The other day, I wrote a diary about the Democratic Party being like the Washington Generals, the basketball team whose job was to lose to the Harlem Globetrotters.
I ran a poll, and 82% said "Yes" to the question "Is the Democratic Party the Washington Generals of American politics?"
Obviously, it was not a scientific sampling. Only 102 people voted.
Still, I think it's significant that on a website dedicated to electing Democrats such a huge majority (of even a small sampling) thinks that the Party they've worked for and voted for and put their faith in is now in such a demoralized state that they don't even see the Democratic Party as a legitimate political party. I believe this view is swiftly becoming the conventional wisdom among what used to be known as the "Democratic base."
I also believe, instead of just flaming me for bringing up the obvious, it would do the Democratic Party good to consider this state of affairs before interpreting the results of the election as a mandate to move to the right.
We are the people who care the most about progressive policies in the Democratic Party. We have put our sweat, our shoe leather, our time, our heart and soul, and yes, our money into the Party. We may be "retarded," we may just be "the professional left," but I think it's hard to make a case that the Democratic Party is better off without us.
Or that it's OK that we think our own party plays to lose.
For the sake of getting a bigger and more representative sampling, I am running the poll again. If it turns out that a large percentage of voters on a Democratic website think that the Democratic Party is just a fraud, a fake team whose job is to pretend to try and win, but in the end folds and lets the other team win - what does that mean?
In my opinion, president Obama should look at the results of this poll, taken amongst his most passionate supporters, before he decides to throw us any further under the bus.