{"id":3606,"date":"2008-08-21T16:30:00","date_gmt":"2008-08-21T22:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/08\/falling-in-line\/"},"modified":"2009-08-22T14:09:44","modified_gmt":"2009-08-22T20:09:44","slug":"falling-in-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/08\/falling-in-line\/","title":{"rendered":"Falling in line"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

By Carter Bundy<\/p>\n

Recent events have convinced me that unless Democrats, liberals and progressives start coalescing around Obama<\/a>, the GOP is going to survive what should be a free fall in local and national politics just fine.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Republican hierarchies<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

One of my favorite theories about the two major parties is that people drawn to the Republican Party generally believe in following orders and staying within a firmly established hierarchy. Think about three of the key legs of the GOP stool: military, church and corporate America<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

In the military, there can be a discussion of strategy behind closed doors by leaders, but once a decision is made, it\u2019s absolutely critical that orders be followed. Soldiers aren\u2019t there to question; they\u2019re there to carry out the mission.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

In churches, once a directive is issued from on high, it\u2019s treated as God\u2019s word by the flock. It\u2019s only in the liberal churches like the Episcopalian<\/st1:placename> Church<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place> that there are serious challenges to anti-gay or misogynistic rules. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Corporate America<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> is famous for its internal battles for power, but once the battles are settled, everyone knows his or her place.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

You won\u2019t meet many Republicans who don\u2019t have a strong affiliation with at least one of those three hierarchies.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Democratic questioning<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Democrats, on the other hand, love to be free thinkers. They don\u2019t do things because people tell them to. Progressives, liberals and Democrats tend to value individual expression and activity while denigrating the idea of being a sheep.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Democrats\u2019 major bases of support tend to come from lawyers who believe in enforcing the law to protect individuals, unions who represent individual workers against the corporate hierarchy, well-educated professionals who often work for themselves or have wide individual latitude in professional firm settings and minority groups who have had to fight for individual civil rights against our government and society\u2019s hierarchy.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

In other words, Democrats are often those with little power or with power that\u2019s derived from helping others challenge the status quo. Liberals have a natural affinity for questioning authority, standing up for individuals and challenging hierarchies.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

While the diversity of thought and constant challenges to ideas makes liberals and Democrats more capable of developing well-thought-out policies, that same strength is a substantial weakness when it comes time for battles in the political realm.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Contrasting visits<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

For all the divisiveness within the GOP during primary season and moaning by conservatives about how McCain<\/a> wasn\u2019t conservative enough for them, polls and a sampling of Rush, Sean and FOX News indicate that conservatives have fallen completely in line.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

While a moderate VP pick may cause another brief firestorm, McCain\u2019s already locked down his base. From the questions I\u2019ve seen from Las Cruces<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>, he\u2019s doing just fine.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Obama\u2019s fighting multiple fronts within liberal, progressive and Democratic America. He\u2019s being attacked by a handful of African Americans for not paying enough attention to black issues, whatever that may mean (see, e.g., Jesse Jackson\u2019s<\/a> graphic wish list and Gene Grant\u2019s excellent recent piece<\/a> about African American dissension). <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

A significant number of Hillary<\/a> supporters are still withholding their support, frustrated at a flawed primary process and crushed that the first (and likely for foreseeable future, only) serious female candidate was edged out for the nomination.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Obama\u2019s even facing strong challenges from the left. Nader\u2019s<\/a> drawing a couple of percentage points. Liberal Albuquerque activist (and friend) Dallas Timmons\u2019 substantively excellent questions<\/a> about the war and FISA surveillance rules at Obama\u2019s Albuquerque stop neatly summed up the resistance some progressives are putting up to the Dems\u2019 nominee. The questions were excellent. So was Obama\u2019s response. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Dallas<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019 intellectual honesty and willingness to hold Obama accountable are great. Dallas<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> was a strong Obama supporter before the question, and still is. But you can be sure that some other progressives are going to use issues like war funding or FISA to vote for Nader or not vote at all. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

By contrast, McCain won\u2019t lose his conservative base to libertarian Bob Barr<\/a>, even though Barr may pick up some moderates who usually vote Republican.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Imitation isn\u2019t always bad<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Dems are in a tough position every election, because the very things that make them better at policy and governing — challenging assumptions, questioning authority, introspection and self-questioning, disregarding hierarchy and holding people accountable — are the things that make it tougher to win elections.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

If the Hillary supporters and left wing of the party can\u2019t find it in themselves to give full support to Obama, they\u2019ll have no one but themselves to blame for four more years of wars, deficits, jobs fleeing overseas, middle-class decimation, environmental degradation and constitutional violations.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

When Hillary spoke in Espa\u00f1ola last Sunday, she didn\u2019t say \u201cI hope you\u2019ll consider supporting Obama.\u201d Hillary directly asked her supporters to back Obama, but went further. She said she wants her supporters to work just as hard for Obama as they did for her.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Dems don\u2019t much like following just for the sake of following. But the next 10 weeks might be a very good time to take Hillary\u2019s advice to fall in line as hard for Obama as the conservative base is falling in line for McCain.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Bundy is the political and legislative director for AFSCME<\/a> in New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>. The opinions in his column are personal and do not necessarily reflect any official AFSCME position. You can learn more about him by clicking here<\/a>. Contact him at carterbundy@yahoo.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Carter Bundy Recent events have convinced me that unless Democrats, liberals and progressives start coalescing around Obama, the GOP is going to survive what should be a free fall in local and national politics just fine. Republican hierarchies One of my favorite theories about the two major parties is that people drawn to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bundy-columns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3606\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}