Earlier this week, prior to the disastrous 2014 election results, I raised the question of whether my, or your, individual vote really matters anymore—whether anything would change regardless of which way we voted, or whether we voted at all. I was enormously frustrated and cynical when I wrote that, but I was also pretty much correct: under our current two-party system, the individual doesn't count for much.
Image from George Packer's The Unwinding, Farrar, Straus and Giroux (2013).
The mainstream media's reading of the election results has been predictably superficial; the local media's reading even more so. Yes, the Republicans won handily. Voters were unhappy, so they voted for "change." This is of course starkly ironic, in that Americans heartily disapproved of Congress and Republican obstructionism before the election. Now we'll have more of the same.
Still, one should never give up. What is the way forward?
For Democrats at every level (local, regional, statewide, national), the message needs to be sharper and stronger if the party is to stand for anything at all. Here in Greene County, NY, I have nothing but admiration for Democrats who brave the odds and run for office (though I'd like to see them more dynamic and outspoken). But as regards the 19th Congressional District, I have to ask: what the hell was the party thinking? Surely Democrats will be able to come up with a more plausible candidate from this region the next time Gibson runs for reelection.
Timid, wishy-washy stances on every important topic contributed to the piss-poor showing of Democrats and progressives on Tuesday. A Democratic candidate in Ohio who wouldn't even admit to voting for the president? Cuomo at the top of the Working Families ticket? (That party paid dearly for its mistaken "compromise.") Candidates who were unwilling to address climate change or economic inequality? No wonder most people stayed home, or voted for the other side to voice their dissatisfaction (contrary to their own interests though that vote may have been).
Zephyr Teachout, who ran strongly against Cuomo in the Democratic primary, had this to say about the midterm results.
And the national news that Democrats lost—well, that's a sign we need to return to our core progressive values with Elizabeth Warren-style populism if we're going to win, not a set of manufactured milquetoast messages with no real ideas behind them. People feel powerless—we should address that honestly and directly, and take on the monopolists that are rigging the system. We need a trust-busting, pro-public school, clean energy Democratic Party that is unafraid to speak the truth and refuses the trickle-down ideology. So let's keep up the fight.
She's not talking about Hillary Clinton in 2016, folks.