Meet the Future. His name is Brian Schweitzer.
Kari Chisholm
Remember how you felt on Election Day 2004? That sinking, sick feeling deep in your gut that we weren't going to see the end of George W. Bush?
It hurt. And many of us were baffled. After all, how could it even be close? Couldn't Americans see through the reactionary idiocy that is Dubya?
Two weeks later, I wrote an op-ed in the Oregonian that tried to muddle out an answer. Rejecting the then-surging ideas of pro-life "values" Democrats or Southern cultural Democrats, I suggested that we look to the emerging swing states in the West:
Let us look west. In the mountains and ranchlands of the West, there are Democrats who understand real America. Out here, far from the nation's capital, there are Democrats who understand skepticism of the federal government. Out here, Americans will find Democrats comfortable in jeans and boots. In the West, we can find Democrats able to speak plainly in the language of real America.Can a Western Democratic Party succeed? Absolutely. If the 29 electoral votes in Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Nevada had swung from red to blue, John Kerry would have won 281 to 257. And in all 50 states, a Western candidate would signal a fresh start.
Of all the 2004 victories in the West, there was none sweeter than the victory in Montana. Despite Kerry's statewide loss to Bush by over 20 points, Brian Schweitzer swept to victory in the governor's race. He had massive coattails - Democrats won four of five statewide races, the State Senate, and the State House.
As Salon.com wrote:
A native Montanan who spent time in the Middle East before returning to start his own business, Schweitzer espouses a political philosophy that combines the class-based populism of a John Edwards with the budgetary pragmatism of a Howard Dean, all wrapped up in shit-kicking Western dialect that the Daily Kos' Markos Moulitsas Zúniga calls "a genuine version of Bush's fake ranch."
Discovering Brian Schweitzer, I found hope. Hope that with the right message, the right ideas, and the right messenger, it is possible for Democrats to become a majority party -- in all fifty states. After all, if progressive leadership can rise in Montana, it can rise anywhere. It can rise everywhere.
As David Sirota wrote in the Washington Monthly:
When I arrived back in Washington after the election, I found Democrats despondent, furious and desperate to find a way to reach out to red state voters. Despite the national disaster, one message from this election is clear: Just head to Whitefish, Mont., and follow the gregarious mint farmer with a smile on his face—he's already out of the wilderness.
I don't expect Governor Brian Schweitzer to run for President in 2008. But dammit, I wish he would.
On Tuesday, he'll be here in Portland supporting his good friend, Governor Ted Kulongoski. It's 25 bucks. You'll get dinner. You'll see old friends. You'll get fired up. Your money will support our man, Ted.
But most of all, you'll meet the mint farmer from Whitefish, Montana. You'll meet the future.
I know I'll be there. Join me. Order your tickets online right now.
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11:32 p.m.
Aug 16, '06
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Aug 17, '06
Hey! A comment that didn't mention Sten. Way to go, buddy!
8:25 a.m.
Aug 17, '06
How about a Richardson/Schweitzer ticket? Richardson's got some good foreign policy cred and Schweitzer seems to be be a viscious takedown artist who has perfect pitch when it comes to Manly Man trash talk. Best of all, he has at least 40 IQ points on the Dear Leader.
8:41 a.m.
Aug 17, '06
I like Schweitzer a lot. He's smart, easy to talk to, and interesting. And genuine, which is a rare quality in a politician. It's worth going to see him, especially for only $25. As fundraisers go, that's a deal.
10:21 a.m.
Aug 17, '06
He's smart, easy to talk to, and interesting. And genuine, which is a rare quality in a politician.
True, true, true. I actually believe that Kulongoski is similar in that same way. His public persona - inexplicably - doesn't include those elements, but he's definitely smart, easy to talk to, interesting, and genuine...
