General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Hoyer Finally Admits the Obvious: Health Care Bill Killed the Dems in 2010 - FDL [View all]joshcryer
(62,536 posts)The Tea Party ran against HCR because it was too progressive. "Government takeover of health care." The Dems who voted for HCR actually were able to stay in.
Blue Dogs weren't the only ones hit by the lack of GOTV by liberals. People like Feingold and Grayson were booted because their districts were split and all it took was GOTV from the right and they were toast. As the study cited shows those Blue Dogs would've been better off had they not voted for HCR.
The enthusiasm gap is a fair enough observation, but we have only ourselves to blame for that, if we weren't disillusioned by the right wing rise of the faux Tea Party we would've been fine. It took a special kind of self-delusion for us to allow the right wingers to get out 9% more votes than us.