Someone didn't get the lesson in 2010

[Tom Rinaldo]

43. This OP was an observation about how things tend to play out...

...when major elements of a party's base are demoralized. Do you know what seldom works when people are demoralized? Lecturing them on why they are the problem. Have you ever heard the expression "red meat for the base"? It's a political truism, and it is so for a reason. Politics, it can be argued, "should" always be logical but much of it boils down to emotional. Like others here have posted Democrats didn't lose in 2010 because Progressives didn't vote for Democrats. Progressives were and always are the most reliable "non ethnic" demographic base for Democrats. We almost always vote, and when an election is on the line we almost always vote for Democrats.

But when enthusiasm is sapped energy is sapped also. Psychology has a term to describe that state; depression. Lectures aren't so effective with depression, ask anyone who works in mental health or anyone who has ever been really depressed. Chances are you can ask yourself and you already know the answer It's not progressive votes that are most at jeopardy when Democratic leaders turn away from core Democratic beliefs, it is passion. And passion fuels the hard work, education and outreach efforts needed to mobilize less committed Democratic voters to show up at the polls on election day. The progressives were there in 2010, Democratic leaning people less deeply committed to politics were the ones who failed to show.

There is a cause and effect scenario that predictably plays out when your hardest workers feel slapped in the face. You can argue that people shouldn't let that get to them, you can also argue that dogs should be able to fly. It won't make it so. Meanwhile actions like a Democratic President taking the lead on cutting Social Security benefits understandably blurs the ideological distinctions between the two main parties in the general public's mind. And when the average citizen starts to conclude that "politicians are essentially all the same" they are more likely to blow off voting. The Democrats are in the process of setting themselves up for a hit in 2014 now whether or not you fear the consequences of that and argue that we can't afford it.