Please! Please! No!
Sorry, yes, I’m announcing the beginning of the 2010 congressional election season. I know you are all fatigued over the recent elections, and in some cases you are still inducing officials to count votes, but we have no time to lose. The next elections are critical, maybe even more important than the one just passed. That’s because nothing that we just fought for will happen unless we get moving. We are already losing ground because the opposition is operating behind the scenes to start shaping the outcome of this election.
If you thought that healthcare would be reformed, or troops withdrawn from Iraq, or the economy turned away from the abyss, I’m afraid I have bad news. There’s no guarantee any of that will happen unless the actors in Washington believe that they must do so in order to save their hides in the next election. I’m particularly talking about hides in the halls of the House, where we’ve seen little inclination to get off the gravy train without a heave-ho from the conductor. So, I’m opening up hunting season for hides in Congress and I’m looking for the next batch of candidates to step up to the fence and start shooting.
Metaphorically speaking, of course.
Look, the Republicans are already talking about how Obama should make a bold move from the center and express his fiscal responsibility by not raising any taxes. Chris Matthews accused them of “speaking with forked tongues” because they took a slight loss for Bush and turned it into a mandate, but they want the Democrats to pussyfoot around. (For some reason, a Democratic landslide has him talking like a Democrat. Remarkable!)
Obama, for his part, has chosen a representative of the middle as his chief of staff. In order to make nice with Republicans he could very easily sell out the Democratic wing of his party so that he can “get things done”. I don’t suppose you noticed, but he got maybe the bulk of his money from small donations. Cheers! Cheers for democracy! Only. Only, there’s just one little hitch to that. He isn’t beholden to anyone. So, why does he need to please you, O Netroots? He doesn’t. Not unless you force him to.
The only effective way to force these people to progress (as in “be progressive”, i.e., liberal) is to threaten to take away their jobs in the next election. We can do that if we start now. And, the way to do that is to target the House seats, which all become vacant in two years, with the intention of putting someone more liberal in each one.
For the ones with Republican incumbents, that’s easy. Just put up a Democrat. Almost by definition that’s going to be someone more liberal than the current officeholder. Pick the Democrat with the highest chance of winning and you’ve basically got a better outcome.
For the Democratic incumbents, that means finding someone more liberal than the current office holder and getting them to run in the next primary.
The math is simple. To get a more progressive Congress, you find and run someone more progressive than the current occupant in each and every district. That forces all the arguments to the left, taking all the results along, regardless of who wins.
So, I’m asking. I’m pleading. I’m begging, on my knees. Come out, come out, wherever you are, liberal candidates, and run for Congress in 2010! Who will be the first to sign up?
If you don’t want to run, yourself, perhaps you know someone who would. Please ask. Please ask around and see if you can find someone who will be willing to run in the 2010 elections.
Our country depends on it.