Warning to Moderate and Conservative Congressional Democrats [View All]

[Tom Rinaldo]

You know liberal and progressive activists can be pushed, since the Democratic Party is the only real horse we have to ride on in big races. You know that we know that Republicans for the most part will do greater direct harm to many important matters that we care about than will centrist Democrats if elected. It is a potent intellectual argument that you are never to shy to make to us, and it has served you well in the recent past. We suffered together through 8 years of a Bush - Cheney Administration, suffering that took a very high human toll. So many liberal and progressive activists were highly motivated to vote for, raise money for, and work for virtually any Democrat running in either the 2006 or 2008 elections. Progressives got motivated to be pragmatic, and we all got fired up to help pull off sweeping Democratic victories in every corner of this great land. But that was then and this is now.

Now we want to taste some of the fruits of all those electoral victories. The thing is, most liberal and progressive activists have always been far more reasonable politically than we are often given credit for. We understand political realities, we know many of you face elections in districts and states that no one would describe as liberal, let alone Progressive. So we don't expect to get all of what we want out of centrist Democrats in Congress now. But there comes a point beyond the breaking point, and that point is rapidly approaching. Take us much more for granted at your own peril, because you need us as much as we need you. In fact you may need us more than we need you.

You need us to deliver you the solid majority status in Congress that you all crave, with all of the perks power and privileges that come with it. We worked hard to rid most regions of this nation from most elected Republicans in Congress. It wasn't easy, but we were motivated. Mess with that motivation and see what happens next. On a more personal level you need us to work silently in the shadows propping up the underpinnings of your personal election campaigns in districts that will start out stacked against you for the foreseeable future. You need the money that we raise nationally and send into your conservative leaning districts that enables you to make your moderate cases to constituents. You need us hanging your lit on door knobs, you need us stacking up the chairs after your campaign rallies. You need us spreading damning information about your Republican opponents like prairie grass fires over the internet, and you absolutely need us to keep making the Democratic Party case, any time, anywhere, to anyone we encounter with the kind of passion that only flows from deeply held convictions.

Want to kill that passion? It's easily done; just trample on our hopes for change, and seal the deal with disrespect. Taking us for granted will do that trick effectively. Act like our support is in the bag no matter how much of our agenda you bargain away in your pursuit of a few more center right votes, and you will soon find out exactly where that leaves you. The support you are courting is fickle at best, they are called swing voters for a reason. We understand that you need to win some of that support nonetheless, but do you understand that you can't afford to lose much of our support? Our passion is your ultimate margin of victory. We can be flexible, even highly flexible at times. But do you understand just how deeply most of us believe in a single payer health care system? Do you really? Yet we compromise our principles for your political needs. And as we do you take that as a signal that you are now free to move even further to the right.

Even saplings snap in the perfect storm, and health care reform that does not include a legitimate and viable public option may bring on that storm, and then where will you turn to for shelter from the storm?