The rave reviews for Jim Webb's State of the Union rebuttal Tuesday night keep pouring in. From Pat Buchanan to the near-unanimous praise from the Daily Kos community, from John Warner to Wes Clark, it seems like nearly everybody loved (except for some right-wing carping and whining) Jim Webb's demolition of President Bush's policies on Iraq, the economy, New Orleans, etc. If this had been one of Jim Webb's boxing matches, the fight would have been stopped by the referee in order to prevent Webb from battering his opponent into oblivion.
Speaking of "battering," EJ Dionne has a column today which wonders if Webb represents the cure for Democrats' "battered party syndrome." According to Dionne:
...Webb's performance was a salutary sign that Democrats just might be getting over the battered party syndrome that has left so many of them terrified of saying exactly what's on their minds. Then again, maybe Webb was just speaking for himself. Having lived on the Republican side of politics during the Democrats' most traumatic years, he may have escaped the traumas associated with defeat.
That's a fascinating hypothesis, and I sure hope that Dionne is right. Frankly, for far too long, we Democrats have been on the defensive against a party that has no scruples, whose value system is fundamentally warped in favor of greed, fear, bigotry, and a narrow self-interest best summed up in the phrase, "I've got mine, so f*** you!"
For far too long, we Democrats have allowed the Republicans to maintain their assault on the common good, as we have struggled to hold on to pieces of LBJ's Great Society and FDR's New Deal. For far too long, we have worried about what THEY would do to US, not the other way around. And for far too long, we have even allowed Republicans to steal and twist our very language, taking proud words like "liberal," "progressive," and even "Democratic" itself, and turning them into smear-word synomyms for "cowardly," "weak," "feckless," "elitist," "out of touch," "anti-white," "anti-men," etc.
Today, faced with a disastrous war in Iraq that is making our nation less secure, less prosperous, and less respected around the world, we Democrats finally - FINALLY! - are fighting back. Today, faced with an economy in which good jobs are outsourced and downsized, and in which - to quote Jim Webb from Tuesday night, we return to an era where "robber barons were unapologetically raking in a huge percentage of the national wealth" and "[t]he dispossessed workers at the bottom were threatening revolt" - we Democrats are finally fighting back. Today, faced with an all-out assault by the Republicans on our Constitution, on our civil liberties, on our American values, we Democrats are finally fighting back. And today, faced with the ruins of New Orleans, a (formerly) great American city which George W. Bush pointedly declined to mention on Tuesday night, we Democrats are finally (at long last!) fighting back.
Well, at least ONE Democrat is fighting back - a brand spanking new Democrat named Jim Webb. The question is, what about everyone else? Are other Democrats going to follow Jim Webb's example in pushing back hard against the Republicans and their anti-worker, anti-freedom, anti-prosperity (except for the mega-rich) agenda? Are other Democrats, besides Jim Webb, going to to start stating things bluntly, using words like "boss" when they are warranted, instead of - as EJ Dionne writes - "a more respectful locution" filled with "focus-grouped and poll-tested sentences" and "dictated by some party pooh-bah who believes the speech will fail if it does not touch all the issues on every strategist's list?"
In other words, now that we have seen the power and the tremendous national reaction to Jim Webb's speech Tuesday night, are we Democrats going to take the hint? Are we going to adopt Jim Webb's refreshing, invigorating style - and substance - and become "fighting Democrats," Webb Democrats? Are we going to follow the lead of a man who left the Democratic Party of "stagflation," of "growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our nation" (to quote Jimmy Carter July 1979 speech to the nation) for Reagan's vision of a "shining city on a hill?" In sum, are we going to follow Jim Webb's lead and overcome "battered party syndrome," once and for all?
As yet another "Jim" - this time Jim McBride, a proud member of the "Webb Brigades" (Webb's "rag-tag army" of 18,000 volunteers) and organizer of a Democratic debate viewing party Tuesday night in Arlington - was quoted as saying in the Washington Post: "...we're motivated by the fact that [Webb's] willing to fight for what he believes in...We are waiting for the Democratic Party to fight the way Jim is fighting."
Yes, we're waiting, but not for long. In the meantime, we proudly call ourselves Jim Webb Democrats, "battered" no more.
We Democrats who register, vote, organize, volunteer, and contribute to campaigns don't have to take the hint. We ARE the hint. The question is whether the part of "we" that is elected to office will take the hint.
For years, many of us have been telling elected Democrats that they've been suffering from Battered Party Syndrome ("BPS"). Despite their denials, it was obvious from their political wounds that they were getting politically slapped around each night by the small group of sociopathic plutocrats who funded their campaigns and PACs. Rather than walk out on this abusive relationship, they choose to stay because they didn't know where else to turn for emotional and financial support. Thankfully, there are now many web sites (like this one) where Democrats suffering from BPS can find both emotional and financial support when they finally decide they've taken enough abuse.
EJ has been the worst. He has taken every opportunity to single out why the Democratics are screwed up (under the gise of being "one of us") to not highlighting the truly un American free for all of the Republican party.
So next time EJ - do me a favor - critique the bad guys not the dems.