Democratic Party's grim election prospects are about failures in governing.

[Better Believe It]

Progressive Canaries in a Political Mine
by Norman Solomon
Norman Soloman is co-chair of the Healthcare Not Warfare campaign, launched by Progressive Democrats of America.
October 14, 2010


Whether on MSNBC or in email blasts from Democratic Party-aligned groups, some have tried to hype Obama's latest campaign-trail speeches as 2008 reborn. But the Democratic Party's grim prospects for early November are not about failures in campaigning -- they're about failures in governing. Sadly, attempts to reprise his '08-style oratory this fall could actually dramatize the dispiriting gap between how Obama can talk as a campaigner and how he has actually governed as president.

Sometimes, an overly linear kind of left-right paradigm encourages progressives to believe that they simply must settle for what they can get while rabid right-wingers are howling at the gates. But the president has empowered, not countered, the right wing by moving in its direction on a wide range of basic policies and governance formulations.

Rather than staking out decent, progressive, populist positions and defending them with moral fervor, the Obama administration -- in the midst of catastrophically high unemployment -- has enforced and reinforced the identity of the national Democratic Party as defender of an untenable status quo. This approach has aided the far right -- helping corporate-funded and often xenophobic "populists" to masquerade as the agents of change.

Giving ground does just that. It gives ground.

And so, from the outset, the administration's refusal to push for anything near the magnitude of job-creation programs necessary to bring down unemployment has brought sky-high jobless numbers -- a colossal gift to GOP candidates this fall.

Earlier this week, labor activist and author Amy B. Dean neatly summarized a key dynamic.

"Every time the Democrats are too timid to promote a policy solution that the party's base actually wants, they walk into a trap. They end up passing something that is too insignificant to actually deal with the problem at hand but that nevertheless prompts hysterical denunciations from the right. Despite their efforts at moderation, they are vociferously condemned as ‘tax-and-spend liberals.' At the same time, they have nothing to show for their efforts that might make them proud to have earned the label." http://www.indypendent.org/2010/10/13/enthusiasm-gap-goes-back-to-1992/

Read the full article at:

http://pdamerica.org/articles/alliances/2010-10-14-14-55-47-alliances.php


http://www.indypendent.org/2010/10/13/enthusiasm-gap-goes-back-to-1992/

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

1. "Grim!"

Please pass the horseshit.

[rurallib]

2. And Republican shiny prospects are about their successes in governance?

What is sad is that Americans will vote these clowns back in and expect them to change their ways.
No, they will once more bow to the wishes of Wall Street. Thus leaving the other 99% of us behind.

[Better Believe It]

7. Read the complete article. That's not what the author wrote.

Excerpt:

"Blaming the messengers—the canaries in the mines—has occurred in sync with intensifying policy commitments that many progressives find repugnant: whether escalation of war in Afghanistan, promulgation of extensive corporate agendas in the guise of "reform," promoting dangerous oxymorons like "clean coal" and "safe nuclear power," or continuing encroachment on precious civil liberties such as habeas corpus.

Now, the midterm Election Day is threatening to bring down a congressional majority that would be replaced by the extreme right-wing entity known as the Republican Party. "The Democrats" may deserve to lose, but the country does not deserve the Republican rule that would take their place on Capitol Hill.

Any progressive who thinks it doesn't matter much whether the House speaker is Nancy Pelosi or John Boehner is seriously mistaken.

At the same time, fantasy is afflicting those who think that an eleventh-hour dose of Obama campaign oratory can reconstitute a solid Democratic base and get it to the polls in hefty numbers."

[craigmatic]

3. Actually it's not so much about governing as much as it is about them not talking about their

accomplishments in a positive way. Obama needs to crow more. We need more big speeches but all we get are the same platitudes.

[Deep13]

4. This election is about two things.

Failure in governing is one of them. It's not enough to be less bad than the other guy. A candidate or a party must give voters a real reason for support. That reason needs to be clear and unambiguous because the other side has the power to manipulate and distort anything we do.

This election is also about the ability of the parasitic ultra rich to buy elections.

[uponit7771]

5. I pray that we whoop some ass this Nov and bitch articles like these can go away

[Better Believe It]

8. So mind saying what you disagree with in the article?

I'm listening.

[county worker]

6. I agree with most of this but I'm still going to vote for Dems in Nov,.

I think this topic has been talked to death for this election cycle. The next Congress will be worse than this one we have. That's because we will have less seats. How worse is up to us. It all depends on how many of us vote Dem in November.

We lost the chance we thought we had won in 2008. It isn't going to come again soon if ever. Maybe those who didn't learn the lessons of the Bush years will learn in the next few years that we are on a fast track to bottom. That's the only thing I can see in my crystal ball. Pain is a good teacher.

[Scruffy1]

15. Sadly, I will too.

This white house has been something of a joke and showed no courage or leadership, but where else is their to go. But I still like his meaningless speeches.

[BootinUp]

9. Here comes the professional left to save us! /sarcasm

[Scurrilous]

10. Pfffffffffft.

:thumbsdown:

[tularetom]

11. It's OK - Obama says he hopes the Repubs will be more willing to work with him

if they make gains in congress in November.

I want some of what he's smoking.

[polichick]

12. Wish I could disagree - but Obama campaigns very differently than he governs...

We would be in a much stronger place if he actually believed in the power of the grassroots he addresses when campaigning.

The book HERDING DONKEYS also looks at this.

[OHdem10]

13. I agree it is a Party Problem--not just Obama. Actually a little over

a trillion had been proposed and wanted by Geitner and Romer.
The stimulus was cut to a smalleer size by Congress. Congressional
Dems had better get it together. They do not inspire confidence
with all their hemming and hawing, stopping and going. Furthermore,
giving things over to the Small State Senators and letting them
set the standard--shoots the party in the foot. They end up
appeasing Republicans who will condemn them no matter what.
They end up with weak legislation that is difficult to get
a normal Democrat to be enthused over.

They must decide --are they Democrats or Republican wannabees.

[MineralMan]

14. Unrecommended for continuous anti-Democratic propaganda.

[Diane R]

16. This does not seem to have a place in a forum for Democrats.