Aligning Democrats is like Herding Cats

My boss used to say managing engineers is like herding cats. Alignment of purpose can be difficult in projects that require many engineers to work together. Engineers are creative and independent minded with different priorities of what's most important. That means the most respected source of any solution is self generated- it comes from within, not from being imposed on them. It is the nature of engineers to solve problems, so it’s unnatural for an engineer to ask someone else for their solution, even less natural to be told what the solution is, and unthinkable to be directed to implement someone else’s solution blindly. You can imagine how challenging it can be to have many engineers get in lock step on large projects if their priorities are not aligned. It sounds like the Democrats have this problem too.

Why are the Democrats unable to exert their agenda with a 60% majority in the Senate? Is it because they have many different priorities and alignment is just too hard to achieve? The Republicans don’t seem to have this problem. They’re clearly more aligned, and seemingly operate as if they were the majority with only 40% of the Senate. But Republicans are more like cows. They all believe the same things, move together on virtually every issue, and seem very contented to do nothing. It’s relatively easy to get the herd to support a policy of “no”. No is pretty simple to rally behind.

Democrats, on the other hand, are completely aligned on their title- Democrat- but they diverge in all directions from that point. It’s been called a rainbow coalition, but the party convention every four years is more a collision than a coalition. A candidate emerges from the chaos of temporary unity and they work together for a few weeks. After the election, they fall off the wagon and wander back into their local or personal priorities for another four years. They're truly cats, not cows. They pick a cause and cling to it tenaciously. It may be civil rights, ethics, peace, gay rights, unions, gun control, work safety, energy, food banks, animal rights, sustainability, arts, health, environment, farming, education… just about anything except investment banking and corporate growth.

The diversity is beautiful, but largely incoherent. It makes unity hard to achieve. Health care reform is running point blank into this diverse group, out of synch with the four year mating season. Money hurts their cause too. The lobbyists have it, a lot of it, and the people don’t. Who would you listen to- a poor voter, or a slick lobbyist in a $2000 suit buying you a $500 dinner and stuffing your pockets with cash until it falls on the floor? If you need money to get re-elected and you’re vulnerable, and you are after all, a politician- the money rules. If the Democrats could ever achieve an 80% majority, they may get enough alignment to get things done. Until that day comes, it’s onward cats- here, there and everywhere… Check out this video, it says it all:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pk7yqlTMvp8