I still remember back to 1992 when I was a college freshman volunteering for Phil Keisling's SOS campaign. The staff took off for lunch, leaving me, the intern, in charge of the office. (God knows that could have been a disaster.) I'm sitting there watching the noon news, when this guy wanders in from the campaign office upstairs. (Lots of campaigns that year were housed at Montgomery Park.)
He asks me, "You guys have a VCR? I need to check out these campaign commercials. Wanna see 'em?" I didn't have any idea who he was, but I was game.
I'm sitting there watching these spots... "Kulongoski. For Attorney General. It's a big name. It's a big job." (Or something like that.) ...when I realize that the guy sitting there was: Ted Kulongoski.
Aug 17, '06
Pat blathers: "Best of all, he has at least 40 IQ points on the Dear Leader."
It is just that 'tude that will leave you all confused. Again. Just like before.
As Kari put it: "It hurt. And many of us were baffled. After all, how could it even be close? Couldn't Americans see through the reactionary idiocy that is Dubya?"
It'll will hurt again. Only worse. If every Dem has the same "We are smarter than stoooopid Republicans and their dim wit leader", it will show through, and the voters won't buy the crap you are selling.
IQ doesn't make the leader, but if it did, didn't the Oh So SMART Kerry do worse than Bush on the standardized tests anyway?
Learn from Schweitzer. Stuff the "we are smarter" 'tude.
12:51 p.m.
Aug 17, '06
Oh, look! You know it's a good thread, when the trolls come out by post 6!
Can't wait for Governor Schweitzer to come on out here to Florida and get behind Rod Smith, Our Next Governor. (The other Rod Smith scored me about eight touchdowns in roto, but I digress.)
But be glad Governor Schweitzer is visiting Oregon, my Blue friends. And ask him about his plan to make gasoline from what I call "coal water." Could get the prices back beneath moderate-to-severe insanity per gallon if there's enough support and infrastructure for it.
I also can't wait for Conrad Burns, enemy of smokejumpers and firefighters, to lose his US Senate seat to Jon Tester.
I'm not Montanan, but my wife is, and I love that state. Even more now with such a great guy in the Gov's office in Helena.
Get pictures, Kari!
Aug 17, '06
Oh, look! You know it's a good thread, when the trolls come out by post 6!
Well, and the first post.
1:52 p.m.
Aug 17, '06
I totally agree. Dems aren't going to win anything by picking southerners as presidential candidates, or by talking about God more and compromising on choice. And they're not going win by nominating northeastern liberals.
They will win by becoming more libertarian-left along the lines of successful western Democrats like Schweitzer, Richardson, Ken Salazar, Janet Napolitano, Harry Reid, even John Kitzhaber.
This does mean offering up one issue to sacrifice into the mouth of the volcano (Mt. St. Helens?): Gun Control.
Dems have to make peace with the NRA and learn to at least respect the 2nd amendment. No bans on anything. Keep the background checks, but otherwise be like like Howard Dean on this issue. And tell the Ginny Burdicks in the party to keep their mouths shut.
Aug 17, '06
This does mean offering up one issue to sacrifice into the mouth of the volcano (Mt. St. Helens?): Gun Control.
I do hope this isn't "you Democrats must all be NRA members or you will never win another election".
It is possible to be friendly with urban voters who elect those like Burdick (and earlier, Katz) and still be friends with people who go hunting.
Guns which wouldn't be effective hunting any animal (machine guns, for instance) don't belong in the hands of people who could use them for drive by shootings.
If that makes me someone who is not respecting the 2nd Amendment. "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed" (from a Government Printing Office copy of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence) then tough luck.
If law enforcement officials want machine guns and "cop killer bullets" off the street, as the granddaughter of someone who was a local prosecutor and a police commissioner, I'd back the request of law enforcement.
Aug 17, '06
Yeah, well, some of us are progressives, hunters and gun fondlers alike. I'm not NRA material myself, but I do purely admire a nicely balanced gun. Including machine guns.
Then again, I'm one of those whose origin is rural, not urban...
