Time to move HARD left

[lakercub]

If any lesson is to be taken away from this evening it is that an excited base can carry the moderates wherever the party needs them to go. It may be counter-intuitive given what looks like a right-wing victory, but I don't see this as a victory for conservatism so much as a victory for the side that generated enthusiasm.

When we voted in 06 and 08 we were excited about health care reform. We got it, but they made too many deals to get it...and they completely undersold it. We got credit card reform, something we desperately needed, but they didn't sell it and it still didn't go far enough. We got noise on the environment but no real progress. We got help to the unemployed, but we also got a lot of money given to big corporations who just pocketed it.

In short, the Dems made progress, but the centrist Dems were the ones who helped water down that progress and then ran like hell from it. They couldn't/wouldn't campaign on things that should have been slam-dunks on the campaign trail. But most of all, we saw politics...lots and lots of politics. Backroom deals with blue dogs and republicans, Rahm Emanuel constantly wanting to make right turns, insults to the "professional left," and a total lack of message control.

However, message control is easy with a revved up base...and the only way to rev the base is to move left and move left BIG! Get the base excited and that make it easier to get the message out that big corporations own the republican party in its entirety. It makes it easier to show that the republicans don't give a damn about the well-being of anyone who isn't filthy rich. It makes it easier to get momentum on real energy/health care/financial reform.

Centrism just isn't going to work. If we swing left and the populace decides it just wants to keep moving right...fine. It tells me all I need to know about the intelligence (and masochism) of the electorate. But if I'm right, and the liberals get excited, then we can finally make real progress moving this country into this century.

[LostinRed]

1. nice post! n/t

[GReedDiamond]

2. Succinct and concise...KnR...nt

[HughMoran]

3. Stunningly simplistic and utterly wrong logic

Yes, in some places going hard left is a good idea and will work, in others - eh, not so much. But the energy was due to a crappy economy and Republicans didn't even do as good as they should have considering how bad the economy is now compared to 1994.

[kctim]

4. And now

Republicans have replaced the centrist Dems you hate and you have a new crop of centrist Dems, like Manchin, to complain about.

Yep, a hard-left move is exactly what the people want and what the Democratic Party needs right now.

[felix_numinous]

5. There is no bargaining with mobsters,

we keep playing by the rules and they say 'no compromise'.

[prolesunited]

6. Umm...

didn't Grayson and Feingold lose?

[KharmaTrain]

7. And Lose Big Time In 2012

You're dealing with career politicians...people whose job means more than ideology. While many may sympathize with certain causes, unless you're in a super blue district, you're not going to commit political suicide (and all the money and perks that go with the job) by going against what your pollsters and phone calls tell you. If anything, we'll see Democrats hunker down...not want to make any iniatives and hope the rushpublicans overplay.

For the most part the biggest losers were the Blue Dogs...thus, in some ways, the Democratic party is a lot more ideologically together now than they were before the election.

While I can agree that the American electorate is stuck on stupid...whose fault is that? It's a propaganda war that has to be joined...and that work starts first thing tomorrow. It's time to regroup and start looking and help promoting progressive candidates for 2012 and regroup, not rebuild.

[highprincipleswork]

8. Messaging

All this crying about the futility of Progressive causes is such b.s.

Do you honestly think that Tea Partiers have a corner on logic or good ideas? Look at the excitement they have generated.

The American public, as we know from poll after poll after poll, thinks far more "liberally" than anyone typically gives them credit for. Democratic politicians do not capitalize on this.

We act timidly, we don't get the message out, we don't repeat it, we get bogged down in minutiae and compromise and deals and triangulation.

New rule -
When your ideas and policies make the Tea Party look good -
Time to get some different ideas and policies!!!!

Go left. That's the only possible way. But don't sell it as Left. Sell it as reason. Good sense. American values. Because they are, and it is.

This is a country that was formed through Revolution, for goodness sakes.

[KharmaTrain]

9. Yes...And Education

The one thing Democrats haven't been able to do is win because of what they stand for...winning when people were more pissed at the rushpublicans. They never closed the deal and thus when there were some accomplishments they went unnoticed and the right wing "mighty Wurlitzer" spun out the talking points that were amplified by the corporate media.

It's sad to see so many people vote against their own interests but dare I say many don't know any better. All they hear are the talking points and aren't presented with facts...just emtion and rhetoric. Democrats need to find ways to break that barrier...to be able to communicate ideas better and outshout, if needed, the corporate media shitstorms.

It may just take having this country stood on its head for the next two years to shake some sense, but the party needs to regroup and develop some new ways to message to the voters.

Cheers...