To the Democratics who tanked the 2014 mid-term elections:
My usually very articulate husband turned to me in the early morning hours of November 5th and said, “Wow, they really shit the bed on that one.” I had nothing to add. The ensuing days have revealed that Democrats nationwide are feeling much the same sting and numbness. And we’d all love to know why you turned and ran.
It appears as though you all drank the Kool Aid. The Republican Misinformation Machine ran full bore, and you all took that flying leap headfirst into it. How did the opposition’s general policy of manipulative disinformational groupthink so thoroughly infiltrate your camps?
Let’s review just a few of the facts that you had at your fingertips to win this election. Pardon me for my inability to include them all here, because there are so many.
• Creation of the ACA, under which more than 8 million people are currently covered.
• Slowest rate of health care cost increases since 1960, since passage of the ACA.
• 63+ straight months of economic growth.
• Longest period of private sector job creation in the county’s history.
• Unemployment drop from 10.1% to 5.9%.
• Federal Budget Deficit reduced by two thirds since 2009.
• Spending under this administration has increased only 1.4%, the lowest since the Eisenhower administration.
• Income taxes are lower than in the 50 previous years for 95% of Americans.
Why didn’t you tout the realities of this administration? Why didn’t you align yourselves with these jaw-dropping accomplishments and the great leader behind them? You had so many to choose from. You had the most bountiful harvest of positive facts laid in your laps to win this election, and you ran away and hid your heads in the sand. The Republicans fed you lie after lie and you just fell in. Why? The President’s supposed “low approval rating” is just too poor an excuse, and it is a rating based on what? See paragraph 2 above.
When did the Democratic Party become so adept at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory?
Still, I’m not going to waste any more of my time sitting in judgment of whether you deserve the outcome you got. You all know what you’ve done, and you can all whoop your own butts better than anyone can do it for you. I will say however that we, your constituents, your supporters, and your President, many of whom worked so hard for your campaigns, most definitely did not deserve what you got, and you all owe us a big public apology. As for me, I’m going to try to take the high road now and focus on the good news.
The good news is, two years isn’t much time for the newly elected, who so very thoroughly throunced you, to get very far into their revisionist daydreams. There is no reason to believe that they will actually start to do work now, after all. They will fuddle and fumble about and make speeches and puff up a lot and go forth with their own distinct brand of classic buffoonery for awhile, and then it will be 2016.
So do us all a favor, will you? Remember this 2014 ignominy. Remember the details. Don’t get lost in the political propagandizing haze again. Learn. Don’t repeat. We can’t afford it.
And about that high road I mentioned – if you still don’t know where to find it, just look toward the President of the United States. He’s on it. Lately he’s out there walking it pretty much alone, right where you left him.