Thursday, February 10, 2005

highly recommended reading

David Van Os is a long-time union lawyer who just finished a strong though non-winning campaign for a position on the Texas Supreme Court. I highly recommend that you read the first installment on his something-like-a-blog called "A Fighting Democrat". Here is an excerpt:

In 2004 I ran for the Texas Supreme Court in a statewide race as the Democratic nominee. I went all over my state openly challenging corporate power and openly challenging the radical rightist Republican assault on Constitutional liberties and Constitutional checks and balances. Every major newspaper editorially blasted me as a populist liberal Democrat in unflattering terms. I responded to every such editorial by publicly saying hell yes I am a populist, a liberal, a progressive and proud of it, and I thanked each newspaper for telling the truth about me. On the stump in rural West Texas, the harder I attacked the runaway corporate control of my state's highest court the louder people cheered. I carried 17 rural counties that Kerry-Edwards lost, and ran ahead of the ticket statewide and in every region. Upon analyzing the election returns in the metropolitan areas, I found that the more the daily newspaper had attacked me for being a liberal, a populist, or a progressive, the better my results were.

Democrats cannot restore America to a government of the people by nibbling at the edges looking for a pickup of a few votes here and there to eke out narrow victories with defeatist play-it-safe strategies. In order to reclaim government on behalf of the people, Democrats have got to attack the essence of the Republicans' radical rightist drive for totalitarian power. Democrats have got to call out the radical rightists' drive to wipe out the Constitutional checks and balances for what it is, and attack them over it. Democrats have got to call out the radical rightists' drive to wipe out the people's Constitutional liberties for what it is, and attack them over it. Democrats have got to call out the radical rightists' drive for corporate aristocracy for what it is, and attack them over it.

I agree fully. Is it a winning electoral strategy in the short term? Hell if I know. Is it a winning electoral strategy in the middle and long term? I bet it is. Is it more right and moral and fulfilling and fun and important than quibbling over the particulars of how much to tilt the tables further in favor of the powerful? Yep.

posted by sam 2:52 PM 0 comments

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