I am a Democrat. I\u2019ve been one since Mom pinned on my first campaign button, JFK for President in 1960. Yes, I was a little young then for a fully informed decision, four; but as I grew up I found the Democratic Party represented me much more than my father\u2019s business Republicans. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I spent several years in the actual mechanism of the Party. As a twenty something, I worked in Democratic political campaigns in the Cincinnati area. I learned that \u201cthe Party\u201d and \u201cthe campaigns\u201d were two very different things. As a campaigner, trying to get my candidate in office, I was single minded. But the \u201cParty\u201d had a life of its own. Candidates came and went, but the \u201cParty\u201d lived on. My twenty-two year old campaign manager demands about a City Council race really didn\u2019t make much of a dent in the old men, Mr. Weil and Mr. Wiethe, who ran the show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There was never a lot of \u201corder\u201d in the Democratic Party. Everyone was going in their own direction; they had their own priorities and commitments. The Party didn\u2019t \u201crun\u201d them, it simply was the structure they could use, or not, to help get elected. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s a lot like dog sleds. There are two kinds of dog sled harnesses.\u00a0\u00a0One has a single line going out from the sled, with the dogs harnessed side by side along the line.\u00a0\u00a0They all pull in one direction, and they all are kept in line by the harness, and the dog behind biting them in the butt.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s the most power-efficient harness, but it has one major flaw.\u00a0\u00a0If the lead dog falls in an ice hole, the entire team, and the sled go with it.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The other kind of harness has each dog on an individual lead attached to the sled. The dogs all are generally going in the same direction, but they all have their own \u201cpath.\u201d If one goes in an ice hole, the others avoid it, and the sled driver can pull him out. It\u2019s less organized, chaotic, and freer spirited. The sled eventually gets where it\u2019s going, with a wider, more meandering path.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Democratic Party is absolutely the second kind of dog sled. Everyone is pulling, but each in their own individual direction. Democratic candidates fall into ice holes all of the time. Sometimes the Party tries to rescue them, and sometimes the Party cuts the line. But the Party goes on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So it doesn\u2019t surprise me that the Democrats in the House of Representatives aren\u2019t a single, cohesive group; marching in lock step to Speaker Pelosi\u2019s commands. They are Democrats, and they are all pulling in their own direction. The Speaker has them going down a similar path, but they are all headstrong, making their own decisions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Speaker Pelosi doesn\u2019t make tactical mistakes on the floor of the House of Representatives, she doesn’t fall in ice holes. When she spoke out against the President, calling him a racist for his tweets about four Democratic House members, she knew she was violating a long-established House rule. She did this with purpose, to force Republican members to go \u201con the record\u201d in support of the President\u2019s racist statements. She also got the House to set new precedent; if a President is a racist, they can now call him one \u201con the record.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When Congressman Green of Texas prematurely pushed his impeachment bill onto the floor of the House, the Speaker let him fall in the ice hole. Then she cut the lead, and the sled moved on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
New York Times <\/em>columnist Thomas Friedman wrote last weekend about Democrats. He sounded an alarm about the \u201cleftness\u201d of the Party, about how he felt many of the candidates for President were so radical that they would end up giving the Presidency back to Trump. His statement: “you can have a revolution, or you can beat Trump.” He is a moderate Democrat, and he is afraid his Party is leaving him, and the nation, aside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The national Democratic Party ranges from the Social Democrats of Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, to \u201cprogressive\u201d Democrats like Sherrod Brown and Kamala Harris, to \u201cold school\u201d moderates like Amy Klobuchar and Joe Biden.\u00a0\u00a0It shouldn\u2019t be a surprise that twenty some candidates are running for President.\u00a0\u00a0And it isn\u2019t a surprise that we go from a former Vice President to a person who claims \u201clove is the answer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n President Trump is going to extreme lengths to brand the Democrats as “Socialists” who are so “unAmerican” that they should consider leaving the country. He is picking the farthest extreme of the Party, and trying to paint the entire group. While many Americans are appalled by his willingness to use racism, some are still falling into the ice hole of accepting his branding. Mr. Friedman and other reasonable people need to look beyond his words, and see what the whole Democratic Party is about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s the Democratic Party! The harness is huge, and it\u2019s going in lots of directions, all generally headed, well, forward. We \u201cDems\u201d are a raucous, confused, argumentative, and determined lot. We will fall in the ice-holes; some will be rescued, and some will get cut off and sink to the bottom. There will be a lot of \u201cnot pretty\u201d moments, and times when it looks like the whole sled is going down. It won\u2019t. In our messy, ugly, confusing way, we will find a candidate for President to determine the future of America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our mission is: beat Trump.\u00a0\u00a0Democrats get it, we all know what to do in the end.\u00a0\u00a0We are just going to do some arguing and wandering to get there.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n So stay on the sled.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One Big Happy<\/h3>\n\n\n\n