On Leadership

One of the breed of bonkers, I wouldn’t dare to lecture
I don’t know how to lead, there’s got to be somebody better
Weak in the kneesy species, dreaming of future faded
Seen where the suture stiches nitted, slipped? I’m with you baby,
Let’s get obnoxious with it, I wanna know what brave is
I’m tired of sitting here pretending I’m not fucking dangerous!

~El-P, Run the Numbers

What luck for rulers that men do not think.

~Adolf Hitler

Most of us can agree that all signs point to coming electoral success at every level of the Federal government for the Democratic Party in 2008.  The polls are there, the Republican incumbents are stepping down, and the money edge is nearly insurmountable.

At the same time, the current Democratic Congress, holding narrow majorities, is expected to confirm Michael Mukasey as Attorney General.  This is after the nominee suggested he did not know what waterboarding entailed, that the President has the power to disobey the direct language of Federal statues, and that the Office of the Legal Counsel can advise that Executive Branch employees to disobey a Congressional subpoena and the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia should refuse to obey a citation for contempt.

This compels us all to contemplate that no matter what the electoral fortunes of the Democratic Party, many dire threats to our liberty will persist.

Most of us are not and will not be satisfied by government by this method, no matter whether George W. Bush or any other human holds the reins of these powers.  The question is both what ought we to do in that case, and what have we been doing wrong that led us to the point that we could achieve our goals at the polls and still be thwarted in governing ourselves as free citizens?

In 1776, the year this republic declared its status as an independent nation, a remarkable pamphlet was published.  It was published anonymously, by Thomas Paine, who had been in America less than fourteen months when it was published.  Paine, a former schoolteacher and excise collector who had left school at the age of twelve, had no specialized background in writing, philosophy, or politics.  The article was called “Common Sense”.  Published at the end of the century, it outsold every other book in America in the 18th Century, and within three months more than one out of every ten Americans owned their own copy.  Both George Washington and John Adams claimed that “Common Sense” was instrumental in persuading them to petition England for a redress of grievances.

One of the things that was most difficult for me to witness here was the spectacle a few weeks ago when Sen. Chris Dodd stated that he would filibuster any legislation which sought to amend FISA while granting immunity for past crimes to telecom companies.  It wasn’t anything against Sen. Dodd’s actions (indeed, Sen. Dodd has garnered my primary vote due to his strong advocacy for marijuana decriminalization during the last debate), but rather the numerous diaries and posts praising Sen. Dodd for his “leadership”.

This speaks to me of everything that is wrong with the blogosphere, and our own leadership.

Because what Sen. Dodd did was not a display of leadership at all.  What he did showed strength of character, which is indeed quite important and all to rare in Washington these days.  But it wasn’t leadership.

The leaders on Telecom immunity in the FISA bill have been us.  The people.  The anonymous, rabid lambs of America.  We were writing about this long before Sen. Dodd spoke up.  We were making elegant and erudite arguments against this, here and on websites across the internet.  We used our common sense, our passion for America, and our dedication to being free citizens to lead America to deny this bill.  We did not sit back and wait for some “leader” to take action; we armed ourselves with weapons which have been deadlier than bombs and bullets throughout history, and fought with and for our ideas.

Looking at the choice by Sen. Schumer and Sen. Feinstein to support the nomination of Mukasey, we ought to know by now that the strategy suggested to us by so many of the “leaders” of the netroots, “More and Better Democrats”, is certain to be a failure, as it was always bound to be.  They will never all be “Better Democrats”.  And it only takes a handful, just two in this case, to sacrifice far more than we here can accept.  And we know too, from bitter experience, that in places where the Democratic Party is unchallenged, that bad Democrats will establish nearly impregnable places of power.  From Tammany Hall, to Sharpe James, to Nancy Pelosi, we know that incumbency will always be there to offer more rewards to them than they can get from us from mere good governance.

This maxim of more and better Democrats forgets every accomplishment that we have had, and every success of our nascent political movement.  Our accomplishments have not been in raising ourselves to merely another player in the political patronage game.  Our accomplishments have come from our ideas, allowed to catch fire in the mind of the public as we refine them and share them with more ordinary Americans like ourselves.  We are the largest, most diverse, most educated, most practical think tank in America.  The great leaders of political change in America have always been the thinkers – the men and women who saw a better direction for our nation and debated and spread their ideas until the political “leaders” could not help but to be rallied to the cause.

Alexandre Ledru-Rollin famously said that leaders say, “There go the people.  I must follow them, since I am their leader.”  This is as true today as it was during the French Revolution.  Thomas Paine, the uneducated American who died without wealth, renown, or national office, was one of the greatest leaders of the American Revolution.  He led by giving a simple idea, the product of his common sense, to his fellow citizens.

Paine’s strategy won.  We should not be too afraid or self-effacing to follow in his footsteps.