Face Up on the Guillotine – The Revolution of the Democratic Party
Face Up on the Guillotine – The Revolution of the Democratic Party
Back in my college days I took a class on revolution taught by an Israeli Marxist. Even though my politics have shifted rightward from where they were back then, I haven’t forgotten what I learned and recognize it as being one of the better classes I had while pursuing a political science degree.
One of the important things I learned was that it is the nature of revolutions to turn on themselves. In the end, the revolutionaries often – but not always – turn into what they revolted against in the first place. The rebels become the regime, and during that process they inevitably turn on their leadership. The death warrant of Danton is signed by Robespierre who in turn is sent to the guillotine, face up, by those he once led.
It is becoming clear that the Democratic Party is in the final stages of a revolution begun three years ago by the so-called “Deaniacs,” liberal supporters organized using the Internet. Howard Dean’s presidential candidacy was energized by liberal bloggers, who pushed the grass roots campaign resulting in a juggernaut behind the former Vermont governor. Don’t forget that a month before the 2004 New Hampshire Primary, Al Gore, Bill Bradley, Barbara Boxer and Jimmy Carter all came out in support of Howard Dean’s candidacy and recommended that other candidates unite behind him to focus attacks on President George Bush.
However, the existing Democratic powerbrokers including the Clintons’ man Terry McAuliffe, head of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), stymied this revolt temporarily by engineering John Kerry’s candidacy. The day after Kerry won New Hampshire, journalist Carl Cameron announced “Dean may be done.” He was – in one of the most spectacular flameouts in modern political history.
The day after Kerry lost the ‘04 election, Howard Dean announced he would make a bid for the DNC chair. An AP article at the time quoted him as saying the Democratic Party had to “establish a separate and unique identity from Republicans”. To that end the revolutionaries empowered by Dean took power by replacing McAuliffe in Feb 05, and have since pushed the national party leftward under his leadership.
We are currently in a stage of ideological “purification” – think Mao’s Cultural Revolution here – where the rank and file all carry their little red books, don red scarves, and rat-out their parents as “counter-revolutionaries”. The most visible attacks are centered on Joe Lieberman, who has suffered some of the nastiest attacks I’ve ever heard of let alone seen in a democracy. Some on the Left have referred to him as “Rape Gurney Joe,” implying that Lieberman opposes emergency contraception for rape victims (he doesn’t).
Pretty monstrous stuff – beyond the pale of even the most enthusiastic Karl Rove acolyte. Now other Democratic politicians are running scared, afraid to find themselves in the cross-hairs of the “purification cadres”. Others inevitably will find themselves in that position before the ‘06 election in 3 months’ time. 3 months is plenty of time for careers to be shortened, reputations ruined, and political capital spent.
But the cycle of revolution will not stop. Eventually the moderates who survived the purges eventually retake power in the stage known as Thermidorian Reaction (Marx was big on stages) after the revolutionaries weaken their cause by destroying themselves.
When will that happen?
There are two likely points:
1. The November ‘06 Election – The Deaniacs demand an oath of fealty to their belief that the Iraq War is a failure – just at a time when the war is petering out and the Iraqis are taking care of themselves. Should the war fail to be the defining issue in November, their “ideological” candidates will be trounced at the polls. This will force Dean to quit the DNC and leave the Deaniacs stunned, disheartened, and eventually apathetic – allowing the few remaining moderates (those who haven’t been purged and become Republicans) to take back the party.
2. The November ‘08 Election – Should the Deaniacs survive the midterm elections, they will be even more energized and place a McGovern-type presidential candidate at the head of their party. While Americans may not like the Iraq War, the odds are that they will like a Left-wing ideological candidate even less. Expect a landslide victory for the Republicans along the lines of ‘72 or ‘80.
Americans aren’t very ideological. Most are too busy to be energized by any one particular issue. Given the conditions of a growing economy and a war that is successful in its aims in Iraq, as shown by the failure of the anti-war movement to gain traction during the past 5 years, then it is likely that the revolutionaries will fail; it’s only a question of when.
Will Howard Dean find himself face up on the guillotine like Robespierre? Only time will tell.
ligneus:
Love the thought of the Dem Party face up on the guillotine!
16 August 2006, 8:03 pm