6:16 p.m.
Aug 17, '06
Supporting hunting and defending assault weapons and cop-killer bullets are two very different things.
It's the NRA and the gun crazies that conflate the two. LT, by pretending that anyone who respects hunters is arguing in favor of cop-killer bullets, you're doing the bidding of the NRA and working within their ideological frame.
The whole point - the WHOLE point - of the Schweitzer model is to argue that hunters can be respected without taking the absolutist NRA view. Also, that hunters and environmentalists have much in common.
10:56 p.m.
Aug 17, '06
A western presidential candidate for the Dems might make sense, but it's as much because low population states are overrepresented in the electoral college as anything else. If Kerry had carried four western states that he didn't, you say . . ., true. But if he'd carried one (eastern) midwestern de-industrializing state, Ohio, he'd have won too -- while losing the popular vote by a good deal more than Bush lost it by in 2000. A minority popular vote prez with both houses of Congress controlled by the R's? Things are ugly one way now but a Kerry win in those circumstances would've been different ugly.
The idea that the west &/or the (western) midwest and/or the southeast are the "real" America is pernicious. It also misconstrues the politics, which have a good deal more to do with divisions & relations between metro-urban, suburban, small city/big town and rural than region. Forty percent of the national population lives in the D.C. to Boston corridor (including the ever-extending southern and northern edges of their respective metro areas), another 20% in California. There is huge division and contestation within those areas, just as there is within Oregon or Montana or Iowa, or North Carolina or Florida or Kentucky. In the 2000 census a majority of the population for the first time lived in communities classified as suburbs, though suburbs actually vary mightily, as a moment's contemplation of Portland's surroundings will tell you -- true across the country.
Schweitzer sounds great and it is good that he can talk to people, but it has to be more than farmers -- or more likely the children of farmers who now live in a town or small city somewhere -- it has to be factory workers too, or more likely the children of factory workers who are falling on either side of the growing income gap between better and worse-paid service sector, including black folks, and to "new immigrants" and their children. I suspect Schweitzer can do at least some of that. But did he really run by buying into the Republican smear labels about who's "real" American? It's so self-defeating for Dems to do that. Bill Clinton got elected president, but his triangulation had a lot to do with Gingrich's success in '94.
I've got family in suburban Massachusetts, urban Kentucky, rural eastern Washington and live in Portland. Every one of us is as "real" an American as a Montana rancher, and Dems need to act that way about ALL those places & their analogues to win nationally. The things that are attractive about your description of Schweitzer are not geographically determined.
Aug 17, '06
I've got family in suburban Massachusetts, urban Kentucky, rural eastern Washington and live in Portland. Every one of us is as "real" an American as a Montana rancher, and Dems need to act that way about ALL those places & their analogues to win nationally. The things that are attractive about your description of Schweitzer are not geographically determined.
And that is why I think John Edwards and Wes Clark deserve a shot. Each has campaigned before and in the words of an old friend "know where the alligators are". But more importantly, however rich / famous they may be now, they grew up in more humble surroundings than Gore or Kerry.
And be careful of geographic determinism (remember "Mass. Liberal"?). Governors tend to be attractive candidates because they have executive experience, not just because they appeal to one or another kind of voters.
12:13 a.m.
Aug 18, '06
Chris Lowe wrote The idea that the west &/or the (western) midwest and/or the southeast are the "real" America is pernicious.
Chris, I agree. You'll note that I did not say that the West is "real America".
Rather, I wrote this: In the West, we can find Democrats able to speak plainly in the language of real America.
I do believe that the 'language of real America' is spoken by real people just about everywhere. But there are plenty of Eastern politicians who seem incapable of speaking "American".
It's Western politicians who seem to get it instinctively. It's not only Westerners, but out here, there's a bunch more. Folks like Schweitzer, John Garamendi, Mark Udall, John Kitzhaber, Peter Defazio, John Salazar, John Hickenlooper...