Dear progressive blogger,
The left blogosphere has been full of comments about what President Obama could have done differently which would have (it's claimed) brought victory, and which -- even if it didn't bring victory -- would have made us feel better. Let's look at what we could have done which would have increased our victories.
Before the Obama inauguration, I was quite optimistic. The Senate Republicans had spent the previous two years blocking progress through (threatened) filibusters. Many of those filibusters were on simple procedural votes -- votes not on bills but on whether to debate bills or send them to conference. Democrats had nearly -- this was before Franken was seated -- the 60 votes to invoke cloture. All that would be required was to peel off one or two Republican Senators to vote for cloture, and that peeling off looked to be in the power of the readers of this blog.
My hopes were dashed. How and why after the jump.
All it would have taken was for us to write LTEs to papers in the state of each Republican (or Democrat or CfL) senator voting against cloture.
"The USA and [insert name of state] have serious problems. The government should be dealing with those problems. Just last month Senator Jones voted 6 [or whatever] times that Congress should not deal with the problems. He claims that he wants some other solution than the one offered, but he didn't argue for that solution in debate -- the job for which he draws down a munificent salary from us taxpayers. Instead, he voted to not debate any solution at all.
"Last Wednesday, he voted to prevent a discussion on the problem of stimulating our economy [or whatever]. President Obama will be in office -- an office which the majority of the voters of our state elected him to -- for the next four years. Maybe, in 2013, Senator Jones will be willing to debate getting us out of this recession.
"I can't wait that long. Those of your readers don't have the guaranteed salary that Senator Jones has can't wait that long either."
Okay, it's maybe not the best possible LTE. But something like that on every vote against cloture would have brought one Republican around. And, once they weren't sure of the others, half a dozen would have decided that they couldn't afford the flak if it wasn't going to block the legislation.
But, we didn't.
The weaker members of the Party of No are afraid of the right-wing. They aren't afraid of us. They have not one possible reason to be afraid of us.
Every time I get a LTE published -- and a few other times -- I post a poll asking "When was the last time you sent a letter to the editor?" Notice that I ask only about sending them. Anybody on the Internet can send LTEs; getting them published is another matter. But when enough people send LTEs on a particular side, the press -- at least, halfway honest papers -- publish a selection of letters taking that side.
Now, the responses to each question are a tiny sample. They are also a self-selecting sample. I can't believe that a greater percentage say that they have never written a LTE than the percentage of the people on dKos who have never written a LTE. And every time I ask that question something like a third to a half check either "long ago" or "never." (And "last year" is the next possibility.)
President Obama may not be taking the best steps in the present political environment. (Although the persons saying so seldom present their credentials for judging what is possible in this political environment.) But he is deciding how to maneuver in a political environment which is toxic, among other reasons, because of what we haven't done.
Sure, others should be doing things that they aren't. It took a long time for various Democratic groups in Washington to start work. But we should be doing things; we should have been doing things since January of 2009. And damn few of us have been.
It is not merely the issue of the filibusters. If you live in a state with 2 D senators, like I do, you're restricted to national magazines and papers for LTEs on those. But, when papers first started publishing polls on whether the HCR bill was popular, the chance came for a LTE saying:
"Your analysis last Monday on the poll on Health Care Reform entirely missed the point. Do I approve of the proposed bill? No. It lacks a public option, and its provisions on pre-existing conditions are quite weak.
Does that mean that I'd prefer to do nothing? ABSOLUTELY NOT. Assuming that everybody who disapproves of the present bill favors leaving everything in the hands of the insurance giants is faulty analysis."
When the Tea Party held rallies on tax day, I wrote LTEs pointing out the contradiction of protesting taxes while lambasting the president who proposed the latest tax cut and cheering congressmen who voted against it. My letters weren't printed, and neither were letters saying the same thing. That leads me to believe that damn few LTEs on that subject were sent.
And it's not just LTEs. When a poll (and this poll was on the front page) was taken of planned activity WRT the November election, a solid majority planned to do nothing more than vote, and a significant minority didn't even plan to do that.
When I wrote a diary saying that:
- I didn't expect anyone on dKos to campaign for 2 named incumbent senators, and
- That meant that we needed to have several Democratic challengers win -- so pick a challenger and campaign for him.
I got a response naming a third Democratic incumbent for whom the writer didn't approve. And, so, I was wrong to ask him to campaign for him. This was far off the sense of my post, but the meaning was clear. The writer planned to sit on his ass this year, but he was looking for an excuse besides laziness. He thought he'd found one. "You shouldn't ask me to campaign for this particular candidate [which, actually, I hadn't] so then my not campaigning for any candidate is justified."
- - - - - - - -
I belong to a group which has several members who keep bringing up side issues. In the steering committee I make a strong distinction between those who (1) work hard and then suggest other things we could be doing and those who (2) merely suggest other things we could be doing. I suspect that many others make the same sort of decision -- at least, they should. If we want to suggest other paths that the Democratic Party and the Obama Administration should take, let's follow pattern (1).
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
This is the second of a pair of related diaries.
Dear President Obama appeared Monday.