Okay, Now What

Good question, really.

There's a part of me that wants to blow town. Go to France and become a cheese eating (supposed) surrender monkey. I want to run away to a place that has the beliefs I have. I want to be a part of a nation that believes in fundamental fairness. I want to be somewhere that believes that families shouldn't have to have two wage earners going 45+ hours a week just to barely make it. I want to be in a country where . . . where this election didn't happen.

But it did, and running away is the worst idea. If what I think America is about is at all dear to me, it is up to me not to run off in search of some simulacrum of it in a different country, but rather to stay here and do what I can to make it the country I think it is.

Frankly, though, I'm tapped for ideas. I cannot conceive of a more cohesive Democratic party than the one we saw the last six months. From MoveOn to ACT to CommonCause to the Deaniacs to Rock the Vote . . . I thought we had the soul of the party. And we not only lost, but we lost devastatingly.

I don't know the solution. Really, I do not. First of all, we have a fundamental schism in our party. There is the social justice crowd, with pro gay, pro gun control, pro abortion and pro environment positions. Then there is the economic justice crowd with issues like fair pay, overtime regulations, affordable healthcare and pro union power. The problem is that people are more strongly opposed to the social justice issues than they are motivated by the economic justice issues. Part of the reason is the unmitigated crap we are fed about how tax cuts give us more money to spend. Part of it is that many believe the life of a tycoon is only a lottery ticket/Survivor appearance/American Idol appearance away. On the other side of that equation, the social justice issues are not just issues of pragmatism, they are issues of fundamental belief. Abortion and homosexuality are not just political issues, not just matters of life and death, but matters that can save or damn a soul for eternity (not my belief). So, these social issues are of much greater relevance to these voters.

How do we overcome this? I wish I knew. I know I believe that neither half of the party can win by itself. And, I'm having a hard time working out how to reconcile these two halves of the party. So, for the moment, I am lost.