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The day after the election, I saw a photograph of a huge wave on a Republican Web site. I soon realized: I've seen that same photo before. After a minute or so it came to me. That very same wave picture was on the cover of the liberal magazine The Nation two Novembers ago.
Some say the wave was an ideological shift, that it's time for progressives to get the message and quit the over-reaching. Run to the center with our tails between our legs.
Rubbish. It now makes no sense, in terms of electoral strategy or for the common good, for Democrats to become pale imitations of Republicans. As the wise sage Rocky admonished Bullwinkle: That trick never works.
The anger, expressed so clearly at the polls, was about the economy. The newly elected Republicans have no plan. The party is fractured and incoherent. Their simplistic dream of jobs being created by cutting the deficit mixed with more tax breaks for the uber-rich is economic nonsense.
For Democrats to buy into this fuzzy foolishness would be incredibly counterproductive. Paul Hodes tried it and was crushed, barely two points ahead of Granny D in 2004. True, good, solid stand-up progressives like Carol Shea-Porter were also pulled down by the undertow, but the so-called centrist Democrats, the Blue Dogs, dropped from 54 to 26 in the House. When President Clinton tacked to the perceived center he was also "shellacked" in 1994.
After the last time I saw that tidal wave photo, the Republicans did not move left, where the victory had been perceived. Instead they hunkered down, attacked Democrats and went on the aggressive offense. And it worked.
The enthusiasm gap was Obama raising hope very high and letting us down. Starting off in a compromise position is not the same as leadership. Progressives failed to go on the offense for our values. We let the other side communicate the message, so we were left to explain.
As any former candidate knows, when you are explaining, you are losing.
So what's a good Democrat to do? Just as the Tea Party learned from the success of '60s lefty organizer Saul Alinsky, so progressives now really have no choice but to stand and fight.
Will we lose? Of course. In the short term. The New Hampshire Senate Democrats are decimated - from a solid majority of 14 to a mere wisp of five. There, as in the U.S. House, it does no good to become an echo chamber for the majority.
The new majority will fail to create jobs through the old, tried and failed trickle-down. Now progressives must articulate our core values.
When the new majority gives more power to the insurance industry, our indignation must be clear. Democrats have an obligation to shout it out that Republicans are taking power from the middle class and handing it up to the top 2 percent.
Stand up for real Wall Street reform and economic stimulus. Tiptoeing around this got us nowhere. And when government spying on its own citizens becomes ever more intrusive, Democrats must be there standing up for privacy.
There's no better organizing principle than adversity. This is an opportunity for Democrats to define ourselves. As a member of a previously tiny New Hampshire Senate six-pack, we made speeches and lost. Right after that, we won the majority for the first time in 86 years.
In a number of states the electorate chose the kind of people they said they didn't want running their government. Really makes you wonder, doesn't it?
If you listen to what a lot of voters say they want this year, especially in conservative states like Indiana where a huge chunk of the population identifies as Tea Partiers, it's candidates who are ready to break with the past, question long-held assumptions, relate to the concerns of regular people, and can bring a fresh perspective to the entrenched insiders in Congress.
And with that in mind, Hoosiers, by a 15-point margin, elected an old, wealthy Washington insider, who left Indiana more than a decade ago, and who's spent several years as a corporate lobbyist. Indeed, Coats intends to go to the Senate and vote on issues he handled as a lobbyist, and has no intention of recusing himself when his former clients will be affected by his votes.
It's the economy, stupid. Except, ironic as it is for the Republicans to return on the wings of the crisis they helped cause, the economy was just a necessary precondition.
Like it or not, the Tea Party was the wave. Maybe it's only 10% of the electorate, but that's pretty much the balance of power. Whether it is a grassroots movement, or a cleverly manipulated corporate movement, or both, it had the same effect this year that some of the progressive movements had 2 and 4 years ago. Aided, in a symbiotic frenzy, by the corporate money released by the Citizens United court decision.
