Uh-Oh
Today, we got our first piece of bad news since the election. Russ Feingold has announced he will not run for President in 2008. My feelings were summed up pretty well in this Chris Bowers post, but I thought I would give a go at summing them up pretty unwell. First, here is yet another take on Russ’s decision not to run from Glenn Greenwald and a rundown of all the potential candidates by Joe Trippi (Dean’s campaign manager in 04). This post is also designed to replace the last one I wrote.
Trippi and Greenwald make two key points about Russ. One, he’s the most authentic candidate. Authenticity is something Democrats desperately crave. Being from the Northeast helps Russ out here. Coastal Democrats have a hard time fighting the liberal elitist label, regardless of their actual positions. There is a salt of the earth factor the Northeast gifts its candidates that is really hard to get anywhere else but the South. And Southern Dems seem quick to turn this potential authenticity into a slick, folksy, pandering package of false principles (read: John Edwards and Harold Ford Jr.)
Feingold’s principles and authenticity have allowed him to achieve some amazing things. Enter: key point number two. Many times he has stood for an unpopular idea and helped to make it popular. When you are doing your weekly perusal of old Senate floor votes, look for all the 99-1s. Like the initial Patriot Act vote, or the 1 vote to dismiss impeachment charges against Clinton without conducting a trial, or that pesky censure proposal against the current President that no other Senator would introduce. All of these votes were heavily criticized and very unpopular among voters… at the time he made them. There is much stronger popular sentiment for his choices, now.
Sticking with your conscience, and bringing voters around to your way of thinking. How statesmanly. How presidential. Russ Feingold is the Senator who keeps “Democratic leadership” from being an oxymoron.
In Congressional elections, when voters aren’t too familiar with the candidates, they vote on the issues (which quite often translates into voting by party). In statewide and national elections, they vote on the candidates, so long as divisive and misleading wedge issues don’t steal the spotlight. This is the reason for so many of the Senatorial upsets we saw on November 7. What political pundits almost universally attributed to a desire for middle of the road candidates was anything but. It was a desire for principled candidates. Regardless of whether voters agreed with Jim Webb and Jon Tester on everything, they didn’t doubt for a minute that they really stood for something. It’s some of that Russ Feingold mojo, that authenticity stuff.
In the majority of races where a sitting Senator was defeated, we saw a similar pattern. That Senator did something to lose the public’s trust, and voters then found a more trustworthy alternative. Conrad Burns played “catcher” for Jack Abramoff so much his ass is still throbbing. George Allen proved he didn’t like blacks or Jews, or you know, all those non-Aryan folks. Rick Santorum went the way of Tom Cruise. You can only hide the crazy for long. Sooner or later it is going to come out.
And when these things happened, Jon Tester was ready with his admirable opposition to the Iraq war and his two dollar buzz cut (talk about someone who isn’t afraid of what other people think). Jim Webb was there with his uncanny ability to cut away the bullshit premises of loaded interview questions. And Bob Casey was there with his… well, with his unaddled brain.
Voters are more concerned with character, principle and honesty than they are with any single campaign issue not named Iraq. Today, Dems lost a 2008 hopeful who transcended petty partisan politics and represented ideals the people really care about. Let’s hope we learn from this election and go out and find another such candidate, instead of rounding up the usual suspects.
Epilogue: I find some of my posts more entertaining if I imagine they are being read to me by Brandt from Big Lebowski. Also, I noticed that all Southern Republicans thanked God at the beginning of their concession speeches. This was funny to me, because here I was, thanking God at the exact same time.
3 comments November 12th, 2006