Caution: upcoming rant disguised as initial optimism.
Turn out the lights; the party's over! And the party's name is "Republican."
Every generic congressional poll -- the hypothetical ones that ask if elections were held today, would you vote for a Democrat or a Republican -- are overwhelmingly in our favor.
FOX News/Opinion Dynamics: (D) 48, (R) 34
CNN/USA Today: (D) 53, (R) 39
Democracy Corps: (D) 48, (R) 40
Diageo/Hotline: (D) 46, (R) 31
Pew Research: (D) 50, (R) 41
ABC/Washington Post: (D) 54, (R) 38
WE'RE GONNA WIN! WE'RE GONNA WIN! WE'RE GONNA WIN!
Or not.
Really...you'd think that if you combine all the hypothetical polls with Bush's (dis)approval, the Dubai fuck-up, the Abramoff scandal, the Dick with poor aim, the ongoing Plame investigation, the Iraq civil war, the record Democratic fundraising, and a host of other Dem-positive indicators...it would be easy to be convinced that the midterm celebrations are coming 8 months early.
Problem is, none of that really matters.
You see, the country isn't all rah-rah about the Democratic party, as the polls might have you believe. Instead, they see us only as the lesser of two evils -- the non-Republicans, the ones who couldn't possibly fuck it up more than it's already been fucked up.
WAIT. Lest you think that this is just another one of those ranting diaries about Democrats being disorganized and without vision and sans political testicles and lacking in leadership, you should know that it's not just me who thinks so.
1,269 people think so, and from a margin-of-error perspective, they represent the entire electorate, give or take 3.5%. That's how many people Pew Research threw this question at:
Do you think of your vote for Congress this fall as a vote for George W. Bush, as a vote against George W. Bush, or isn't George W. Bush much of a factor in your vote?
30 days ago, here's how those 1,269 people answered:
Against Bush: 31%
For Bush: 18%
Not a Factor: 47%
Four years ago, at this same stage of the last midterm elections, Pew asked the same question -- but with very different results:
Against Bush: 9%
For Bush: 34%
Not a Factor: 50%
Since Bush isn't running for anything this November, the question borders on the irrelevant, right?
Wrong.
That's a huge swing from one midterm to another. Today a third of the electorate is prepared to make an anti-Bush statement with their vote this November. Not a pro-Dem statement, but an anti-Bush statement.
So what's the point?
Day after day, diary after diary, we all sit down and compose semi-profound rants that might as well all have the same title: "They fucked up again." That's what we do. We expose the enemy. Yay us.
Seriously -- look at the diary list right now and see how many are anti-Republican. Then count how many are pro-Democrat.
It's scary. Our netroots, webroots, grassroots movement is so obsessed with "them" that we can hardly find anything good to say about "us."
Aren't we missing the point?
Aren't we, to some degree, missing the opportunity to harness our own power for the GOOD of the DEMS, instead of just for the BAD of the RETHUGS?
Sooner or later, don't we have to find a positive voice about our own party?
Shouldn't we be having at least SOME discussion about the good things going on at the local level, or the policy ideas being forwarded by the good guys, or the few congressmen and women who are risking their own political lives to stand up and say what needs to be said?
We're in danger of becoming just a bunch of angry outcasts who relish in the failures of the opposition much more than the successes of our own team. We are doomed to irrelevance.
We suck. We suck because we still haven't figured out that "them bad" does not equate to "us good."
Come on, Kossacks. Is there really nothing GOOD happening in our own fucking party?! If all the Bushco fuck-ups dried up tomorrow (not likely, I know), what the hell would we talk about?!
My personal pledge: splitting the difference. For every "them bad" diary I post, I'll write one "us good" diary. Fair and balanced.
Join me.