Glenn Greenwald: Purge the Blue Dogs
By Alan Stewart Carl | Related entries in Congress, Democrats, LiberalismAs much as the Democratic surge in power has delighted progressives, there are those who are quite unhappy with the conduct of Congress. Glenn Greenwald has a solution: kick conservative Democrats out of office.
Greenwald’s screed reads practically like satire, but since he’s got all the humor of a slab of granite, he’s clearly decided that defeat equals victory. Why? Because Greenwald sees the Blue Dog Democrats as enablers of George Bush and the evil Republican empire. The fact that a conservative Democrat is far more liberal than, say, a mainstream Republican completely escapes Greenwald. Since Blue Dogs don’t follow lockstep with the hard-left agenda, they are the enemy.
Here’s Greenwald in his own words:
Democratic leaders must learn that they cannot increase their majority in Congress by trampling on the political values of their own base. It’s crucial that they understand that they will not gain seats, but will lose seats, the more they accommodate the right’s agenda. That, in turn, will happen only if progressives target for defeat selected members of the Democratic caucus who are responsible for that right-wing-enabling behavior. That is the only way to eliminate the incentive for the Democratic leadership to continue to follow the strategy of increasing their own power by mimicking Republicans. Those who disagree with that — who object that it is oh-so-terrible to cause the defeat of any Democratic incumbents, no matter how complicit and irrelevant — have the responsibility to identify what alternative strategy they think should be pursued in order to alter the behavior of the Democratic Party in Congress.
Greenwald has every right to pursue his own political agenda and use the mechanisms of our electoral system to do so. But if he thinks starting a civil war within the Democrats will improve the party’s image and ability to get things done, he’s clearly entered an alternative universe.
Conservative Democrats are moderates. They aren’t radicals. And, sure, they are more likely to collude with Republicans than progressives but America needs its non-partisans, its members of Congress who represent mainstream predilections as well as the mainstream’s resistance to radical change.
Getting rid of Blue Dog Democrats won’t improve Congress. Getting rid of corrupt politicians just might.
Maybe Greenwald should start there.
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July 29th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
Nancy Pelosi on The Daily Show: Congress Will No Longer be a Rubber Stamp; Greenwald: Send the Blue Dogs to the Pound…
By Damozel | First Pelosi on The Daily Show. I want to be fair, so let’s let her speak for herself. Man, only Nancy Pelosi could be so banal when chatting with Jon Stewart. Sorry…guh…LET HER SPEAK FOR HERSELF….
July 29th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
The problem that left-liberals have is that they are philosophically disinclined to learn the lessons of the past. Unless it happened to them and was their experience, it never happened. They act as if the DLC did not form in response to a legitimate problem, as if any liberal could have beaten Bush Sr., in 1992.
I am amused that Greenwald specifically mentions running ads against two incumbent Democrats who are in very competitive districts, yet does not mention working against the many Democrats from safe seats who voted for the FISA bill. Those are the sensible targets, but I suppose they’re considered loyal enough on other issues.
July 29th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
The funny thing is that if Greenwald succeeds there no guarantee a Democrat will those seats. He may very well end up shooting himself in the foot on election day.
July 30th, 2008 at 2:06 am
I agree, we need the blue dog dems…for now…whether that remains true in the future is another matter, but for today we should welcome the blue dogs into the fold, and keep pushing for the day that Progressive dems make up 70%+ of the senate and house
July 30th, 2008 at 7:50 am
The view of Greenwald and his cohort can all be translated with one sentence:
America needs to be more liberal.
If only you were king, Glenn! ROTFL. America is what it is, and that’s a nation with liberals somtly on the coasts and in decaying industrialized regions, and conservatives everywhere else. Thankfully for regular folks, neither the GOP nore the Democrats can govern without the help of sensible moderates.
The lesson someone above alluded to? The one liberals never learn? Conservative partisans never learn it either. It’s this:
Too much insistence upon ideological purity leads to minority status.
So unless minority status is actually the promised land, it’s time for zealots to update the dogma. The funny thing about this is that both parties are in various stages of denial. The democrats have just re-aken the majority and they are already looking around to kick out the insufficiently devout. Meanwhile, the GOp faithful have already put the “100% truth” stamp on the notion that the reason they lost the majority is because of insufficient fealty to core values.
July 30th, 2008 at 1:29 pm
If, as seems likely, the Dems prevail in establishing an unopposed single party government in 2009 and the Reps are revealed as an impotent opposition party, the next best thing to divided government would be for them to be destroyed utterly and make room for something new to emerge.
I’m hoping the Dems are successful in purging the Blue Dog Dems and realizing Avinash’s dream of establishing the Dems as a party that is representative of no more than one third of the electorate. Perhaps a coalition of disenfranchised limited government Republicans, fiscal conservatives, Blue Dog Dems, and small “l” libertarians, can emerge as a real opposition party that stands for something.
July 30th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
I strongly urge Greenwald to carry on with the partisan cannibalism.
KK nailed it. Those “conservative” (actualy centrist/moderate) Dems have their seats because they reflect the composition of their constituents. Beat them out with lefties in the primaries, and guess what? The Republicans will run centrists/moderates who will take those seats away.
Republicans should’t get too happy–they’re also pretty good at eating their own. Notice what happened to Jim Kolbe’s seat last round when the far right pushed their guy through the primary.
I herewith pledge to send Greenwald a packet of Famous Dave’s barbecue sauce.
August 2nd, 2008 at 11:51 pm
Good to hear from right wing concern trolls about how best to get a liberal agenda maximized.
How’s that? By just going with the flow and being nice to those who vote against your wishes.
The fact of the matter is the mainstream Dem stance on issues and the issues GG is pounding these Blue Dogs on enjoy the majority support of US public opinion. Pushing for the Rule of Law and require warrants are not radical positions.
So you can dream on about this hurting the Dem party. GOPer stand up for their principles, take the heat and get respect for doing so. Dems need to do the same.