The Passion of the Democrats

I'm not going to bore you with too much of a foreward, merely to say, first click through to read Comrade Joshua's excellent take on the D's inability to refrain from political dorkiness.

But he also makes the great point (and even quotes Seneca to do it) that as American politics goes, we should not be spinning out, about it. Take it away Comrade Joshua:

"In saying this I'm not suggesting that anyone just sit back and let history happen. Politics matters. Organization matters. Message matters. But there's a line from Seneca in which he says, "Fate leads the willing and drags the unwilling." And there's a political corollary to this as well. Voters are making a decision about Bush's presidency and the Republican ascendency in Washington. If voters aren't happy with them, Nancy Pelosi's unoriginality or tone deafness won't be able to stop that judgment any more than President Bush's handlers can goose his poll numbers."

I would like to suggest a surfing metaphor here. As Dems and Progressives we should be approaching this as one might a wave. (Okay, it's summer and I haven't been surfing yet, and I am starting to jones.) You can't coerce the wave, the forces driving the wave are inscrutable and beyond your ability to influence. No, all you can do is stat paddling and put yourself in the pocket when the crest picks you up and you drop in.

So yeah, our message and our politics matter, but they have to be in concert with this wave that is approaching, because if we try to force it then we are going to go over the falls or we won't have the momentum for the swell to pick us up.

Granted a lot of this is starting to sound like "well, should we just be pandering to the crowd's dissatisfaction with the GOP right now?" Well, I suppose you could frame it that way. But I would rather say, like Joshua, that New Gingrich of all people had it exactly right.

The Dems new slogan should simply be "Had Enough?"

mojo sends