Big John Does the Right Thing

AAR is reporting that John Kerry has called Captain Codpiece to concede.



I believe this was the right thing to do.



I realize that most of the blogosphere disagrees with me, but please hear me out.



2000 was the race to fight. Al Gore had a 500,000 popular vote majority nationwide, and the entire election hinged on a few tens of thousands of votes in a state in which the President's brother was governor. The chicanery in Florida in 2000 was rampant, blatant, and undeniable, and Gore was going into the fight with the luxury of a popular vote majority.



Look at where we stood here, folks.

• Kerry had already lost the national popular vote.



• Both Ohio and Florida looked fishy, with exit poll results that differed wildly from the popular vote. I believe that black box voting played a large role, but here's the problem with black box voting: Go Prove It.



• The "Here We Go Again/Sore Loserman" factor was already coming into play.



• A John Kerry Administration put into place via lawyers, dealing with a Republican Senate and House, accomplishes nothing.
  
  
• IF another terrorist attack should occur while the dealing and lawyering is going on, Kerry will be blamed, not bush.
  
  

What John Kerry has done is put the country ahead of himself -- something we know that George W. Bush would and will never do. And he's also made a gamble -- that if Cokeboy has to clean up his own mess, he'll fuck it up so badly that in four years people will be ready for a change. Whether we'll be allowed to have one remains to be seen.



The bottom line is it's the right thing to do. Is Election 2004 a botch job? You betcha. Is the election system broken? You betcha. But we have two choices: We can continue to fight this battle that we can't win, or we can take ONE DAY (no more than one day) to mourn, then it's time to regroup and decide where we go from here.



I'll have more to say later on this, but I just want for now to bring up a few points.

1. Sorry, but I have to say this: Do you still think John Kerry was the most "electable" candidate? Yes, Kerry surprised me in the last few weeks, but overall, this was yet another overly-cautious Democrat, constantly playing defense, and no offense. I'm not saying Howard Dean would have won, but Howard Dean would have at least inflicted some injury; maybe even enough to win. And Howard Dean energized the young voters that it turns out were just too cynical to bother yesterday.



2. Like it or not, Howard Dean is going to be THE powerbroker in the Democratic party. The DLC is dead, and if it's not dead, it should be put out of its misery. Bill Clinton won twice because he was Bill Clinton, not because of the DLC. Terry McAuliffe and Bob Shrum and the rest of the hack losers who have been running our party for the last 10 years have got to go. Moving to the right is NOT the answer, nor is playing nice. Tom Daschle got what he richly deserved yesterday for selling us out to the Bush Junta for the last four years.



3. Progressivism is not dead. There's a reason why Barack Obama is a national star, not just one in "liberal Illinois." Liberalism....progressivism....call it what you will; it about hope. It's about community and family and all that good huggy stuff that even Republicans like. The Democratic Party under its current leadership has lost its ability to formulate a progressive message that people can understand and sign onto, and so it's copped out by trying to be half-assed Republicans. Whether that's due to laziness, stupidity, or even selling out to the same corporate interests that fund Republicans, I don't know. But the FACT of the matter is that MOST people DO NOT believe in "I got mine and fuck you." MOST people believe that people in a civilized nation should have health care...that the elderly should be cared for...that quality public schools are nedessary. Our party has done a lousy job in reminding people of what a good thing progressivism is.





4. Progressivism is not "The Left." "The Left" has gotten bogged down in identity and gender politics, obsessing about fringe causes and generalities that mean nothing: "End Racism!" "End Sexism!" "Free Mumia Abu-Jamal!" Ending sexism and racism are worthy goals, but sloganeering about them, as if it's something you can stop via a court order, just makes you sound ridiculous. Mumia Abu-Jamal may have been railroaded, or maybe he wasn't. But the LARGER picture of black men being incarcerated in record numbers IS a serious problem. Choosing a guy most people regard as a cop-killer as your obsession is not the way to win over voters. We CAN detach from the "kook left" and restore progressivism to its rightful place in American politics. Especially with the kind of medieval crap that the Bushistas are going to implement over the next four years.





5. Don't back down on the gay community. Because of the smackdown that gay marriage got in yesterday's elections, the party hacks are going to be tempted to abandon the fight for gay rights. You know, when I went to college, I went to a school where a lot of people had never seen a Jew before, and they were surprised I didn't have horns. I believe that outside the Evangelical community (whom you can't argue with anyway), the bigotry that exists against gays is the kind of fear and loathing born of ignorance. Most people who think that gay marriage is going to somehow cause the downfall of civilization have never known a gay person or gay couple. It's going to take time...maybe decades...but there WILL come a time when gay couples are regarded with the same nonchalance as interracial couples used to be. We stand for the right of every citizen to be treated equally under the law. We didn't back down in the civil rights era because frightened people thought black people were inferior, and we shouldn't back down now. But we do need to recognize the "fear and loathing born of ignorance and lack of exposure" and plan how to deal with it and combat it in a constructive way.

I'll have more later.