Get Ready For A Lot Of Disappointment

We (being the left side of the Dems, and the netroots and especially those here on Kos) need to be ready to be unhappy with our nominee for president over the next few months. It was inevitable (finally we get to use that word again!) that this would happen. Everyone who runs for president has two jobs to do; first, they need to lock up their base, which means as a Dem you run to the left, as a Repug (gawd, who would be one by choice?) runs to the right. Then when you have the nomination and your party locked up you run to the middle (or the perceived middle, which is not always the same thing) in order to make sure you scoop up enough so-called independents and maybe peel a few of the more moderate of the other party off.

This is what we are seeing this week with Sen. Obama. His tepid statements and actions on FISA, his statement disagreeing with yesterdays Supreme Court decision that the death penalty for child rapist are all a part of this move to the middle. Prior to switching to supporting Sen. Obama the Dog wrote a dairy asking where a President Obama would compromise in order to govern, if you’re interested you can read it here . The Dog has always made the argument that you are going to be disappointed with what your candidate or official does from time to time, because they are governing for all of us, not just those that voted for them.

In a way this is easier for the Dog to accept, because he did support Sen. Clinton through most of the primaries and already knew where she disappointed him and was okay with that. FISA is not an area I expected Sen. Obama to let the Dog down, but it should have been. His strong statement from Jan/Feb aside, he has not been out front talking about this issue. That should have been a pretty clear sign (if we were willing to look) that he was not going to go as far as we would like on this issue. Why will be left as an exercise for those that like Senatology (the replacement for Kremlinology), the fact is we are going to see him act in ways that we hate on this issue.

This is, in fact, the point of this diary (hey! A dairy with a point, unlike yesterday), we each need to make a choice and make it now. The choice is pretty simple, what level of disappointment are we willing to put up with in order to get control of the White House and a larger majority for Dems. Kos posted a good essay about how our time to make the point about being strong Dems is in the 2010 primary season. That is the time where we can go after those without the courage of their convictions. Now, the Dog knows that not all of his fellow Kossacks will agree. There are those of our cohort that place a higher value on civil liberties than electoral politics. The Dog thinks this is short sighted, as we can not protect our civil liberties without control of the government, but this is a chicken-or-egg type argument. In the end what this talking Dog thinks or writes does not matter, each of us have to come to this decision ourselves and be willing to live with the consequences of this choice.

For the Dog, there will be concerns and misgivings as he hears his Democratic Nominee say things that sound closer to the Repug way of thinking than he’d like, but that is the cost that the Dog is willing to pay to elect a Dem this cycle. I truly believe that some of these positions will be posturing, some will not, but it does not matter. We have picked our candidate we can not un-pick at this point. The option of losing is not one that the Dog can stomach (the consequences to our nation are grave to say the least) so there is only one choice. Elect Sen. Barack Obama to the Presidency and then resist any choice he makes that does not reflect the Dog’s liberal values. It was much the same with President Clinton (though the Dog was a lot more starry-eyed way back then) and it will be that way with any Dem president. We as a party do value the idea that we govern for the whole country, not just our party or our donors. It is one of the things that make us different from the Repugs. The cost of that is those of us that are truly left in our political views have to live with less than we would like on a regular basis.

So, there is the Dog’s choice on this; what is yours? Will you be pragmatic or idealistic? Will you try to split the difference, and if so how? Finally, are you ready to live with the consequences of your choice?

The floor is yours, Kossacks.