Amanda Marcotte at Pandagon has an excellent post up about how the lesser of two evils is not a winning strategy for Democrats. Robert Gibbs doesn't seem to get it that if his boss wants his party to stay intact for the midterms, then they need to find a good way to convince the American people as to why they deserve to stay in power.
They need to work on a decent jobs bill on the understanding that Republicans only care about winning elections and not so much that we have a 9% unemployment rate. They need to prove that they are the "Fierce Advocates" for the LGBT community that they claim to be by stopping the enforcement of Don't Ask Don't Tell while it's in the process of repeal and pass ENDA. They need to protect women's rights and work on comprehensive immigration reform. They need to fight for a decent bill that addresses the issue of climate change and other environmental threats to the planet and they need to kick out the industry interests that have infested our regulatory agencies. They need to fight more aggressively for Net Neutrality and condemn the deal between Google and Verizon and put the telecoms in their place.
I could go on and on.
Scolding us "professional lefties" over criticizing them when they aren't being bold enough to take the bull by the horns and just do things regardless of Republican whining about the "evils of socialism" and "threats to traditional institutions" is not productive and does not serve to embolden any kind of enthusiasm in what is already a depressed base. We are not anything like the right, whose ideology demands fealty to the Dear Leader. We are a diverse group of people with different ideas on how things are to get done with a goal in mind, whether one is an LGBT activist, a feminist, environmentalist, consumer advocate, labor activist, civil libertarian, or all of the above.
We are the ones who voted for your boss, Mr. Gibbs. Dissing us and then thinking that we would be happy to vote for your party is not the way to go. I don't buy that it's somehow not "your fault" that you think this way. No, you think this way because you just don't want your boss to be nagged or criticized over what he has not accomplished and because he refuses to raise the bar and trying to compromise with people who have no vested interest in compromising. The Republican Party plays with hardball tactics and it's past time the Democrats started doing the same. That's not to say that I'd ask for Democrats to sink as low as the Republicans; just that they use what tools they have available to them so that they can beat Republicans at their own game. Let them whine and kick and scream and carry on like babies, because once people see how immature they are, they'll think twice about voting for the party that acts like spoiled brats and go for the grown-ups.
I'll acknowledge that Obama has done some noteworthy things, but at the same time, I refuse to give him a pass for when he is not doing the right thing, because I am not some mindless drone with no brain to think for myself. I will call it as I see it, because I couldn't be a good liberal if I didn't.