Why taking on Blanche Lincoln was the right call

[Enrique]

http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/6078/why_taking_on_blanche_lincoln_was_the_right_call/

Challenges within the primaries allow us to define what it means to be a real Democrat—to insist that the party truly puts the interests of working people first.

That's what makes elections like Tuesday's run-off in Arkansas between Bill Halter and incumbent Senator Blanche Lincoln, the victor, so important. Labor and progressive movements got together to target Lincoln because she had opposed the Employee Free Choice Act, helped to block a robust public option in health care reform, and refused to back one of President Obama's key nominees to the National Labor Relations Board.

Conventional wisdom within the Democratic Party states that we need strong majorities in order to pass better public policies in Washington, DC. But the logic of "more" doesn't add up if those people we elect do not provide us with the votes we need. As long as our political strategies ask only that candidates have a "D" behind their names, we'll never get the type of majorities that will take hard stands to confront the power of big business and create real reform.

Going back to the Carter years in the 1970s, we had large Democratic majorities in Congress, yet we saw labor law weakened and the right to collective bargaining eroded. Under Clinton, Democratic majorities gave us NAFTA and more unfair trade.

If we don't want history to repeat itself with the current administration, we cannot get wrapped up in the temporary excitement of a given electoral campaign. We need to have the memory, foresight, and strategy to craft something different. That's why we should hope that challenges within the primaries become more standard.

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[Guy Whitey Corngood]

1. Well, from one side of the mouth we hear: "If you want to change things

you have to work within the system. That's what primaries are for". From the other: "That was so stupid what a waste of time and money!".

[The Magistrate]

2. Indeed, Sir

While the result of this fight is a severe disappointment, it was definitely one of those times where it pays better to have fought and lost rather than to not have fought at all.

[Omaha Steve]

3. I would have given an R if I had seen this in time

Kick.

[okieinpain]

4. i'll agree but I still find it funny how all geeked up halter was before

the vote. and especially after that piece in the times about his other side.