Using Technology to Deepen Democracy, Using Democracy to Ensure Technology Benefits Us All

Tuesday, November 02, 2010

The Do Something Congress: A Tribute to the 111th



The most productive session of Congress in a generation soon comes to a close.

It is truly difficult to talk about these accomplishments: That is because, on the one hand, we all wanted and expected so much more from a policy perspective that these highly compromised beginnings and stop-gaps scarcely seem like accomplishments at all, as measured against ideal or even sensible liberal outcomes. But these accomplishments are also difficult to assess because, on the other hand, a literally historically unprecedented level of irresponsible obstructionism on the part of Republicans and a few grandstanding out-of-step conservatives in the Democratic Caucus itself articulated the context in which anything at all could find its way to the President's desk, making the level of productivity for the 111th all the more impressive for the incredible hurdles it had to overcome.

Rachel Maddow is right that this Congress is a real testament to what the Democratic Party stands for.

But it is depressing to contemplate that almost nobody who agrees with that statement will probably grasp its real significance: On the know-nothing neo-feudal Right, agreement with Maddow's statement will signal a belief that Democrats are socialists who forced a socialist agenda down their throats. And that is, of course, quite simply, palpably untrue. (If only.)

While across the left, I fear, agreement with Maddow's statement will widely signal the resigned or frustrated sense that Democrats are all stealth corporatists selling out the progressive principles of their constituents for a thin gruel of status quo. And that is more true than it should be, but also fails to hit the mark for all that.

I believe the 111th Congress under the notional control of Democrats, too few of whom are as progressive as their constituents, against the monolithic will and weight and word of corporate-militarist incumbency, managed to get best-possible most-progressive solutions to actual shared problems enacted without the prospect of easy electoral payoffs and without the prospect even of praise or support from those with whose views they most sympathize, just because they had to do something to make things better with the means they had at their disposal, whatever the costs.

I believe that the Democrats will likely lose their majority because of their accomplishments, because they mostly (not entirely, but mostly, mostly-ish) did the best they could with the means they had at their disposal. And they will lose to those who obstructed those accomplishments and who now mean to destroy those accomplishments. They will lose both because fearful hateful ignorant people despise those accomplishments and because good frustrated suffering people feel those accomplishments were unequal to the problems at hand (which is surely true) and seem unclear or indifferent that they are empowering those who authored their frustration and want the furthest thing from their welfare.

There is much to complain about and critique in the 111th Congress -- take it from a gay man who advocates single payer and thinks many people in the Bush Administration should be prosecuted for war crimes (and now some in the Obama Administration, too, for good measure) -- but the fact remains that many of the best and most progressive heroes of the 111th will be the ones who lose the most should Republicans prevail to the extent that now seems likely.

That isn't right and it isn't fair, but I hope it was worth it. I hope they know that the historical verdict on their accomplishments will be a positive one, will mark another step in the direction of social democracy in America and some baby steps toward sustainability, and that the verdict of progressive realists here and now, however disappointed we are in our idealism and however frustrated today in our hopes, is finally one of gratitude and with a sensible measure of tribute.

1 comment:

Justin Faulkner said...

I couldn't agree more! Thanks for articulating exactly how I feel.