This election has been explained by the pundits as an issue of gender or race. I believe that the issue, not only in our party but across the nation, is one of establishment versus anti-establishment candidates. I offer for evidence the expected nomination of Sen. McCain, the tenacity of Rep. Paul's campaign, and the Obama movement. (continued...)
Sen. McCain has long been known as a maverick in his party. He has reached across the aisle several times to form legislation such as McCain-Feingold and McCain-Kennedy. His status as front-runner has infuriated the conservative right-wing pundits and the evangelicals. In a party that prides itself on "party discipline" and top-down hierarchy, it is anathema to the GOP that a candidate should pull so many independents and moderates that the strongly-held views of their elites would be ignored.
It talks to the integrity of those fellow Americans who differ with us in matters of politics but share the view that the Bush administration and the "Rove-ian" politics of the GOP have been a disaster. They have rallied independents and moderates from within the party to stand up and pull for a rebel (well, as much of a rebel as their party allows) and a member of the "Group of 14" against the Republican establishment. The elites of the GOP, who arguably over-represent the evangelicals and staunch social conservatives, could not set aside establishment politics long enough to back neither former Governor Romney nor former Governor Huckabee. McCain's candidacy threatens to make the party establishment irrelevant. The recent backing of McCain by President Bush appears to me as a reach by the party to try to keep the GOP together and maintain some degree of influence by the establishment, but we will have to see how that plays out over the days and weeks to come.
In the same vein, the candidacy of Congressman Ron Paul, who along with Dennis Kucinich represent two of the more radical political views in the campaign, has persisted longer than anyone would have expected. He has raised a tremendous amount of money through grassroots fundraising considering the size of his campaign. In Washington State he was able to pull almost as many votes as Huckabee and McCain - and this happened after McCain is all but mathmatically guaranteed the nomination of his party. I conceed that the near certainty of McCain's nomination may have given independents in the party the sense that they could make a statement with their votes. However, I think there is something else going on here. It is one thing to give a "radical" candidate your vote, it is quite another to continue to donate money to his cause and to take the time out to caucus for Rep. Paul rather than just to mail in the ballot in the upcoming primary (yes, we have a caucus and a primary in WA - but that is a subject for another day). The persistance of Ron Paul's campaign in this election emphasizes the popular movement against established party politics.
Then there is the Obama movement. Sen. Clinton appears to be the establishment candidate. The large number of superdelegate votes (superdelegates being mostly made up of party elites such as long-term party activists and current and former office holders from the party) for Sen. Clinton points to this. This is more emphasized by the degree to which these votes differ with the popular vote results. People are not joining the Obama movement because they "hate" or "dislike" Sen. Clinton and her policies. To the contrary, most of us applaud her long service to the American people through her activities inside and outside of government. Her service in the Senate and her agressive stance for Democratic values reflect well on her, the good people of New York, and Democratic voters nationwide. No, the droves of voters flocking to the Obama movement are not doing so out of animosity toward Sen. Clinton.
However, voters have had more than enough of party politics as usual. The party politics that led to Bush 43 "winning" Florida in 2000, the politics that led democrats to favor taking back the White House in 2008 rather than putting absolutely everything into redeeming our nation in 2004, the sort of party politics that has seen a continuing stalemate in Congress even after the "Democratic revolution" of 2006: the people of the United States want a candidate to lead us away from party-dominated politics. The people of the United States want to work together to "rebuilt this nation" and "repair this world". People are rejecting politics as usual in both parties and are bent on restoring the people's government.
We in the Obama camp are not "against Sen. Clinton". Rather, we are for the end of the politics of stalemate and the begining of a new chapter in American history - a story of the people standing up and saying we are greater than the system, the system is support to serve the people, not the other way around. Senator Obama upholds many of the same policies as Senator Clinton, that is true. However, Senator Obama will promote these policies in a way that promotes unity, that calls on people of all stripes to work together - to work - toward the vision of what America should be. Senator Clinton, in a way, is an unfortunate casualty of the failure of establishment politics. But I believe that with President Obama in the White House and Senator Clinton continuing her fight in the Senate to promote our values, we can do so much over the next eight years. I do not believe we will have a much pull across the aisle if the roles were reversed. I also fear what will happen if independents decide that Sen. McCain is the anti-establishment candidate they are looking for against Sen. Clinton as the establishment nominee.
Just as every parent must eventually allow the next generation to set out on their own, we are at the cusp of a changing of the guard. It is never easy and it is not somehow an admission of failure on the part of the old establishment. It is an affirmation that we have taken to heart the teachings of the greatness of the American people and the potential our society has to do great things in this world. Millions are sharing in this idea, idea greater than any one person or even any one party. We would not be here without those who have gone before and we salute those efforts. The fierce urgency of now demands that we must bring an end to establishment politics and immediately forge the politics of unity.
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