Last Tuesday I called my Mom, who lives in NJ, to see if she had remember to vote. When she answered her cell phone I heard crying babies in the background and suddenly remembered that she was spending a few days in Maryland helping my sister juggle her 4 kids, ages 9, 7, 2, and 1 month because the two-year old had just come down with swine flu and they needed all hands on deck to keep her from getting the baby sick.
Horrified, I asked Mom if she had voted early or arranged an absentee ballot or was planning to drive back before the polls closed because it was inconceivable to me that she would not be voting in what I viewed as an important election. Even worse, Dad was still at home and was certainly going to vote Republican! We needed Mom's vote to cancel his out!
My confused mother asked me what I thought she supposed to do, not go help out with her grandkids? She knows elections are important, but family is moreso and she wasn't going to leave me sister in the lurch. Besides, Corzine was going to win anyway and if he didn't, no big deal. It's not like there's much difference between them, right?
Here at DailyKos we tend to spend a lot of time discussing the merits of various strategic and tactical issues of how best to advance our collective progressive agenda. And by "spend a lot of time discussing the merits of various strategic and tactical issues" I mean that we bitch and moan and yell at each other and call each other names.
Of course, that's not all we do. We are a large and diverse community, and we spent a lot of time supporting one another, having polite conversatiosn about tactics and strategy, and encouraging one another to continue working to advance our collective progressive agenda.
Over the past couple day many of us have been discussing the merits of the "Don't Ask, Don't Give" campaign that was started by John Aravosis and Joe Sudbay of Americablog, to which Kos and others have lent their names. Those of us who have gotten involved in this discussion generally fall into one of three camps: the "Don't cut off your nose to spite your face" camp; the "Why should I support an organization that is not working to fulfill its promises" camp; and the "I'm sympathetic to those who are frustrated, but OFA does good work and the President deserves more time" camp.
As progressives we often find ourselves facing the "Should I cut off my nose to spite my face" question. That is, do we hold our noses and support candidates and organizations that don't espouse our personal values simply because the alternative is that much worse?" I've seen a number of comments that suggest that failure to support mediocre Democrats will lead to President Palin and that it will be all our fault. Those of us who have signed on to the boycott have been accused of being childish and "taking [our] ball and going home" because we haven't "gotten [our] pony." We are frequently asked "What are you gonna do, vote Republican?"
I can't speak for everyone who has expressed discontent with the current trajectory of progressive politics, but for myself I can say "No, of course I'm not gonna vote Republican." In fact, I can't even really say that I'll stay home or vote independent. When it comes down to it, I'm a political junkie just like most of us on this site. And as a political junkie I'll probably always vote and always vote Democrat.
But here's the thing - not all people with progressive values are political junkies. Not all people with progressive values read DailyKos, FDL, Americablog or any other progressive political blog. Not all people with progressive values watch cable news or are even avid newspaper readers. And most importantly, not all people with progressive values are going to bother taking time out of there day to head over to their local polling place on election day unless we give them a reason to.
Like my mother, there are plenty of people in this country with progressive values that have busy lives that don't allow politics to be a number 1 priority. Many of these people, like my mother, don't spend tons of time sussing out candidates positions on specific issues or analyzing whether their articulated plans are likely to be effective in advancing their stated goal. Many of these people thought there was no difference between Bush and Gore in 2000, and many of them believed Barack Obama would bring about change. That's why they came out to vote in 2008 and it's why they very well may not in 2010 or 2012.
We can blame these people for their ignorance or for neglecting their civic duty or whatever, just like you can accuse me of being childish and petulant for signing on to the "Don't Ask Don't Give" campaign. If Republicans do win in the coming elections maybe it will be our fault. Or maybe it will be the fault of leadership who decided that winning over a small handful of reactionary "moderates" was more important than inspiring the millions upon millions of people who believed that change was coming.
I guess my point is that in signing the "Don't Ask Don't Give" pledge I'm not trying to stand in the way of the President's agenda or trying to put my issues ahead of the welfare of the country. Instead I'm just trying to send a signal to those people that I had previously supported that "Hey, if you've lost my support, you've probably also lost the interest of a hundred others that had never been into politics until you came along."
So no, I'm not gonna vote Republican, and I'm probably not gonna stay home, either. But there are millions of progressively minded non-political junkies out there who just might.