Still, one possible valid reason for punishing the Democrats would be if you believe that things have to get worse before they get better. "Let the Republicans take over and destroy things completely. The American people will find out pretty quickly what they've voted for, and then true progressives will win."
That would be pretty powerful medicine indeed. It might kill the patient. It might lead to radical right wing populism, not to the moderate left wing populism that progressives want.
Another possibly valid reason for punishing Obama and the Dems is to teach them a lesson. "Don't ignore us progressives ever again! We know that our refusal to support Democrats will likely aid the Republicans, but we're willing to pay the price as a matter of principle and as a point of honor, so that in the future we won't be ignored."
The thing is, if the Republicans win one or both houses of Congress in November, they'll no doubt say that it's because Obama and the Dems were too socialistic. Knowing Obama, I fear he might agree and might become even more conservative. Democrats will likely blame progressives for their losses, and the country will move onward and rightward.
Teaching the Dems a lesson by allowing the Republicans to win makes some sense, and part of me wants to do it. But it's not really a winner's strategy. It's not constructive, really.
A far better strategy would be to become highly active in the Democratic Party, starting at the local level. That's how religious conservatives took over the Republican Party starting in the Reagan years, and that's how Tea Partiers are now taking over the Republican Party -- for sure, with a lot of help from the Koch brothers and other wealthy benefactors. Some of the Tea Partiers, by the way, are sincere (but deluded) libertarians who really want to see an end to government corruption and waste (as well as pretty much all government-funded regulation, research and services). The mainstream, corrupt Republicans fear the Tea Partiers, in much the same way that mainstream Democrats fear progressives.
Angry progressives stay home or vote for Nader. Angry conservative take over the Republican Party.
So, in this unpleasant situation, our choices aren't good. But choosing not to vote or choosing to give up on the Democrats is a loser's strategy. America's non-parliamentary political system makes it very hard for third-parties to win. (The Tea Party is not a real third party; it's a sub-movement within the conservative movement.)
Still, given all Obama's betrayals, I can't pretend to like or trust Obama. I'm like a yo-yo: I hate conservatives but can't ignore Obama's betrayals. His appointment of Elizabeth Warren to lead the Consumer Finance Protection Agency didn't change my opinion of him, since he waited til before the election to do it and since he made her report to Timothy Geithner. (If I were a cartoonist, I'd draw her chained.)
So how can progressives punish Obama without aiding conservatives?
I say: it's OK to criticize Obama for his failures. But when you do criticize Obama, please make sure you start by saying how bad conservatives are. Accuse Obama of acting like a conservative. And accuse Obama of aiding and protecting conservatives. Make sure that you don't over-generalize and blame all Democrats for Obama's mistakes.
Do acknowledge the good that Obama and the Dems have done -- saving the economy from a likely depression, reining in some of the worst abuses of the insurance companies, extending health insurance to millions of uninsured, increasing funding for regulatory agencies, and helping student borrowers instead of banks, for example. See ObamaMeter for a list of Obama's promises kept and broken (not all of the kept promises are good -- like escalating the war in Afghanistan). Think of all the bills in the Senate that died due to (near) unanimous GOP opposition.
What's so depressing and perplexing about all this is that it wouldn't have taken much to make feel progressives feel loved. Couldn't Obama have at least ordered a few token prosecutions of Bush-era officials so that the American people would know the truth about what happened? Or forgone a backroom deal with Big Pharma? Or agreed to tax Wall Street bonuses? Or selected Paul Krugman as Treasury Secretary instead of Timothy Geithner? Or defended some progressive appointees who were hounded from office by conservative distortions? He seems to have gone out of his way to piss off progressives. Even if Obama had failed in some of his initiatives, it would have been enough if he had tried. But it seems he didn't even try.
Blame conservatives and Obama, not all the Dems.
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