The Good Old Boys Network

In a stunning and unconventional move the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (D.C.C.C.) moved to protect centrist incumbents. They did this by formally breaking business ties with political consultants and pollsters who go to work for primary challengers.

The D.C.C.C. policy bars poling agencies and other political consultation firms from conducting business with a primary opponent of a sitting Democrat.  If you aren’t nervous yet, you should be. 

In a recent New York Times article, the Democratic challengers to incumbent centrists were called “insurgents,” a highly inflammatory name usually reserved for military challengers to sitting regimes in battle torn areas.  While some could reasonably argue that politics is its own unique battleground, it isn’t a helpful image.

The strategy of the D.C.C.C. is to keep seated democrats in place in traditionally leaning blue states. The argument is that it decreases the potential loss of Democratic votes on unknown or more left-leaning candidates.  It also allows incumbent candidates to focus on re-election and not divide efforts with primaries. It is also a direct assault on our political process.  Choice among candidates in the primary process is a hallmark of our political process. And we can’t afford any more assaults on our democracy.

 The D.C.C.C. policy assures a lesser known candidate or more left-leaning candidate will have a far more difficult time mounting a legitimate challenge to an incumbent. It also, more importantly, insures that entrenched power brokers remain in place.  Such a move also keeps the democratic majority male and white.  It keeps the good old boys’ network firmly in place in the name of stability and certainty. 

While there are periodic calls for term limits for congress, the primary process is one form of term limits that is effective and amplifies the voice of the people.  Washington continues to be broken and breaking, especially under the lack of leadership and moral compass of the occupant and his cronies.  Many residents of Kentucky would jump at an opportunity to vote in someone with fresh ideas and finally replace that spineless puppet of the occupant, Mitch McConnell.

It’s not like some fresh new voices can break Washington any more than it is already broken.  They might actually be helpful.  But, that’s just too scary for the powers that be.

Perhaps the most stunning gain of the last election was the increased diversity in the Democratic Party.  Women, people of color and divergent religious traditions have brought new and refreshing perspectives to our stagnated political process.

Last year Representative Ayanna Pressley, (D Mass) defeated a ten term Democratic incumbent.  Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D New York) defeated veteran Joseph Crowley.  Both Ms. Pressley and Ms. Ocasio-Cortez are women of color.  They defeated the kind of white male power brokers who are the backbone of Washington.

According to the New York Times, the fifty longest-serving House Democrats are two-thirds white and male.  Challengers are often women of color.  The Democratic Party claims non-whites and women as part of their base strategy. They want to draw this demographic more fully into the Democratic fold. This appears to be true as long as the current white male power structure is not challenged.

Who knows, if we vote a few of these good old boys out, they might have to go out and get real jobs. In a real job one has to work more than 138 days a year and pay for health insurance. Rank and file workers can’t vote themselves a raise. I would love to see a few of these career politicians work for minimum wage and then try to grocery shop, pay rent and pay for health care.  I would buy a ticket for that show. 

Who knows, the NRA might lose its stranglehold on Washington by having new servants of the people who are unwilling to sell their soul to the strongest lobby in the United States.

Who knows, maybe politics might actually become the servant of the people again, rather than the self-perpetuating dysfunctional system of made millionaires who are beholden to all the wrong people for all the wrong reasons.

Political entrenchment that fails to serve the people has been the downfall of every great civilization from the beginning of time.  In Jesus’ time it was the Romans, an occupying force that taxed the already poor into oblivion while making profits for themselves and their political bosses.  Part of what got Jesus in so much trouble is that he regularly spoke to the poor and dispossessed and assured them of their value as human beings, not just financial pawns in a game they could never win.

We are a declining society.  Our political process is further and further removed from the people. Our society is weakened by diminished loyalty to a political system that no longer serves “We the People.”  Abraham Lincoln said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” In the aftermath of the Civil War, the United States was deeply divided. So is our country today. The further Washington gets from the people, the more divided we become.

Mark Twain wrote, “Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason.”  Support the primary process and let’s change some political diapers.