Why this political scientist thinks the Democrats have to fight dirty

[babylonsister]

Why this political scientist thinks the Democrats have to fight dirty
“The Republicans are behaving like a party that believes it will never be held accountable.”
By Sean [e-mail]@vox.com Updated Jun 29, 2018, 7:02am EDT


In September 2016, an anonymous conservative writer published an essay called “The Flight 93 Election.”

The title was a reference to the one hijacked flight on 9/11 that didn’t reach its destination because passengers overwhelmed the hijackers and brought the plane down.

The logic of the essay was simple enough: The prospect of a Hillary Clinton presidency was so positively ruinous that conservatives had no choice but to support Donald Trump — no matter how awful or incompetent he appeared to be. The stakes were simply too high.

Until now, there was no left-wing equivalent to the “Flight 93” essay, no rallying cry that urged Democrats and liberals to do whatever is necessary to win. But David Faris’s new book, It’s Time to Fight Dirty, is the closest anyone has come so far.

Faris, a political scientist at Roosevelt University, argues that the Democratic Party must recognize that Republicans aren’t engaged in a policy fight; instead, they’re waging a “procedural war.”

What he means is that Republicans have spent the past two decades exploiting the vagueness of the Constitution to create structural advantages for their side — passing discriminatory voter ID laws, using the census to gerrymander districts, blocking Democratic Supreme Court nominees, and so on.

Faris writes Democrats have to recognize this reality and act accordingly, especially now that the Republicans are poised to conquer the Supreme Court for a generation. I reached out to him to find out what, exactly, he has in mind.

A lightly edited transcript of our conversation follows.

Sean Illing

Your book feels like the left-wing equivalent of the “Flight 93” essay — an urgent Democratic call to arms. Is that how you see it?

David Faris

Yeah, I think so. We’re at a very dangerous moment in American history. There’s been a massive erosion of trust in public institutions and in the broader electoral process. The Trump administration has been disastrously disruptive to the norms of our political culture.

We’re also in a very dangerous moment for the planet, and I worry that we’re sleepwalking into a series of crises that we’ll have to deal with for a very long time, that our kids will have to deal with for a very long time. So yes, I am sort of sounding the alarm, and I think Democrats have to recognize the urgency of the moment and act accordingly.

Am I in “charge the cockpit or die” mode? I don’t know, but I do think our predicament justifies some serious procedural hardball from the Democrats.

more...

https://www.vox.com/2018/5/1/17258866/democratic-party-republicans-trump-election

[N_E_1 for Tennis]

1. The "Procedural War"...

is what scares me. Can we overcome that war with votes? Even with massive turnout and high vote counts can we win back at least one of the houses? Then add in more Russian hijinks.

[BlueTsunami2018]

2. Exactly what I've been saying.

It’s long past the time to put punch knives in their kidneys. Stop pretending these assholes are ever going to be stopped by the rule of law and the sacred system. They’re not, ever. And unless we adapt and get dirty, they will always win.

The problem is that it’s probably too late now.

[SWBTATTReg]

3. Elections goes in cycles...

From my studies in college, etc., elections tend to go in cycles. That is, goes way to the left, and then goes way to the right. With Obama, went to the left, and w/ rump, went to right.

When one side gets 'too crazy' in going too far left or too far right, the voting population tends to correct the cycle (I guess as a means of counter balancing the other party).

This means (according to this theory) that we are due for a correction against the right, for things to balance things out.

Recent polls seem to support this trend in Nov. 2018.

[Baitball Blogger]

4. "exploiting the vagueness of the Constitution"

They have been fighting dirty since Lee Atwater and the Federalist Society has been able to operate behind the scenes, while Democrats relied on good people to do the right thing.

We need a leader who can teach us how to fight this war.