Coordinated NetRoots Attacks On Friedman Likely To Backfire

Over the past several weeks, I've been seeing posts on many a-list blogs pushing the narrative that "Kinky Friedman is a racist," or at least that "Kinkey is Pat Buchannan in a more colorful garb." Having some familiarity with Friedman as a cultural figure and as such taken some interest in his independent campaign for Governor, I was alarmed to see these posts.

My alarm turned to something more like disappointment and resignation though when I dug a little deeper and figured out this was a pretty poorly constructed negative campaign, trying to swing support to Democratic candidate Chris Bell, and that many of the people I enjoy and respect in the NetRoots were participating.

This coordinated negative push is mis-conceived and will be unproductive.

Living Liberally vs. Politically Correct
One of the better concepts to come out of the NetRoots is the "Living Liberally" meme. The idea here is that a liberal/progressive movement needs both a social foundation for its base, and an attractive/enjoyable culture to grow. This is a keen insight, and it's one of the things that makes the Drinking/Laughing/Screening Liberally family of events so valuable.

What's confusing and distressing to me is why people who understand the value of that can't see how they undermine the same process by participating in this negative campaign against Friedman.

The anti-Kinky initiative is a classic negative campaign. In addition to pulling up the "racist" angle, there have been several poorly-sourced suggestions that Kinky would ban abortion, require prayer in schools or any number of other things. All these accusations carry a shard of truth, but upon closer examination they are clearly distortions of his stated positions.

The allegations with the most legs are the racial ones, mainly because the Friedman campaign isn't backing off any of his language. However, it's hard to see how anyone could seriously suggest that Kinky Friedman is personally a racist. Annitopia "ambushed" Friedman (her words) on the racial angle and came away with the conclusion "he's not a racist: he's a prick," after he responded derisively to her suggestion that he "be more sensitive."

"Be more sensitive." It's a nice thing to suggest, but demanding it and/or trying to paint someone as unfit because they don't acquiesce is the essence of everything creepy about Political Correctness. Nevermind that we live in an insensitive political environment. Nevermind that NetRoots voices generally call on issue groups and candidates not to be afraid to offend people. Let's shiv this character while we can.

And Kinky Friedman is certainly a character, and certainly not a man without personal issues. In addition to founding a band called "The Texas Jewboys" -- with members like "Little Jewford" and "Big Nig," and songs like "They Ain't Makin' Jews Like Jesus Anymore" -- he was also a cocaine addict for quite a while. That last bit isn't without precedent for the Governorship of Texas as we all know, but ask anyone who knows people who've done blow for a while. It leaves a mark.

However, it is precisely this character value which is driving his campaign's support. Friedman may be a trifle outlandish, but he's also a living artifact of an authentic Liberal Culture, and a walking embodiment of the much-vaunted "Liberal Libertarian" political ideology that you hear about in the NetRoots. It's a shame he had to go and run as an independent and out-fundraise Democrat Chris Bell.

The Backlash
Somewhere, some observer of TX politics must have gotten the idea that Kinky's supporters naturally "belong" in the Bell camp, and that's where this negative campaign has its genesis. And true, many of them are probably Democrats, or independents who usually vote (D).

However, while Kinky's supporters may have a lot in common with Bell's, many of them (I would say most) are not going to swing his way on this. I reckon all that this negative campaign is doing on the ground is starting skirmishes between camps that want to be allied in 2008.

Moreover, the participation of several NetRoots leaders in this negative campaign calls into question both how seriously these people take their stated beliefs and also their tactical judgement. They appear willing to kneecap both their long term cultural and political goals in a vain effort to help Chris Bell's campaign.

It's pretty much established -- and I think rightly so -- that most new-school activists are willing to support Democrats they don't particularly like, but this is usually justified by a numerical argument for taking back congress or by a particularly destructive and dangerous opponent. See exhibit: Casey vs. Santorum for details. It's good political calculus.

Now Rick Perry's a bad Governor, sure, but this race doesn't have the same logic. The TX Statehouse is a weak position, held by a single individual. This might be sold as an exercise in state-level party building, save for the fact that this is just going to harden the lines between camps that (for the sake of the party in Texas) should be figuring out how to work together.

So, you see, it looks like pointless negative campaigning that makes us look like politically correct prigs and alienates our wider cultural consituency. Bummer.

I'm not arguing that Democrats or the NetRoots need to support Friedman or cut him any slack. I think there are lessons to learn from his operation on how to use cultural capital and grassroots networks to build a constituency out of disaffected and/or "unlikely voters," but by all means support the candidate you like and do so with passion. However, this coordinated negative campaign makes very little sense. At best it gets a C-minus in "politics as usual." At worst, it's actively hampering the growth of our Future Majority.