I’m still waiting for a breakout Democrat to cast the party along new lines. I’m tired of the old Democratic party, which still plays identity politics, makes bad bargains with public resources, and is generally very loose with money. I’m tired of big government that’s inefficient and behind the times. I want a small powerful government that does things well.
I’m waiting for a new Democratic party to come along, that’s resolutely focused not on unions but on all who work. Most workers are not, and may never be, organized. For their sake, the party needs to demand corporate responsibility and corporate investment in our citizens and our native economy. I’m waiting for a new party that cares about industry and sustainability, that’s ardent and uncompromising about making high-quality, next-generation goods here in the States, and that believes in the collective capacities of the citizenry to take the US economy higher.
I’m waiting for a party that’s proud of universal health coverage, that insists on quality public education, and favors everything local and green. I want a party that’s candid about globalism’s dark side. That wants to curtail immigration sharply for a while, in order to take into account all who are here, strengthen our civic fabric, and restore American citizenship’s prestige.
I’m waiting for Democrats who will demand peace: who will foreswear the siren song, the illusory notion that we can ever really “protect American interests abroad.” I’m waiting for a party that will respect the sovereignty of other nations and that’s clear-eyed enough to refrain from unending militarism abroad.
I’m waiting, and I’m sure that a large population waits with me.
Start a Democratic Tea Party. Good luck with that.
I’m not qualified to start a political movement, but still I find it interesting that there isn’t an organized radical movement within or loosely challenging the Democratic party. Occupy failed to produce any leaders, which is one prerequisite for having an influence on the public and the parties.
First, I have to dis-agree with Harris. Certainly I do not believe that what you are proposing is in any way like the mean-spirited and ultra-narrow-minded tea-party wing of the Republican party. Second, I sure do agree with many of your wishes for a transformation of the Democratic party. Third and finally, I am dis-heartened that Hillary is the only Democrat “out there.” For new Democratic ides to emerge, she needs a challenger within her party.
Thanks for channeling those sentiments on my behalf. I’m a committed federalist, which separates me from the anti-government types that flocked to the tea party. Federal governance is essential for all the reasons the Founders arrived at, and to protect citizens from the meanness and errors that states, if left to their own devices, sometimes fall into. Federalism promotes a civic and national homogeneity or commonalities that would be missing otherwise.
But let’s have a state that’s modern and nimble, for goodness sake. Strains of Jacksonian, Jeffersonian, and even Clintonian (!) Democracy could be revived to reorient the party around goals like economic independence, decentralization, non-interventionism, and budgetary restraint.
I completely agree with you that ideological ferment in the Democratic Party depends on challenges to Hillary. I hope there are some.
Thanks again,
Susan