Plans and Policies, Policies and Plans - Editorial, The Week in Review

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07.06.2019

Plans and Policies, Policies and Plans

I do not have any problem calling myself a Democrat.

I believe in party politics because we are weaker when we are separated from one another, united we stand…or so the story goes, as house divided against itself cannot stand.

My people on the liberal and progressive side of the political divide are about to start choosing sides, and in so doing they will put all of their hopes for social justice, a new economy, dignity in the workplace, they will put it all on the table for a gaggle of robber-barons to steal from them.

We are about to start demanding policies and plans, we are going to scrutinize each candidates record, and try to make some determination of whether or not they are worthy of our vote.

Maybe a candidate will emerge who is sensitive enough to our social concerns, and if they have a blemished record, maybe they will be cogent enough to apologize, make amends, declare the wrongness of their former positions, and bright enough to move forward.

Maybe we, the voters, will be patient enough to let them.

Maybe not.

We the voters, seem to be in more of a mood to separate the wheat from chaff, set the latter on fore, at the risk of burning the party down.

Some of my friends would never condescend to even think of themselves as democrats, they lie to themselves and anyone who will listen, pretending that there is no difference between the Republicans and Democrats. They base this on the right observation that all politicians are corrupt, all politicians lie and all politicians compromise.

Because of their astute observations they tear at the base of progressivism and liberalism, by refusing to participate and encouraging other to do the same. They are small minded and they should be shamed.

Many many more of us are going to begin to take sides and choose candidates that they believe best articulate plans and policies for the way forward.

Policies and plans will not win us this election, they never have and they never will win anything. Even if the candidate with the best plans wins, those policies will not survive to become law, not in the way they were promised, not in the way they were conceived.

As Democrats, as progressives, as liberal thinkers know this, we have to stop demanding that people apologize for the past, and we have to stop pretending that a good policy initiative will win the day.

We have to put the best speaker, the most charismatic leader into the driver’s seat, and that person does not need to do much more than promise to beat trump, to unseat Mc Connel, to send Lindsay Graham home, to keep the house of representatives, to win back the senate and to control the redistricting process coming out of the next census.

We need a leader, people believe in leaders. Nothing less than a leader will win us the election, promises of health care reform will not win us the election, promises of student loan reform will not win us the election, promises of immigration reform will not win us the election, promises of criminal justice reform will not win us the election.

People want those things, I want those things, but we vote for people, not plans and policies.

Let’ put our energy behind the strongest person, and not tear the others down. Let’s keep the whole team in the game, and move the party forward to an electoral victory.

Anything short of that will be a disaster.