dagblog - Comments for "My Adopted Progressive"

Thanks, Ramona. And so sorry

AmericanDreamer — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 04:04:50 +0000

In reply to So sorry your candidate lost,

Thanks, Ramona. And so sorry your candidate lost as well.

Your last comment reminds me of a TV ad for that old TV show "Dallas". In it, the show's lead villian/character, the vile scumbag oil man played by Larry Hagman, says with a broad smile, "Once you give up your integrity, the rest is easy!"

So sorry your candidate lost,

Ramona — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 03:56:00 +0000

In reply to I added short writeups of the

So sorry your candidate lost, but good for you for supporting him so strongly. So many good Dems got caught in the crossfire this year. I'm mourning the loss of Russ Feingold, and in my own state, Michigan, my choice for governor, Virg Bernero, lost to Rick Snyder, who worked for Gateway and was responsible for outsourcing thousands of jobs. Bernero, the mayor of Lansing, is unabashedly pro-labor and is responsible for bringing thousands of jobs to Lansing and to Michigan.

Snyder had plenty of money and ran a commercial over and over again for weeks that said Bernero nearly destroyed Lansing, when just the opposite was true. Shows what the combination of tons of money and no conscience will do.

I added short writeups of the

AmericanDreamer — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 03:35:03 +0000

In reply to My Adopted Progressive

I added short writeups of the two poll shifts I worked at the end of the initial post. This is VA-10, held for 30 years by Republican Frank Wolf.

Results:

FrankWolf (R) 130,627 62.9%

Jeff Barnett (D) 72,274 34,8%

Turnout was 207,668 of 495,398 active registered voters, 41.9%

Wolf won our precinct, 51%-48%. Barnett narrowly carried two nearby precincts and lost narrowly in a third. Our precinct Chair is outstanding.

The margin for the part of the CD in Fairfax County, where we live, was roughly 40,000 to 28,000, 58% to 40%.

Fairfax County, which has about a million residents, has been trending towards the Democrats over the past couple of decades. It went Democratic in a presidential election in 2004 for the first time since 1964. Kerry won our precinct 58%-42%. Obama won it 60%-39%.

Judy Feder, a health care policy specialist, had done better in the previous two challenges for the House seat. In 2006, she lost to Wolf 57%-41% overall, while winning our precinct 51%-48%. In 2008 she lost 54%-43% overall, losing our precinct 57%-41%.

Just a tough year for any Democrat to run. Barnett was a candidate I was proud to support.

Good!! Logical.

Richard Day — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 17:57:12 +0000

In reply to My Adopted Progressive

Good!! Logical.

I should have written that,

AmericanDreamer — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 22:26:48 +0000

In reply to Big kudos to you for standing

I should have written that, outside of Articleman, the DCCC probably has as good a sense as anyone about which House races are winnable at this point.

I came across and read some of barth's recent thread after this post, which of course prompted me again to wonder if I am crazy to invest effort in the Democratic party.

The House has put itself out there on a number of issues, as by far the most progressive as between the White House so far and the Senate. Pelosi has been about as much of an asskicker to try to get the minority of Dems who have had to be dragged kicking and screaming on some votes as we could possibly hope for. I believe she herself very much desires and would welcome the opportunity to vote on, more progressive initiatives than so far, if the White House will also put itself out there to give her caucus at least some cover. The House actually did pass a jobs creation bill that was about 10 times as large as the Senate passed (roughly $200 billion vs. $20 billion). I know Democrats, including many House Democrats, have been begging the White House behind the scenes to support much more aggressive action on jobs. There is a lot to admire about this House from a progressive point of view when you compare it not to perfection but to actual, past Houses. I think it would be a colossal setback to lose the majority there.

In the Senate, it's a fundamentally busted institution. It will never change its rules with Republicans in the majority because it is their ace in the hole if a progressive head of steam ever gets going. In the past I have given some to the DSCC, but more to individual candidates and senators I thought were worth taking a chance on.

These included Jim Webb, Bob Casey, Ned Lamont (in both the primary and general), Russ Feingold, Sherrod Brown, and Al Franken. The first of these, Webb, has been a colossal disappointment so far. Casey, I say less confidently because I've not been following him as closely as Webb, has been somewhat disappointing. I don't see him out there on lunchbucket issues as much as I'd like to and as much as his campaign rhetoric suggested he wanted to be. Brown, Feingold and Franken are all generally wonderful (I'm sure I could find specific things each has done that I'd disagree with.) Lamont just ran a crappy general election campaign. I don't regret supporting his attempt to oust Lieberman.

Because it is clearly the case that not all Democrats are progressive, those who are tend to suffer. To me it doesn't follow that because significant numbers of Dems are not progressive, none are worth supporting. Significant numbers of Dems are progressive, or winnable to taking a tough progressive vote, as I see it. I can't think of a single Republican I would characterize in that way on more than maybe a stray issue or two.

In response to one of your comments in the thread, destor, the Democrats do not own, and have never owned, my vote.

They have until now been able to count on my strong support for the past 30 years. I am at the point where I no longer have any commitment to automatically supporting the party after this election cycle. I am going to wait and see what the response of the party's leadership is to next month's results. If they conclude they were punished for being "too liberal" and move towards "the center" there is an excellent chance I will no longer support the party in the next election cycle. I simply don't believe either solutions to, or progress in addressing, any of the urgent problems lie in what is now defined as the political "center". So I would see no point in supporting a party committed to "moving to the center" at this juncture in our country's history, given the specific problems we have and ways I am able to imagine them being tackled with any degree of success.

I would enthusiastically support a party that is committed to moving the center back in a progressive direction. I think what separates some nominal Dems from some still-committed Dems is that the former do not appear to believe there is any possibility of sustained incremental progress leading to decent results over time, whereas some among the latter do.

If the Dem party leadership draws what I believe is the correct conclusion following the November elections, which is that they were punished because they didn't move far enough on enough key issues and were perceived as far too unwilling to fight Republican obstruction and the powerful special interests blocking progress, that's a different matter. I'll have to see what they actually do over the next two years.

I take seriously the claims that to support Democrats is the morally wrong or practically wrong, or both, thing to do under the circumstances. I'm not at that point. I am a hell of a lot closer to it than I've ever been---and than I hoped I'd ever be.

Big kudos to you for standing

Tom — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 15:33:00 +0000

In reply to My Adopted Progressive

Big kudos to you for standing up for someone you care about, and trying to give him a chance.

I am going to adopt Feingold, on the theory that the Senate is close, and his voice is even more important than the ordinary vote there.

I do think control of the House is the most logical thing for the left to focus on right now, and former Orleans guitarist John Hall (Still the One) in NY-19 is another one I may give to.