Liberal Bloggers to Obama and Dems: We Told You So

[IndianaGreen]

Liberal Bloggers to Obama and Dems: We Told You So

Peter Daou.Political consultant, former adviser to Hillary Clinton
Posted: January 19, 2010 09:08 PM

It took more than half a decade, countless American and Iraqi deaths in a war based on lies, a sinking economy and the drowning of an American city to finally kill Bush-Cheney-Rove's dream of a conservative realignment.

Democrats, controlling the White House and both houses of Congress, have managed to kill their own dream of dominance in 12 months.

How did it happen?

Theories abound, but two diametrically opposed narratives have taken hold:

The first, promulgated by conservatives, is that the new administration has moved too far to the left and alienated a large swath of independent and moderate voters.

The second, pushed by progressive activists and bloggers, is that the administration hasn't been true enough to fundamental Democratic principles, has embraced some of Bush's worst excesses on civil liberties, and has ditched popular ideas (like the public option) in favor of watered down centrist policies, thus looking weak and ineffectual.

The conservative argument is unpersuasive. After years of a systematic effort by the right to use Overton-style tactics to radicalize our national discourse, the center has moved so far right that the left is barely recognizable. With a military surge in Afghanistan, a denuded health insurance bill limping through Congress, Bush-era detainee policies reinforced, a deflated climate summit, and a windfall year for bankers, among other things, it's almost ludicrous to claim that the new administration is run by a gang of lefties.

The case by progressives that Democrats are undermining themselves with faux-bipartisanship and tepid policies gets much closer to the heart of the problem. I've written a number of posts arguing that it's all a matter of values and ethics. In essence: when you fail to govern based on a morally sound, well-articulated, solidly-grounded set of ideals, you look weak. All the legislative wins in the world won't change that. People gravitate to people who exude moral authority. The vast majority of voters lack the detailed policy knowledge that would enable them to make an accurate assessment of policy differences, but they do have a visceral sense of when a candidate or an elected official believes in something and fights for it. It's why campaigns are laden with moral arguments; politicians ask to be elected because they'll "do the right thing." The right thing in the current administration's case was to be the anti-Bush, nothing more, nothing less. The ethical antidote to a radical administration. It was both politically smart and morally right. And it worked wonders for Democrats as the entire subtext of the 2008 campaign.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-daou/liberal-bloggers-to-obama_b_429031.html

[ShortnFiery]

1. Amen!

:thumbsup:

[Howler]

2. Yep! n/t

n/t

[BunkerHill24]

3. The Healthcare reform did us in......for sure.

Maybe having 60 democrats was too much to manage!

[progressoid]

4. They aren't listening to us.

[VPStoltz]

5. I quadruple that!

[Tom Rinaldo]

6. Yes, he's got it. K&R n/t

[Lasher]

7. They will react by moving even further to the right.

That's what Clinton did. :-(

[fasttense]

8. I don't necessarily agree with him about Limpballs.

I think most Americans didn't really care that Limpball was being attacked or not. I think privately they all agreed that Limpball was the leader of the RepubliCON party. So, when the administration started to say it, people simply chalked it up to Obama's tendency (at least during the campaign) to state the truth.

But Peter Daou's 2nd point is right on target:

"Democratic leaders and strategists, privately disdainful of the netroots, underestimated the influence of progressive bloggers.

Nothing should have been a bigger red flag to the new administration than the growing complaints by established progressive bloggers that Democrats were veering off track on the stimulus, the health care bill, civil liberties, gay rights, and more. But scoffing at the netroots is second nature in many quarters of the political establishment, even though they laid the groundwork for Obama's victory. The single biggest reason Obama's hope bubble burst is because of the unintended convergence of left and right opinion-making. The cauldron of opinion that churns incessantly on blogs, Twitter, social networks, and in the elite media generates the story lines that filter across the national and local press, providing the fodder for public opinion. Stalwarts of the left, dedicated to principles not personalities, hammered the administration; couple that with the partisan criticisms from conservatives and libertarians, and the net effect was to alter conventional wisdom and undercut Obama's image and message."

Remember this statement from about 10 days ago?

White House aides believe a lot of the liberal angst about health care will go away once the president actually signs a bill. And to the extent that the Democrats have a problem motivating their core voters, they've got time to fix it.

"We're not overly concerned about these things, first and foremost because there isn't an election tomorrow, not an election the next day," says Dan Pfeiffer, White House communications director.

It was not just bloggers and the netroots they underestimated.

[yurbud]

9. Democrats have too long acted like a judge instead of advocate

weighing the interests of business and ordinary people. The problem is, the GOP sees themselves solely as the advocate of big business and the very wealthy, so we have a judge and defense attorney for corporate criminals, but no prosecutor presenting the people's case.

To make matters worse, the judges eventually leave the bench and go to work for the defense attorneys' law firm and belong to all the same clubs and golf with them every Tuesday even while they are still on the bench.

The Democrats as a party are AWOL.

[TheWraith]

10. Neither argument is even remotely accurate. nt