Eugene Robinson: Rank-and-File Frustration

[marmar]

from truthdig:




Rank-and-File Frustration

Posted on Nov 11, 2010
By Eugene Robinson


“Why don’t they fight back?”

That’s the question I’ve been hearing from the Democratic Party’s stunned and dispirited base. For the past month, I’ve been on a book tour that has taken me to Asheville, N.C., Terre Haute, Ind., Austin, Texas, and elsewhere. Everywhere I go, supporters of President Obama and his agenda ask me why so many Democrats in Washington don’t stand up for what they say they believe.

I confess that I don’t have a good answer. What I can say with confidence, however, is that the White House and Democrats in Congress ignore these grumblings at their peril. Call it polarization, call it conviction, call it whatever you like: These are not wishy-washy times. If you don’t stand for something, you get run over.

We saw this principle in action last week. Anomie among the Democratic base was not the main reason the party suffered what Obama called a “shellacking” in the midterms, but clearly it was a factor. Elements of the party’s traditional coalition—minorities, women, young people—voted in much smaller numbers than they did in 2008. The “enthusiasm gap” turned out to be real, and it had real consequences.

I’ve been hearing frustration at the willingness of Democrats to accommodate a Republican Party that refuses to give an inch. To progressives who may not understand the subtleties of inside-the-Beltway thinking, this looks like surrender. .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/rank-and-file_frustration_20101111/

[WCGreen]

1. This is too much like Germany in the late 1920's and early 1930's...

One side had all the brute political force and the other just wrang their hands and hope to compromise the other side to sanity...

[NC_Nurse]

2. It doesn't just "look like" surrender...it is.