Dear Progressives:
In the lead up to the 2010 midterms, I spent hours attempting to push back against my conservative friends’ contention that the right was going to sweep the election. I told them again and again that even though the left was a big tent with a lot of disparate views progressive voters knew what was at stake and wouldn’t allow the pendulum to swing back so quickly after the W debacles. I insisted that progressive voters were pragmatic enough to recognize that class warfare had been openly declared and the only window of hope for the American people was to double down on the burgeoning resurgence of progressive values by electing/reelecting more Democrats. Man, was I wrong.
Well, here we are again. It’s the run up to election day, and I am regularly confronted with a disturbing chunk of offal. Usually, there is some legitimate outrage over an element of the administration’s governance in the lead (Guantanamo, offshore drilling, NDAA, whatever) followed by a little overwrought handwringing ultimately landing on the question:
"Since President Obama has failed progressives in the following way, [insert blah], who should I vote for?"
The answer is simple. Vote your conscience.
You could vote against the administration.
You could vote for the administration.
You could just not vote.
Or.
You could vote for the rights of women to have an abortion without submitting to humiliation and state-mandated rape.
You could vote for regulations against predatory lending.
You could vote for the rights of women (and men) to obtain birth control.
You could vote for a path to citizenship for the long term resident children of the undocumented.
You could vote for a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau with real enforcement power.
You could vote to keep out of a manufactured war with Iran. (Quick aside: the price of oil has been artificially inflated due to wild speculation on Wall Street. Demand is at an all time low. How will these oil barons recoup their speculative losses if demand doesn’t pick up? Hint: Iran.)
You could vote to maintain the democratization of information enshrined in net neutrality.
You could vote to recognize the dignity and worth of marriage for all persons, straight, gay or otherwise.
You could vote to restore manufacturing to the pinnacle of American endeavor it has been historically.
I could go on. The point is not to somehow suggest that these things are synonymous and interchangeable with a vote for President Obama’s administration. Or even that these outcomes are necessarily assured if the President is reelected. These things are ONLY possible under a second Obama administration. The other choice (you did notice that there are only two, yes?) sees this list as anathema to “proAmerica Americans”.
I’m just about done with the level of cognitive dissonance on the left. “Obama isn’t perfectly reflective of everything I want my President to reflect so fuck him, give me Bush back.” No. I am not happy with everything this President has done, said, promised or caved to. I am content to vote for President Obama again because I KNOW that the only possible alternative wants to force everyone back to some fictitious dream of how it used to be to live in the US.
I hear your frustration with the glacial pace of progress. I share it. If you have a solution other than handing the right wing another election, I’m happy to hear it. I have a few.
Stop being the proverbial herd of cats and elect working majorities in both Houses and the states.
Take control of the progressive narrative and use it.
Mobilize a progressive media presence that penetrates the fact free bubble of main stream infotainment.
Innovate the use of social media to maximize its natural impact on younger voters.
Develop relationships across issues, i.e. reproductive health advocates pairing with education reformers or non-theists partnering with environmental activists, to maximize visibility and reinforce the interdependent nature of these issues.
Stop eating our own. Our opponents get fat enough eating us at it is.
I will leave you with a quote from The American President. I have replaced “Bob Rumson” with [Republicans] to emphasize the distinction in our two choices:
"We have serious problems to solve, and we need serious people to solve them. And whatever your particular problem is, I promise you [Republicans] [are] not the least bit interested in solving it. [They are] interested in two things, and two things only: making you afraid of it, and telling you who's to blame for it. That, ladies and gentlemen, is how you win elections. You gather a group of middle age, middle class, middle income voters who remember with longing an easier time, and you talk to them about family, and American values and character, [and you go on TV and compare the President with Hitler]."
So I’m begging you to take my first paragraph to heart and really be those pragmatic progressives who understand the urgent necessity for political and economic sanity and have the political courage to get in there and get it.
Sincerely,
A Secular Humanist
6:16 PM PT: The second paragraph of this diary, which had caused a firestorm of commentary but was largely irrelevant, has been deleted. Nothing of the original intent has changed.