Hoo, boy.
Republicans have a lot to be happy about. So, I guess, does anybody else who’s upset with President Obama, Democrats, and the federal government. Some of us have a lot to be worried about after last week’s election, though. And at the moment, I’m not seeing any silver linings.
Just for instance: Come January, Republicans will be in an even better position to block Obama’s appointments and nominations. Approval of the Keystone Pipeline looks almost certain – not to mention other initiatives that the fossil-fuel industry wants. We’ll likely get bigger defense budgets – and lots of hearings and investigations.
Republicans in Congress are still a fractious group, obviously. And on some issues, they’ll have to compromise with Democrats to get anything done. But Democrats have their own divisions. And with 2016 elections looming, some of them seem so spooked that they may cave on things like protecting the Affordable Care Act.
Also unknown: whether Obama will move further to the right. Plenty of people are insisting that he learn from the election and change his ways. Is he spooked, too?
As Paul Krugman said in the Times on Friday, though, winning doesn’t mean you’re right. On inequality, labor, infrastructure, public health, and civil rights, liberals are more closely aligned with the interests of low- and middle-income Americans than Republicans are.
Nor should it be hard to convince voters that climate change is a matter of crucial national and international security, human rights, fiscal prudence, health, and species survival. And that Republicans’ approach to foreign policy is both dangerous and fiscally irresponsible. (Among the many serious results of last week’s election: John McCain is likely to head the Senate Armed Services Committee.)
In “Running from Obama Hurt Dems,” on the online news site The Root, Peniel Joseph lashed out at the Democratic Party’s “Obama Avoidance Syndrome.”
“Rather than join forces and extol the president’s leadership on domestic issues, especially with regard to unemployment, health care, and the environment,” Joseph wrote, “Democrats abandoned the president and, in the process, allowed Republicans to successfully shape this year’s message.”
“2016 will indeed be a referendum on the Obama administration and the Democratic Party’s willingness to embrace the president’s legacy,” Joseph said. “If, as they did this year, Democrats cut and run rather than stand and fight, we will surely see a Republican president inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2017.”
Democrats “must rediscover their political identity,” Joseph wrote. “Obama’s call for hope and change in 2008 helped to revive the party’s liberal and progressive wing. In passing the Affordable Care Act, Obama succeeded in institutionalizing the signal policy achievement of our era. The inability of the entire party, now, to run on that signal achievement stands out as a failure of imagination, character, and integrity.”
This country hasn’t rejected progressive values. Same-sex marriage is legal in 32 states. Last week, voters in Alaska, Arkansas, Nebraska, and South Dakota – all red states – approved boosting the minimum wage. Voters in Florida came close to legalizing medical marijuana, approving it by 57.6 percent. (Legalization required 60 percent approval.)
We can wish that Obama had been stronger during the midterm campaign, that he had been the fiery crusader he was as a candidate in 2008. We can wish that Democrats had joined with him and reminded voters what Democrats stand for – and what a Republican victory could bring. But that’s almost irrelevant now.
What Obama and the Democrats in Congress do in the next two years is not irrelevant, though. They can do what they’ve done in the past two years. Or they can unite around the progressive issues that got Obama elected in 2008, remind Americans of how closely their own goals align with those of traditional Democrats, and seek common ground with moderate Republicans if they can find any common ground. (And if they can find any moderate Republicans.)
This article appears in Nov 12-18, 2014.
Many (not all) of the states Republicans won in the Senate last week were vulnerable seats for Democrats anyway. State politics are becoming closer aligned with how states vote in presidential elections, especially in off-year cycles. Each midterm election except for 1998 and 2002 in recent political history has thrown out the President’s party. South Dakota and Alaska haven’t voted for a Democrat for President since 1964. Montana hasn’t since 1992. Louisiana and Arkansas last turned blue for Billy Clinton in 1996. As for Colorado, Mark Udall wasn’t a particularly inspiring candidate; but he still held Garner under 50% of the vote. Another problem (which unfortunately didn’t happen in NY) is the backlash to the so-called “war on women”. It became more of a cliché slogan than a campaign strategy, in part b/c women can see when they are being pandered to. Telling women to vote for you b/c you support abortion rights is sexist. Women care about a helluva lot more than abortion (at least the women I know do). Minimum wage, child care subsidies, environment (anti-fracking and Keystone pipeline), health care, etc. But no no, by all means, women are singularly monolithic in their ideas and only care about the right to abortion. Right. Just like all men care about is the right to keep guns. That’s one reason Wendy Abbott did so poorly in Texas. You can’t repeat one idiotic slogan over and over. It doesn’t work even for the Republicans. Also 2/3rds of eligible voters didn’t vote.
“On inequality, labor, infrastructure, public health, and civil rights, liberals are more closely aligned with the interests of low and middle income Americans than Republicans are.” Without picking apart each item here, this election would seem to indicate that any and all critical issues to the average citizen who cared to vote, were positions support by the Conservative and Republican right. Otherwise the Democrats would not have suffered such a TERRIBLE lost. You went on to say Climate Change should be an item high on a voter’s concern list. Yet, if you Google “polls us citizen”, climate change does not even show up on the first page. If you Google “polls us citizen climate change” every article I checked, and there are many, were written by climate change groups and they all believe at least 67% of all Americans think it is important. Maybe you personally should broaden a bit what you read. You go on to criticize those “Democrats” who abandoned the President and his policies. Just maybe they read articles by others than those who are part of the Progressive and Extreme Left, who at least somewhat tell the truth about the President and his policies, they are failing. The leader you love has failed over and over, in one issue after another. What is worst, most of those failings are linked to a scandal. Mary Ann, you go on the say that “Hope and Change” helped pass the Affordable Care Act. This happens to be the latest Presidential scandal. The architect of the Affordable Care Bill has been exposed via videos that he, closely working with the White House, specifically lied about “Keeping your Doctor, Keeping your Insurance”, “Paying for insurance who used it by those who did not use it”, “You will pay $2,500 less with the act” and “It is not a tax” SO THAT THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT WILL PASS IN CONGRESS. He even went on to say that HE WAS COUNTING ON THE STUPIDITY OF THE AVERAGE CITIZEN to pass the bill. Mary Ann you end with “What Obama and the Democrats do in the next two years is not irrelevant, though. They can do what they’ve done in the past two years. Or they can do unite around the progressive issues that got Obama elected in 2008, remind Americans of how closely their own goals align with those of traditional Democrats and seek common ground with moderate Republicans….” First of all what Democrats have done in the past two years is exactly what they have been doing since this President was elected in 2008. They have gained their support from the voters using phrases and promises they never keep. To even dare to call a “traditional Democrat” a progressive is terribly offensive. Traditional Democrats were for majority rule and care of the poor. The Progressive of today believes “they know best” what society needs and plan to create an America based on that philosophy. In other worlds, “the ideas of the few to control the world of the many”. The biggest problem the Progressive Democrat has today is that they have run out of “HOT BUTTON” items to cause the “uninformed voter” to get excited about. Same sex marriage is being accepted. Climate change has been exposed as opinion and not science. Abortion and contraception is no longer an issue which can be construed as the most important issue for women. Women are not one issue voters. The word “racism” has been over used by the Democrats in describing the attitudes of Republicans and Conservatives and even the average citizen has seen through that lie. As I see it, with no hot buttons, the progressives may just loose a lot more elections and again maybe recede into the far distant pass, in the political eyes of this country. Other than that, please Mary Ann keep pushing your Progressive agenda, it gives me something to respond to ….