Can the peasants write policy for Louis?

[jpgray]

I don't know. We are always numerous enough to cut off heads, but rarely are we organized and enfranchised to the extent we have more than a cursory say in policy. This is true even after a round of head-chopping, as GOP voters ought to learn in the next two years. Now Obama ain't Louis, and the only trim he and the Democrats risk is electoral defeat, but the principle holds, I think.

So with that in mind, I hear very often on these boards that criticism is worthless without action, that the failure of the professional left is in its incessant whining and lack of concrete behavior. Objectively, our leadership does not seem at all attentive to such criticism.

Imagine yourself a professional leftist. You are dissatisfied with the course of things, but recognize the enormous obstacles that bar the realization of your ideals, both in the Democratic Party and out of it. What steps would you take to effect a change in policy? What sort of pressures would be most effective? What might be the consequences of greater action?

Now imagine yourself a pragmatic adviser to Obama, or the Democratic leadership. What would it take for you to change course in an attempt to satisfy leftist criticism? What sort of action (or criticism) would get your attention? What are the consequences of ignoring the left?