What I want from my political party

 

It’s a lovely dark and dreary, rainy morning in North Texas. My garden is soaking up steady rainfall. A perfect day for curling up with a book and taking a nap. But, alas, I have politics on my mind.

Anyone who’s read more than two words I’ve written knows that I am a proud lifelong Democrat, prone to speaking out often and loudly. My brother compares me to a dog with a bone, and he’s probably right. This morning, I’m thinking of Michelle Obama’s classic statement, “When they go low, we go high.” She was spot on with her advice. Let me count the ways they go low—I probably can think of a thousand, but that’s not where my mind is this morning.

I get at least 200 emails a day, especially now that election day is a mere two weeks away. Most of them are whining that we’re losing, begging for money, declaring disaster if I don’t send $5 or $25, reminding me that their election is the one the nation’s entire future hinges on. This morning, one screamed in boldface that President Biden had just smashed Mitch McConnell. Now personally I think McConnell is a pretty nasty man and has done a lot of smashing of others. He probably deserves whatever he got. But that’s not what I want from my party. Yes, in some ways the goal is to beat the Republicans. But there is, and should be, a far nobler goal—and that is to govern our country for the betterment of all people. Beto talks about what he will accomplish for Texas—what a refreshing change of tone.

There is so much today that Democratic candidates should be shouting from the rooftops. Did you know that President Biden has reduced the national deficit by more than any president—in just two years. Did you realize that crime, especially murder, s uniformly higher in red states than blue? (Ask the governor of Oklahoma, who just learned that lesson the hard way in a debate with his opponent; she has statistics to prove it.) Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock you know that employment is way up, unemployment down. Democrats have had lots of other victories in Biden’s two years in office, yet campaign after campaign goes on the defensive against Republican’s outrageous and untrue accusations. No, Biden didn’t cause inflation; no, Democrats didn’t open the border and say, “Ya’ll come on, now.” No, Democrats are not baby killers. No, the Democratic Party is not the party of extravagant spending, running up the national deficit (a hint: that’s Republicans with ginormous tax cuts to the rich).

The list is endless, but If you keep up with the real news you know these things. Unfortunately a lot of knee-jerk voters believe what they hear on TV and see on Facebook. I love the comment by one observer that he couldn’t believe Americans would accept a dictatorship if they could save a quarter on a gallon of gas.

I wish my party would take the high road. Stop bashing Republicans, stop accusing them (that’s their despicable game). But perhaps wiser heads know more than I do. Whereas I desperately want civility, the collegiality of Congress before Reagan, in the days of Tip O’Neil, perhaps political consultants know that chaos and drama draw attention. Democrats tend to be lower key than Republicans. Trump is of course outrageous in his flair for drama and many of hs colleagues follow. The media loves drama, so the story is too often about the Republicans. Maybe our blue candidates believe they have to compete on the turf that’s given them. If so, God Bless. But I long for a party that will go high, and an electorate who will appreciate that.

Or maybe we should go back to the days of Lincoln when it was considered unseemly for a candidate to speak publicly on his own behalf. The Lincoln/Douglas debates broke the mold, and maybe we should blame it all on them.

I just heard a touch of thunder. Time to curl up with that book.