This will not be a well-sourced diary, so I apologize in advance. It's more of a rant, and one I want to unleash prior to next Tuesday's election results because, in a very real sense, I don't think the outcome then has any bearing on what I have to say, and that is
WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY?
It has been with an increasing sense of irritation that I have watched dem candidates at both state and federal levels "run away" from President Obama, from the ACA, from the administration's actions to use the powers at its disposal to advance policies intended to mitigate the effects of climate change and from any number of other policies and initiatives that seem to me to be perfectly in line with party principles and platforms.
It galls me most to see the apologists in the punditry, and even in polite company, acknowledge-- perhaps with a shrug-- that doing so is a political necessity because, you know, THOSE people. We always have to kow-tow to THOSE people, those low-information, Fox News-viewing (yes I know that's redundant) voters who we dare not offend by speaking proudly of the Obama administration's accomplishments over the last 6 years.
Saved the economy? Check. It's not where we want it to be yet in terms of increased wages for middle class folks, but it's a far sight better than anyone might have predicted in 2008.
Enacted the first significant reform to American health care policy in, what 50 years or so? Check. Is the ACA all we might have hoped for? Certainly not, but to quote VP Biden, it was a "Big f-ing deal" and that hardly seems an achievement that any dem candidate should run from.
Killed Osama bin Laden? Done.
Disarmed Syria of it's chemical weapons? Did that, and without firing a single Tomahawk.
Reduced the deficit? Yeah, we got that. I remember when that was a big deal but apparently... not so much, since you sure don't hear our candidates running on those coat-tails.
Facilitated (shall we say) the most rapid advance in civil rights available to US citizens since the Voting Rights Act in 1964 (I'm talking marriage equality here)? Yeah, I think we got that one covered.
One last-- Did I mention that we're out of Iraq and soon to be out of Afghanistan? That surely does not suck, either.
I could go on, but I hope my point has been made: I am ashamed that so many dem candidates shy away from reciting the litany of achievements we've witnessed over the Obama years, achievements made even more impressive since they were realized despite the fact that the republicans, tea-baggers, and their ilk did everything within their power to obstruct Obama at every turn, including shutting the entire federal government down.
At some level I wouldn't mind if Pryor, Begich, or even Mary Burke (who famously would not even cop to voting for Obama in a recent interview) and all the rest of them lose next Tuesday. If those folks can't or won't stand up to defend the Obama administration's record they effectively ceded that ground to the republicans and I got not time for that weak shit.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not an Obama fan-boy, there's plenty I have to complain about, especially his hyper-agressive prosecution of whistle-blowers, the continuation of surveillance state activities and the apparently wanton use of drones in the conduct of "foreign policy". But noticeably absent from any republican stump speech I've heard this cycle is any criticism of Obama on those grounds, so dem candidates don't get a pass from me for abandoning Obama on those grounds.
By ceding the ground, by running away from the Obama administration's accomplishments during these midterm campaigns, the present slate of dem candidates present an image of a party that has no clear convictions and thus no clear vision for where they want to take the country. That, my friends, is a losing political strategy if I've ever seen one.
Regardless of what happens Tuesday, the fight starts now to identify, nominate, and then elect dem candidates who are actually and sincerely proud of our party's accomplishments in the past and want to build on that history to move our country ever forward.
