Today, on the recommended diary list, I read yet another diary beating up progressives for being demoralized. This is getting really exhausting. For me politics is not about electing democrats, but about enacting better policy that positively affects the lives of average people. Democrats are a tool or means to that end, they are not an end in itself. Right now we have a lot of democrats who are, for all intents and purposes, moderate republicans. Most of our current democrats are to the right of Reagan, Nixon and Goldwater. That says a lot. Really you need to go back and read Kos' Crashing the Gates. The aim of contemporary progressive politics is the capture of the democratic party so as to promote progressive policy in economics, civil rights, the environment, and the workplace. Crashing the Gates makes the case for transforming the democratic party so that it might return to its progressive roots. This involves putting a great deal of pressure on our elected officials.
Obama has not lived up to his promises. You guys keep talking about all the policy he's pushed through, but the fact remains that that policy disproportionately benefits the corporations to the detriment of average people. That is not change we can believe in, nor the change we signed up for. Moreover, he is simply not moving quickly enough or radically enough on vital issues like climate change that are seriously threatening us all.
You guys generally have two arguments. The first argument is that the rest of us are all immature, that Obama inherited all sorts of problems, and that we need to be pragmatic. All of us are aware of how difficult Washington is. However, it is Obama who has, in ever instance, pre-emptively crashed rather than pushing a more radical agenda. Had he fought and failed, being forced to accept compromise, I don't think many of us would be upset. The problem is that he pre-emptively caves and doesn't even put a number of things on the table. It was Obama who chose to pack his financial team with neo-liberal apologists. It was Obama who chose to throw tax payer money primarily at the banks rather than enacting all sorts of FDR style social works programs. It was Obama who chose not to seize the opportunity of the BP oil spill to push for significant regulation and climate change legislation. It was Obama who pre-emptively took the public option off the table and who made the deal with big pharma. It was Obama who dragged his feet on DADT and GLTB issues. There's a pattern here. This administration has endlessly sided with the interests of big money against the interests of average folks. That is not what it means to be a democrat.
The second argument is that the republicans would be worse than the democrats. Everyone agrees. Most of us will hold our noses and vote. However, it is not republicans that are primarily the problem in this Union. It is neo-liberal ideology that pervades every aspect of our politics among both democrats and republicans. The difference between the two parties is a difference between which culture issues they use to get their bases worked up and the speed at which they enact policies designed to primarily benefit big business and withdraw safety nets from workers and disenfranchise the working and middle class from both their wealth and quality of life in the workplace. That is the enemy to be fought. The democratic party is a slightly better mechanism for overturning neo-liberal ideology but the vast majority of our party members, including Obama, are deeply pervaded by this ideology. Average American people vaguely realize this about the democratic party, are royally pissed about the economy and the fact that welfare has been directed primarily at big business, and are therefore understably apathetic about democrats and politics in general.
I realize you believe you are helping Obama and democrats, but these sorts of rants do not help. I have become incredibly demoralized as a result of the actions of our democratic congress, the administration, and the "clap louder" crowd here at dailykos. Increasingly I've come to feel that party politics and establishment politics are a dead end where producing change is concerned. Washington is clearly owned by the lobbyists and by staffers just waiting to become lobbyists or consultants themselves. As a consequence, all policy is directed at benefiting corporations. The party just wants us to shut up, clap louder, give them money, and do footwork for them. It doesn't want to listen to us precisely because there are so many lucrative deals to be made with the corporations for these folks when they leave Washington.
As a consequence, the only genuine route for producing change increasingly looks to be in the area of forming non-partisan organizations that raise money for advertising and lobbying that puts pressure on both parties, as well as the formation of think tanks that devise strategies for capturing the media. If these organizations must be non-partisan, then this is because they have to undermine the democratic belief that we are owned by them, or that they can take us for granted. It's the issues that are important, not the party, and if the party is not stepping up to the plate on the issues then they have to be targeted. It's as simple as that. Once again, will I vote? Absolutely. I'll hold my nose and vote. However, I am extremely jaded by the party apparatus as a whole.
Diaries like yours have contributed greatly to that disillusion, but it is primarily congress and the administration that have produced this disillusion. I'm not alone in this. There are thousands like me. Moreover, Obama has done tremendous damage to the progressive cause. He inspired millions of people with his soaring rhetoric, bringing on board many first time and young voters. Those first time and young voters are now having their most cynical beliefs about politics confirmed, are now feeling that they were hoodwinked, and, as a consequence, are unlikely to get involved in the future. Telling them that they are not being realists or pragmatists or to shut up and crap louder or that bad legislation is really a golden egg doesn't help. People support politicians who stand strongly for something. We haven't gotten that.