Leaving The Bar Of Expectations On The Ground

by tristero

The Most Trusted Man In America makes the same point here that I tried to make in the past few days. Coakley may not be exactly the greatest campaigner (duh) but considering what’s at stake – and what the national party clearly knew was at stake – the fault that this is even close lies squarely with the shitty leadership at the top of the Dems. With a supermajority so fragile as the current one, you don’t take anything for granted.

(And let’s face it: Republicans were gunning for Kennedy’s seat for a very long time. What? You think the transgender Sarah Palin that is the GOP nominee for Mass Senate just dropped out of a clear blue sky? You think they weren’t paying attention and just got lucky? Puh-leeze!)

Some commenters noted that Dean wouldn’t have let this happen if he was still heading the Dems. Perhaps not, but regardless of the outcome today – and for God’s sake, if you live in Massachusetts, go out today and vote for Coakley! – if the same people are in charge tomorrow – that is, if there haven’t been major league high-level firings in the Dem party over the Mass mess – then you can expect similar disasters this fall.

What’s the solution? Donate directly to progressive candidates. Vote, if you can, for progressive Democrats via third party tickets (here in NY, we can do that via the Working Families Party). And, as Digby intimated recently, don’t give up.

This country’s politics are clearly in a state of rapid, dramatic transition. A transition to exactly what is far from clear. The way I see it, we may resume our rapid descent into the abyss of fascism so ruthlessly engineered by Nixon, Reagan and the two Bushes.To be sure, that is a very likely future for America, post-Obama. However, instead, we may build upon and “professionalize” the liberal, widely popular movements that rallied behind Obama in ’08 and restore the messy, far from perfect, but nonetheless liberal democracy that was America before the modern rightwing proceeded to wreck the country and discard our values.

Really, we don’t have a choice. Many of us have already forgotten what it was like under Bush, when an American government hellbent on establishing fascism by any means necessary was in power. But I haven’t. Murders, torture, a country left permanently undefended from perils both manmade and natural, arbitrary imprisonment, censorship, stolen elections, joblessness, thievery, greed, hypocrisy and lawlessness enshrined as moral values, increased poverty and ill health.