I really don't get it. When I read this, my literal reaction was to slap myself hard on the forehead four times.
Folks, the withdrawal of support theory is a harebrained fantasy, by folks who want to believe that despite the fact that Republican power has grown, despite the fact that the Unions have been decimated and the Republicans are kicking our ass on the Thinktank front, despite the fact that the window on politics has been moved so far to the right, that somehow Democrats are so indispensable that we can convince our leaders to go our way by taking off and abandoning the party.
It's not that I feel particularly loyal to anybody in the Democratic Party, but it's been my experience that when the worst get elected, the bad do not learn the lesson we want them to learn. Instead, they learn to do things more like the worst do them. Why? Because they're trying to get elected, so they will follow the path beaten by those who succeed. If the people who succeed are those on the right, they'll head to the right.
I wouldn't worry about our participation being taken for granted at this point. No, I would worry, as a person on the left side of the political spectrum, about having the other side's political participation taken for granted.
Because if they can be counted on to show up, people will cater to them. And because they've shown up reliably for the longest time, they will be listened to.
We have spent the last thirty years giving up ground, then expecting people to miss us. Has it worked yet? Has tuning out, dropping out, or whatever else actually worked yet?
The Republicans will win half the time because they show up, and for whatever misguided reasons, they fight for what they want. They ignored a hell of a lot of betrayal and compromise from their leaders, and as a result, they've won many elections, while we wonder about why we're weak, why our politicians are weak.
Well, maybe it's because we're easy to discourage, because it's ridiculously simple to make us quit! We overintellectualize, overtheorize the idea that our vote should be some sort of reward or punishment, to the point that we forget that there is some real power at stake, and a real price for losing it.
We're not just competing with ourselves here. There is a party out to destroy and marginalize us, and they've employed ruthless tactics to that end.
And all we seem to be able to do here is fight some sort of rearguard action to defend the remnants of the old Democratic Party order.
This is not how we're going to win, this is not how we're going to take back the destiny of this nation.
If our concern is that the wrong people are being chosen as candidates, then here's my suggestion: let us begin to fill the leadership positions of this party with the folks whose opinions favor our policies, and our inclinations. Let us start filling the media with the folks who eloquently explain our position. And let us start pushing ideas out there to the American people, attractive, fresh ideas, about how to lead this country into the future.
Because we are not going to convince anybody to take our side by taking our ball and going home. We are going to convince people, get people elected, get our policy and our ideology prime in the the minds of the people of this country only if we show up, only if we stop worrying about being taken for granted, and start worrying about being completely locked out of power.
When Democrats and Liberals win and stay winning, even if they are not the perfect ones to put there, they will serve to indicate that Conservatism is no longer the winning political side in the battle, no longer the people to emulate, no longer the stronger pole for the pull of compromises.
Let's stop complaining about the state of politics, and do something about it.