Alright, President Obama. You've done well, these past few weeks. Senate Majority Leader Reid, you've fought for us in a way I despaired of ever seeing. Speaker Pelosi, you've gotten quite a bit done in the waning hours of your majority in the House.
Don't let the beginning of the 112th Congress become the end of this flurry of activity. I hope you're learning the right way to negotiate with Republicans - don't give up the important stuff, because they certainly won't be.
So, let's make a deal, Mr. President. Let's make a deal, Congressional Democrats. The deal is this: you work for us, and we'll work for you. 2012 is coming soon.
It seems like it shouldn't even need explaining, but here's how this works. The amount of support and effort you get from the progressives in the 2012 elections will be directly proportional to the amount of effort you spend supporting progressive priorities.
Sounds simple, right?
You fight for us the way you've been doing lately, for the next two years, and we will absolutely bust our asses for you in 2012.
You "fight" for us the way you have for most of the 111th Congress, giving up at the first sign of trouble and letting the Republicans obstruct everything without even holding them accountable? ...Well, we'll probably show up to vote.
You spend all your political capital pushing for progressive reforms, and we'll be spending quite a bit to get your ads on the air. You give our causes tepid support and don't follow it up with anything resembling action? Sure, we'll keep on blogging, but don't expect to see millions of us working on GOTV.
It's pretty simple, Democrats. You get our back, and we've got yours. You leave us hanging? Well, there's no way in hell I'm voting for Sarah Palin and the Tea Party in 2012, but that doesn't mean I have to be excited about voting for Barack Obama and the Democrats instead.