What the Hell Happened?

The apparent failure to prevent Sam Alito from winning a seat on the Supreme Court tells us a lot about what's wrong with the Democratic Party, and about American politics today. Last Friday I was pretty harsh with the leadership of my party, and while I don't want to retract those feelings, I do want to qualify them. Most Democrats in the Senate are voting against Alito, and most Democrats are willing to filibuster. There are only a few Dems who are unwilling to do so out of what I believe is a misplaced fear it will be used against them in the next election. Additionally, people underestimate how difficult it is for a party in the absolute minority to "frame" any debate, or come up with any coherent strategy. If you look back at the mess the Republicans were in the 1960's, you have a pretty good idea.

Having said that, this failure is a particularly troubling one. Here was a nominee who was clearly out of the political mainstream, but there was never any public outcry against his radical opinions, and the opposition was never able to make any real headway. I think that some of the blame can be placed on the Democrats. Too many of them have been playing defense for too long, and have forgotten that there is such a thing as a "good loss." The liberal interest groups have continued to make the same mistakes when it comes to coordination and mesage discipline - it should have been easy to make up a 2-sentence summary of why this guy shouldn't be on the court, but we never heard it. And the media must take responsibility for allowing themselves to be played (yet again) by the Republicans. Their singleminded focus on the abortion, their laziness, and their eagerness to be manipulated is beginning to make me thing that the NYT and the Washington Post are turning into Pravda.

Having said that, I must say that ultimately the blame must fall on the American people themselves. We have taken our liberties for granted for far too long. We have decided that politics has nothing to do with our lives, that participation in public purposes is the job of other people, that both parties are rotten - but it doesn't matter because they cancel each other out. The fact is that when one party is in the absolute majority, it is not just up to the opposition to practice vigilance - it is up to the citizenry as well. The reality is that Democrats have been explaining what is wrong with the current administration, the media has communicated that critique (however muddled), and we as a people have just not listened. Somehow we have decided that torture, illegal wiretapping, illegitimate wars, reckless fiscal management, the abandonment of New Orleans, the botching of the War on Terror - that all of these things are less important than a President who "makes us feel safe" or "shares our values." Whatever those statements mean.

Liberals hate Karl Rove and George Bush because of their ruthless Machiavellianism and their indifference to the norms of democracy. But what is truly disturbing is that the American people do not appear to hate them. I'm not sure if this lack of response is due to indifference, self-delusion, fear, or just that we're not paying attention. But democracies are ultimately dependent on a people's willingness to govern themselves, and today I just don't see that in America.

I worry about the future. I worry a great deal.