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Twenty months later, if independents haven’t deserted the party altogether, then they certainly seem to be gathering their things and saying their goodbyes. … According to the latest polling from the Pew Research Center, Obama’s standing among independents has dropped from a high of 63 percent early in his presidency to about 47 percent now.
[...] “What we’ve seen over the course of Obama’s time in office so far is that his constituencies have been relatively sleepy compared to his opposition,” Andrew Kohut, the president of the Pew Research Center, told me. “Voting is a habit. The problem with these people” — meaning the surge voters — “is that they came out for the first time, and so they’re nonhabitual voters. Not only does Obama have to do what he did back in ’08 in terms of getting them to come out in greater numbers, but he has to get them to shake off their drowsiness.”
- Democrat in Chief?, by Matt Bai
Read it, then hunker down.
Now, I’m not a movement progressive, but I know a lot of them and the work they do is selfless, tireless, thankless and endless. They and many of you deserve a lot better than what is coming down from the elite Democratic establishment, directed by Pres. Obama and his administration.
I joined my first union in my teens, which made all the difference once I hit New York City. I know what they can do.
On the other hand, my husband worked for over two decades as a gas man in a non-union company, benefiting from the threat of unionization, because the company paid him well, with good benefits, the works. That was because they were afraid of what might happen if a union planted their flag.
It was a classless act by the White House, but also Robert Gibbs, to be so disrespectful of unions after Blanche Lincoln defeated Bill Halter. Of course, Gibbs represents a White House that isn’t in tune with working families, with a President that wants to help middle America, but is completely clueless on how to do it, which was proven by the comment made to Ben Smith with the purpose of it getting in the news cycle.
The White House is ungrateful, arrogant and obviously believes your vote is a given, because you wouldn’t dare vote for a Republican. I guess they haven’t calculated what could happen if in November the unions and the left stayed home.
I ALREADY had declared I wasn’t going to vote in November or 2012, and that was based on what the “healthcare” debacle stripped bare about the American political system. There never was any agenda on Obama’s plate except the corporate one, voters be goddamned.
This oil disaster, though, has made me through and through completely & religiously finished with the Democrats, this after 44 years of voting. I will never vote again for a national candidate of either party. No more excuses, no more choosing the lesser of two evils, that’s it. Over. Finito. Goodbye.
The way forward is INDIVIDUAL… centered, spiritually strong, living in harmony with the Earth. Local food production, resilient communities. No one will “save” us. Get the hell out of big cities and live your lives the way you’ve always really wanted to. There’s no other solution.
Being an anarchist I find what you believe compelling. However, not voting and escaping into a monestary is not the solution. Shifting the external paradigm is. That requires full participation in the system and a thoughtful approach to the tactics to be pursued. In general such tactics require following the exact opposite path that “they” (you know who “they” are) prescribe. Peace
Hi:
Please don’t stop voting!!!!!!!!!!!
There is a 3rd option – just don’t vote for the creeps. If you are in New Mexico as I am there are some good candidates that need your support like Ray Powell running for Land Commissioner, Hector Balderas running for State Auditor and a few others. Go vote from them and tell the rest (i.e our idiot Secretary of State) to screw off! After you vote drop a post card to your County or State Chair of the Democratic Party and list each office you didn’t vote for and say why. THEY WILL GET THE MESSAGE!
I’m sorry, but with all due respect to the unions and “progressives” what they did on behalf of Bill halter was a colossal waste of resources and time. The fact is they pitted one blue-dog against another in a race that neither has a snowballs chance in hell of winning.
Now it is their right to do this of course, and far be it for me, or the white house to tell people what they’re supposed to do with their money, or time, much less vote . Blanche Lincoln is an odious corporate sell-out who will be gone regardless of this miraculous comeback victory, the same would be true for Halter. Arkansas is a “right to work” state controlled by Wal-Mart and tyson foods. Unions are not popular there. Again you can argue that if the environment were more friendly for union activity they might be, but that has nothing to do with events on the ground now. If progressive wannabe kingmakers like Ed Schultz and Arianna Huffington want to get mad at the white house for stating the obvious, that’s their problem. Democrats are entirely to undisciplined to pay attention to administrations, or movement progressives when it comes to their vote. It has always been thus.
I admit to enjoying a bit of the the ‘ol schadenfreude to watch these two interminable Hillary bashing hacks finally beginning to understand that the man that they shilled for is not what they expected him to be.
The progressives, the Left, as represented by the unions have absolutely no desire to be “kingmakers” as you so quaintly put it. What they want is to be king-busters. They took a giant step in that direction on tuesday in Arkansas. Peace
Really? Cause it looks to me like they got their asses handed to them.
And I was referring to media personalities. Try reading the post for a change
So was I. Peace
Taylor, you said:
The White House is ungrateful, arrogant and obviously believes your vote is a given, because you wouldn’t dare vote for a Republican.
