It seems so bizarre that after kicking the wingnuts around for two successive historic elections, the Republican Party still tiptoes around its Conservative base. They proclaim their allegiance to it whether in victory or defeat. Democrats on the other hand.......
Never talk about the pride of winning another important victory for the liberal cause, the progressive movement or any such thing. No, the party that represents the progressive/liberal point of view in the United States NEVER utters the word progressive or liberal. We are consigned to the closet. Except of course when they need our money.
I know many are pissed off today at the Joe Lieberman fiasco, but it wouldn't be so damn galling if we felt that we had CHAMPIONS visibly rallying our cause. So now we are going to get Hillary Clinton as wrong as you can be on the biggest foreign policy questions of this decade--Iraq and Iran as Secretary of State. I've read where she brags that she's much more hawkish than Bill Clinton.
Does President-Elect Barack Obama think that he won the Democratic Nomination because Colin Powell endorsed him in late October? Or countless other Republicans did this fall? He won the Democratic Nomination for one reason and one reason alone: He was the only viable anti-war candidate.
It's ironic that our greatest leader this decade Howard Dean wasn't even a progressive/liberal in the classic sense, but his guts and attitude were enough for many of us.
Today on Hardball, the final insult came when Patrick Buchanan said that Obama needs to throw some appointments out to the base and mentioned Daily Kos. Pat, old troglodyte that he is, gets it. Why don't I hear Democratic talking heads demanding the same thing? Did we do all this for two years to end up with a better Supreme Court and that's about it?
My fantasy is that when a reporter asks Barack Obama about satisfying the "base" of the Democratic Party he looks into the camera and says, "I represent the base of the Democratic Party."
How come win or lose we are always on the defensive rhetorically?