I could wish the Dems were better at putting out their message, or had more volunteers, or whatever, but I'm not sure the Tea Party could have been countered even early on, and certainly not once it got rolling. And given the hidden, and overt, racism that winds through much of the TP rhetoric and thought, I don't think it could have been co-opted either, despite its occasional populist strains.
Unfortunately, I also don't think it will go away as long as Obama is in office. If the economy improves over the next 2 years, that may take some of the wind from TP/Republican sails. But mostly I hope Obama's personal popularity and inspirational skills, along with Republican obstructionism, are enough to bring out the Dem vote next time around, because the opposition is not starting from scratch anymore.
The slogan in my first state senate campaign was I see Opportunities. It was during that earlier recession, when economic times were tough.we got to work together and things did get better.
The swallowing up of the Republican Party by the Jesse Helms Strom Thurmond extremist wing of the part now called Tea Party is another opportunity Democrats have an obligation to take on.
We must not fail to use the public's fear of their truly radical agenda in our fall efforts. There is very much the American public should fear of the Palin power team.we should tell them about it.
In being laser focused on winning, there's no choice for us but to stand up to these very real threats to traditional American principles. We will win if we show we have a backbone.Voters can tell who's for real, and this matters a lot.
Democrats cowering in fear of the big bad corporate right and all their money do not present a winnable ticket. Being Repubican-lite get's us nowhere. Being who we proudly are, does.
We know who we are: strong dedicated genuinely serving the common good.
Our opponents have much to hit on: the power of Wall St, the power of the insurance industry, shipping jobs overseas, wasting hundreds of billions in non-useful military adventures.
Helping elderly, kids and education, safer foods, a new energy future, jobs and more jobs...This rise of the Tea Party is a fabulous opportunity to spell out the contrast and in telling the truth, we end up with great big victories November 2nd,
The challenge has been issued, now it's up to us to stand up straight, and have the courage to lead.
A friend invited me to go with her to this year's dinner, held at the Grappone Center in Concord.
I was very impressed with Governor Lynch's speech. His main theme was the lies spread by an out of state hate group that is heady with its successes in California and Maine. The governor is really standing by his decision to sign the marriage equality bill. He said he did it because it was the right thing to do, which got him a standing ovation.
He aggressively countered the lies of the out of state hate group as well as the other lies spread by the opposition. It was an important message and one we have to keep pushing. We can't let the other side define us. And we have to go beyond tagging them as the party of "no" and counter their policies, may of which would create a repeat of the economic collapse keeping us in a perpetual one and take basic rights away from women, gays, and others.
Keynote speaker Brian Schweitzer of Montana told many interesting stories. The one that stands out in my mind is the one he told of an Irish girl who came to America in the early part of the last century using her sister's passport and visa. This girl could not find work in New York, so she took up an offer to go to Montana in a boxcar and homestead 350 acres. She did this on her own. Eventually she married another Irish immigrant and raised a family. This "illegal alien" was Governor Schweitzer's grandmother, and he wondered whether he should be deported for this. He asked how many of our ancestors had proper papers. Good question.
We also heard from Congressman and US Senate candidate Paul Hodes, CD-02 candidates DeJoie, Kuster and Swett, and Speaker Norelli and Senate President Larsen.
The bottom line is that we have to work harder than we did in '06 to keep New Hampshire blue at the state and federal level. Change always produces backlash. We cannot allow this to happen and lose the gains we have made. Get involved at whatever level and in whatever way you can. It is crucial.
As we approach 2010, populism appears to be the exclusive province of the passionate right wingers. But it remains an opportunity for Democrats in the coming election.
Democratic Party insiders consider me somewhat of a boat rocker (untitled is unmuzzled). I've always been a populist, a Jeffersonian. This may upset a few, but now more than ever, Democrats need to renew our call for decentralization of power and democratization of the economy.
Which is what the tea partyists clamor for. Those Democrats who ignore the populist revolt do so at their own peril. When Democrats are strong on these pocketbook issues, we do well. But if we yield the populist ground to the Republican Party, the results of 2010 will not be in our favor.
