Let me interject something in the midst of all the finger-pointing about the unfortunate results of the Massachusetts senate race tonight - something that I think has been missed in all the media punditry, activist Twittering and netroots blogging.
Various polls (here and here, as examples) have shown that a good chunk of the opposition to and/or frustration with the health care bill that played such a central role in the Massachusetts race comes from a progressive perspective - namely, a perspective that says the bill doesn't go far enough. How much that precise kind of opposition/frustration played a role in the Massachusetts race is anyone's guess - but among those that it did, my guess is that the feelings of demoralization are particularly intense, because those feelings are rooted in the most powerful emotion of all: humiliation.
After a 2008 campaign that saw Democrats promise to genuinely take on the health care and financial industries, we've seen a 2009 that has asked Democratic voters to fight for extremely small, extremely modest scraps. We've been relegated to having to mount fierce campaigns to keep things like the public option in the debate and not to stop trillion-dollar bailouts - but just make sure they have one or two flimsy strings attached to them.
We've loyally mounted these campaigns. They haven't been fun, and worse, they haven't been legislatively successful (at least not yet). But beyond the substantive failure is the embarrassment that comes with even having to mount such campaigns in the first place.
There is something deeply embarrassing about Democratic voters/groups having to fight with Democratic leaders to get those leaders to even seriously try (much less pass) even the smallest, most modest shreds of their promises. Having to do that evokes feelings of genuine shame - shame in front of the other voters we told to vote for Democrats because it supposedly "mattered," and shame when we look in the mirror at a self that may have allowed itself to be unnecessarily duped.
I feel this sense of humiliation every day I am talking to regular folks here in Colorado on the radio. As a single-payer guy, I feel embarrassed that I've been relegated to fighting for the fulfillment of as modest a campaign promise as the public option. Likewise, as a person who opposed the bailouts from the get-go, I feel embarrassed to be relegated to simply asking for a bit of transparency and regulation from a party that promised tough New Deal-like measures against Wall Street. And my guess is that - whether consciously or not - many people who voted for Democrats in 2008 feel that same sense of shame as well.
Again, I don't know if this deep sense of humiliation is what drove down Democratic performance in Massachusetts tonight, or is driving down President Obama's numbers as a whole. But my bet is it has at least something to do with it, especially because the 2008 campaign had so much to do with raising people's expectations.
That wasn't a normal election - many of us who had stopped believing in the possibilities of American democracy said we'd be willing to believe one last time. And now, seeing that perhaps we shouldn't have relented in our (rightful) cynicism, we are completely mortified.
Undoubtedly, Democrats and progressive media will attempt to make us ignore these feelings of humiliation by simply vilifying the extremism of Republicans (predictably, we are already seeing this rather pathetic tactic from various Democratic voices - save the always honest Howard Dean - on television tonight). And it is all but guaranteed that in typical blame-the-victim fashion, some lockstep Democratic activists and Obama supporters will find a way to blame progressives - rather than the politicians who broke their progressive promises - for the Massachusetts loss and the Democratic Party's flagging poll numbers. Those are the tried and true formulas to stir up the base and manufacture a supposed "united front."
But I don't know if it will work this time, unless it is coupled with - finally - a serious effort by Democratic lawmakers to legislate their promises. And even then, I still don't know if it will work. I don't know because maybe it's too little, too late - maybe the humiliation has already transformed cynicism into total and complete alienation.
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Ya think?
David, other than the obvious understatements, you are spot on, as usual.
Call the DNC 202-863-8000
- is it worth it?
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/1/21/828305/-Call-the-DNC-and-Report-Back
To the question, on a scale of 1 to 10 - "will calling the DNC help make Change a Reality?"
The lowest anyone can vote is: "No they won't listen because they are arrogant and think we're dumb"
is giving these amoebas way too much slack.
How about:
"No, all they want is my money and my vote and will lie about the quality of candidates that we Progressives SHOULD support because they are so different from Republicans."
And that would be putting it nicely.
The only way to insure success is to stay in the center. You nuts on the left and right can complain all you want but its the central independents that decided where this country goes and right now they don't like the direction.
Ted Kennedy was a liberal but he new that not everyone else was. He was willing to work with the other side to get some of what he wanted instead of driving off the cliff and getting nothing. You nuts on the extreme left lost his seat and you have know one to blame but yourself.
The anger that is being expressed toward Democrats has everything to do with them not standing up for the average American as they get mugged by corporate interests. It isn't left wing or right wing or centrist. It is about the little guy getting stepped on. Again. After the Democrats promised to behave differently when they got a chance.
The party that didn't get the message that was sent so loudly in 2008.
In retrospect this isn't a shock.
Mass voters just continued 2008.
The public (Dems and Reps) are primarily interested in: jobs, house, less govt spending, and getting out of these wars.
Obama, Pelosi, and Reid have failed in these major interest areas. And demonstrated extremely poor leadership. Anyone associated with them is in political trouble. Just as anyone linked to Bush in 2008.
Other issues are less important or not supported, such as: global warming, climate change, amnesty for illegals. gitmo I, gitmo II, card check, DADT, etc.
The exception is an emergency. Healthcare reform is an emergency. America is having heart failure. Are we going to let the patient die? I'm for rolling up my shirt sleeves and getting on with saving the patient.
Obama needs to pick a few emergencies and get real serious.
Why are you trying to defend the dems in COlorado Mr Sirota? You hould just say: "I do not recognize myself in this democratic party any longer",
Let's vote for those that really represent and fight for tprogressive ideals and who would vote against the dems if dems do not presen tprogressive ideas for a vote.
They wanted the votes of the progressives and acted like the GOP when it caters to paleochristian barbarians.
Same wolf, different clothes, disgusting same result.
They got what they deserve the dems, If I were the GOP I would not gloat: these voters have had enough of all of them, the GOP will pay a price too if it does not deliver on killing every wild animal, drilling in front of Seattle, killing every abortion doctor.
But most of all the GOP will disappear when it will not give everybody everything with no taxes at all while running 5 wars of convenience. The masses are too uneducated, and yes I am an elitist but it is the truth.
The country is in ruins and people that care should create a new party or more parties. The status quo is outright dangerous for our democracy.
You do understand that only 20% of the American people self ID as liberal or progressive.
40% self ID as Conservative and remainders as moderates.
The moderates are coming back over to side with conservatives.
They are seeing the progressive agenda and are rejecting it.
Now I'm not saying that US politics is entirely democratic. It isn't. Far from it. But not having the government run roughshod over the will of the corporate-media-influenced mainstream of the electorate is part of how it is democratic, not part of how it isn't.
But if you really are "humiliated", you should work it out with a therapist, because you are WAY over-personalizing here.
It really is an inappropriate feeling when it comes to political skirmishes, unless you're literally caught with your pants down, like Larry Craig, David Vitter, John Edwards, etc.
UGH
I guess they don't see the message the way we do. You would think 8 years of bush would have created some real opposition. But no. The wussocrats must go, and let the republicans run things into the ground until we get our revolution. It won't be pretty.