Oh my, Emanuel, and I had been complementing you a lot recently too. Naively, I had thought that the new book by Emanuel and Reed would just be a list of wonky policy details, and would restrain itself from attacking Democrats. Wrongo--I should have know there was no way Reed could restrain himself from doing that. Here is most of excerpt from the prologue
the new book by Bruce Reed and Rahm Emanuel:
We're both dyed-in-the-wool, lifelong Democrats, but
I always dread the end of any sentence that starts that way, wondering what anti-Democratic narrative is about to be reified by our "leadership." In this case, it was virtually every major anti-Democratic narrative in the country.
we can't help but notice that in recent years, both parties in Washington lost their way.
Message to voters: don't vote, we both suck. Democrats are no better than Republicans.
Americans scratch their heads in wonder that Republicans and Democrats can't find common purpose.
Message to voters: Democrats and Republicans are equally to blame for a polarized Washington, even though Republicans are in charge during this period of increased polarization..
But the challenge is deeper: Each party needs to be clearer in its own purpose.
Message to voters: Republicans are correct when they say Democrats really don't stand for anything.
How could conservatism--which even with its many shortcomings was once a rigorous doctrine--have come to such a small-minded, unsatisfying demise? Republicans who rode to power on conservative ideals turned them into a hollow faith. Conservatism became a strategy for winning elections, not leading a nation--for staying in power, not respecting its limits. Conservative leaders forgot what made them conservatives in the first place: a recognition that rigid ideology has always been the God That Failed, and that no idea is good if it doesn't work.
Message to voters: The Club for Growth is right. Conservatism is the best and only ideological doctrine in this country, it just needs to be done right.
Ironically, conservatives made government bigger, not smaller. In Senator John McCain's phrase, Washington Republicans spent like drunken sailors--a conservative administration leading the biggest domestic spending spree since Lyndon Johnson.
Message to voters: John McCain for President, because Democratic Presidents are bad and spend too much
No wonder Republicans are confused of late: They say their purpose is to get government off our backs, but they have little interest in or intention of doing so, and years of conclusive proof show that left to their own devices, they'll do just the opposite.
Message to voters: Republicans are right in what they say, so we are just going actually follow through on it.
With Republicans confused and corrupted by being in power, Democrats became so desperate to stop the damage that we often forgot to show where we'd like to lead the country instead.
Message to voters: Republicans are right when they say Democrats have no ideas.
In the 1990s, Democrats began to define a new mission for the country and the party, with impressive results. But in recent years, our anger and frustration with the other side steered us away from our real strength: America hires Democrats to help solve problems, not to listen to us whine about them.
Message to voters: Republicans are right when they say Democrats have been taken over by the angry left.
If all this were just about politics--one confused party somehow outmaneuvering the other--it might not matter that so many Republicans and some Democrats lost their way.
Message to voters: it does not matter who is in charge.
Wow. In just a few paragraphs, Reed and Emanuel manage to reinforce virtually every anti-Democratic narrative in existence. We have no new ideas, we don't stand for anything, we are equally to blame for polarized politics, we have been taken over by the angry left, conservatism is the only good ideology, Democrats won't do any better, our predecessors expanded government too much, and maverick John McCain is the only hope for unifying this country. And so our national image as a party is completely destroyed.
Don't read this book. Stay as far away form it as you can. It may very well succeed in wiping out any and all progress we have tried to make on anti-Democratic media narratives for the past couple years. This book closes
Daou's triangle on us so many times in such a short stretch that even Joe Lieberman would be stunned. I don't know how they "plan" to triangulate themselves against their entire party and then still see that party take power, but hey, if that is their "plan," then I have a "plan" too.
Here is my "plan": someone, for the love of God, invent a time machine so Bruce Reed and Rahm Emanuel can just go and live in the 1990's forever, pretending that the messages that worked then will work even unto the ending of the world. They can also pretend that their 1990's strategy of reifying every negative about Demcorats that Republicans spin played absolutely no role in Republicans dominating electoral politics of the last several cycles. I'll come back and go to a few concerts with them, but I won't stay. I always regretted that I couldn't go see the Red Hot Chili Peppers on tour with Pearl Jam and the Smashing Pumpkins, since the New York State public high school cross country championships were the next day. That was in late-1991 before any of those bands were "cool," and when Emanuel and Reed could still justifiably claim that repeating the same things about Democrats that Republicans say didn't lead to a massive deterioration in our national image as a party. Then, I suppose, we will all be happy.
