I’m not fully convinced that 2010 will be the watershed election many people anticipate in terms of returning Republicans to power. I really hope people haven’t forgotten Katrina, the “last throes” of Iraq, the “culture of corruption” and all the rest that made 2006 and 2008 such important elections.

So yeah… Hopefully people will remember where we were. But… This PPP poll (pdf) should give us all reason to be concerned.

Last night, I got caught up in a discussion of why things look so bad in Mass. Here’s what I wrote:

the folks from the other side that are so fired up to vote are hearing:

1. there’s a gov’t takeover of healthcare in the works;
2. that going to your doctor will be like going to DMV;
3. that their taxes will be increased to pay for deadbeat’s Viagra and abortions;
4. that those with health care will see their services rationed,
5. etc, etc, etc

On the other hand, folks that voted for Democrats in 2008 have learned:

1. they made Joe Lieberman President;
2. they will be mandated to send money to a health insurance company that may or may not provide adequate care;
3. Obama’s promises mean diddly; if you have decent health care, he wants to tax it;
4. the rich deserve everything Bush gave them and then some… the stimulus was 1/3 tax cuts…
5. Wall Street bankers deserve 7 digit bonuses on the taxpayers’ dime;
6. War is awesome
7. torturers are pretty cool too… prosecutions smoshecutions!!
8. Cap and trade? EFCA? Financial reform? Accountability of any sort? As far as Democarts are concerned, [Yawn... Whatevah...]

And all along, those of us that wanted to hold Obama to his promises (dating back to the campaign and the fight for FISA) have been told by far too many people that we needed to pipe down and defer to Obama’s secret plan.

Well, we’ve been telling y’all for a long time that this – a republican filling Ted Kennedy’s seat – would be the result of your blind loyalty.

Unfortunately, I don’t expect that this diary has changed many minds… After all, there are plenty of people that still believe George Bush was a great President.

Update [2010-1-9 22:34:26 by Mike Stark]: A lot of folks I blame commenting. Not sure how big the comment thread will get on this, so here’s my response to those that think I should suck it up and start calling folks in Mass:

It looks like Ralph Nader taught the Democratic party nothing about what happens when you abandon your base. Even after suffering through 8 years of George Bush, we still get fucked over by our party leaders.

So now it is a question of whether we stick with the Democratic establishment simply because because when they are fucking us, they don’t pull our hair and call us bitches.

I guess I don’t like being fucked. So no… I won’t be making those calls.

Update [2010-1-9 22:34:26 by Mike Stark]: I see some are confused. I’m not giving up the ghost; I’m not quitting. I’m saying that y’all need to stop giving everything while expecting nothing. It’s not OK for Democrats to talk sweet to you in campaign season, then treat you like shit when it comes time to govern. At some point, you need to make it known that your support comes at a price. And that if that price isn’t paid, you don’t play anymore. Where else are they going to go?

The reason we keep getting fucked is that we keep letting it happen. Better to lose one seat in Mass. than 6 or 7 seats in November, not to mention the House. Better to send the wake up call now than in November.

Update [2010-1-10 0:5:38 by Mike Stark]: Look… this is Mass. we are talking about. It’s not exactly a swing state. There’s a reason Coakley is in trouble, and that’s got to do with the energy level of the base (as it always does in off-year elections).

Some of y’all are cheerfully whistling past the graveyard, saying we should keep doing what we’ve been doing. I’m saying that the reason our side’s energy level has bottomed out has something to do with the results we’ve seen from the Obama administration (and I’m guessing that the bankster bailouts are probably the most corrosive of the letdowns, but that’s neither here nor there)… I’m saying that if you want to elect more Democrats, the way to do it isn’t to keep enabling Obama’s sell-out to corporatism by being good little puppies… no… the way to elect more Democrats is to stop blindly following Obama and to start demanding that he do the things you elected him to do. IT’S TIME TO MAKE HIM DO IT.

Yeah, Obama ran on it, and it sounds really, really good… but it was always a little bit silly.

Simply put, you can’t force the “special interests” to negotiate in public. And since they own too many legislators, you can’t get a bill passed if you insist on embarrassing the greasers of the Congressional gears.

I asked a Senator about this – I asked if we’d have a better bill if Big Pharm and Insurance were forced to make their cases in the light of day with HCR advocates sitting on the other side of the table rebutting weak arguments.

The Senator told me that we never would have had a bill, let alone reform.

If we are going to live in the reality-based world, this is something we need to deal with. It’s not just health care.