I know that many Virginians are curious about what James Webb believes. I also know that many Democrats are wondering, "is James Webb REALLY a Democrat?" Fortunately, we don't have to guess or grope for an answer; James Webb is a prolific and award-winning author. As a result, Webb has a long "paper trail" that we can fruitfully follow. A case in point is Webb's classic book on ths Scots-Irish, "Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America." Specifically, I believe that Webb's views of Andrew Jackson - a political hero of his - are highly revealing to Webb's own "Jacksonian Democratic" political philosophy.
First, here's Webb writing about how the "elites" viewed the common man in Andrew Jackson's day.
To most of the American political elite of the early 1800s, the thought of empowering a mass of uneducated, seemingly half-wild backwoodsmen was not simply preposterous; the economic implications of watering down a system built on the priviliges that attended the ownership of property were nothing short of alarming.
It seems to me that this same paragraph makes a great deal of sense 200 years later in describing the Republican Party of 2006. Namely, the rich and powerful winning out over the working man, time and again. And, obviously, Webb believes that this is wrong in the early 2000s, just as Andrew Jackson believed it was wrong in the early 1800s.
Now, here's Webb on Andrew Jackson, a man he obviously considers to be a great leader and man of the people:
This combative, self-made lawyer and military commander...became the first president who was neither a product of the landed English-American aristocracy of Virginia nor of the intellectual English-American elite of New England.
Webb adds, revealingly, the following:
...difficult to even comprehend in this age of preening, blow-dried, self-important career politicians - [Jackson] did so with no other motivation than a passion for the common good....And, more than any other president in American history, he was indeed a self-made man of the people.
Other traits Webb admires in Jackson, his ideal leader? "Original," "unusual and fearless," leading by "audacity and personal example," "toughness," and "[making] no distinction between himself and his men other than the authority that came from command." All of this, "fueled by a directness that came from an entire lifetime of overcoming obstacles that most politicians manage to evade...through the circumnstances of their birth and upbringing."
In contrast to Jackson, Webb slams "the tedious, secretly sneering Machiavellian half-truths that pervade so much of today's carefully scripted American politics." Webb writes about how, "to the American political elite, then as well as now, Jackson's personal history was nauseatingly crude and violent while his populist beliefs were a threat to the existing order."
What were the "elites" so afraid of when it came to Jackson? According to Webb:
Jackson...had built his political base on a natural constituency of frontiersman from what was then called the West and the simple wage earners of the cities in the north, in the process founding the modern Democratic Party.
The modern day equivalent of Andrew Jackson, of course, would be an alliance of rural "red" voters in the South and West, along with the working classes of the North. Basically, we're talking about the Democratic coalition of FDR, Harry Truman, JFK and LBJ. And it all started with Andrew Jackson, the President - in Webb's view - "whose heart and sympathy were with the plain people" and who believed "that government must deal as justly with the poor as with the rich." The President who brought "a coarse but refreshing openness to the country's governing process." The President who combined "an intense patriotism" with an emphasis on "the dignity of the common man." The President who worked to "[rid] the government of policies and practices that unduly favored the aristocracy," while strongly fighting for his belief that "the Union of the states was permanent and must never be allowed to dissolve." The military leader who "welcomed free blacks as soldiers during the defense of New Orleans." The man whose life was "a study in contrasts."
In sum, one way to understand where James Webb is coming from as a Democrat is to look at his political hero - Andrew Jackson, who we celebrate on Jefferson-Jackson Day as one of the founders of the Democratic Party. It cannot be overemphasized that Andrew Jackson is the President who James Webb believes in more than any other. And "Jacksonian Democracy" - populist, working class, proud, strong, patriotic, progressive - is James Webb's political philosophy.
The questions, then, for today's Democratic Party are these: will we embrace a modern day Andrew Jackson or not? Or would we rather continue with "business as usual" - America moving backwards not forwards - in the coming years? This is a profoundly important choice, and one which I believe has an obvious answer: James Webb, Jacksonian Democrat for U.S. Senate.