There seems to be one salient fact that is getting lost in all the post-election recriminations and inevitable finger-pointing and other assorted nonsense we're hearing on the TeeVee.
The Left did its job, Mr. President.
I didn't see any "centrists" or "Independents" busting their asses climbing hilly streets to canvass door-to-door and taking time away from jobs and family to phonebank try and maintain for you a working Majority in the House and Senate. I didn't see any "Bipartisans" digging into their wallets to shell out hundreds or thousands of dollars in a valiant rearguard, albeit futile effort to counter the tsunami of vindictive corporate-funded Republican hate that has been thrown at you since the McCain-Palin rallies in the primary. I didn't see any wishy-washy "undecided" folks (who believe kowtowing to huge corporate behemoths is a necessary trade-off to achieving minor, incremental improvements to the quality of our lives) volunteering as pollwatchers on Election Day.
Maybe I wasn't looking in the right places, but I just didn't see these people doing any GOTV work for you whatsoever.
No. What I saw were committed, dyed-in-the-wool Democrats, mostly at the far left of the party spectrum (By "far left" of course, I mean those who believe the Social Security system they've paid into all their lives ought to be sacrosanct against any raiding by billionaires, or those who believe we really ought to follow the law of the land which allows legal abortion, or those who believe the environment is worth protecting for future generations as well as ourselves--those "crazy lefties," or union members in other words, I guess the ones your former Chief of Staff and Press Secretary liked to make fun of, because I have no idea who else they might have been talking about).
I'm usually not one to bitch and moan. I'm happy Nevadans gave Sharron Angle the boot, because I have a brother-in-law who lost his job in the construction business in Henderson, and he has three kids who don't have decent healthcare now because of it. But part of me really wanted to see Harry Reid gone. Because frankly, he stinks as a Majority Leader. And when you have a shitty Majority Leader, its really hard to be excited about being in the Majority. And that brings us to 2012, which I know is at the top of your mind right now. Without a hope in hell of passing any legislation in the next two years, Harry Reid is sort of beside the point. You are the sole "Majority leader."
You really want to see what your re-election prospects look like without a committed base? I'll give you a hint--you have none.
Because if you think this election was some sort of aberration--some sort of "referendum" on activist government, you obviously haven't been paying close attention. Your government doesn't even qualify as "activist." An "activist" government in the minds of these folks is one that takes any action that impacts, however minutely, their bottom line. And a billion dollars of secret corporate donations is going to be chump change to what is already beeing gathered to ensure your defeat in 2012. Because you are all that stands between the corporatocracy and complete and utter subjugation of the American public to corporate hegemony for the foreseeable future. Those anti-Obama ads are being focus-tested, tweaked and refined right now, this morning, in boardrooms and highhrises all across the country. Because nothing succeeds like success--and boy, have they been successful to date!
There is no way--no way in hell--that you will ever please these people. They've got you focused on "deficits" because that's what want their armies of useful idiots to focus on--spending and deficits. But the people pulling the strings behind the curtain don't give a damn about spending or deficits, for a very simple reason. They're obscenely rich and neither they nor any of their descendants will ever have a care in the world. You could cut the national debt in half overnight and it would not matter to them. They do not see the US as a "nation." but simply as a vehicle to make more and more money, and they will continue to do that regardless of "deficits." In fact, they would be just as happy if the surplus population of this country took a dive off the nearest cliff, because it really doesn't matter to their bottom line. That is the mentality that's arming against you, right now, and they have one message to hammer home, again and again: YOU are the problem. That's going to be a pretty attractive argument when coated in tens of billions of dollars of propaganda, a neutered media and an Unemployment rate that refuses to budge in any meaningful way.
So, as I see it, you need us for your very survival. Right now, I would be really excited about going door-to-door again for you. But if this Administration takes the Triangulation Express, I will tell you right now that in 2012 you are going to have a big GOTV problem. If you want to demotivate an already demoralized base, I guarantee you that buying the centrist crap being spewed by the media right now will be the path of least resistance to defeat. Because by 2012 if this economic death spiral continues the way it will if Republicans are allowed to dictate the terms, then we on the left (and millions of others) may conclude, rightly or wrongly, that it doesn't make a whole lot of difference in this brave new world anyway who the fuck is in charge. That may be the end of this country as we know it, but coincidentally it will also be the end of you.
So from this point forward, here are my terms.
Cutting Social Security Benefits? Raising the retirement age? I don't want to hear it.
Cutting back on Environmental Regulations? Maybe re-working the Endangered Species Act? More pointless offshore drilling? Sorry, no. Don't want to hear it.
More Tax cuts for the wealthy? No, sorry. I don't want to hear it.
More "Corporate tax breaks" to "stimulate hiring?" Don't want to hear it.
Excuses on Wiretapping and Torture? Man, I really don't want to hear it.
Preservation of "the good parts" of "No Child Left Behind?" Don't want to hear it.
Compromise on the new Health Care law? It's already compromised, and I don't want to hear it.
Compromise on Financial regulation? Uh, no, I really don't want to hear that either.
"Discussion" about legislation attacking union protections for workers? No. Just no.
I know there are plenty of gray areas where reasonable Democrats can disagree. There are areas one subgroup may consider more important than others. I'm not talking about those. I'm talking about core Democratic principles. The kind that motivate people to get out and try to persuade total strangers to vote for you.
And please, no more bashing of the left. We're Americans, we're important, and frankly we're the only reason you have anything left to work with after this debacle.
You ought to keep that in mind.