Eminem Democrats

…or what Detroit’s finest export can tell us about the future of the Democratic Party

Originally published on Be The Power on January 31, 2006 (!) but seems pretty apt for the present day.

I was listening today to “Lose Yourself,” Eminem’s greatest hit to date. As usual I was struck by the song’s climactic line:

Success is the only motherfucking option. Failure’s not.

When Eminem says this, you know it’s serious. Essentially, the context of the song is that he simply cannot fail in his bid to become a big-time rapper because without success, he cannot feed his family.

(Cue segue.)

Similarly, it seems like there’s a whole swath of liberal Democrats who feel America is at a point in our history where failure simply is not an option. They are so upset at the direction we’re headed and so concerned that it could result in permanent and disastrous consequences that they have literally reached the maximum level of passion about social change. Success is the only motherfucking option. Failure’s not.

The problem for this crowd, however, is that they don’t feel like national Democratic leaders are as committed or as passionate about the huge battles being waged for the future of this country. Why didn’t anyone oppose Alito from the beginning? Was it really so hard to figure out he was a right-wing crazy?

Why won’t Democrats use any means necessary — up to and including crazy publicity stunts, hearings whether the Republicans like it or not, or even impeachment articles — to hold Bush accountable for the Iraq debacle?

Too many activists think that Democratic leadership see success as the preferred option, but, ya know, we might fail too.

I understand it’s not so simple. Republicans have big majorities in both houses of Congress. Institutional leadership will simply never be as radical as the fringe elements. Et cetera, et cetera.

But I think there’s still something to learn here. Liberal activists see a Republican leadership much more willing to take passionate stands on issues. Frist and Bush pull crazy stunts to earn maximum attention for Terri Schiavo. The House Republicans turn every discussion of Iraq into a referendum on just how traitorous the Democrats actually are. It makes the liberal base furious to think the other sides generals are fighting harder than ours are. Worse, the liberal base thinks our generals aren’t even fighting as hard as their own foot soldiers are.

The real trick here is how to address this problem. I don’t claim to have any easy answers. First, you have to figure out if there’s an actual disconnect between the base and the leadership or if it’s all just a perception problem.

I do believe there’s a real tendency for Democrats to always play it safe, but I also can’t imagine that Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi got into public office just so they could roll over every time their principles were attacked. That’s an image problem we need to fix.

Finally, I think it’s important to recognize that the Party leadership is starting to change. Digsby made that case persuasively earlier today.

When it became clear that the vote was going against the filibuster, Diane Feinstein, a puddle of lukewarm water if there ever was one, decided to backtrack and play to the base instead of the right wing. That’s new folks. Given an opportunity to make an easy vote, until now she and others like her (who are legion) would always default to the right to prove their “centrist” bonafides. That’s the DLC model. When you have a free vote always use it to show that you aren’t liberal. That’s why she was against it originally — a reflexive nod to being “reasonable.”

Obama had to choke out his support for a filibuster, but he did it. A calculation was made that he needed to play to the base instead of the punditocrisy who believe that being “bold” is voting with the Republicans. Don’t underestimate how much pressure there is to do that, especially for a guy like Obama who is running for King of the Purple. The whole presidential club, including Biden joined the chorus.

The last time we had a serious outpouring from the grassroots was the Iraq War resolution. My Senator DiFi commented at thetime that she had never seen anything like the depth of passion coming from her constituents. But she voted for the war anyway. So did Bayh, Biden, Clinton, Dodd, Kerry and Reid. The entire leadership of the party. Every one of them went the other way this time. I know that some of you are cynical about these people (and ,well, they are politicans, so don’t get all Claud Rains about it) but that means something. Every one of those people were running in one way or another in 2002 and they went the other way. The tide is shifting. There is something to be gained by doing the right thing.

Remember, success is our only motherfucking option. Failure’s not.