How Did California Stay Blue While The Rest Of Country Tilted Red? Not By Staying Home!

TomCADem

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Fri Nov-05-10 01:35 AM
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How Did California Stay Blue While The Rest Of Country Tilted Red? Not By Staying Home!

Edited on Fri Nov-05-10 01:46 AM by TomCADem

If you listen to the pundits on both the left and right, California should not have gone even more blue. Unemployment is higher than the rest of the Country. Like Arizona, California is a border state. Democrats and progressives have recently suffered a series of set backs in State wide propositions such as Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage. In the California AG race, Republican Steve Cooley was seen as a strong favorite to beat Democrat Kamala Harris. Finally, California�s Democratic candidates were hopelessly outspent by their right wing counterparts with floods of corporate money coming in to support Republican candidates and causes like Proposition 23.

So, why did California tilt more blue, rather than red and can liberals and progressives learn from progressives in California?

Here is my take on what happened in California, which culminated in Democratic and progressive victories throughout the State.

1. We did not fire on those inside our tent � Democrats and progressives rallied around Democrats, rather than buying into the corporate narrative blaming them for all that ails the world. I recall on DU a few folks attacking Barbara Boxer and Jerry Brown from the left. But, on the ground, we knew that the choice between them and a Republican alternative, and that if we did not fight for their election, then we would be left with that Republican alternative. We ignored �activists� who argued that we should stay home and teach Democrats a lesson for not firmly advancing progressive causes like immigration reform. We ignored folks like those on DU who seized on Jerry Brown�s vow to cut spending to attack him as being a conservative or moderate. We also did not hold Jerry Brown�s repeated pledges of bi-partisanship against him. Jerry Brown and Kamala Harris did not run as �liberals� with a capital �L,� but we did not hold that against them, nor did we listen to those who purported to speak on our behalf in attacking them. We did not go Fox News on our own candidates and take quotes out of context to attack them from the left. Likewise, even though Democrats had to compromise with Republicans because of the 2/3 budget approval requirements, we did not blame them for cuts in public programs, because we understood that Republicans were trying to cut those programs entirely.

2. We ignored the corporate media narrative, and created our own - The national cable media played the narrative of the angry Tea Party member who was outraged at Big Government while ignoring the millions of corporate money supporting this astroturf movement. Likewise, the corporate media also played the narrative of successful busienss women challenging career politicians. However, our local media, and people on the ground kept the focus on the corporations working behind the scenes to pour millions into these races, and propositions like Proposition 23. Indeed, Meg Whitman may have shined a bright spotlight on the impact of corporate types spend millions to buy the election, and it turned us off. In contrast, in other parts of the country, many progressives types allowed themselves to be suppressed by buying into the unending corporate narrative that Tea Partiers were energized, while progressives were disappointed and would not show up. Bullshit. I pissed at the hundreds of millions being dumped into the California election, and I was not going to sit home and cry in my beer.

3. We knew who our enemies were, and they weren�t the Democrats � Meg Whitman, of course, was hard to miss. Perhaps her biggest mistake is that she made herself too visible. Likewise, Carly Fiorina�s actions in attending Koch brother fundraisers were widely reported, as was her endorsement of Proposition 23, the oil company initiative. In California, there was a clear idea of who we were up against. Indeed, Meg Whitman epitomized corporate money. We repeatedly hit Proposition 23�s out of state oil company backers as many on DU saw even though the corporate media tried to repeat the narrative that Proposition 23 was intended to save jobs.

4. We did not sit at home on election night. We turned out to vote � We ignored the Latinos for Reform type activists who urged Hispanics to stay home to send Democrats a message for their failure to pass immigration reform. Instead, we focused on Republican promises to be tough on immigration and emulate Arizona�s anti-immigration laws. Indeed, in Republican Orange County, Hispanics turned out to vote in surprising numbers to protect Loretta Sanchez�s seat. We understood that there is nothing empowering about staying home on election day. I recall seeing DU posts urging a challenge to Boxer from the left. Heck, even now some folks are saying stuff like they would trade Boxer for Feingold. I think most Californian progressives and Democrats understood that it was not a contest between Barbara Boxer/Jerry Brown versus some perfect liberal, progressive candidate. It was contest between them and a Republican. That was the choice, and we affirmatively made our choice.

5. We did not expect Democratic leaders to do our work for us, we did it ourselves � Lets face it. Whitman and Fiorna had more money, and they had professional astroturf groups like Freedom Works to mobilize grassroots support. Yet, we understood that Jerry Brown was out gunned, and we did not hold it against him that he could not match Meg Whitman�s prodigious spending. We could have simply blamed Brown for lack of an effective media strategy or lack of leadership, and threatened to stay home unless he singlehandedly overturned Proposition 8. But we didn�t. We took care of business on our own, as unions, environmentalists, and Hispanics mobilized to get the vote out, rather than relying on someone to hold our hand and lead us. We did not cop out by blaming President Obama or some other Democrat for not pouring money and resouces to match Whitman dollar for dollar. Indeed, perhaps the recognition that Brown was hopelessly outmatched with respect to money, caused us to work, rather than make excuses for our inaction.

6. We did not give Republicans a free pass � On this board, many California DUers hit Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina relentlessly for their hypocrisy. We did not simply forget Republican missteps or get distracted by the corporate media�s efforts to focus on some isolated slur by some campaign staffer referring to Whitman as a whore for her pandering. Instead, we kept the heat on. When Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina tried to show their support of the Hispanic community by throwing down a shot of Tequila, we blasted them for their promises in the Republican primaries to emulate Arizona�s laws.

Finally, while some folks will dismiss California�s success as an aberration, there is no reason why Democrats and progressives can�t fight back elsewhere. We did not take success for granted. When progressives have done so in California, we have lost, as was the case with Proposition 8 where opponents relied on early polls showing that it would lose, while proponents mobilized on the ground. Heck, even in this election, the polluter financed Proposition 26 passed, because progressives largely ignored it even though its impact is as significant as Proposition 23.

Maybe it was a backlash against the right wing backlash, but we did not simply stay home. Nor should any Democrat or progressive in 2012.