It's a rather common refrain that the only way we can win an election is with a moderate. That what Obama is doing now will help him win the election in 2012 and that those of us who fiercely advocate for progressive policies are on a fool's errand, doomed to bitter failure.
And yet polls continually show that we are on the side of the people here. Is America a center-right nation? Not anymore, not when the center and the right have both moved, well, further right. Republicans have become more conservative, but the people of America are slightly less so, and so the gap between them has widened. Our policies are more popular than the naysayers would have you think. To not advocate for them is political suicide.
Let's look at the public option.
Just 34% of voters nationwide support the health care reform plan proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats if the so-called “public option” is removed. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 57% oppose the plan if it doesn't include a government-run health insurance plan to compete with private insurers.
And that was from Rasmussen!
More than three out of every four Americans feel it is important to have a "choice" between a government-run health care insurance option and private coverage, according to a public opinion poll released on Thursday.
A new study by SurveyUSA puts support for a public option at a robust 77 percent, one percentage point higher than where it stood in June.
77%, eh? Well, clearly the public option was doomed from the start!
How about the Bush tax cuts? That's an electoral winner, right? Most people want lower taxes, right?
Oh wait, you mean 57% of the country wanted the tax cuts to expire?
Well, that's just one poll...oops, here's another. And another.
Maybe people feel this way because even though they support lowering the deficit, they support raising taxes to do it. They do not support cuts in social services programs to lower the deficit.
Yes, polls can show conflicting evidence. No, no one can govern solely on what the polls say. But to consistently do the opposite of what the people want is not a strategy for success. Perhaps that is why we have not succeeded. After all, Democrats did not lose progressives in 2010. They lost moderates. Because we live in a country where moderates are ripe for the plucking...and consistently misunderstood. It turns out that people dislike spinelessness. Who would have thought?
Remember this when the inevitable battles that are coming down the pipeline finally occur. Will we be told that capitulating on Medicare and Social Security, despite their popularity, is a strategy for success? Will we be told that the country is too moderate to accept a progressive social safety net despite evidence to the contrary?