Taking note of this behavior, some progressives accuse Obama of spinelessness or a personal insecurity that desperately wants acceptance from the ruling class. But there is still the fact that the Left lacks the institutional artillery to give Obama and other Democrats enough covering fire to give them hope that they might survive the endless, withering assaults from the Right.
So, there is this imponderable: Are the Democrats naturally cowardly or is their cowardice a natural reaction to the Right's muscle and the Left's weakness.
That question has, in turn, sparked bitter infighting between some progressives who feel Obama is simply gutless and his defenders who feel the Left ignores the harsh political realities he faces.
Yet, whichever way one answers the question, it's clear that the Democratic debacle of Nov. 2 was one more reminder of the imbalance in the nation's media and how that undercuts progressive causes.
Timidity in High Places
Faced with a hostile political/media environment, Democratic candidates for re-election chose to shy away from a full-throated defense of their policies, opting instead for a mix of mushy language, distancing themselves from Obama, and negative campaigning against their Republican rivals.
That timidity and negativity, in turn, demoralized both progressives and the idealistic young who wondered if there was any value in supporting Democrats. A new question from the press corps was whether Obama had lost his mo-jo.
But from the point of view of Obama and many congressional Democrats, there was little choice politically but to finesse. Though the Left might believe in a silent majority of American progressives, the polls show that the nation generally defines itself as center-right.
If those opinion polls are correct and if the Right gets to control the political narrative then Obama's election in 2008 election could be seen more as an anomaly based on his personal charm and a reaction to the failures of the Bush administration than a fundamental shift in national attitudes.
In other words, there remains a difficult task ahead for progressives if they want the American public to rally behind their agenda over the next two years. It can't be assumed that somehow the voters will simply "get" the wisdom of progressive ideas, especially in the face of the Right's sophisticated and unrelenting agit-prop.
To make matters worse, many Democrats (and some progressives) tend to see themselves more as analysts than battlers. When talking about Election 2010, Washington Democrats frequently framed the contest as minimizing their losses, not expanding their majorities.
Instead of calling on voters to throw out Republicans for sabotaging jobs programs during a painful recession, Democrats set their goal at holding decreased majorities. That left voters with the unappetizing image of more bickering like they had witnessed in 2009 and 2010, not exactly inspiring.
When I asked a longtime Democratic operative why the Democrats didn't simply call on voters to elect more progressive Democrats so, for instance, a public option might be added to the health-care law or a stronger jobs program might pass I was told that Democrats then would have opened themselves to ridicule from media pundits because everyone knows the president's party almost always loses seats in the first mid-term.
But why, I wondered, do the Democrats worry more about some pundits sniggering on Election Night than possibly rallying the progressive base to fight for more seats?
Similarly, some on the Left seemed content to sit in the stands and jeer the politicians on the field, rather than mix it up in a practical fashion to, say, fight for meaningful action on the existential threat from global warming. Some progressives even seem more interested in maintaining their political purity than making the compromises that might help save the planet.
Facing More Disappointment
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