Reflections on January 6

January 6 was a day that the Democratic party was saved to fight another day.

Senator Barbara Boxer saved the Democratic party today from losing one of its core constituencies, African-Americans. It's no accident that several black Representatives mentioned Michael Moore today. They told us that everyone---the media and their own party---ignored their concerns in 2000, and not until Michael Moore put their objections in his movie did many of us even realize they had made them.

If it had happened again, the rift would have been fatal. Some would abandon the party completely, others would lose enthusiasm, and some would find the right moment for payback.

In this connection, it is relevant to suggest that the media largely ignoring the substance of what happened today in Congress, and completely ignoring the Selma 1965 to Washington 2005 march and rally, was not only acting in Republican interests, it was de facto racism.

On the day this took place, George Bush was formally declared the winner of the 2004 election, with the lowest approval rate for a newly reelected president in memory, and under the cloud of a contested election outcome.

On the day this took place, John Kerry was in Iraq, being cheered by U.S. troops. Maybe they didn't get the memo about his "mixed messages." Maybe they didn't appreciate the Swift Boat liars attempting to question the medals and reputation of one of their own.

It was on this day that the Cameron Kerry oped appeared (see link below) which was interesting timing. It did not appear when it could have disrupted the efforts to get a Senator to make the objections in Congress. But it appeared in time to make Kerry's position---and the reasons for his absence-clearer.

Many believe that Kerry did win the election, but those in public office must maintain a standard of proof to preserve their integrity. So in the debate today Barack Obama and even Bernie Sanders announced they believed Kerry lost, though they also believed the election system needs to be fixed. They may suspect otherwise on the real outcome, but they can't say so.

We all have our parts to play. Those of us not in public office can act on preponderance of evidence, or even our intuitions. We can take to the streets, and make our case, and urge real investigation. That's what we must continue to do.

The seeds of a progressive coalition were planted in Ohio during this process. It largely went unnoticed, but organized labor joined the protest, and sent buses from Columbus to Washington for the march and rally today. Those seeds were given some nourishment today, thanks to Barbara Boxer. We will see if they grow and bear fruit.

What happens now? The people alive to this moment must continue to pay attention to the progress of court cases in Ohio and elsewhere, because frankly not many others will. We need to support these court cases to force investigations, and eventually get indictments and put some folks in jail. Then there will be reform.

We must support reform bills as proposed by Kerry, Boxer and others, assuming we agree with them. We don't have any illusions that they will become law. We should use them to continue to build coalitions for the future, and rebuild trust.

We can hope that out there somewhere is a news organization or more likely a foundation or two with deep pockets willing to finance a dozen or so ambitious reporters to dig into the election story, and produce a book or a documentary or both.

But basically this issue now gets folded into the attempts of the Democratic party to revive itself, and become again a truly progressive party. It may take a very long time. The Republicans may very well be able to cheat their way to victories in the next few elections. But we can hope that Americans are made of stuff as stern as Ukrainians, Czechs and Slovaks, and don't forget Poland---if any of you out there are old enough to remember Solidarity. Or, for that matter, Selma.