Democrats get their bearings.

L'Etat c'est moi

Day Two:  Politics without "You-know-who," the Sun King, the centerpiece of all political action.  Him.  The one who makes news, the one with tweets and gaffs and staff turmoil, the one generating calls for impeachment, the one whose light illuminates everything, dominating all political news and comment.

I am giving it a try:  turning off the sun for a week.







The new Democratic Theme: Reform.

(You heard it here first.  Sally Yates for President.)

Democrats have a problem.  They haven't figured out who they are yet.   The Sanders/Hillary Clinton fight still persists.   Even Democrats who think they are looking forward are in fact stuck, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

Just yesterday one of the people considering filing as a Democrat to unseat the incumbent Republican congressman in my district admitted to me that he was not a Democrat.  He said he changed his registration in protest.  He said he "held my nose and voted for Hillary" because, after all, Trump was so bad he simply couldn't bear the thought of his victory, "no matter how bad Hillary was."   He said he planned to change his registration on filing day, to make a statement that he, like many of the voters he hoped to attract, was "coming back to the Democratic party" as part of a rescue plan.

Another prospective candidate for the Democratic nomination for Congress said he voted for Jill Stein for President.  He cited it as proof of his fidelity to principle.

Ralph Nader is alive, well, and a center of influence

The schism persists because it is unresolved:  how best to achieve better equality for Americans. Do we best achieve equality when the Democratic Party a populist/socialist party in opposition to business power and the concentration of wealth, or is it a party that works with existing the forces of economic and political power to push it toward greater inclusiveness and equality.   Sanders criticized the billionaires; Hillary wanted to work with the "good ones" (e.g. Buffet, Gates, Bloomberg), pitting them against the "bad ones" (Koch brothers) because the issue for her was one of ideology within the establishment, not an attack on it per se.

More fundamentally, the Democratic Party is uncertain about how it feels about capitalism and markets.   Bill--then Hillary--Clinton believed in using markets.  The Ralph Nader/Socialist portion of the Democratic left is deeply skeptical of markets because they lead to oligarchy:  "Just look at today's headlines and ponder the joint partnership of plutocracy and oligarchy called the corporate state.  No wonder "we the people" are not working to resist and overcome these destructive forces of greed and power."   Nader considers the establishment bad per se and a great many Democrats share that opinion.  Therefore Hillary was not "good."  She was just a smidgen less bad than Trump.

Sally Yates

One way out of this fight is to change the subject.  

Sally Yates, the career Justice Department lawyer who was briefly the Acting Attorney General, became famous first for being fired.  She said she disagreed with the legality of an Executive Order and wouldn't allow the Justice Department to advocate for something illegal.  Shortly after she testified before Congress, saying that she had warned the White House that she considered Michael Flynn to have been compromised and subject to blackmail by the Russians.

Sally Yates can be a candidate for President as a Democrat.   In some ways she is the anti-Hillary candidate.   Yates is famous for being scrupulous about the law; Hillary was made famous for having skated close to the line.   Yates is famous for having given up power in the call to duty; Hillary famous for her ambition.

Upright

Sally Yates looks tough, smart, patriotic.  She looks like a warrior for propriety at a time when Washington is reeling from allegations of impropriety.   She looks like a presidential candidate Americans can be proud of.   In the professional wrestling body language archetypal battle against the Bad Boy, Sally Yates looks like the Good Sheriff in town.  Gary Cooper in High Noon.  Serious.  Courageous. Honorable.  

What about her policies and politics?  I have no idea other than to assume she is a Democrat.  They don't matter very much.   People do not vote for a list of policies.  The vote for what a candidate appears to stand for, who he or she is.

The current environment has created an opportunity for a new archetype.   The tall, upright person of integrity.


 She has already made her strong first impression: she is attractive.  She sounds and looks good on TV.  She stands for something people want.  She addresses the problems created by the current administration, thus fulfilling the responsibility of every challenger, to solve the problems created by the 
incumbent.

She just announced that she declined to run for governor.  Too bad for Democrats.  Had she won she would have accelerated her national exposure.  Americans vote for progressive Democrats from the South:  Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter, Al Gore, Bill Clinton.

But she does not need a stepping stone.  She already has national credibility.  She can run for president simply on the foundation of what she is, an American citizen.