Demoralized? Don't want to hear about it.
Sure, the economy sucks and things are tough...the numbers are bleak...the Empire Star Destroyer is coming into range...
When all else fails, send in the Wookiee...okay, anyone who knows my work, please refrain from the obvious retort.
Anyway, enough of the banter, I'm serious here. I'm CLAPPING LOUDER, you bet I am...
Come over the jump and I'll tell you why.
Suppose I live on a street that has a speed limit of 50mph, which I know to be far too high. It should be thirty; if it isn't lowered, there will be more accidents.
So I argue for a 30mph speed limit.
My local Dems manage to get through a bill that lowers the speed limit from 50mph to 40mph.
My local Republicans go crazy and vow to repeal the change.
A week later, I get a call from a polling place asking whether I "Approve" or "Disapprove" of the 40mph law.
Remember, I wanted 30 - I'm sure that it needs to get to 30. 40 is still too fast!
So what do I do?
I "Approve!"
Why? Because when that poll comes out, if people who feel as I do choose to "disapprove," it strengthens the Republicans. When they can show 57% disapproval (even if 20% of those are doing so because they want it set at 30mph), the issue becomes one in their favor.
Why? Because they know something many people I speak to simply do not seem to understand. I'm a political junkie. I follow the issues. I read blogs, like this one. I know the issues.
I am not the average voter. The average voter has no idea whether President Obama or President Bush started TARP. The average voter doesn't know much about PPACA, and it will take time for the him/her to see the results of it - and even then, the counter-spin machine will deflect and do everything it can to untie those positive effects from PPACA.
In this speed limit example I offer, if people of like mind to me choose to "disapprove," the average voter will see that MOST people don't like the speed limit change, and so they will, in their ignorance of the implications/ramifications/details of the change, figure it must suck - I mean, after all, look how many people don't like it, right?
So the Republicans win.
On the other hand, were I and others of like mind to me to "approve" of the speed limit change, then it would poll in the low-60's, and the Republicans...would just shut up about it. What choice would they have? And then I, and my like-minded friends could CLAP LOUDER and reward those who had the courage to take on the long-standing speed limit, and push them for more.
That is my experience and understanding of how "it" works.
So I'm CLAPPING LOUDER.
I'm measuring everything the Democrats and President Obama do, not against what I WANT, but against the status quo.
Credit Card Reform...should have had interest rate caps, dammit! But it is better than the previous status quo.
PPACA...should have had a public option, dammit! But it is better than the previous status quo.
Finance Reform...should have had a stronger version of the Volcker rule, dammit! But it is better than the previous status quo.
You get my point.
I am seeing this same pattern in pretty much everything coming out of Pelosi's House, Reid's Senate (okay, they NEED to be doing more there) and President Obama's White House.
Better than the status quo.
I'm in my 50's now. I've been following politics with more than a casual interest since August 8, 1974, when my father sat me down in front of the television and said, "Watch this. This is history."
I've got friends - intelligent, successful friends - with whom I viscerally disagree on issue after issue. I listen when they argue; I hope they return the favor and truly try to see my point of view, as I do for them. I work very hard to not live in a bubble of like-minded people.
Life is complicated. I do not for a moment pretend that my views are so completely, awesomely correct that everyone in the world will agree with me, if they only understand the simple truths that I see so clearly.
I have a doctor friend who insists that he did not spend ten years of his life training so that he could work for the government, for example. He is a brilliant, compassionate man who has to tell people terrible things all the time, who fights for his patients to the point where he hardly sleeps when he thinks he's missing something...and who has to spend quite a bit of time treating healthy people who are on "disability" for no reason he can fathom.
Like I said, life is complicated.
And politics is blood sport, particularly when you're against a Republican Party that has its own network and controls almost all of radio. Put on talk radio here in New England and you'll hear about "demoncrats" and "criminaliens." Put on sports radio here in New England, and you'll hear about "libtards." Put on Rock Radio here in New England and you'll hear about our "socialist President."
Here in Scott Brown land (the most popular politician in Massachusetts? Really?), I understand what President Obama is up against.
I'm measuring everything the Democrats and President Obama do, not against what I WANT, but against the status quo.
I know, bad taste quoting myself, but really, that's the whole point. Better than the status quo - and by that measure, I'm CLAPPING LOUDER.
Particularly when I view the train wreck that whistling down the rails if people like me stop clapping.
You betcha.
/wink
UPDATE: Thanks for a good discussion. I really don't want a pie fight - the time for that is NOT NOW, not with Issa wringing his hands in anticipation of grasping a gavel, not with O'Donnell and Angle and Palin waiting in the wings. I think we're on the same side; this diary is meant to explain a tactic in a strategy, and is not in any way meant as an insult.
I insist that if PPACA was polling in the 60's, we'd see more Dems pushing for more reforms.
I truly believe that.