WASHINGTON, Feb. 20 — In a seven-year-old secret program at the National Archives, intelligence agencies have been removing from public access thousands of historical documents that were available for years, including some already published by the State Department and others photocopied years ago by private historians."

. . .

"Another historian, William Burr, found a dozen documents he had copied years ago whose reclassification he considers "silly," including a 1962 telegram from George F. Kennan, then ambassador to Yugoslavia, containing an English translation of a Belgrade newspaper article on China's nuclear weapons program."

After neoconservatism

February 19, 2006After Neoconservatism
By FRANCIS FUKUYAMA

"As we approach the third anniversary of the onset of the Iraq war, it seems very unlikely that history will judge either the intervention itself or the ideas animating it kindly. By invading Iraq, the Bush administration created a self-fulfilling prophecy: Iraq has now replaced Afghanistan as a magnet, a training ground and an operational base for jihadist terrorists, with plenty of American targets to shoot at. The United States still has a chance of creating a Shiite-dominated democratic Iraq, but the new government will be very weak for years to come; the resulting power vacuum will invite outside influence from all of Iraq's neighbors, including Iran. There are clear benefits to the Iraqi people from the removal of Saddam Hussein's dictatorship, and perhaps some positive spillover effects in Lebanon and Syria. But it is very hard to see how these developments in themselves justify the blood and treasure that the United States has spent on the project to this point."

This is already well diaried at DailyKos, in fact diaried twice. I left comments there, so I won't repeat them here. Surf for yourself.

Bin Laden compares U.S. "barbaric" crimes to Saddam’s

Not that I think much of bin Ladin's opinion, but the following is from al-Jazeerah:

"In the tape posted Monday, bin Laden also promised never to be captured alive. "I have sworn to only live free. Even if I find bitter the taste of death, I don't want to die humiliated or deceived," he said."

It wouldn't surprise me if he did it. That's the competence of the Bush administration!

Paul Hackett

You don't need me (I hope!) to give you the news about Paul Hackett.

You don't even need me to bring up the DNC's position.

What I would like to point out is that the decision to cut off Hackett's funding (and then unironically criticize his fundraising ability) was taken by two Senators. Is there any way to take action on this? At the very least Reid should drop his position of party leadership. He and Schumer should have let the Democrats of Ohio decide this.

Vaughn Meader

I don't know why I'm thinking of Vaughn Meader today. I've almost forgotten about him since the Kennedy assassination, as have most people. He could have been Mayor Quimby on the Simpsons if he (or they) had thought of it. Too bad no one can make fun of Bush as well as Meader made fun of Kennedy. Maybe Bush isn't as funny, or maybe Bush is just no laughing matter. Maybe Bush is too good a self-satire, a sort of unconscious low-camp president, or presidential impersonator himself.

Bush reminds me of Ford in that he handles the ceremonial work that usually goes to the Vice-President, like going to Corretta King's funeral. When they don't even inform the (titular) Commander in Chief that they think the country is under attack you have to wonder how seriously the guy is president, or how seriously he takes himself.

So what's with the US labor movement?

I haven't heard much about the split in the AFL-CIO. This is potentially one of the biggest stories of the century in labor. The one thing I did hear (and that was some time ago) that intelligently and in detail dealt with the split told me that those who left were interested in organizing, hostile to politics and wanted a more industrial than craft structure. Sounds like the CIO, except for the hostility to political action, which sounds more like the IWW, at least after the first few years. I know this is significant, but Can't really say how.

I'm not interested in prognostication, although don't let that stop you. I am interested in finding out more about what is going on and what its significance is. It's hard to get that out of the mainstream media, so I thought I'd ask around here.