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• Tuesday, January 13, 2009 10:34 AM

  The Problem

  The problem isn't that there's no pressure on Obama. 70000 votes to appoint a special prosecutor on Change.gov is significant.

  The problem is that, for the most part, this pressure isn't organized. You have a million splinter factions doing a million different things. Even when those splinter factions significantly agree -- for instance, like the libertarians and the progressives on the rule of law -- they allow their disagreements (over, say, gun control) to rule the day rather than realizing that they need to band together to give the things they agree upon more volume. There's no reasons progressives and libertarians can't band together on the rule of law while still vigorously opposing each other on social spending. That's how politics works; it's not always sane, even when it's effective.

  The people lobbying against the rule of law are organized, connected, and well-funded. If we're not the same, we have no chance of convincing the political class to mend their ways. There can be a million of us to every one of them (and, likely, there are), but if we dissipate our energies with infighting and unfocused action, they will be more effective than we are. Every martial artist knows that, in the end, control trumps brute force -- and right now, for the most part, we lack discipline. Lots and lots of passion and good ideas, but very little political discipline.

  So I really think that progressives and rule of law folks (and the two groups are NOT identical) really need to think about organizing better. We need to form alliances where appropriate; Republicans and libertarians are not the enemy by default (you can agree on the rule of law, for instance, while disagreeing vehemently on supply-side economics). If we avoid going out of our way to piss off potential allies (when it doesn't violate our principles), that diplomacy may pay off in the future. Of course, diplomacy doesn't trump ideals, so we shouldn't remain mute on issues of importance.

  Also, we have to stay focused. It's better to have a "rule of law" PAC than a "progressive PAC" because you're more likely to get people who believe in and support the rule of law if you leave out all of the other (potentially worthy) elements of the progressive platform.

  This "beautiful anarchy" of opposition may be a lovely vision of democracy at work, but it's often very ineffective at creating meaningful change, because it is usually too unfocused to make our leaders listen.

  —ouroborous Read ouroborous's other letters
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