November 5, 2014 /

Time To Put The Donkey Down

After last nights humiliating defeat, Democrats need to either do a total reboot, or just give up.

Time To Put The Donkey Down

The day after finger pointing has begun in a huge way. First, let’s head to the White House:

Two things were clear long before the votes were counted on Tuesday night: President Obama would face a Congress with more Republicans for his final two years in office, and the results would be seen as a repudiation of his leadership.

But that was not the way Mr. Obama saw it. The electoral map was stacked against him, he argued, making Democrats underdogs from the start. And his own party kept him off the trail, meaning he never really got the chance to make his case. “You’re in the Final Four,” as one aide put it, “and you’re on the bench with a walking boot and you don’t get to play.”

I agree that Democrats shouldn’t have shunned the President, but why didn’t Obama push back harder? Reading this makes me feel that all the GOP hype about Obama “not playing well” could be true, and then I read this:

After years of tension between President Obama and his former Senate colleagues, trust between Democrats at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue had eroded. A fight between the White House and Senate Democrats over a relatively small sum of money had mushroomed into a major confrontation.

At a March 4 Oval Office meeting, Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) and other Senate leaders pleaded with Obama to transfer millions in party funds and to also help raise money for an outside group. “We were never going to get on the same page,” said David Krone, Reid’s chief of staff. “We were beating our heads against the wall.”

So we got Reid essentially blaming Obama now. 

How about this? It’s both your damn faults! But neither will admit that, and instead go on to their strawman – “the lazy Democratic voter”. Yes, that’s the other message we’re hearing now, how Democrats just won’t bother to vote. Well they would if they weren’t ashamed of their party acting childish and were actually given something to be motivated by.

Last night Democrats lost, but progressivism won big time. 4 typically red states voted to increase the minimum wage. Colorado, a bellwether if there ever was one, rejected a person hood amendment. Oregon and DC voted to legalize marijuana. All this in an election where Republican turnout stomped Democratic turnout. Democrats – your issues won, your leadership lost!

Another issue I saw was healthcare. It was the second most important issue in the exit polls. 48% wanted repeal and 46% thought it was good or should be better. That’s essentially an even split, then when you look into that 46% number, 21% thought the law did enough, while 25% thought it didn’t do enough. This again takes me back to failed leadership.

When the law passed in 2010 and many of us on the left complained that it didn’t do enough, the Obamabots came after us. They tried to reassure us saying “Congress will fix it”, then the GOP took over the House. That then changed to “well they will fix it when they get control”. I’m sorry, but save the bullshit excuses. Republicans knew they had zero chance of repealing Obamacare, yet that didn’t stop them from voting to do just that over 50 times. Yes it was a political stunt, and it worked! Voters saw the House Republicans trying to do what they wanted, and they got rewarded yesterday. On the left side of the aisle, we got the party of whiners, licking their wounds and going “but, but, but”. In the whole history of motivation, how in the hell does that help?

Democrats need to grow some balls. Don’t sit there and runaway from an issue just because half the people don’t like it, and many of those the reason is they don’t understand it. Instead educate the voters, embrace what you have done and fucking sell it! 

But the most troubling is what I saw happen right here in Ohio. Republicans swept state offices by huge margins. We had a state Democratic Party that did not do shit this cycle. If that continues into 2016, then the White House will most likely go to the GOP in 2016. But they aren’t worried about looking at the actual problems, but instead pointing fingers at one another.

Wake up! You got two years to get your shit together, and I’m not really hopeful at this point.

 

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