The loss of Russ should be a wake up call to all DUers.

[joshcryer]

[sasha031]

1. I'm just so sad

[joshcryer]

5. Me too. :(

[MannyGoldstein]

2. Absolutely! The Party needs to back true Democrats

18 years of triangulation, and here we are.

[FrenchieCat]

3. About what?

That when someone stands up and is "principled",
they tend to fall that much harder?

I don't think DU is gonna go with that message....

[joshcryer]

4. DU doesn't have to go with any message.

DU is a forum on the internet.

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[kenfrequed]

10. Nonsense

The repukes had their own strategy and it involved an astroturf tea party that was shuttled up every step of the way. These guys started out as professional yellers in town halls that were given scripts and told to make noise and repeat themselves so the cameras could run it. Faux news covered the minor disruptions in the stupid town hall meetings that were held. Then Faux news kept pumping and pimping their events, none of which were as big as Stewart/Colbert, the Obama inaugeration, or the 2003 antiwar rallies, but the media covered the tea party anyhow.

While the most obstructionist minority party in US history fillibustered and anonymously held anything that moved there were some in our party that continually blew the horn of bipartisanship. Bipartisanship that the GOP had no intention of going along with. The Blue dogs kept us un-unified and kept us from coming out strong and calling the repukes on their games. The repukes used good democrats like Blanche Lincoln as cover for their actions.



This was a friggin website. It had little influence at all on the elections.

[FrenchieCat]

12. Democratic lack of "enthusiasm" wasn't caused by Teabaggers.....

it was caused by those who couldn't see a good thing
while they had it, or thought that aiming at their own side,
instead of "maning up" against the Teabaggers was a swell strategy.

[joshcryer]

13. Yep.

People got caught up in shit.

[FrenchieCat]

14. It feels fun...I guess.....

till one starts understanding how the end result
will affect those who need more help than others.

[brentspeak]

16. It was caused by a weak, ineffectual Democratic president who is in over his head

It's not Obama's fault that there's a gigantic, mega-million dollar corporate-sponsored smear campaign against him and the Democrats. That Obama has no control over.

But as for the Democratic base's enthusiasm: it is his fault that he sucked all the enthusiasm out of his own base AND formerly-friendly independent voters with a Frankenstein monster of a HCR as well as a bunch of other pointless capitulations to the Republicans and Wall St -- all as Bush's Depression got worse and worse.

In the middle of the Great Depression, the Democrats under FDR didn't increase their huge Congressional majorities by voting to institutionalize, with tax subsidies, a for-profit insurance industry which would then begin increasing everyone's premiums from coast-to-coast. That's not how the Democrats dominated for decades following FDR.

[FrenchieCat]

18. What we can agree on is that....

if you were disappointed in the first 20 months of this administration,
well, you just wait.

In 2012, the Republicans can take it, and then you can be disappointed that much
more. How's that? :)

[joshcryer]

22. I don't think you can blame Obama for an ineffectual Senate full of weak Politicians.

We had a goddamn amazing House that passed some really awesome stuff.

[suzie]

24. African Americans don't have any enthusiasm for Obama? Really?

[Name removed]

26. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[kenfrequed]

29. Yup

I am a progressive, but it wasn't lack of voting that killed the progressives. It was our difficulty getting fired up as much after about June of 2009 UNTIL the election. It was in this period that we could have stood stronger and talked up the administration to all our friends and neighbors.

When the party seems to be an undefinable glop it may be harder to attack but it doesn't mean the glop is attractive as a vote getter.

The teabaggers started at the healthcare thing. Had the Democrats stood their ground with a public option it would have been something solid that we could have pointed to and said "yes... this is what we are about!" instead we got a mess of minor tweaks and alterations that were acceptable to the insurance industry and we were promised that the rest could be fixed over time.

What we wanted was at least a sky high program that actually had a name and a goal and was clear and unadulterated in that it sought to accomplish some manner of progressive reform. Even if it failed we at least could have said "Well, we wanted X, but the damned republicans fillibustered it." Sure you could have also done the marginal and minor reforms and tweaks as well, but without a maximum effort and big solutions what were we going to say to the average people that were being constantly propagandized by the teahaddists?

[DimplesinMI]

19. I agree with you there.....

If you want to know what are the talking points against President Obama....tune into DU. Sorry but I have been reading the tea leaves for awhile now as a blogger...and it is more than a little truth in your statement Frenchie Cat.

[awoke_in_2003]

20. when people are "principled"...

they are even scorned by "democrats". Kind of hard to get over hatred from the right and "left".

[jpgray]

21. He was one of the few "principled" enough to be proud of voting for Obama's policies

Did he fall the harder for that? Should he have run away? Why the scare quotes?

[Hannah Bell]

28. he didn't fall particularly hard. his loss wasn't by a wide margin, & his wins weren't either.

[political_Dem]

6. Yes. It should be. This should make us fight even harder for 2012.

[falcon97]

8. AMEN. n/t

[lonestarnot]

9. Things could have tracked differently, and I will not. If stupid fuckers voting for a pug

don't realize or remember what put us in the fucking mess we're in, and don't think the now pug house wasn't aware of what they were doing when the did it. They knew we would be on clean-up for the next 10 years, now 15, well America is doomed. I see nothing but cave in your warning of a so called wake-up. I better see nothing but gridlock. If tax cuts for the rich are saved by this bullshit, we are never going to get out, you hear me? Never.

[joshcryer]

11. And stop fighting each other, maybe.

[midnight]

15. The loss of this great Senator should be a wake up call. He is so smart and

thoughtful It is a huge loss.....

[joshcryer]

17. He's a hero, I totally didn't expect it to happen.

[denimgirly]

23. Our party has now become more More Corporate owned with Russ and Grayon's departure.

The plan to rid the resisting progressives worked and our party is now easier to be bought...
The only thing we have now is the hope that Obama can have the guts to resist at least 50% of republican bills....Please, Obama, at least keep it to 50%. I would like to see this number lower but all indications are that Obama is willing to negotiate with republicans :(

[last_texas_dem]

25. It's definitely the hardest loss of the night.

I have no idea what to make of it, though.

[craigmatic]

27. Feingold is a class act. I hope he runs again.