A self-proclaimed "progressive" blogger in my state chose yesterday, of all days, to say that the Ohio governor's race, in which the last poll has Republican John Kasich up by 7, "is looking pretty good." Weren't those the very same words uttered by the pilot of the Hindenburg?
DKOS front-pagers, including now Kos himself ( http://www.dailykos.com/... ), have settled on the meme (lord, I detest that word) that Massachusetts was a one-off election, conditioned by entirely local factors including bad campaign "strategy," and that 59 (58, 57, 56.....) Senators ain't so bad.
More mainstream Democrats like Paul Begala are spinning like dervishes on a Tilt-A-Whirl, saying that the populist uprising of yesterday's election confirms "what Democrats have been saying all along." Yes, and the Iranian regime takes its orders from B'nai B'rith.
The stages of Democratic grief: Shock, Denial, Denial, Denial, Denial, More Denial.
My sense is that, today, the vast majority of Democrats have both index fingers plugged in their ears, while chanting "NA-NA-NA-NA-NA" so that no exogenous message has a chance of getting through.
I have this idea for a one-act play involving a Kossack of the modern variety transported back to a Stalinist show-trial in Bolshevik Russia. "Tell the court your self-criticism, comrade," says the prosecutor.
"I'm no concern troll," says the Kossack, on the stand.
"You're on trial, we must hear your self-crticism," demands the prosecutor.
"I'm not joining any circular firing squad," says the Kossack, "and if you're not careful, I'll give you a donut. Ok, look, here's a link to the Red-to-Blue campaign."
At which point, the prosecutor shoots the defendant. Too short, I know.
Which is to say that things aren't going peachy, nothing about Massuchesetts was idiosyncratic, the time for fake smiley faces is over, and wishes don't come true. Yesterday's election wasn't stolen by Diebold, Ralph Nader, Karl Rove, or a CIA false flag operation. There was no failure of the MSM or GOTV, and no interference from Osama Bin Laden or Joe Lieberman. Martha Coakley is not to blame -- her numbers plummeted most when her campaign worked best and hardest. Voters did not behave irrationally, unacceptably, or unpredictably.
Rather, voters delivered a message, a message to the Democratic Party, the only way that voters can, in the way that democracy makes possible. Voters in one of the most heavily Democratic states unelected the Democratic Party, for a reason.
Unplug your ears.
On Monday morning I posted a (recommended) diary to be considered as Part I in this series. Here's the link: http://www.dailykos.com/...
I'll now take up where I left off on Monday. The message that voters are bashing into the calcium-fortified thick skulls of the Democratic uncogniscenti is this: It's corruption, stupid. The Democratic Party is thoroughly though not irredeemably corrupt. For the common-folk definition of corruption, see the link above.
The party's corruption isn't local or national, it's both of those and everything in between. Average Americans experience that corruption every time they go to the DMV, apply for a government benefit, file a tax return, apply for a building variance, look at a bank statement, or pay an insurance bill. When they see on TV that the "Change Admninistration" has paid their money in a bribe to frickin' Nebraska (what country is that anyway?) their rational rage goes through the roof.
It's not that some anti-Democratic infection has finally spread to Massachusetts. Massachusetts has one of the largest problems BECAUSE IT IS A MONOLITHIC DEMOCRATIC STATE. Bay State residents expected the Obama Administration to deliver on the promise of "New Politcs" and save them from the petty blue hegemonists who make everyday life in Massachusetts miserable.
But the Obama Adminstration did not deliver; rather it catered to the Martha's Vineyard vacation crowd.
Joan Venocchi had a wonderful column in the Boston Globe recommended by a commenter on my last diary: http://www.boston.com/... There, Venocchi explains the series of Democratic Party corruption scandals in Massachusetts that conditioned yesterday's vote. To the extent that Martha Coakley was to blame, it's not because of her campaign strategy as much as the fact that she has served as the state attorney general while these scandals have broken -- a pattern we see unfolding in Ohio as we speak.
Asking the people of Massachusetts to promote the attorney general to U.S. Senator at a time when horrible abuses of public power are going unprosecuted on a state and national level was asking way too much.
Get the message?
Unlike the Democratic pundits, who clearly do not and will never get the message, I think the Obama Administration does have a clue. It was no accident that the Administration announced its campaign for reform of the financial system on Monday -- clearly a step that should have been taken before tackling health care reform.
It's a good step, like other necessary steps. Obviously the "Nebraska exception" must be removed from the HRC bill without delay. Financial system reform is one of those things necessary to deliver on the Obama promise. But giving the national electorate "reform" at this stage (through the vehicle of a new government commission) is like feeding rice cakes to hungry lions.
The torch and pitchfork-wielding masses hunger no longer for reform at this point. They thirst for blood. They want to see bank presidents, energy moguls, insurance schysters, corrupt Democratic governors, judges, and members of congress in jail. Instead, many of those would-be jailbirds are running for reelection, and some with official White House support.
Not since the 1960s, with Attorneys General Robert Kennedy and Ramsey Clark, has this country seen a concerted attempt by the federal government to prosecute corruption. It's been way too long, and that's why the problem has grown to such huge proportions.
There is salvation for the Demnocratic Party, but it's not for the denialists or the weak-willed. It rests primarily on the person of Attorney General Eric Holder. If Holder now announces that the Department of Justice is launching a full-scale war on political corruption, and if, in the next six months, we see indictments leading to prosecution of major figures in government and industry, that will satisfy the nation's healthy blood lust. Only then can Democrats run and win with pride in November 2010.
Anything else, anything less, and we're going to see a midterm election that makes all Democrats cringe. And the focal point for that bloodletting will be Ohio, with an open Senate seat and the governorship on the ballot, where the national Tea Party is based, where the 2011 reapportionment is at stake in a state that will lose two congressional seats. Ohio, where the scale of corruption, the culpability of major candidates, and the readiness of the state's GOP-controlled newspapers to broadcast the scandals will make New Jersey and Massachusetts look like exhibition games.
Now the real season is starting. Will Barack Obama come to praise the rotten Democrats running for reelection, or to indict them? Therein, the future of the party lies.