Posted by
Roxanna M. on Thursday, December 24, 2009 12:42:05 PM
"The announcement by Alabama Rep. Parker Griffith that he is switching to the Republican Party is just the latest warning sign that the Democratic (sic) Party, my lifelong political home, has a critical decision to make: Either we plot a more moderate, centrist course or risk electoral disaster not just in the upcoming midterms but in many elections to come.
Rep. Griffith's decision makes him the fifth centrist Democrat to either switch parties or announce plans to retire rather than stand for reelection in 2010. These announcements are a sharp reversal from the progress the Democratic (sic) Party made starting in 2006 and continuing in 2008 . . . In these two elections, a majority of independents and a sizable number of moderate Republicans joined the traditional Democratic (sic) base to sweep Democrats to commanding majorities in Congress . . .
These centrists swelled the party's ranks in Congress . . . in states such as Indiana, North Carolina, Virginia, Colorado, and other Republican bastions. But now they face a grim political fate . . .
The political dangers of this situation could not be clearer.
Witness the losses in New Jersey and Virginia . . .
Witness the drumbeat of ominous poll results . . . There is not a hint of silver lining in these numbers. They are the quantitative expression of the swing bloc of American politics slipping away . . .
Despite this raft of bad news, Democrats are not doomed to return to the wilderness. The question is whether the party is prepared to listen carefully to what the American public is saying . . .
All that is required for the Democratic (sic) Party to recover its political footing is to acknowledge that the agenda of the party's most liberal supporters has not won the support of a majority of Americans and, based on that recognition, to steer a more moderate course on the key issues of the day, from health care to the economy to the environment to Afghanistan.
For liberals to accept that inescapable reality is not to concede permanent defeat. Rather, let them take it as a sign that they must continue the hard work of slowly and steadily persuading their fellow citizens to embrace their perspective . . .
The party's moment of choosing is drawing close. While it may be too late to avoid some losses in 2010, it is not too late to avoid the kind of rout that redraws the political map. The leaders of the Democratic (sic) Party need to move back toward the center and in doing so, set the state for the many years' worth of leadership necessary to produce the sort of pragmatic change the American people actually want." (Emphasis mine)
Who said it? None other than William Daley of Chicago, Illinois, one of America's preeminent lefties. There is much to be learned from what he has to say.
He recognizes that the democrats are in real trouble, something that the most visible and vocal of his party don't. He states that his party must return to the center because "the agenda of the party's most liberal supporters has not won the support of a majority of Americans." He asks whether his party is "prepared to listen carefully to what the American public is saying."
Well, the answer to that is no. Just like the Martin Sheen president in the original movie of Stephen Kings' "The Dead Zone", who couldn't wait to push the button unleashing nuclear holocaust, senate democrats have likewise gleefully pushed that button as it regards health care. Despite poll after poll after poll showing that the American public doesn't want this, our so-called elected officials have not only ignored We the People, they have ignored the Constitution. Mr. Daley quite rightfully describes this as a path to electoral "wilderness" for his party. And not just health care. He also throws in the economy and the environment, not so veiled references to double-digit unemployment and the looming (and dooming) cap-and-trade plans Obama wants to inflict on us.
Unfortunately, Mr. Daley is also saying that his party isn't wrong, just "that they must continue the hard work of slowly and steadily persuading their fellow citizens to embrace their perspective". He's saying that it moved too far left too fast and that it must return to the center only so that it can move to the left in a more deliberate fashion. In other words, it's not wrong that you lied to people about your real intentions, you just moved too fast and they caught on.
Yes, some of us have. Some of us were never taken in in the first place. The question is: have enough people caught on to send these people home. I guess we'll see next November.