“There’s no such thing as a big tent in the Democratic Party. Many stripes make up the Democratic fabric and if you are missing one stripe, you can’t be a Democrat. The problem is that this fabric does not leave a garment that the American public is comfortable in.”
– recent comment by a disillusioned Democratic voter
This week I’ve got some strong advice for my beloved party, the Democrats – we had better start taking the concept of diversity a lot more seriously. Otherwise, my party will be hearing the same words (but with a Texas accent) from George W. Bush that the soon-to-be very ex-governor of California, Gray Davis, heard recently from Arnold Schwarzenegger voters: “Hasta la vista, Baby!”
Let me get down to details here, and I’ll illustrate by larger point with the case of my good friend and fellow ideologue, Alan Colmes. I know of no truer, red-white-and-bluer liberal than Alan Colmes, a fellow Fox TV correspondent and co-host of the “Hannity and Colmes Show.”
He’s been enraging many of the conservatives in Fox’s TV audience for years now – and has the hate mail to prove it. He crosses swords with right-wing co-host Sean Hannity five times a week and has the guts to go where so many liberals fear to tread – into the belly of the right-wing beast. You would think that such a warhorse for liberalism would be celebrated by his fellow Democrats?
Well, you’d be wrong. Al Franken, the liberal Robespierre With A Funny Face, tries to publicly guillotine Colmes every chance he gets. Others have jumped on the bandwagon. In this month’s Harper’s Magazine, Colmes is contrasted with “the smart, glib, confident, handsome ‘Hanratty,'” ridiculed with the name, “Alan Caves,” and parodied as a blubbering fool. Why all this bile directed against a good liberal like Colmes?
Hatred of Fox News is one answer. Liberals have become so enraged that they are tossing civility – and some very good fellow Democrats – to the wind. I’ve seen the same poison spilled on some of the better liberals this country has – people with whom I might happen to disagree on some issues, like Joe Lieberman, John Kerry and John Edwards, all of whom voted for Bush’s crazy war against Iraq, but who I would never, ever disparage personally or question their liberal credentials.
What … Joe Lieberman and John Kerry not good Democratic Party liberals? Sen. Lieberman was recently booed at a speech for defending his vote for President Bush’s war. This is very bad news for the Democrats – Joe Lieberman’s point of view is shared by a good many Democrats (and independent voters), and if they’re going to be exiled for lacking one stripe (i.e., the “correct” view on the war), then in 2004, the Democrats will continue to lose their already loose grip on federal power.
Starting in 1972, the Democrat Party more than any other American institution brought people into the mainstream who had never been there before – blacks, women, Hispanics, gays, Native Americans, and the physically challenged, to name a few. The party thus moved this country closer to the concept of opportunity. But what has been happening since in the 2000 election is that we’ve forgotten one of the most important components of diversity – the diversity of ideas.
Remember that the Democrats were a party that managed to win many elections with FDR, Harry Truman and LBJ while uniting wings as disparate as Northern liberals and Southern segregationists. The two wings couldn’t stand each other, but for the sake of winning elections, they held their noses and convened their conventions. Fortunately, history has cured the Democrats of having to deal with the racists of the Old South.
But now, many Democrats have become purists. The perfect has become the enemy of the good. Some must enjoy hating more than helping, because if we don’t “get over it” – and stop abusing perfectly good and courageous people like Leiberman, Colmes and others – let me tell you what’s in store for us and the country.
We’re going to lose the 2004 election and the Republicans will increase their majorities in the House and Senate. Bush will get all of his court nominees and will remake the U.S. Supreme Court in the image of John Ashcroft for the next 40 years. If you like the doctrine of pre-emptive war, of failing to cooperate with allies and international institutions, of turning your backs on the unemployed and uninsured, then you’re really going to like another four years of George W. Bush.
If we want to get smart, we’ll take good notes from the man they will soon be calling “Gov. Arnold.” He’s a guy with an accent who has assembled supporters and advisers who include every color and opinion under the sun. And he got them all to agree on the only thing that mattered: California is in trouble and what are we all going to do about it?
Some of my fellow Democrats ought to change their outlook from “Let me see your ticket for admission” to “Welcome everyone!”
