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By Glenn W. Smith
Can we repair our political practices and achieve something like the popular democracy that has remained always just around the corner? Popular democracy - a democracy in which the wisdom of a self-governing people is translated into policy - was opposed from the beginning of our nation's history by the likes of Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton was a shrewd authoritarian who had the insight that capitalist elites, protected by federal charter and largesse, could rule safely as invisible monarchs. This, of course, unraveled the naïve hopes of Adam Smith, who attempted to include compassion and human sympathy within his rationalist model, and who thought a free, unfettered market economy would promote human sympathy, equality and understanding.
Today, the elite democracy view is embodied in top-down political practices that diminish the franchise and excuse voter suppression, advantage the wealthy through legal fiat that makes wealth and speech equivalent, reduce citizenship to passive consumerism, and maintain a class of political consultants and pundit elites who believe themselves a cut or two above the people they pretend to represent.
What's loosely referred to as the "netroots revolution" is part of a revitalized progressive, popular democracy movement aimed at the reform of these practices. Its egalitarian emphasis is on engagement and action by the many. Citizens are entering the political sphere in numbers that threaten the hegemony of an elite class that has long dominated the Republican and Democratic parties. A good example of the movement's spirit was seen in the overwhelming grassroots reaction against the patronizing and condescending performances of moderators Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos during the ABC Obama/Clinton debate. Sen. Hillary Clinton revealed the elite's us-and-them feelings of superiority when she told a private gathering of contributors that activists were getting in the way of their old-politics plans: "I mean, that's what we're dealing with. And you know they turn out in great numbers. And they are very driven by their view of our positions ..." Clinton said.
This is all well-known to the readers of this site and other movement activists. Still, we need to continue thinking through the theoretical basis of the movement, including the articulation of fundamental progressive moral views. So much needs to be urgently accomplished, so much attention is needed on pressing issues and tactical demands, that the editors and readers of OpenLeft should take pride that they have always made room for such explorations.
Here I want to approach one of the keys to the progressive moral view and to the possibilities of popular democracy, and that is the role of human empathy in our political practices. In Part I of this series, The Promise of Popular Democracy: Origins, I looked at democracy's true ancient roots in human empathy and anti-authoritarian practices. I deconstructed the privileging of austere reason over emotion in the Myth of Democratic Origins, and pointed toward a more authentic picture of the political human being.
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