No matter what happens this November, we know what will be at least one aspect of the corporate media's response: they will tell us that President Obama and the Democrats must move more to the center. Generally speaking, anything that happens in politics always leads many in the corporate media to that conclusion. And if things go badly, at least one of these brilliant expounders of conventional blather will wonder aloud if President Obama has become irrelevant. Hopefully, that electoral outcome won't present itself, but if it does, just watch. They asked the same of President Clinton, after the 1994 debacle, ignoring the perhaps salient fact that he was still the president of the United States, which is, to most people with functioning cerebral cortexes, a relevant position regardless of who controls Congress. And President Clinton's irrelevance subsequently presented itself in the form of a cakewalk re-election and a level of popular support that prevented his being removed from office despite more than a year's efforts from rabid Republicans and their mendacious media enablers. But even if the teabag craziness and the Democrats' powerful ground game help minimize this year's losses, the same media types will just retype their canned arguments and still claim that such a tough election is proof that the Democrats need to move to the center. Nothing so terrifies the Village, to whom the people are to be feared and not trusted, as does the prospect of populism.
The truth is that neither President Obama nor the Democratic Congress has been particularly liberal. They have been liberal relative to the extreme right that the corporate media largely accepts, rationalizes, and enables as the new iteration of the Republican Party, and they have been marginally liberal relative to the corporatist conservatism of most in that media, but on an honest scale, that is not really liberal. The Democrats have sought market-based economic solutions, a continued international militancy and double-standard on human rights, and but small incremental steps on social issues that are ripe for transformational progress. And if there does turn out to be a significant enthusiasm gap for the Democrats, it won't be among centrist voters, it will be among the party's liberal base. It won't be among those who fear government solutions to the economy, it will be among those who recognize that although the stimulus helped stave off a depression, it didn't do nearly enough for those punished by the Friedman/Reagan/Bush/Cheney economic disaster. It won't be among those who wish we'd keep our military in Iraq just a little bit longer, it will be among those who wish we'd get our military out of Afghanistan a lot quicker. It won't be among those who worry about the president being weak on national security, it will be among those who are angry that the president is continuing too many Bush-Cheney policies on torture and rendition and domestic spying and secrecy, under the false rubric of national security. It won't be among those who worry that environmental policies will hurt the economy but among those who worry that inadequate environmental policies will hurt the economy and a whole lot more. It won't be among those who worry about the president repealing Don't Ask Don't Tell or ostensibly undermining traditional values by promoting gay rights, it will be among those who no longer accept excuses for discrimination. Any discernible enthusiasm gap will be framed from the right, because the corporate media rarely pays attention to anyone on the left. But it is on the left that the enthusiasm gap is located.
The Democrats may lose some conservative House seats from conservative districts, but those won't be enough to cost them their House majority. The majority will be saved or lost in districts where the determining factor will be turnout of traditional Democrats. The voters who will determine the makeup of the next Congress will not be those who think the policies enacted by the president and the Democrats in Congress went in the wrong direction, it will be those who recognize that the president and the Democrats in Congress often went in the right direction but not nearly far enough. The traditional media can ignore them, and the administration can at times whine about them, mock them, and dishonestly deride them, but if this election is to be salvaged it will be because they, the ignored and scorned, will rise above their critics and come out, determined to do right by issues, for the issues, and not to spite the issues as a misguided venting of their wrath. Recent polls show more and more Democrats coming home, but it is not because they are suddenly much happier with the way Democratic leaders have handled the issues, it's because they recognize the danger of an increasingly extremist Republican Party. It's because they won't be dissuaded from fighting for their own values and principles, even when they believe their own party's leaders aren't always joining them in the fight. In some cases, they will vote for more Democrats not because of the Democratic leadership, they will vote for more Democrats despite the Democratic leadership. In short, this is a moment for the Democratic base to prove that it is above the pettiness and the political games, a moment for the Democratic base to make its collective voice heard by saving the Democratic leadership from the political fallout of its own shortcomings.
When Republicans are defeated, they move to the right. They consolidate their base. When Democrats are defeated, they move to the center. Even when they win, they often move to the center, trying to co-opt what the Republicans are abandoning. The net result is that the center keeps moving to the right, dragging the Democrats with it. And the abandoned left grows larger and larger, and more and more disaffected. The worst that could happen would be for the left then to give up the fight, reacting to the capitulations of the party leadership by itself capitulating to its own marginalization. The left must remain engaged and determined, not only because it is right on the issues, but because-- from economic populism to protecting the environment to enforcing and expanding civil rights to opposing neo-imperialism-- the country as a whole increasingly agrees with it on the issues. The failures of party leadership must be understood in this context. And any unexpectedly strong showing by the Democrats must be understood in this context. So, too, should any bad showing.
Both on policy and politics, the Democrats stand to do better when they stand for traditional Democratic values. The traditional media has its corporatist agenda, and no matter what happens in November, Democrats should recognize it and oppose its false narratives. Democrats should recognize that this would have been a much easier election year, and a much better year for many of the tens of millions of Americans who continue to suffer from the devastations of the Bush-Cheney era, if the Democrats had been as liberal as their political opponents accuse them of being. The accusations will fly, no matter what the Democrats do. There's nothing to be lost and plenty to be gained on so many different levels if the Democrats would regroup after this November and collectively decide it's finally time to begin living up to Democratic Party ideals. The liberal base has been consistently correct on the issues. Win or lose, it's time for the politics to reflect that.