It’s the morning after an election that I thought I was prepared to lose (if that’s where the night took us). I was wrong. Instead, I’m angry. Not at Walker or even the Republicans, but at a Democratic Party for embracing a philosophy of mediocre, middle of the road, handpicked candidates. At a Democratic Party for encouraging candidates to run away from our Democratic President. At a Democratic Party for being ashamed of true liberal principles like promoting national health care reform, common sense gun control, pro-labor/anti-trade legislation, women’s rights, the environment, progressive tax reform, protecting against voter suppression efforts, social and moral values, etc.
So this is my plea to the Democratic Party: It’s time for a major switch in philosophy. It’s time to get bold. It’s time to get bad ass. It’s time to make your case. It’s time to grow a pair. It’s time to be loud and proud of the Democratic Party platform.
Voters respect boldness. Republican leaders have figured out that this is the way to win. Why can’t Democrats? Conservatives have the Tea Party. Where is our extreme left? What do we have? Nothing, because the Democratic Party (State and National) are simply too scared to embrace “the fringe”.
AGREED
Adam,right on! But excuse the expression.
Candidates should have been doubling down on Obamacare,the greatest piece of social legislation since FDR gave us Social Security and Lyndon Johnson gave us Medicare.
I am so proud to be a Democrat with our party’s legislative emphasis on caring for the elderly and the sick. Or as Pope Francis expressed in “The Joy of the Gospel,” (209): “…we are called to care for the vulnerable of the earth.”
Agreed. Buncha cowards, these Dems. One correction: I think you meant to type “protecting *against* voter suppression efforts.”
What an absolute joke. The reason that liberals aren’t bold is because you can’t get elected on hyper liberal principles. Libs spend all of there time pretending they are conservative. Even Obama talked like a conservative to get elected. I agree. Get bold!?? Let the people see what you really are!!! I love conservative majorities!
Really? What are our “lib principles”. Please enlighten us, Chris, and keep adding bills to the payback that we all know is coming.
If you read the results of ballot measures across the nation, it was the progressive ones that got the most support, and the wacky right-wing ones were put down. If Dems stopped chasing mushy big-money “centrists” (whoever they are) and actually hammered home “lib principles”, they’d win. A lot.
I agree it is not only time to get bold, but also time to embrace the fringe. Any Democratic candidate that did not embrace our president deserved to lose last night.
I would agree with Chris’s last couple of sentences. What pisses progressives off is that democratic candidates sound too much like republicans. Many people have compared Obama to Eisenhower. Republican Lite. And why have the lite version if you can have the real thing (in beer as well). The politicians that speak for the progressive wing are Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. Polls and voting suggest that more people would support progressive ideas, if the fricking democrats could figure out how to get that message out. Red states passed an increase to the minimum wage, but watched democratic candidates go down, because they didn’t tie themselves to that issue. I would rather lose elections standing up for what I think is right than sound like a republican, and lose anyway. It’s time for the Dems to stop being the party of any particular minority group and start at least attempting to speak for the Middle Class. Yes, white middle class voters that abandoned them in the ’70s. Hell, we’ve got an administration that ‘solved’ the economic crisis of ’08 by giving Wall Street, that created the mess, billions of dollars.
Start voting Green Party until the Dems come back around on the issues. Unless enough people start doing that, the DNC will keep steering the party more and more to the right.
I agree on the “handpicked candidates” part. Anointing Ms. Burke was a mistake – I don’t believe she “earned” many votes beyond the anti-Walker starting point. A candidate like Feingold, Kind or even Vinehout would have attracted many votes beyond that starting point.
Democrats, please keep going further to the left. Please keep thinking that Wisconsin, or this country for that matter, want’s to be a socialist nation. That is the recipe for success said no sane person ever. Please keep Mike Tate and Graeme Zielinski on your pay rolls. They have been the best thing that has ever happened to the Republican party in Wisconsin.
The reason why all of these prominent Democrats never run as the true liberals that they are is because liberalism is unpopular, plain and simple. I know in Madistan it may be but the majority of Wisconsinites are not lefties, their may be a majority of blue collar Democrats in this state but they are not “blue fisters”.
You will all continue to lose statewide elections so long as you keep embracing the capitol protests, the childish behavior, the temper tantrums and the embarrassing character assassinations of those who disagree with you.
After the tens of millions of dollars, the fleeing Democrats to Illinois and the general immaturity of todays Democratic party in Wisconsin all you have to show for it is these idiotic blue fist Tshirts.
If you think the key to the Democrats success in Wisconsin is to be even more liberal and even further to the left, you have a seriously disconnect from reality.
Enjoy