I know that President Obama has been speaking about how he now is going to compromise more with the Republicans. We all laugh at that statement as it is hard for us to see how he can compromise more unless he were to cede the reins of power completely. Obama has accomplished some monumental things but they have all been half-measures or quarter-measures of what progressives want. In truth he has shown his flag as a true Clinton Democrat. (By this I mean a centrist/moderate Democrat who can accomplish things but doesnt end up really helping people as much as he could rather just alleviating some of the unnecessary hurt imposed by the previous Republican president. In economic terms one would even say that these centrist/moderate Democrats are damaging to the economic welfare of the poor and middle class.) But the point of this diary is not to rag on Obama for what he has or hasnt done. The point of this diary is to reiterate that Democrats need to stand up for what they believe in if they wish to gain back power (and god forbid prevent a true calamity such as President Huckabee) in 2 years time.
The Democrats lost seats in the house in a spectacular fashion. We all knew this was coming. The economy is still going down and all those young people who came out in 2008 to vote for Obama didnt see enough true progress to come out and vote this time around. Everyone in the media and even here on this site has said that the Republicans mobilized and came out in force. Really what happened was the same Republicans who voted for McCain in 2008 voted again in 2010 but half of the people who came out and voted for Obama simply didn't vote. Democrats didn't really lose supporters they just lost the fervency of their supporters.But this is exactly what happened to the Republicans in the past. They lost seats in both houses of Congress. What was their response. Did they cry about it. Well yes they did but within a week or two of the new Congress beginning they went on the offensive. They called Obama a fascist, they talked about power-grabs, they attacked, attacked, and attacked some more.
The Republican party doesn't really need party unity, pretty much every Republican always toes the line and votes solidly for Republican things. The Democrat party on the other hand is very diverse. We pride ourselves in our diversity. That is one of the Democrats strengths. We accept people of different points of view and try to make the best for the greatest number of people (as opposed to the Republicans who are all anti-choice, pro-gun, corporatists). But something wonderful did happen (despite all the losses). That wonderful thing was the Progressive Caucus gained in terms of its relative power within the Democratic party. We now have a more unified party in terms of ideology (similar to what the republicans had 2 years ago). Now is the time to truly go on the rhetorical offensive.
We have to call the Republicans on what they are truly doing. When they stupidly call a vote on repealing health care we shouldn't simply say the Republicans are being stupid and arent going to actually accomplish this. We need to come out guns blazing and reiterate a thousand different ways what the Republicans are trying to do. They are trying to eliminate a basic right from our children, our elderly, our middle class. They are trying to make health a privilege. They are saying only the people who have inherited wealth or stolen it off the backs of poorer people should be allowed to live. In essence they want to create death panels (if I can steal some rhetoric from our Republican foes). They want to make life costly. They want to erode our very declaration of independence (life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness). They want to take away that unalienable right of life. This has to be spelled out monosyllabically so that the least educated American can understand it.
If they choose to move forward on eliminating corporate accountability and destroying the unions even more then they are already decimated this has to be attacked vociferously. You are trying to make corporate fat cats even fatter and wealthier. Not only are you trying to do that you are taking money away from the people who actually get the work done to pad the Benz of said fat cats with $100 bills. You are trying to remove the social network which supports us. You are attacking our soldiers, our firefighters, our teachers, and our nurses. These are no longer obscure "unions" they have to be illustrated as the very best people that we have in our society. They are being trampled on. (Immigrants were an easy target for Republicans because they were not "us" (the voting public) but unions are the people who vote, they are your teachers, your doctors, your policemen).
If they move on removing our social safety net. Attack it for what it is. Removing our grandparents and parents livelihoods. Pushing the elderly out to increase the profit margin of some obscure corporation who contributes to their campaign. Put faces on the people who are being hurt and paint the winners in this situation as what they are. Same with Medicare. Same with anti-choice movement. Same with every governmental program which they will try to cut or defund.
Having a smaller caucus doesn't have very many advantages in terms of politics. But this is the one clear one which we need to utilize. It is the only weapon left to us. If used effectively we will actually begin to push the political narrative back to where it belongs (as opposed to where its been for the past 30 years hijacked by the religious right). If we don't stand up and fight rhetorically we will continue on our downward trajectory towards outright oligarchy.