Last night, like Alice through the Looking Glass, I found myself in a strange new world. For 35 years I’ve attended Republican caucuses – until last night. Our city councilor Greg Gilbert turned around half way through the caucus and asked me, “Harry, aren’t you a Republican?” ”Not tonight,” I told him.There were others who were surprised to see me at a Democratic caucus. One was a former School Board member with whom I’ve tangled. Another was a fellow who stopped by my house a couple days ago to thank me for taking on the Reverend Young. As was the case in my former GOP caucus there was little need to debate because there was such unanimity of opinion, albeit in the opposite direction. For the Republicans, the debate is moot anyway because the Party has virtually encased its platform in stone so that it varies little from year to year. When the all but extinct liberal Republicans attempted to do a similar thing back in 1972 the conservatives squashed the proposal like a bug.The DFL platform probably changes greatly every election year, depending on which hot buttons are, well, hot. Where Republicans obsess about pro-life issues, pro heterosexuality, pro-gun stuff, and reducing taxes it’s just the opposite in the DFL caucus. While Republicans obsess about the unborn the DFL introduced a pie-in-the-sky resolution to rescue all Minnesota children from poverty. The resolution was vague, noble and probably prohibitively expensive. Nonetheless it passed unanimously.
Many of the resolutions were true to the big spending habits of Democrats. I voted for most of them thinking that the spirit of generosity they embodied was noble even if they would likely foment a taxpayer’s revolt if successfully implemented. The challenge for Democrats is to knit the social safety net together while restraining their liberality with some fiscal discipline. It’s not an easy balancing act. Of course, on the Federal level the Republican Party has completely abandoned fiscal discipline so the Dems can hardly be faulted. At least none of the Democrats financial wish list is aimed at an increasingly unpopular and mismanaged war.
I had been forewarned about the special hot button for the evening’s caucus a few hours earlier at the fitness center while I was suiting up to swim my mile. An old liberal was at his locker and I asked him if he was planning to caucus. “Oh yes,” he said, he told me that he was all set to introduce a resolution to impeach Bush. That gave me a couple hours to frame my objections to the resolution which would inevitably turn up in my DFL caucus too.When it did I was the only person to speak against it. I argued that the resolution, while no doubt satisfying, was a potential distraction for the Party. Political pundits all across the nation, I argued, were waiting to see how the Democrats could snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in this upcoming election. I added that while there were several possible legitimate counts for impeachment that the nation had no stomach for a Bush impeachment any more than it had for the Clinton fiasco. I concluded by saying that the best things for Democrats to do was focus on the on traditional Democratic values like taking care of those in need and where they wanted to take the nation.Only one enthusiast took a strong exception to my objection saying that if the resolution didn’t pass he was in the wrong party’s caucus. A couple others echoed some of my fears but the desire for payback was not to be denied, at least not at the precinct level. In a voice vote I was the only one to vote against the resolution. It was rather humorous really. I’ve been the lone vote on so many resolutions in Republican Party caucuses over the years that I’ve lost count of them. Frankly, as I told the caucuses I’m kind of looking forward to hearing more Bush bashing as the conventions proceed up the chain of command. The rage behind the impeachment resolution will be needed to fuel Democrats through the general election. Like their impulse to spend it will have to be restrained eventually in order for them to succeed.All of us were eligible to become delegates at the next level of conventions and I signed myself up to sit on the Rules Committee. I figure that this is the key committee for me to understand the organization of the DFL. We will meet at the AFSCME offices on Saturday. That could be interesting. I’ve taken special delight in beating up AFSCME’s local leadership over the years. Here’s one example.
I’m not too worried about it. I saw that Amy Klobuchar who won the DFL straw ballot for the US Senate Seat hands down has been bad mouthed mercilessly by her AFSCME local in an attempt to embarrass her as she campaigns for the Democratic nomination.
