There is a startling lack of cognitive dissonance going on in the progressive community right now. Here's my problem--we all recognize the enormous influence that outside interest played in this past election and will play in future elections, yet make no mention of that spending in discussing the political failures of Democrats to get X or Y issue through.
I simply want to point out this obvious truth--that Democrats have been put in an extraordinarily precarious political position by Citizens United. Let's just use the health care fight as an example. On March 14th, the New York Times reported that the Chamber of Commerce was threatening Democratic members:
The coalition of groups opposing the legislation, led by the United States Chamber of Commerce, is singling out 27 Democrats who supported the health care bill last year and 13 who opposed it. The organizations have already spent $11 million this month focusing on these lawmakers, with more spending to come before an expected vote next weekend.
Now at the time this was understood mainly through the paradigm of trying to influence the health care vote. But it is really about much more than that (truth be told, I don't really understand why the Chamber would oppose HCR). It was about making it perfectly clear what the political cost of supporting a progressive agenda will be.
And as we saw in this last election, the Chamber and other outside groups are more than capable of backing these threats up, by flooding the airwaves with tons of ads demonizing Democrats for votes on progressive issues.
Now this is not to say that Democrats who ceded to the Chamber's threats made a smart move---but it is to say that they made a politically understandable move. If you are expecting a serious challenge, the last thing you can withstand is a multi-million dollar ad buy assailing you.
Furthermore, if you are the White House, the existence of these outside groups undermines the supposed "bully pulpit" that many on here accuse Obama of not utilizing. Can President Obama really have any confidence after what we saw with Health Care, that he will be able to successfully get his frame on Cap and Trade, or ending the Bush Tax Cuts for the wealthy to the public through the blitzkrieg of outside ads that will claim he is trying to kill jobs and lead us down the road to socialism?
In short, we must remember that Citizens United threatens the very fabric of our democracy--not only because outside groups will have unprecedented impact on our elections--but because of what comes along with influence on our elections--influence on our policy. It's not an earth shattering point--but it's one that's all too often forgot around here. Progressives should make election finance reform their number one priority, because without it, we will never get political results in Washington that we desire.