Deactivating the Democratic base

Aimai in Investment 11/30/09 No More Mister Nice Blog gives a good, brief description with reference to her own experience as an Obama activist of why the Blue Dog strategy that has had a disporportionate influence on the Obama administration's approach to governance was bad for the immediate prospects of the Democratic Party and of progressive reform:

If I fault the Obama administration for anything it is that they allowed all that sense of voter investment to die off. I don't have the sense that people watched the inauguration--the high point of my life, certainly--and thought "ok, now I can chill." People were hungry to be called to service, and to be trusted with stuff do to, but the Obama campaign put them out to pasture and only weakly appealed to them late in the Health Care Debate. I know because I stopped getting useful organizational materials and started getting annoying vague appeals to "support the president" by "calling my representatives" or donating money. Previously I could have discovered online groups pushing specific policy proposals, or asking me to go door to door with some kind of locally responsive action agenda. [my emphasis in bold]

And she points to something that is a useful lesson for Democrats in the Tea Party movement:

I hate to go for the sentiment but "in the end, the love you take, is equal to the love you make" goes double for political action. People are hungry to work with and for their own lives--the teabaggers are proof positive that people will heave themselves up out of their easy chairs, stand in the rain, wear silly clothing--if they feel that their political leaders are asking this sacrifice of them, and if they feel that they will be listened to if they do it. The Obama Administration, unlike the Obama campaign, has forgotten this simple fact and true: the more your trust and empower your supporters the more they are invested in you and your goals. Its a virtuous circle.

Democratic progressives don't have to fold our hands and cynically declare "a plague on both your houses" and enjoy our moral superiority in doing so while getting nothing done.

But we do have the option of supporting activist groups and organizations that are not controlled by the Democratic Party that support health care reform and comprehensive immigration reforms, or that oppose the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars or support union organizing. We can support groups backing "fighting Dem" primary opponents to Blue Dog Democrats. In terms of pressuring Obama, building up the Democratic Caucus in the House and their allies in the Senate is critically important. We need Paul Wellstone Democrats as the Senate Majority Leader and as Committee chairs, not Harry Reids and Ben Nelsons.

Tags: democratic party, obama administration