by Matt Stoller
I want to highlight a few articles on a very important subject - how to be
a politically viable opposition party. The best model to look at is not the Republicans in 1993, though that's somewhat useful, but towards parliamentary systems. In 1993, Southern Democrats were very willing to buck party discipline - today that is just not the case with moderate Republicans, and there aren't enough of them to matter anyway. What we are facing is more a unified Republican machine with control over all levers of government, not a fractious coalition. So how do you create a viable opposition that isn't obstructionist but does
oppose? Well, the key is to set yourself up to win elections in the future, not to obstruct what the other side does or to attempt to govern with the party in power.
Kevin Brennan and Ian Welsh, two brilliant Canadians who have a deep interest in American politics, lay this out. In Learn How to Lose, Kevin shows that there is a right way to lose that scores you points in later elections, and a wrong way to lose that just fosters the perception of ineffectiveness. In The Bright Red Line, Ian talks about the battles that need to be fought and filibustered, the things upon which we cannot compromise or we lose the American polity for a generation.
In other words, being an effective opposition is about resisting structural changes that tilt the playing field away from you while allowing the governing party to enact policies you do not agree with, all the while proposing clear alternatives and publicizing them. Meanwhile, at the state and local level, governing well is essential to showcase how effective the Democratic alternative really is. At the federal level, though, we have no power, so we can be honest, like Al Sharpton in the primaries. Imagine that, a party of Sharptonian rhetoric.
