The Far-Left Wins Nothing. Again.

[1StrongBlackMan]

151. I remember 2010 well ...

As I understand it, the 2010 result was a confluence of a number of factors, some historically predictable, some not; but most commentators attribute the Democratic loss to three related factors, none of which were related to your “not a republican” voting scheme.

First, 2010 was a mid-term election that, historically, has lower turn out among the traditional Democratic coalition (e.g., women, African-American, GLBT, the Youth, liberal whites, etc.); whereas, republicans do not, historically, see much of a mid-term drop off.

2010 was no different, except where Democrats experienced the normal drop off (2%-Liberal and 5%-Moderates), Conservatives (republicans) saw an 7% increase in mid-term participation … partly because their base saw what they perceived to be an aggressive progressive Democratic agenda. Remember, President Obama (Democrats) had just passed the Lilly Ledbetter Act, passed ObamaCare, passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, passed Dodd-Frank, bailed out the auto industry, repealed DADT, reformed the Federal Student Loan Program and expanded PELL Grant spending, extended unemployment insurance, and a bunch of other things.

To their credit, the rightwing talking heads were able to whip up the conservative base by casting these accomplishments as “socialism”, “dictatorial”, and don’t forget about “Chicago Thuggery” and just plain “uppity” (remember, the thinly veiled, “Take Back America” and the “exotic other occupying the Whitehouse” twin rallying cries?).

A second factor was that the 2010 mid-term electorate was 4% whiter than 2008 election; but significantly, the “white-No College” (white, working class), while showing no increase in participation, voted significantly more republican (62-35%).

I think this was a result of a largely unmatched tea party effort. The tea party, effectively, pitted private sector workers against public sector workers around issues of workplace protections, pensions and benefits; they pitted union-deprived workers against union workers, around the issue of workplace protections wages and benefits; they even pit the marginally employed against the unemployed, around taxes and the social safety net. They argued, “You don’t get these things, why should you pay for them to have what you don’t get?” And it worked, working class whites flipped and voted republican. This was because Democrats and the far-Left failed to establish an organized effort to combat the tea party’s talking points; rather, we laughed at them because surely no one would believe that a company’s bottom-line was less effected by a CEO’s $100,000,000/yr salary than by a union member’s $50,000/yr wages (I mean, come on … We D. People can do math! And know that 1 CEO salary equals 2,000 union member wages, with the CEO producing zero product, right?)

Well, we didn’t and We D. Working Class People believed them, hook, line and sinker. And We D. White Working Class People, voted with the tea party.

A third, and frequently referenced, factor was the drastic decline in the youth (11%, down from 18%) and independent vote and an increase in the 65+ vote. And this, I believe is where the “far-left” shot us/themselves in the foot. Whereas, conservatives saw President Obama (and the Democrats) as pressing, too progressive an agenda, the far-left made “the perfect, the enemy of the good.”

They took every opportunity to complain about each and every accomplishment. Whereas, I don’t think it an exaggeration to say the Administration did great work in pulling the US economy from the brink, the far left argued that the Administration hadn’t done enough (ignoring that a little less than half the Congress pledged to be against him) … ObamaCare was crap because “we want single payer/a Public Option” (ignoring the fact that there were not enough Democratic votes in the House or the Senate to pull that off, either); passing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was crap because the banksters got bailed out and didn’t go to jail (a surprisingly similar argument as the tea party made), Dodd-Frank was weak, bailing out the auto industry was the same as bailing out the banksters, repealing DADT … well … took too damned long, etc.

And the media gave the far left plenty of press, as the story of the day became “the Administration is dissing its base … listen to them wail!“ … and, admittedly, the Administration made it worse with the “professional left” and “retarded” comments; but none-the-less, the damage was being done.

It is no wonder that cohort of political neophytes, that turned out in record numbers to vote for President Obama’s message of “Hope and Change”, became disenchanted … they did not “feel” any better off 2 years into the train-wreck that took 30 years to occur; and , they were being told, day after day, that the Administration’s accomplishments, really weren’t accomplishments at all … and, besides, they did not “feel” any better off 2 years into the train-wreck that took 30 years to occur.

If the far-left were truly interested in advancing progressive change, they would have argued, “These accomplishments aren’t perfect; but they are better than where we were. Now … let’s get more progressive elected so that we can be more of what we want”; rather than, perfect or bust … the Administration sold us out. The former keeps folks engaged; the latter, not so much.