Clothespins for Carson – Theory and Practice

Why Carson Needs to Win
Brad Carson needs to win the Senate Race in Oklahoma. Despite the fact that most voters in the state are registered Democrats (reflected by legislature’s Demo majority), Carson has been the only Dem representing the state in congress, as the 2nd District Representative. Now, the least objectionable of our two Republican Senators is retiring, and Carson stands a good chance of turning the seat over, and moving us toward a Senate Majority.

Why Voting for Carson is Problematic
The problem is, while Carson has been, arguably, a good house member, he has run hard to the right in his Senate campaign. I’m not talking about the folksy equivocation that all thoughtful democrats need to invoke from time to time. I’m talking about coming out with first quotes in favor of the US Anti-Marriage Amendment (the one that only serves to prevent minorities from marrying), then raising that invective to the point that his campaign staff stuffed anti-gay flyers under windshield wipers at a hate-filled Anti-Marriage rally sponsored by Tulsa’s Republican mayor and featuring national leaders in the anti-gay movement.

But it’s not just gays. He’s voting with Bush on the war, and disregarding the threats to liberty in the Patriot Act. After his opponent accused him of being a Liberal (yeah, right!), he ran a campaign ad that refuted the claim, and implied that “liberal” was synonymous with “evil.” (His bumbling right-wing opponent actually posed the race as “good vs. evil”—jeez, what kind of voters would believe that kind of crap?)

Mark Your Ballot, Mark Your Fate
So, as a Liberal (um, Progessive), I found myself facing a moral dilemma. Sure Coburn (the Republican) scares the daylights out of me. But Carson, I feel, has betrayed me. More significantly, he forces me into a Faustian bargain – to get the other guy out, and get the Democratic leadership in, I have to vote for this guy that will actively work against my interests (and arguably more effectively than Coburn, who seemed to be an acknowledged wing-nut even among conservatives, when he held Carson’s House seat a few years back). I read a quote the other day that said something like, “I’d rather vote for a candidate I believe in and lose than vote for one I don’t believe in and win.”

But of course, I don’t believe in either candidate.

None of the Above
And a lot of my friends felt the same way. Many were considering simply not voting for a Senatorial candidate.

How the Replicans Vote Against Themselves
Then I read a quote from a former Reagan operative who said that if Bush wins, there will be a “civil war” within the Republican Party starting November 3. What’s that? They don’t universally love this guy, like his spinmeisters keep telling us? Then you have to remember Reagan’s 11th Commandment: Thou shalt not speak ill of a fellow Republican. At least, not until the wool has been pulled down tightly over the electorate’s eyes.

Anybody with a political braincell has to understand that the Democrats are a coalition party, brought together by common cause, but often divided by spirited debate. We’re never going to march in lockstep to party dogma like the Republicans do. (Did you see the plastic smile pasted on John McCain’s face at the last debate? The Republican juggernaut must be immense to get a person of his character to crawl into the lap of a man like George W Bush. A man who used the same smear tactics against McDain’s military record in 2000 that he is now using against McCain’s friend John Kerry.)

How a Yellow Dog Becomes a Swinger
So I realized that Carson needed Progressives like me to win. And we needed Carson to win to provide leadership in the Senate and ensure the sanity of the Supreme Court for years to come. And Carson may not have realized it, but he was losing us. We, the core activists, the few, the proud Oklahoma Progressives, were thinking of phoning in sick on Election Day (at least in his race).

The idea struck me like a thunderclap. We were not powerless. We were now the critical voters in the election. We would swing the election for the Democrats. But would we get credit for it? Otherwise, we would have power only on November 2, which would be usurped when Carson took office in January. We needed a tally, we needed a network, and we needed it fast.

How, then, to form a network in two weeks time?

Here is how: Read the Message