Even last night's Republican-heavy electorate backed "amnesty" by strong margins, yet Democrats remain scared.
One of the ongoing lessons Democrats refuse to learn is that when they run scared, they lose. Obamacare is the obvious example, particularly in Kentucky, where Democratic Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes refused to talk about Obamacare/Kentucky Kynect, even though over 400,000 of her state's residents were newly insured because of the program. "He wants to take away your health insurance" was too obvious apparently. Her campaign argued that talking about it would be engaging in "Washington arguments," because 1) apparently she never intended to go to Washington, and 2) what happens to 400,000 of her constituents is only relevant in Washington.
Not to mention that Grimes was an Obama delegate. If you're too afraid to admit what everyone already knows, that she voted for him, then how can they trust her to be truthful with stuff that really matters? Indeed, how can anyone expect Democrats to fight for what's important if they're too afraid to even admit they support that stuff?
Like immigration. After years of delays, immigrant rights advocates were assured that the president would issue a series of executive orders to path up our broken immigration system. Sure, Republicans squawked, but that was irrelevant. It was a collective freakout from Sens. Mark Pryor, Mary Landrieu, and Kay Hagan that convinced President Barack Obama to stay his order. Of course, it did those candidates no good, and had the added benefit of taking down Colorado's Mark Udall, who saw a drop in critical Latino support.
But here's the kicker, from last night's national House exit poll:
Most Illegal Immigrants Working in U.S. Should Be:
Offered legal status: 57
Deported: 39
The correct side of this issue is the POPULAR side. How often do we see this with Democrats, afraid to do the CORRECT thing. It's enough to pull out one's hair! Even among
Republicans, a third of them opt for "amnesty." Yet Democrats can't embrace this? They can't make a case that they're the part of helping people, and that includes immigrant communities that have built the very fabric of this nation?
And not just immigration, but pretty much everything else. Remember, this is a GOP-heavy electorate. Yet 65 percent are pro-choice, just 25 percent wanted abortion to be illegal. On pot, it was 49-47 in favor of legalization of marijuana, and like marriage equality, those opinions are shifting rapidly. On marriage equality, supporters edged detractors 49-48, with a full 31 percent of Republicans supporting it.
And here's a good one that bears further scrutiny: Just 48 percent of this GOP-heavy electorate thought that the Affordable Care Act "went too far." They couldn't even muster a full majority for repeal. Twenty-five percent said it "did not go far enough," another 21 percent said it was "about right."
So there you have it. Democrats either had a clear majority or a split decision on pretty much every issue discussed in the exit polls, and on every single one of them Democrats (as a whole) have run scared, rather than proudly embrace. And as we see, midterm cycle after midterm cycle, that fear does not sell.
Because, again, if you won't stand for what is right when it is popular, how the hell will you do it when it is not?