The Defeatists point us to this interview with Gore Vidal. It's always interesting to hear this guy talk. Even on a pop show like Real Time, his ability to command a debate was something phenomenal, everybody would just shut up and let him talk, then sit their stunned as their credibility is irrevocably eviscerated.

Anyway, I was enjoying reading it, then I saw the end. He says to Give Up too!

Q: What can people do to energize democracy?

Vidal: The tactic would be to go after smaller offices, state by state, school board, sheriff, state legislatures. You can turn them around and that doesn't take much of anything. Take back everything at the grassroots, starting with state
legislatures. That's what Madison always said. I'd like to see a revival of state legislatures, in which I am a true Jeffersonian.

Q: Do you see any developments on the horizon that might suggest an alternative?

Vidal: Newton's Third Law. I hope that law is still working. American laws don't work, but at least the laws of physics might work. And the Third Law is: There is no action without reaction. There should be a great deal of reaction to the total incompetence of this Administration. It's going to take two or three generations to recover what we had as of twenty years ago.

Well, to be fair it's a mixture of Dean's national plan and giving up. But the absence of emphasis on the federal government is important. We can control the state governments from the grassroots, and the blue state governments in particular are powerful, rich and progressive. There's a lot of focus on taking back the house, and I admit, I enjoy watching the horse race as much as anybody, but in the end it's somewhat illusory.

An incomplete victory to take over the legislature is possibly as devastating a possibility as can be imagined. Democrats will have enough power to share blame for the trainwreck, without having significant power to avert it. If they only gain power over the house, they will be limited to an obstructionist and investigatory role. Both roles are necessary and good, but paradoxically, self-defeating. It will allow the Democrats to be demonized, and prevent them from actually showing leadership.

Leadership these days is coming from the states, not from the congress. When we start winning back bits of the federal government a piece at a time, and the people see that nothing is changing, and now the Democrats are relegated to just diggging their heels in in the face of idiocy, it's not going to lead to any future landslides. I'd almost rather have this Republican trainwreck complete itself so we can do away with the wreckless fundamentalist assholes once and for all. Then with real power, and complete control over at least one branch of this damn government we might make a difference. And even then, remember, Democrats are just as beholden to the rich and the corporate as the Republicans are. They might be less so, and less likely to totally screw the poor, but there are always enough DINOs to prevent real reform in the US.

In the meantime, we shouldn't forget about the states, which really have the power to affect our day-to-day lives. And in the case of the Blue states, often have the power to affect national policy for the better. They are far more dependent on their constituents approval than the national figures, and more likely to actually represent their interests. I still am of the belief that when our congress fails us again after a half-assed takeover (I wonder if Democrats would challenge Bush even if we held both the Senate and House too), that the real answer might be to create an unofficial confederacy of the blue states by which we use the combined regulatory and industrial power of the progressive states to force change nationally (see California). It's easier to regulate California, and force corporations nationally to play ball, than it is to try to pass national reform with our sissy national party.