Confidence is the last thing I would complain about here on Daily Kos. It is not at all saddening or tragic to me to see Democrats Who Kick Ass. But let's not get ahead of ourselves here. Asses will be kicked, but they haven't been kicked YET.
We should not underestimate our opponent's ability to temporarily derange the voting public, nor their willingness to peddle Toxic Bullshit. But our confidence shouldn't turn out to be bluster, and we shouldn't start arranging ourselves in a circular firing squad at the first sign of trouble.
Real confidence means not shrinking away in the corner at the first sissy-slap. Real confidence will be taking their punches but but keeping on driving forward. Real confidence is pushing every moment we can to turn our political opportunity here into a mass movement.
To those who are treating Obama like a traitor for his FISA position, I say this: compromise. Give him your full support. Make him owe you something, like, say, his job. Or rather, instead of pulling the same mistake that Democrats have committed time and again, which is abandoning the party over little wedge issues, and thereby removing our influence on the party, we should instead stick with it and then bargain with people who we at least have half a chance of making them listen.
One reason why we lost in 2000 and 2004 is that people got it in their heads that small wedge issues matter. Another reason is people bought the bullshit that the parties aren't much different from each other.
If you can't get that there is a practical political difference between the Democrats and the Republicans at this point, then the last eight years are a lesson that's been wasted on you.
And yes, the dumbasses in Congress have capitulated, time and again. They capitulate because they are the product of thirty years of BS that had us believing that Liberalism and true-blue Democratic Party values are an electoral liability.
If we don't push for the election of Democrats, if we let all the little disillusionments drain us of hope, we'll easily prove that true. Don't indulge in the selfish politics of platform voting. Don't hinge everything on one vote in congress. A politician can be made to change their mind, especially if we show them what's truly the politically expedient course.
Too many of us here expect to roll back 30 years of Republican ascendancy in just one election cycle. That's not going to happen. What can happen is that we push and push and push back, continue our efforts, and keep on supporting our party until something snaps in American political life and the failed policies and politics of the Reagan Era are finally cast aside.
So be patient, be confident, and above all else, keep your head in the game, and don't lose the big battles over the small ones.