They Don't Work for Me

Only two months ago, the DailyKos caused quite a stir when Markos suggested that libertarian types vote Democratic in the 2006 elections, and even encouraged the cultivation a long-term political alliance. The reaction was piqued interest from marketeers, along with some nervous scoffing from the GOP machine.

The high hurdle of strengthening this alliance is made all too clear with posts like this morning’s from Kos, celebrating the formation of a lobbying and campaign group, "They work for us", designed to “target” Democrats who are not sufficiently Lou Dobbsian enough on trade (its bad), wage controls (they’re good), and creditors who collect debts (that’s bad).

This effort is designed at creating another litmus test for Democrats, one that labels party members traitors if they seem to express any affinity whatsoever for a market economy. While Ellen Taucher is named as a primary target, the unstated desire seems to be to launch attacks on New Democrats and, in short, to recast the party in a pre-Clinton, pre Al Gore – Ross Perot NAFTA debate, kind of way.

Certainly this will not help the Democratic party. In fact, if I were a Republican donor with a strategic mind, this would be the ideal type of organization to bankroll. It will not only sew intra-party division, it will actively hinder the Democratic party’s ability to reach out to new, disaffected constituencies who now identify more with the GOP.

What’s more, this group is promoting some very wrong-headed public policy. Instead of simply hearing more appeals for intellectual conformity, organization building, and donations on DailyKos, we Democrats could use a lot more internal debate about major issues. We’re supposed to be in favor of economic salvation through huge tariff barriers? How about some rigorous thinking about what that actually means in practice. Al Gore explained it to us back in 1993. And he was right.