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Chris Bowers over at MyDD has a great post today on the damage false bipartisanship and blind single-issue advocacy are doing to our nation. Examining a recent decision by the League of Conservation Voters to endorse yet another moderate Republican over a strong Democratic challenger, he uses the LCV's own goals and rating to show precisely why this strategy is so flawed. And then he closes with this:

None of these organizations have accomplished a single progressive legislative victory at the national level since Republicans have held the trifecta. Their advocacy on behalf of "moderate" Republicans has gotten hem nowhere, except that it keep Republicans in power and hard-right conservatives in charge of legislating on their advocacy areas.

These are organizations that all grew to power when Democrats were in charge. Now, Democrats are not in charge, and they are powerless. You think this would set off a light-bulb in their collective issue area ghettos. However, outside of the 2004 Presidential election, they insist on refusing to work together, and throwing all of their weight behind putting Democrats back in charge. As long as they refuse to do that, they will remain as irrelevant as they have been in recent years, and the issues for which they advocate will continue be legislated entirely by hard-right conservative ideologues. If I was a member of any of these organization, which I am not, I would cancel my membership the second they continued to endorse one more Republican for federal office. Sending your money to groups like LCV is actually a waste of your money, since it effectively results in keeping Republicans in charge of legislating on the environment. Thus, supporting these organizations actually results in more severe environmental damage then not sending money to them. The progressive members of these organizations need to leave and form new organizations that will work with one another and support both the progressive movement and the Democratic wholeheartedly. These days, that is the only way someone can successful advocate for a progressive issue area. The old ways are done. The groups must change or die off.

This goes back to my recent complaints (here, here, here, and here, for starters) about Sierra Club. While its true they do great work on the ground, particularly in the mountains from which they once took their name, their stubborn refusal to accept the way DC has changed over the past 10 years is doing a grave disservice to their national agenda.

We have, for better or worse, entered into an era of strong partisanship, a shift that has allowed for much greater party unity and discipline in Congress. In abstract, yes - moderate individual Congress people are a wonderful thing, and they ought in the long term to be encouraged. But in our current version of reality they are almost always figures with little true political power, usually doing little more than delivering the votes necessary to keep their party in the majority.

But groups like LCV and Sierra Club simply refuse to accept both the reality of the change and the consequences it has created. The difference between the two parties, particularly on environmental issue, is enormous. And yet despite this they continue to support individual moderate Republicans, as if somehow those few individuals will be able to successfully undermine the efforts of a majority of their own political party.

What infuriates me most about this strategy is that it begins with an assumption of weakness. It accepts that Republicans will remain in the majority, and works at the margins to curb the damage they might otherwise do. It accepts minority status as a given, relying on the weakest members of your opponent's party to do your work for you.

But good lord... what's the point of fighting for a cause if you don't actually believe that your side can ultimately prevail? If you don't honestly believe that we can win this fight, please get out of the way and let someone else lead the way.

I will repeat myself here. Your opponents have called bipartisanship "date rape." They have suggested that their opponents should be treated as nothing more than housebroken pets. And they are quite serious about this:

"Once the minority of House and Senate are comfortable in their minority status, they will have no problem socializing with Republicans. Any farmer will tell you that certain animals run around and are very unpleasant, but when they've been fixed, then they are happy and sedate. They are contented and cheerful. They don't go around peeing on the furniture and such." -- Grover Norquist

Please, stop enabling them. Stop giving in and start fighting. This is NOT the best we can do.