The Value of Dissent

As usual, Pulbius has a thoughtful piece on the value of left-wing dissent, particularly as it was expressed by the New School's heckling of John McCain. Here are some highlights, but read the whole thing:

Fast forwarding to 2006, the problem is that “the Left” has been so stereotyped and caricatured for so many years (often aided and abetted by people like Lieberman or even itself) that true Left-wing protests don’t undermine anything (in the Lefty sense of undermine). In fact, they usually do precisely the opposite in that they further the interests of the target of protest. Rohe’s speech and the hecklers are Exhibit A. Despite their intentions, they actually helped John McCain’s presidential chances. He wanted to be booed and heckled there so he could use that example to skeptical Iowa conservatives. See, liberals hate me. In this sense, the “dissent” is precisely what McCain needed. Oddly enough, a roaring reception would have been more “subversive” to his campaign than the heckling. George Allen: Well, I'll you one thing Wolf, they wouldn't have cheered me at the New School.

So what is to be done? I certainly don’t want people like Rohe to drop out or become inactive. I also don’t think that liberals (and even true Lefties) should wholly ignore critical theory and its assumptions. What I do think is that the (real) Left's efforts should be redirected somewhere new – somewhere far away from 60s cliches.

I’d welcome thoughts here, but if I could recommend one area where the Left should focus, it would be our electoral and legislative processes. And in particular, the underlying structure of these processes.

If the hackneyed cliche “the system” has any application to anything, it’s to the structure of our current electoral and legislative processes. Sorry to say it, but the system is whack (I wasn’t really sorry – I’ve been waiting to use that one). As I fear we’re about to see this November, the preferences of the country cannot be expressed through the electoral system (the medium) currently in place because of its significant structural flaws.

The Senate, for instance, is so malapportioned that I think it’s fair to question its democratic legitimacy. That’s one a tough one to fix though. A slightly less unrealistic goal is eliminating the Electoral College and its disenfranchisement of urban voters. Finally, a realistic goal that we should all be going to the mat for right now is ending gerrymandering.