"I am not afraid of John McCain!"

Last week I attended the annual dinner of the Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats, a local club where my wife is a club officer. I want to share with you a highlight of that evening. Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer spoke to us and his speech was excellent and covered several points that we all should pay attention to. Those points are: Democrats remain stymied by Republican thug tactics; Democrats should not fear John McCain and the Republicans because they are going down this year big time; the reason why the Republicans are collapsing is that we are witnessing a "tectonic shift" in American politics; Democrats had better follow through after November, fulfilling the expectations of that tectonic shift or we will lose again in future years. Details below.

Now Chuck Schumer is certainly not my favorite Democrat. Too hawkish, somewhat prone to using Bush talking points, and disappointing as my Senator. Joy and I even had a run in with his office when we were part of a MoveOn.org delegation to object to an early funding request from Bush for the Iraq Quagmire. We were basically told to shut up and vote for Chuck anyway.

Chuck Schumer too often has been among the Democrats who has most disappointed me because for someone who is supposed to be such a bulldog, he has too often shown too much of a lack of spine against Bush.

But last week he gave an excellent speech, and one that could be seen as critical of the very weakness that Chuck has sometimes himself displayed under the Bush Administration.

The key message of his speech can be summed up by the quote I used as the title for this piece and one that all Democrats around the nation should be taking up: "I am not afraid of John McCain."

Chuck Schumer believes that John McCain is going down in November and predicted up front that the Democratic nominee, whoever it is (he backs Clinton, though most of the crowd back Obama), will win the Presidency with greater than 300 electoral votes. He further predicts that Democrats will win more Senate seats, probably surpassing the 60 we need to block a Republican filibuster AND picking up more House seats.

His enthusiasm had three parts beyond mere prediction of victory: a bit of an apology, recognition of a major "tectonic shift" in American politics, and a bit of a warning.

The apology: in the context of winning more Senate seats Senator Chuck Schumer (for the first time I have heard coming from him) acknowledged that some people feel Democrats have let the voters down by not accomplishing more. But he points out that every single Democratic Senator (he called Lieberman the sole exception, but Lieberman should no longer be counted as a Democrat) voted to withdraw from Iraq. Every single Democratic Senator voted to make unionization of American workers easier. Every single Democratic Senator voted to reject torture. Every single Democratic Senator has been keeping these promises, though perhaps not all promises. But the Republicans filibustered everything that Bush didn't outright veto. Democrats have not let the voters down so much as Republicans have used every technicality they could to block progress (something Democrats never had the guts or unity to do when they were in the minority). Essentially, it is unclear that at least in the Senate the Democrats could have done better against the Republican filibuster and Bush's veto.

The "tectonic shift:" Chuck recognized that just winning an election is often trivial. But sometimes there is a tectonic shift in American politics and he believes we are in the middle of one. Franklin Delano Roosevelt led America through one such shift, one that shaped modern government, giving us the FDIC protecting bank deposits, giving us Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security...basically giving us a safety net that had not been there before and recognizing the working and middle class as the key to American society and economics. Ronald Reagan led us through another tectonic shift, one where greed and corporations dominated our society and economics, leading to a rejection of a safety net and the acceptance of the Republican "Drown American in a Bathtub" philosophy. And Chuck admitted here that Democrats went along with this shift, including Bill Clinton and, implicitly, including himself and Senator Hillary Clinton. But now (and I would say the shift started in 2006) we are in the midst of another tectonic shift--the rejection of the Republican "Drown America in a Bathtub" philosophy and a resurgence of traditional Democratic, progressive American values. In short, voters are just as enthusiastic about Democratic candidates now as they were about Reagan and FDR during those previous shifts and Democrats have found the pulse of the American voter.

Which leads to Chuck's warning: if we do win (and he predicts we will win big), and we don't effect any change, the voters will quickly reject Democrats again. We must effect the change this tectonic shift demands or we will be losers. We can't forget that.

Well, I'm with Chuck on all of this. I can say I tried telling Chuck Schumer these same things before the 2004 election and I believe had the Democrats as a whole embraced this same program then, we would have won. But Democrats can be slow to react and it really wasn't until 2006 (with hints in Montana in 2004 and Virginia in 2005) that Democrats began to become part of the tectonic shift.

I also should note that starting in 2006, many Republicans have recognized the same tectonic shift, though viewed it through their own ideological lens. In 2006 Pete McCloskey, life-long Republican, former Republican candidate for President and memeber of a family who, in his own words, were Republicans before Lincoln, left the Republican party and endorsed a Democrat because of the moral bankruptcy of the Republican Party. To quote:

In 1994, however, Newt Gingrich brought a new kind of Republicanism to power, and the election of George W. Bush in 2000 has led to wholly new concept of governance. The bureaucracy has mushroomed in size and power. The budget deficits have become astronomical. Our historical separation of church and state has been blurred. We have seen a succession of ethical scandals, congressmen taking bribes, and abuse of power by both the Republican House leadership and the highest appointees of the White House.

The single cardinal principle of political science, that power corrupts, has come to apply not only to Republican leaders like Tom DeLay, Duke Cunningham, Bob Ney and John Doolittle, but to a succession of White House officials and appointees. The stench of Jack Abramoff has permeated much of the Washington Republican establishment.

The Justice Department, guardian of of our rule of law, has been compromised. It's third ranking official, a graduate of Pat Robertson's dubious law school, has taken the 5th Amendment.

Men who have never felt the fear of combat, and who largely dodged military service in their youth, have led us into grievous wars in far off places with no thought of the diplomacy, grace and respect for other peoples and their cultures which has been an American trademark for at least the last two thirds of a century. We have lost the respect and affection of most of the world outside our borders. My son, Peter, one of the U.S. prosecutors at The Hague of the war crimes in Serbia and elsewhere, tells me that people of other countries no longer look at the country which countenances torture as a beacon for the world and the rule of law.

Earth Day, that bi-partisan concept of Gaylord Nelson in 1970, has become the focus of almost hatred by today's Republican leadership. Many still argue that global warming is a hoax, and that Bush has been right to demean and suppress the arguments of scientists at the E.P.A., Fish & Wildlife and U.S.Geological Survey.

I say a pox on them and their values.

This year, Republican Tom Davis decided not to run for re-election and is condemning the Republican Party for losing its way and abandoning the voters. To quote:

It is clear from Congressional voting in special elections, in once safe districts in Illinois and Louisiana, that voters at the Congressional level, when given a choice, do not want more of the same. Our attacks on Democrats for taxes do not ring true. Our message is stale. Without a clear change in direction, Congressional Republicans can count on more Louisiana’s and Illinois’s. If we were a business that had been losing market share, would we simply wait for our competition’s product to blow up? Or, would we re-tool, innovate and make the appropriate changes. They don’t like our dog food. They may not like the Democrat’s either, but for now, and through November, they appear to be buying it.

So let's push this tectonic shift as far as we can, not just in electoral victories, but in a true restoration of American progressive values, traditional DEMOCRATIC values, into American government.

I am not afraid of John McCain. He needs to be afraid of us.