The middle class feels abandoned by both parties, the American Dream is more out of reach than ever. When it comes to outrage at the bipartisan march toward centralization of power and wealth, it's in our nature for Democrats to lead the charge.
(I've been following Gregg's 111th pretty closely, and I think the picture is a little more nuanced than Nate notes from his national lens. But more when I can articulate it... - promoted by Dean Barker)
Kos had a little blip in the open thread about Senator Gregg today. To paraphrase, he said Gregg must be pretty worried about his seat, because
the normally conservative senator has become one of Obama's most reliable Republican votes.
Inspired by all the election analysis, and unable to leave a spreadsheet alone, I made a quick comparison of something I had been wondering about. I had no good reason to wonder, and I'm not sure what the results mean. I can't really even swear they're accurate, although I tried to be careful.
I pasted the NHPR town-by-town data for Carol Shea-Porter and Jeanne Shaheen, manually removing the towns in which CSP was not running. But in the towns where they were both on the ballot, it looks like CSP received a total of 2700 more votes than Shaheen.
I was surprised. I had actually thought Shaheen had better name recognition, and in the "Democratic tsunami" that recognition would have gotten her more votes than Shea-Porter. Guess I was wrong. Shea-Porter had higher vote totals in 52 of 79 towns.
The full spreadsheet is 80 or so lines, so I don't want to post it, but I would be happy to email it. Apologies in advance if I made mistakes on this.
In case anyone wants to look for patterns, here are the towns of Strafford County, and the vote differential (CSP vote minus Shaheen vote):
The NHGOP filed suit today against the state charging that thier "challengers' were denied "reasonable access" to the same day registration tables. A hearing was held in Hillsborough Superior Court but no information as to a decision is presently available.
I am stealing a few minutes to blog in from the legal boiler room; can't say much other than it seems like things are going well. Reports are that turnout is off the charts this morning, but people are moving through. This legal boiler room reminds me of those old lawyer jokes joke - how many lawyers does it take to protect New Hampshire's voters? There is a lot of legal talent in this room, answering phones, anticipating problems.
Turnout is large everywhere. It's all good!
To my friends back in the War Room, how is it going over on Fir Street?
(I'm enjoying these updates... - promoted by Dean Barker)
It is eerily quiet in the war room. A number of people went over to the Clinton Rally for Change, but when the fire marshall told us that he wouldn't let anyone else in, about 28 members of the staff left the event and went to grab a bite to eat. I came back to the war room, and am drinking diet pepse and eating m&m's; I love the excuse of election weekend to eat candy!
Anyway, thanks to all the young people who have been working so hard to make this election successful, who sacrificed the opportunity to hear President Clinton, Gov. Shaheen, Gov. Lynch and Congressmen Hodes and Shea Porter so that other people could get in. Somehow NHDP political director Mike Brunelle managed to get out and in a couple of times so he was able to get two people to take his one place! When I walked out I thought I heard someone count me twice as well, so we continue the great NHDP tradition of turning loaves into fishes!
We're not one of the states mentioned by Chuck Todd yesterday on Meet the Press, but we are a battleground. Make every senior you know aware of the damage McCain-Palin will do to Social Security & Medicare and urge them to vote Obama-Biden.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27...
MR. BROKAW: And, Chuck, as I've been listening to these two campaigns and watching their ads, it seems to me if you're a senior citizen in America, they're probably calling you up and say, "We'll come over and do your
laundry and drive you to the early bird special if that's what it takes to get you to vote for us."
MR. TODD: Well, you know, we talk all about young voters, and we talk about African-Americans, we talk about this, we talk about that. This thing is
about seniors. The difference between Obama fighting for 270 and Obama sailing past 270 is older, white voters. The thing keeping McCain still with a boxer's chance here is older, white voters. Florida,Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana--these are some of the old--have some of the oldest populations in the country. So, when these voters, if they start moving in
one direction, if they move in towards Obama, which we've seen a little bit of evidence that way, that's how this thing becomes from a close electoral college battle to a landslide.
