Markos and Matt Stoller are right: Busby could have won. This is why she didn’t.

Democratic voters are frustrated. But they’re not frustrated enough to show up at the voting booth just to say ‘no’.

There has to be more to say ‘yes’ to. Voters aren’t convinced that the way to end the culture of corruption is to replace it with the culture of Democratic insider status quo. They needed to believe that Busby had the character to knock some Dem heads together to get things done, because leaders aren’t afraid to rock the boat.

Issues do matter, but wedge issues must be countered head-on. The immigration overload didn’t occur because of Republican corruption. It occurred because of Mexican government decisions, and NAFTA and Archer Daniel Midlands, and the reality that poor, hungry people will go wherever they can earn their next crust of bread so their children won’t die. While Bilbray rattles the amnesty alarm to maintain the myth that undocumented immigrants won’t obey the laws, Busby tried to defend a slip of her tongue instead of defending the need of hungry families to eat.

No one needs a consultant to define their instinctive humanity. Knowing what’s right and wrong is not a talking point from Donna Brazile. Saying that the national Democratic party has ignored the situation too long while Republicans have exploited the inexpensive labor of Mexican families struggling against hunger, she could have made it clear that both the corruption and the status quo would have to end.

She still can do it. Character doesn’t mean doing whatever you have to do to win. It means telling the truth and saying the truth matters more than political strategy. ‘Amnesty’ is a blanket pardon. The Kennedy-McCain bill doesn’t provide amnesty. It acknowledges that undocumented immigrants have sufferred, that they’ve worked, that they’ve paid their dues, that they’ve earned a chance for citizenship if they’ve displayed all the traits good citizens have: care of their families, working to get ahead, paying taxes, following all the everyday laws that all good citizens do.

How many 5oth District voters would cross the border illegally if it was the only way to keep their families from starvation? That illegal act can and should be forgiven if the immigrants have met every other standard of our society after that. Securing the border to limit the immigration is critical, but it’s equally important to demand that American businesses follow the law. It’s equally important that the Mexican government respond to the needs of its poor. It’s equally important to make changes to NAFTA to eliminate imbalances that promote problems like this.

And it’s important that we not permanently punish the hungry for trying to eat.

As the author Anatole France wrote, “The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets or steal bread.” We can uphold the laws of this nation while respecting human needs, while granting a break for those who struggle to break free of misery.

We’re big enough to do that. We are not Scrooges oblivious to those who suffer. We are innovators who can find workable solutions that provide security for us without sending millions of workers back to misery and early death.

That’s what a candidate with character would say. I think Busby is a person with character. I hope she’ll let her conscience be her consultant in the next five months, and in her work after that.