William F. Buckley stated long ago that a central problem of liberalism was the fetishization of democracy, making the means of choosing our leaders an end unto itself. The last few days I have noticed this trend, and I am gloomier than ever. It isn't so suprizing that the straight corporate media would worry that the republicans are having trouble finding a presidential candidate, but now I'm noticing the lament in left/liberal publications as well. "Woe is us, democracy is broken because the opposition can't find a candidate that can beat us." This is not healthy. Buckley was concerned less with the method of selection as whether the leader would be "good." Of course he thought democracy was a fine thing if the electorate was mature enough to elect conservative leaders he could approve of, I don't approve of his conclusion but the line of thinking is good, democracy is a means of finding good leaders. And, wasting time worrying about the state of a party whose sole goal is to destroy you and wreck everything you stand for is an awfully good reason why liberalism and Democrats are such a failure.
I haven't looked into it yet but I suspect there was similar articles published in The Nation and The New Republic among others when the republicans nominated Barry Goldwater in 1964. I can see it now, "democracy is finished, the republicans have committed suicide. Woe is America, the two party system is over." LBJ knew what to do of course, he told the truth about Goldwater with the "Daisy" ad. Even though good liberals poo pooed this and forced his team to pull the ad, the idea was correct. 'Elect Goldwater, get nuclear war.' Now, I don't want to go too far into the "one party of corporatists with two branches" territory, but there is something wrong with prizing civility and process when the other side laughs at this idea. The corollary of the worrying about the gop candidate is the boneheads criticising any attempt of Democrats to use medicare and gop plans to destroy it to, you know, try to win. These guys must be thanking God that they can now sabotage their party by commenting on whatever it is Anthony Weiner is accused of doing (I don't care what it is) and not have to talk about unemployment, foreclosures, union-bashing, and the republican class war wreckage of the last three decades.
I soured on President Obama for much the same reason, for the first time I was actually enthusiastic about democracy, he talked the talk, walked the walk and then when finally in a position to reestablish the US as a nation of laws with a vibrant if messy corrective actions, he let me down hard. Above the fray our president stays instead of first, in the interest of the rule of law over royal whim, he lets every bush creature involved in the massive lawbreaking that surrounded foreign policy and domestic surveillance (I am so tired of even mentally recounting the criminal acts of that group of gangsters) go without so much as a scolding. Then, with massive majorities in Congress, he gives away any chance of showing the public that elected him that government isn't a giant clusterfuck by producing a sufficient stimulus to save people's homes et al. and holding the bank tyrants accountable for the collapse their greed produced. He remained aloof during the chance to finally fix our healthcare system, it would have been so easy. Day One: Medicare for all, bang, done. But no, we had to endure screeching about death panels and the rise of a genuine fascist party in the land of the free, for well over a year. It could have been so different, if not for this misplaced committment to civility and compromising with evil, etc.
Fetishizing democracy is the most generous explanation for why the Democrats fight, stand there is more like it, with both hands tied behind their backs. Of course, what they say in their myriad email communications begging for money is something different. Guys, we can watch C-SPAN, we know there is no fight in any of you. And so, we slouch toward another grueling presidential contest not asking what we (Democratic leaders) can do for our country, but how can we help our opposition.
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