America Can Do Better
Molly Ivins isn’t the only discontented voice out there. Coast to coast, disenchanted Democrats and former Dems are calling for a party to believe in and leaders who actually lead and the DNC and the crowd in Washington don’t appear to be listening yet.
‘TOGETHER, America can do better.” When you hear that, do you feel inspired?
I didn’t think so.
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Watching the Democrats stumbling around in search of a “message” is the only thing more agonizing than watching the Republicans destroy this country. Five years of Republican-controlled government have brought us an unwinnable war, a global reputation in tatters, incomprehensibly irresponsible fiscal policies, shameful neglect of our neediest citizens and a government incapable of coping with either natural disaster or terrorist threats.
Yet somehow the Democratic Party still can’t do any better than “America can do better.”
“You can do better” is what you say to a dim child whose grades were even worse than expected. Is this really the Democrats’ message to the nation: that we don’t need to be quite as pathetic as we now are, though excellence is certainly beyond our reach?
This slogan speaks not of hope but of hopelessness, of scaled-down ambitions, of dreams deferred and dreams denied.
It’s the smallness of it that kills me. This nation began with a dream — a crazy, risky, breathtaking dream of freedom, justice and equality. Sure, we’ve never truly achieved that dream, but for much of the last century, it’s been the Democratic Party that has helped keep that dream alive. So how can it be that, today, Democrats don’t seem to stand for anything at all?
Part of the problem is ambition and cowardice, which together make a lethal combination. Too many would-be Democratic leaders think that “playing it safe” is the way to go. They’re fine with criticizing the administration, but the minute they take any flak themselves, they go scurrying back into their holes. In place of a willingness to take risks and speak from the heart, they offer a craven and misguided dependence on polls, focus groups and “expert strategists.”
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If Democrats really want a better message, they’ve got to stop being so technocratic and careful and learn how to be passionate and brave. Of course, they need policies, but they also need a little poetry. [“They can’t even win a war of words” (Los Angeles Times)]
Tags: politics, Democrats, liberals, DNC, Washington D.C, cowards, age of discontent
