I have been thinking long and hard about this topic since before Christmas, at the best way to approach it, and how to set out the details of what I believe is happening. I have dealt a bit with it in very general terms - Setting the Agenda, Alignments, Re-, De-, and New - but I want to refer to something here that, I think needs some serious consideration from the history mavens and Poli Sci types who pretend to know what they are talking about when they are trying to be journalists (I am speaking here of the Broder/Klein nonsense scribblers who think they Have It All Figured Out). I believe that the failed 1972 campaign of Sluth Dakota Senator George McGovern was as pivotal for the liberal, Democratic wing of the Democratic Party as the equally disastrous campaign of Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater was for the conservative wing of the Republican Party. More than the campaign, however, I believe the committee McGovern chiared, with its rules changes for the primary process and delegate selection and voting process were even more important than his campaign. I think it, like its mirror image eight years before in the Republican Party, laid the foundation for the direction the Democratic Party is moving, for the issues and policies they are highlighting, and, I think, for its success despite overwhelming odds in the previous election. I also think that, caught off guard by Democratic success, even in the wake of six years of demonstrable failure by the Republicans - I agree with all the big-time bloggers that the Bush Administration is like the anti-Midas: everything they touch turns to a big steaming pile of shit - the Washington Press Corps, comfortable with a predictable Republican majority (regardless of either their ability or intelligence) has no idea what to make of the in-coming majority.
I think this as much as anything else explains the attempt to frame "bi-partisanship" as part of the Democratic mandate. When everything else fails, fall back on tried-and-true tropes and framing devices in order to pull the rebels back within a frame of reference they understand. Except, of course, the current Democratic majority doe snot exist within such a frame of reference, because the make up of the elctorate is different, the current social, economic, and political realities are different, and they call for a different agenda and way of doing business. As I heard yesterday on NPR, when a reporter asked a member of the House if "some people might see oversight as payback" (those "some people", of course, are Republicans), this member responded, quietly, politely, and firmly, that oversight is part of the Congressional mandate. When asked about investigations of past abuses and their utility - because, of course, the memory of the press extends to about five minutes ago - the Congressman reminded the reporter that, as fraud and waste have already been documented (even without serious oversight), there is a need to go back and look at all these issues because laws have been broken, and people are dying. The press doesn't seem to understand that, either. People are dying, and it is Congress' responsibility to make sure they aren't dying because of Stupid and Criminal things done.
McGovern has been criticied for destroying the Democratic Party. I think he did, in some ways. He created a structure that elminated much of the New Deal dross that was old, tired, and no longer relevant. By creating a framework within which a whole new type of Democratic politician could live and thrive, however, he laid the groundwork for our current COngressional majority. At the same time, we now have the spectacle of the former, Washington/pundit/Press Corpse favorite "grown-ups" beings studiously ignored by the Administration (what about that ISG report again?), and the real grown-ups - Ed Markey, Henry Waxman, Jim Webb, Nancy Pelosi, Jack Murtha, Charles Rangel - are now in charge, and acting like grown-ups. I am sure that they will have a tough row to hoe with the Press Corps utterly incapable of understanding what it is they are doing and why. They seem to be forging ahead, however, and this is all to the good.
Long Live the McGovern Revolution!