New Hampshire based documentary filmmaker Ken Burns
has a column at Huffington Post titled This is Not the John McCain New Hampshire Once Loved
The last paragraph says it all,
We in New Hampshire bear some responsibility, I suppose. Thinking we had the old McCain, we gave him a decisive victory in our primary that permitted him to vanquish those challengers. But he betrayed us. If you have to say you're a maverick in your ads, it's clear you're not. The real maverick turns out to be Barack Obama, who bucked his party's establishment and whose once-lonely positions have been adopted by nearly everyone including even the Bush administration. Nearly everyone, that is, except John McCain. So what happened to him?
That's what Granite State citizens have been asking the last few months. The answer is enough to turn us blue.
John McCain is in the pocket of oil companies.
John McCain is in the pocket of insurance companies.
John McCain is in the pocket of pharmaceutical companies.
John McCain in the pocket of the mortgage companies.
John McCain in the pocket of the banking industry.
Here is a list of lobbyists and employees of major companies working in major positions in the McCain campaign. It will answer any questions you might have about the people who are advising and influencing him.
http://mccainsource.com/corrup...
I do not care if a candidate is a war hero, I do not care is a candidate is a Republican or a Democrat. I do not care is a candidate is black or white. All I care about is if the candidate is intelligent enough to get this nation out of the mess we are in now.
I am a Republican but I will not be voting for John McCain. Why? Because, with the problems in the US and the world is facing today the nation needs intelligence in the White House.
Lets see my choice is John McCain or that smart black man Barack Obama?
McCain who does not know how to use a computer but is willing to learn if we elect him - I'll just vote for that smart black man.
John McCain who says the economic downturn is psychological? - Na! I'll vote for the smart black man.
McCain who says you are better off under George Bush? - Nope I'll vote for the smart black man.
Mc Cain who wants to continue killing more people looking for weapons of mass destruction that do not exist? - Gee! I'll vote for the smart black man.
McCain who believes that we should stay the course but is not willing to support the people he puts in harms way. - I'll take a chance on the smart black man.
Should I vote for a man that does not know that 9-11 was caused by Osama Bin Laden not Sedam Hussein? - Easy! I'll vote for the smart black man.
Vote for the man who does not know if the Sunnis or Sheits are our enemies? - No way I'll vote for the smart black man.
Vote for the man who helped put our government on the China, Saudi Arabia credit card? - Not a chance I'll vote for the smart black man.
Vote for the man with the worst temper in the Senate to have his finger on the nuclear button? - No way - I'M VOTING FOR THE SMART BLACK MAN, Barack Obama.
I saw most of Obama's speech live on MSNBC. it was amazing to see him speak at the Siegesaule, with people stretching out to the Brandenburg Gate to hear him.
I lived in West Berlin a few years before the wall came down. When I was there, two walls and barbed wire (and God knows what else) were between those two points. Friedrichstrasse, one of the crossover points, was like a no man's land. Now, you'll be happy to know there's a Starbuck's there, among other things.
But enough of my nostalgia--the speech rocked. The people were with him. They were even waving American flags. They never do that. And we know they weren't US Foreign Service wokers
TPM has the speech's transcript.
Obama was basically healing the "you're with us or against us" mentality of the last eight years. He urged the Berliners and by extension Europeans in general, to work with the US to help end world poverty, terrorism, and all the other plagues of the present. He said it will take work and sacrifice. He said--hide your eyes if you're squeamish--America hasn't been perfect. Imagine!
Not perfect ! I'm sure McBush will jump all over that one after his lunch at a German restaurant in Ohio. Who schedules this guy's campaign, anyway?
I have very close ties to Germany and am very partial to Europe in general. Shhh, I even lived in France for a while.
We have to deliver NH blue up and down the ticket. That's all there is to it.
