Try (Str)angulation

Today, for your edification, a guest post from Mike. He's not just an expert wino, after all, but a guy with a beef with the Ragin' Cajun.:

For progressives, this may be the most disappointing week we've had since the Democratic party retook Congress. This was a week of challenge -- the opportunity to at least lay the groundwork for the reversal of so many wrongheaded policies -- habeas, the war, the unlimited cash flow to the defense contractors.

Fear of those nasty schoolyard bullies won out.

Most hurtful is the fact that there was no effort. No forcing the Republicans to get up in front of God and everyone to say, "Yes, THIS is why our troops don't need to come home. THIS is why combat leave isn't really necessary. THIS is why detention without charge and indefinite internment is necessary to preserve our nation."

Instead -- a simple cloture vote on all of them, and it's "Oh, well -- guess we can't win this…so let's go home." And then, as Kos put it so succinctly, "There was an ad! In a newspaper!" and the Dems were bipartisan in saying, "You can't say anything nasty about a General. He's wearing a uniform with pretty stars and everything."

That sound you heard was John Kerry's head exploding.

Since this all fell out, there's been a lot of fingerpointing. It's Harry Reid's fault for not forcing the GOP to filibuster. It's Obama's fault for not being more vocal. It's [insert Democratic Senator here] for not keeping the promise they made when elected. And so on, and so on. As with anything, there's a bigger picture -- The Wizard loves to talk meta, and it's perfectly applicable here. The blame for this sorry display largely lies at the feet of one man, in my opinion -- the person who almost singlehandedly crafted the most weak-spined political party since go-to punching bag Neville Chamberlain led Parliament. Give credit where credit is due:

Congratulations, James Carville. This is the result of your vision.

The roots of this week's events lie squarely with the Carville's strategy in Bill Clinton's election. While "It's the economy, stupid" became the buzzword -- the tactics of triangulation rose from here. Carville saw that the country was willing to select Republicans who gave lip service to social moderation. While Reagan and Bush I ran on "American Pride" and the evil of tax and spend liberals -- they knew that there were certain social programs they'd be sunk without. So, they wouldn't quite "starve the beast," but they'd keep it pretty hungry.

Enter Carville -- who turned the Republican message on its head. He decided to run a more-or-less populist sounding campaign, but one that actually supported business and a strong traditional economy at the same time. Throw in the economic insanity of Ross Perot in 1992, and you've got Clinton in the White House. And if his vision had stopped there, things would have been very different.

The GOP licked its wounds for a bit, and decided, "To hell with this centrist crap. Hard to starboard!" Values, bluster, Gingrich, Contract With America, and the 1994 elections followed.

So, what to do? Back to Carville -- the Kingmaker who Created Clinton. And he gave them the Triangulation Doctrine. Figuring that there was no way the left wing of the Democratic Party would ever vote for a Republican, he crafted messages that Republicans who weren't fundamentalist flagwavers could actually get behind. And, to an extent, it worked. The hemorrhaging in Congress stopped, and Clinton won another term. Without the third party challenge, however, Carville directed his charges to go farther right.

The die was cast. The Democrats who were able to win back seats in Congress looked very little like the ones voted out in 1994. They were "centrist," which basically meant, "We don't piss anyone off too much. No one really loves us -- but we don't need people to love us. We just need to be more palatable than the other guy." But with this came a lack of vision, a lack of ideas, and worst of all, a lack of historical perspective as to why Democrats were Democrats in the first place.

The GOP did what it does best -- namecall and bluster. "Liberal" became firmly entrenched as a word meaning, "Anyone not a Republican." Bill Clinton, whose economic policies were barely left of Reagan, was made out to be Adlai Stevenson. Rather then push back, the Dems simply said, "We've got the moral high ground. Conflict and confrontation will piss off our electorate. So, like our hero Woodrow Wilson, we're too proud to fight."

So, for years, the GOP dominated the discourse, and the Democrats who still did have a backbone were marginalized within their own party. The leadership of the party became folks like Harry Reid -- a pro-life senator who may do good things from time to time, but who is unable to unwilling to stand up as strong as he needs to in such times.

Which brings us to this week. Carville's Crew disintegrated in front of the threat of possibly losing votes for "not supporting the troops," choosing instead to unite behind John Cornyn to shout down dissent, when they were too weak to even defend their own against similar attacks a scant two years earlier.

Ironically, the leading Democrat who performed best in this whole sad display was Carville's own creation: Hillary Clinton. She actually called this theater what it was -- ridiculous and disgusting. She actually had the spine to call bullshit on this display. Most shocking to me was Jim Webb, who sponsored the Amendment to withdraw the troops -- voting to condemn MoveOn.

Unlike the Wiz, I'm not calling for revolution yet. As more and more vets return home either in pine boxes or locked in the coffins of their own post-traumatic minds…the ridiculousness of the Carville Democrats will start to fade. Much as the fundamentalists have decimated the Republican party, any primary challenger to one of the Carville Democrats has a paper trail to run on. Just as support for the war waned as it personally affected more and more of the people who were asked to simply shop to support America -- a person running on the simple message, "They had their chance and stood by, I will not" will resonate more and more strongly.

But, for now, Carville, the DLC, and their ilk have created the "Cautious Caucus," afraid to make waves for fear they'll lose the support that got them there. And more and more of us will die out of fear -- not of the Islamofascistwhatevers…but of the schoolyard bullies.

Food for thought, no?