Within the Margin

[continuing a series on the election that was. To read “Part 1: Acknowledgement,” click here. To read “Part 2: Resolution,” click here. And to read “Part 3: Pursuance,” click here.

“In the bank of life isn’t good that investment which surely pays us the highest and most cherished dividends?”
– John Coltrane, notes to “A Love Supreme”

The confidence with which each side of the American political divide presents themselves as righteous and good is for many people one of the great turn-offs of our political discourse. Perhaps that’s why Trump, his party and his supporters now try to have it both ways: presenting as God’s chosen messiah (“I was saved by God to make America great again“) while also reveling in villainy, in cancellation, in being assholes who hurt people – but assholes on your side. Self-consciously positioning as the opposite of that – on the side of democracy, on the side of maliciously-targeted groups – has produced limited success for Democrats. I’m not about to suggest that Dems attack the same people, or embrace authoritarianism. We should continue to be, for lack of a better term, the good guys, and let Trump and his flock be the villains/false idols they so desire to be. But by itself, we now know that won’t be enough. So we need to find another way to reach people.

We’re in the midst of a substantial political realignment along educational lines and along levels-of-engagement lines. I generally believe that Democrats will come out on the short end of this realignment, but will achieve intermittent electoral success should Trumpian chaos leave voters short-tempered in lower-turnout elections. I could see the former changing if a Dem breaks through at the national level with a message outside the usual left/center-left dichotomy into less-charted territory relating to how screens and social media platforms and artificial intelligence have frayed, and will fray, our societal bonds. This terrain maps less neatly onto our political divides, meaning it offers the chance to build new coalitions.

To everything there is a season, and in this season it seems more practical for me to read, think and write about past realignments and those presently underway than to do the hamster-wheel work within the party. That’s not to say the latter is unimportant – but one must understand what they have available to offer at any given time. Pretending that everything is normal and we just go about our business with the same political strategies and structures as before? That seems naive. I need to go away and dream it all up again, to quote Bono back in 1989. I’ll very much still be following elections and commenting on them – but on the ground, right now, it falls to someone else to do the party work and the voter contact and all that. When I’ve had some time to dream up something new and find myself having something to offer, I’ll get back to that kind of work, and I hope the Democratic Party will be ready when I am.

***

These four pieces are the most forced things I’ve written in a long time. I’m not sure how I feel about them. I suspect I will not look back favorably on them for their style or construction or most certainly their titles, and I suspect I’ll be annoyed most of all at their lack of insights. But at least I acknowledge a lack of insight, at a time when so many Democratic electeds and “leaders” would have us believe they have the answers when in fact they’re stunned, directionless and simply waiting for something to happen.