Right now I'm sitting in a body shop awaiting tires to be put on my car. I'm bored and typing this on my phone. If it's ripe with errors then blame autocorrect, damn you.
Anyway, I have little else to do besides sit jere and think to myself (always a dangerous thing, that). Today's mental topic is how and why so many of the Democratic base is disillusioned and how that can be fixed.
So here's what I think. It is t a bunch of totally perfect solutions that will please everybody but I think it'll at least make us stop fighting if Obama were to just do these few things.
- Stop disrespecting the base
Look, for as long as I've been politically aware one thing has been obvious to me: the Democrats hold their base in sheer contempt and it's fair to say they hate us. It's frustrating. They do this because the right leaning beltway cocktail circuit, with it's many, many millionaires and elites, tell them constantly in the echochamber about how America is center right and yadda yadda yadda.
It is, of course, not true, but it has the effect of making Democrats think they need to distance themselves from the very people who got them elected.
They do this because they think they can win over moderates and independents. The thing is, that group is what puts them over the top. They never seem to realize that, since the indies and moderates are SUCH a small group, they can't win elections by appealing to just them. Even if they got 100% of indies they'd still lose without their base.
They think that, like the republican teabagger base, we will vote for them because where else are we gonna go?
But they're wrong. They should have realized that by now but... apparently not.
The left will either stay home or vote third party en masse. We aren't like the Republicans and will reliably vote for who we are told to.
Stop treating the people who donate and knock on doors with contempt. We aren't as reliable as they think we are, for better or worse.
- Play the political game
By and large, republicans are great politicians and showmen while Democrats are great at legislating.
Obama in particular has been very adverse to acting like a politician. A surprising thing since he's considerably better than even Bill Clinton when he wants to be.
This results in Obama looking weak. To an extent, he IS weak. He doesn't fight back against the many lies. Why, I don't know. He gives up key pieces of legislation as if it's a good faith measure when dealing with monsters. It sucks, really.
I think its safe to say that It's not that we are opposed to negotiating with Republicans. We all KNOW that has to happen. It's fine but stop doing it in private and letting the villains set the terms. This point also connects to the first one about holding the base in contempt. We know we won't get everything we want but the fact that he's able to call himself President because of our efforts means he DOES owe it to us to at least try and/or make a show of it.
Even if we lose on an issue, like say universal healthcare, at least making some noise about it legitimizes it in the public sphere and makes it that much easier to go back to later.
(bad) Case in point: privatizing social security. The fact that there is still somewhat serious discussion of this after EVERYTHING that has happened speaks volumes.
- Give us something BIG to agree on
I dont mean something abstract like START or anything, but something that can unify us all. The recent proposal to simplify the tax code is a good place to start, IF it means potentially sweeping liberalized reforms. The Democratic base is splitting over this. We very BADLY need something we can all agree on but that means fighting for us some how.
I can't think of a single issue in the past 2 years where the Democrats have gone to the mat for the folks who got them elected. It's been constant obeisance to the Republicans. The result of that strategy was clearly seen last month.
For me, I'm at a point where I'll still vote for Obama in 2012, but unlike in 2008, I could not in good conscience go door to door and make phone calls again, as I did almost daily for 3+ months when he was running for President. There's a lot of people like me out there too. Obama and the Democrats need to give us a reason to hope again and have faith. I see our disillusionment as the result of YEARS of disrespect and contempt for us. They may have been able to get away with it this time had they not always been so deferential to conservatives and independents over the... well, decades... But alas.
This is bigger than just the next election. I get the sense that the Democrats are on the verge of completely losing their base for years and years to come because of all of this.
The anger we feel and our sense of morass feels, to me, like or was inevitable. We got them historic numbers in congress and Obama and the The Dems allowed the Repugs to thwart them at every turn.
In short, we are pissed because we did everything for them these last two years while they did so little for us. If Obama wants another term, it's time he did something for us first and foremost. It's what EVERY President ever has done. It is t asking too much. Especially at this point.