Reply #30: I can't argue with people who might vote against their own interests or who [View All]

[frazzled]

are essentially conservative in outlook, or who are just plain confused. It's happened plenty of times before (Reagan Democrats, for instance). If people want to vote for a Republican, they can knock themselves out. I certainly can't do anything to disabuse them of their foolishness. I can only address those who claim to be progressive but enable regressive power to ascend.

As for Obama taking the entire party down with him: that is utter bull. The Democratic Congress is doing a fine job of that itself. The fate of individual representatives and senators does not lie fully in the president's hands. Democrats in Congress have a lower aggregate approval rating than the president, and Republicans have a an even lower approval than them. And which Democrats do we worry about taking down? The conservatives like Ben Nelson or Jim Webb who are the main cause of decent legislation not passing? (Witness the American Jobs Act: if it fails it will be on their shoulders, not the president's). Or liberal senators? Do you think Russ Feingold lost his last election or that Massachusetts elected Scott Brown because Obama wasn't LIBERAL enough? That doesn't make one iota of sense.

We are living in a very screwed up time, where panic and backlash are the main drivers of the national conversation, voting, and Congressional action (or inaction). Staying home out of dissatisfaction is not going to teach anyone a lesson: it will only ensure right-wing ascension. We all need to put our gripes aside and come down to a basic choice.THose who deny that making that choice is valid are part of the problem, not part of the solution. Thus it has ever been.