The Anti-Thesis Breaks Down

One really scary thing about a time of Crisis, such as we’ve entered, is that not only does the Political Thesis of the last generation break down, but so does its Anti-Thesis.

I’ve been joking around about Joe Lieberman missing this Clue, but what I forgot, or ignored, is that the Netroots might forget it as well.

The biggest problem with the Netroots, in terms of its belief structure, is that it is united mainly by opposition to the existing Thesis. That is, it’s an Anti-Thesis movement. It is just as at-sea with the present Crisis as the Thesis movement is. The Huffington Post, Eschaton, Talking Points Memo,  even DailyKos, have nothing really useful to say.

Just like a generational Thesis, an Anti-Thesis also breaks down in a time of crisis. The best example of this was in the 1850s, when the Anti-Thesis Whig Party completely disintegrated in the face of events, with the Republicans founded as a true anti-slavery party in 1854.

But in all cases there was something like a New Thesis movement bubbling up. The Progressive movement (which Teddy Roosevelt wound up representing), the Liberal movement and the New Right all said, at their heart, that the old debates were worthless, and that only new thinking could solve the new problems of their new days.

It is this central idea that the Netroots have not grasped. Markos Moulitsas has been messing around with it in his call for Libertarian Democrats, but most in the Netroots have just ignored the point.

And this has become very striking in the reaction (or lack of it) to what is happening now in Lebanon. To both the Thesis and the Anti-Thesis, loyalty to Israel is a given. So, too, is the importance of Israel. It’s a democracy, it’s capitalist, yadda yadda yadda.

But in terms of open source politics, in terms of saving the planet from global warming, in terms of the issues and concerns that must motivate a New Thesis, Israel is largely irrelevant.

The hunger for this New Thesis is, I feel, to be found in the gut reactions of Americans in the street to what is going on. Most don’t care.

Americans are right not to care. The great task before us is to break our own slavery to oil, and to the Oil Power. This need does not change regardless of what happens in Israel or Lebanon or even Iraq.

It’s the replacement of oil we need to get on with, and we desperately need, right now, leaders who will state that.

Whoever does can do more than win the Presidency in 2008. Whoever does wins the future.

America is ready for the New Thesis. Americans are hungering for it. I’ve laid it out. Who, with a bigger megaphone, will state it?