Party time

Dan P. asks a very reasonable question, which deserves a shorter answer than this one:

Given that the Democratic Party has been, within living memory, the party of Thurmond (and all that that entails), what do you see in that structure that makes you approach it not just as the currently preferable home of the good but as a good in itself?

My initial response is that my Party is the Party that Strom Thurmond had to leave to be a Dixiecrat. Yes, there were lots of people in the South who were Democrats because Abraham Lincoln was a Republican, but for sixty years or so, old-fashioned segregationist Southern Conservatives have been leaving my Party and joining a Party where they feel more comfortable, that is, the Republican Party. Oh, and lots of them have been dying, they should only be reborn as chandeliers. So let’s be clear: Party where old segregationists feel comfortable: Republican. Party where old segregationists feel unwelcome: Democratic.

That’s a bit glib, though, isn’t it? After all, there are more than two political parties in this country, and besides, one doesn’t have to claim any party as one’s own. If you are your own party, independent and alone, then you don’t have to take on the baggage of Thurmond-ism, of Phil Gramm-ism, of Faubus and Wallace and for that matter Andrew Jackson. No, your hands are clean. Of course, you are clean and alone.

No baggage, no party.

Certainly there is much to be said for working alone to improve the community and the country, and certainly there is much to be said for working in your church or your union or your neighborhood watch or your NGO or your charitable organization. All of those can be terrific things, and some of them are better than the Democratic Party. All of them, too, come with baggage: no baggage, no community. But my Party, for all its baggage, and for all the current and future flaws, is among those terrific things that has done and continues to be good in itself, not merely as a bulwark against the Other Party, and not merely as the lesser of evils.

In the middle of the summer, YHB wrote about Noelle McAfee and a taste of one of her ideas. I had outlined the narrative that she rejected, which is the political journey from dependence to independence, but I never talked about her suggested replacement, which is the political journey from silence to participation.

I find that narrative deeply moving. As we work our way deeper into, as we politically mature, we move further and further into participating in the civic life of our country. That may mean the participation of voting on Election Day, or the participation of commenting on this blog, or the participation of serving as President of the United States. Or, most importantly, the participation of conversation of Americans together about our politics and our world.

Independent judgment, as a goal, is a goal of casting off fetters, while participatory politics, as a goal, is a goal of choosing which loads to shoulder.

Or, more to the point, independent judgment seems to be antithetical to compromise, while participatory politics seems to lead directly to compromise. I say seems, because of course it’s more complicated than that: the entire concept of compromise requires the independent judgments of those doing the compromising, nor is the exercise of uncompromised independent judgment possible. But we are dealing here with the stories of what the world is like, and the world is made of stories and made by stories, and seems is a mighty word.

So it seems good to me to say that the Democratic Party is my Party, that it is a good Party, that it is, as you say, a good in itself. Not only because nearly every major governmental innovation, nearly everything the government has done for the public good, nearly every expansion of civil rights and civic dignity over the last half-century and more has come about because of Democrats working as members of the Democratic Party, but because the party itself is an example of the best of America. If you watched the convention on C-Span, watched the camera panning across the state delegations in their goofy hats, dancing in the aisles, community organizers and shop stewards, civil rights activists and veterans, African-Americans and Whites and Latinas and Asians and Native Americans, straights and queers, the self-made and the heirs, people who remember FDR and people who were too young to vote four years ago, then you saw the ongoing fulfillment of Walt Whitman’s dream. Democracy is not about creating a good government. Democracy is about creating a people who can create a good government.

Getting those people all together in that room, even if we lose the election, even if that grand coalition doesn’t get access to health care for everyone, even if we don’t moderate the bankruptcy laws, even if we don’t stop the war and stop the drain of public treasure into private pockets, just getting those people together in the same room to participate in the struggle for those goals makes my Party a good in itself. Read, Gentle Reader, this excerpt from one of the greatest speeches ever made by an American, Jesse Jackson in Atlanta to the 1988 Democratic National Convention:

Common ground. America is not a blanket woven from one thread, one color, one cloth. When I was a child growing up in Greenville, South Carolina and grandmamma could not afford a blanket, she didn’t complain and we did not freeze. Instead she took pieces of old cloth — patches, wool, silk, gabardine, crockersack — only patches, barely good enough to wipe off your shoes with. But they didn’t stay that way very long. With sturdy hands and a strong cord, she sewed them together into a quilt, a thing of beauty and power and culture. Now, Democrats, we must build such a quilt.

Farmers, you seek fair prices and you are right — but you cannot stand alone. Your patch is not big enough.
Workers, you fight for fair wages, you are right — but your patch labor is not big enough.
Women, you seek comparable worth and pay equity, you are right — but your patch is not big enough.
Women, mothers, who seek Head Start, and day care and prenatal care on the front side of life, relevant jail care and welfare on the back side of life, you are right — but your patch is not big enough.
Students, you seek scholarships, you are right — but your patch is not big enough.
Blacks and Hispanics, when we fight for civil rights, we are right — but our patch is not big enough.
Gays and lesbians, when you fight against discrimination and a cure for AIDS, you are right — but your patch is not big enough.
Conservatives and progressives, when you fight for what you believe, right wing, left wing, hawk, dove, you are right from your point of view, but your point of view is not enough.
But don’t despair. Be as wise as my grandmamma. Pull the patches and the pieces together, bound by a common thread. When we form a great quilt of unity and common ground, we’ll have the power to bring about health care and housing and jobs and education and hope to our Nation.
We, the people, can win.

Even though we lost that election, we did something good for the nation by hosting that speech at that time. And even though we have not managed to fix health care, even though housing is again a problem, even though jobs are slipping away and education remains a concern, we knew that would happen. We know that there will always be fights to be fought and improvements to be made. Michael Dukakis wouldn’t have been able to make the world perfect and Barack Obama will not make the world perfect. But we can always come together, on common ground, to fight for a better world.

And when we do, when we do what my Party does, when we bind ourselves to ourselves with the common thread, and form that great quilt of a Party, even if we lose those fights, we have made something good.

e pluribus unum.

Out of many, one. We don’t lose the many, but we make one new thing, every day one new thing, one community that has a new face, a quilt with a new patch, another step in the journey from silence to participation. That’s what the Democratic Party is.

Tolerabimus quod tolerare debemus,
-Vardibidian.