There is a 3rd option! You simply don’t have to vote for an office. Its not an all or none option! When I voted in the Primary early this month I simply did not vote for some positions. Its perfectly legal and your ballot counts – technically its called an undervote and they happen all the time. The Democratic Party doesn’t like to talk about them but they do watch. My plan from now on is to not vote for the offices running Corporate Democrats and send a post card to the party saying so. There is something that you can do!
But what does it prove? As you correctly pointed out “undervote” has never won an election. Neither has “None of the above.” Action is always better than inaction. “They” love it when everybody sits on their hands and yells and screams at “them.” What “they” don’t love is when you turn over their applecart over. Voting AGAINST every Republican is far better than leaving a giant hole in your ballot. Peace
Good question and not easy to answer – here’s my thoughts -
When folks just stop voting Dem elites just walk away and say who knows why they stopped voting but if you do what I suggest – see my reply to TaosJohn above – they have some idea what caused the undervote and will pay attention.
DO you vote a straight party line? I have never done that; I have ALWAYS voted for the individual (well, sometimes I’m voting AGAINST an individual). Take Blagojevich’s second election. No way was I going to vote for someone I knew was a crook, who just hadn’t been indicted yet. I voted for Judy Baar Topinkina. Yes, she’s a Republican. I tend to vote Democratic in national elections, simply because I’m liberal, but I’m going for Mark Kirk for Senate come November because he’s better than Alexi Giannoulius. You have to look at each individual race and weigh the totality of positions, etc.
Good for you Beth in Suburban Chicago !! I am a moderate who votes democrats in general elections but has voted republican in local and state elections. Now I am keeping my options open and voting for the person. If there was a moderate republican or independent that runs in 2012 I would highly considered voting for that person, if that candidate is for the working people !!!
Me, not understanding politics all that well, found the following instructive. Republican Senator from Alaska Lisa Murkowski has authored a bill in the Senate that would strip the EPA of many of its powers to enforce enviornmental laws. She was joined in this ludicrous endeavor by Jay Rockefeller, Democrat of W. Virginia, and at least 7 other Democrats who were not named in any of the news stories regarding this matter. (Lousy cowards.) Everyone, including the Democrats, knows that Obama will veto this stupid bill. They all also know that 2/3rds of the Senate will never override Obama’s veto. So what Rockefeller and the rest of these supercilious Democrats are doing is playing to the “Joe sixpack” back home in an election year. It’s a shameful waste of time and effort and it’s what enrages the the voters who actually do come out to vote in MIDTERM elections. Peace
Alaska Lisa Murkowski is a tool for big oil. Rockefeller represents a coal state.
…and the beat goes on…
Off topic: Taylor here is a link to an article about Obama granting money to Palestinian. I wonder if this could be one the major reason why Israel leaders don’t like Obama.
Link below:
http://news.peacefmonline.com/foreign/201006/46343.php
Hey Marie250. Imhotep brought that up somewhere earlier…
The settlement issue is a driving factor and remember that the Israeli media is driving it.
When the right started talking about his bad poll numbers the truth was he was actually at 41%, which I wrote about last year after the New America Found. polling came out.
$400M isn’t a lot of money.
and the wh is now begging labor to not uh cause more trouble. they are asking for labor to ignore the intial response yesterday. these people are clueless and i cant get why dems dont go public and demand a new team.. oh ans schumer- who is very savy and won 12 sen seats and is from a big labor state decided to congradulate lincoln in the senate today cherring she had “beat labor.” odd for schumer to do that. someone save these people
Ed Shultz on MSM went off on the white house for that statement about the unions. Unions make up a important part of the democratic party. I don’t know what the white house was thinking. The whole point was to show that liberals and progressives are tired of the establishment going against everything they stand for. But it seems the white house just does not get it and decided to throw salt in the wound.
I am a moderate but I could see that the progressives were just trying to show a point and elect a person they thought was better for the job. I thought that was democracy.
Well Ed went down to Arkansas for the victory party on Tuesday and got a little egg on his face for his troubles. Guess it madew him a little grumpy.
Listen Ed drives me a little crazy and he really pissed me off during the primaries but I believe he has a genuine concern for working people. This is in stark contrast to people like Chuck Todd(he stands for many in the MSM) who thinks they are beneath contempt.
I hope the media progressive stick to their guns and keep on complaining.
The good news is that the Murkowski resolution to gut the EPA went down to defeat 53-47 today. The other news is that 6 Democrats voted with the 41 Republicans to pass it. Like to guess who they were? BLANCHE LINCOLN, Rockefeller, Bayh, Pryor, Landrieu and Nelson of Nebraska. Bill Clinton should be ashamed of himself. Except that Bill’s too damned corrupt to give a shit about the progressives. Peace