The Orwellian Senate "health" "reform" bill is merely the latest in a long string of betrayals of the progressive base by the corporatist ruling core of the Democratic Party. If you disagree and think you're not being mugged, try this thought experiment:
It's election night 2008. Barak Obama is president elect. Returns are coming in from state and local elections. It's a Democratic landslide, and you helped. Perhaps you phone banked. Maybe you walked precincts or put too much money in campaign contributions on your credit card. Think of your expectations that night, and be that person looking forward into January 2010. What were you looking forward to?
An end to United States military misadventures in Iraq and Afghanistan?
Immediate closure of Gitmo and investigations into and prosecutions of Bush era constitutional and human rights abuses? Establishment of a truth and reconciliation commission?
Affordable, publicly-administered health insurance?
Concrete action on global warming, e.g., ratification of the Kyoto Protocol?
Repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act and / or "don't ask - don't tell"?
Now return to the present and ask yourself this question: Did you think it would be like this?
So now what?
We tried activism within the structure of the Democratic Party. That's what all the July - October precinct walking was about. With a Democratic president, a decisive majority in the House, and 60 Democratic senators it would be "Katy bar the door!" right? I thought so. Maybe you did too.
I've been to Organizing for America meetings where this came up. The response was, "We just need to do more of the same!" I.e., ring more doorbells, manifest more purity of heart, write letters. Oh, yes. Write letters.
Some said Obama had a secret plan. "He's brilliant. He's playing three-dimensional chess while the rest of us are just playing checkers." But there was no plan. As president Obama appointed Wall Street insiders to his economic team and now claims that he never ran on creating a public option.
And so it's now, and Democratic candidates from sea to shining sea are scrambling to define their opponents in order to run against straw men of their own creation. "Mr. and Mrs. Ohio, I may not be perfect, but at least I'm not the other guy." And, of course, we're into another round of extortion. If you've volunteered in the past, you've probably already gotten an email with an "or else!" pitch in it. You know the one. Sub-par candidate X who's finked you out more than once in the past and plans gig you some more at her next opportunity threatens to lose unless you and send her some more money or make more phone calls for her campaign or whatever. After a while it's like Al Bundy assuring Peg that he's stopped frequenting the nudie bar. "Trust me, baby, this time I mean it." And when we fall for it, it's another triumph of hope over experience.
So what do we do? How about nothing? Exploitation of the populist base by the corporatist core of the Democratic Party occurs because we let it occur. The assumption has been that in a choice between evils we'll choose the one with the (D) after its name. After all, where else could we go? We could always threaten to vote Green or stay away, but by Halloween we could be counted on to come home. Not this time. We've been promised too much by people who've delivered too little. So much for their little arrangement. This time we call their bluff.
If you're an abused progressive and have had enough exploitation, sit out this election cycle. When the calls for money or your time come, say no and say why. There's other stuff you can be doing and other causes more worthy of your time and treasure. Imposition of consequences on finks has never been easier.
If marginal candidates lose because they can't motivate the base, that's their problem, not yours. Democrats are already operating as a functional minority. Those left in January 2011 are unlikely to notice that they've become the real thing.