Yesterday’s results from the sixth congressional district Democratic primary in Illinois have Chris Bowers worried about Democratic prospects in 06. Iraq veteran Tammy Duckworth was the establishment choice in the Primary. She had the backing of every heavyweight in national party, from Hillary Clinton, to John Kerry, to Barak Obama. She had the money, the media and the endorsements that any primary candidate would kill for. So did she win? Probably, but it’s the margin of victory that should give us some pause. The latest reporting has her clinging onto 43% of the vote, while her primary challenger, Christine Cegelis has holds 41%. This is coming down to a margin of a few thousand votes for what should have been a shoe in.
So why the concern? I haven’t followed Duckworth personally, though she has garnered quite a lot of attention as a wounded Iraq war veteran. She may have wonderful positions, or not. I don’t know. The concern is this, this is the team that’s supposed to deliver us a majority in congress in November, and the results thus far, are less than promising. They are having trouble shoeing in their shoe ins. The earth is moving beneath their feet and they seem deaf to the rumble.
If the Democratic establishment is unable to generate enthusiasm or votes for their preferred candidates, who will? Since they seem hell bent on picking Candidates like Bob Casey in Pennsylvania, a man who seems to generate, at best a yawn, but mostly just outright scorn, the prospects don’t look so great. The establishment ignores the activist base (both online and off) of the party, at the party’s peril. We are the people who stuff the envelopes, canvass neighborhoods, work phone banks, and above all else, always show up to vote. When the establishment trots out a candidate, who takes every opportunity, it seems, to side with the Republican party, and who won’t even commit to the simple idea that illegal wiretapping by the government is illegal, where the hell does that leave us in November?
This is the most important election since the last most important election, whenever the hell that was. The difference, this time, is that we have a shot to start moving the needle in the right direction again by retaking congress. I, for one, am sick to death of bullshit holding actions where I’m expected to suck it up and vote for the least objectionable candidate. I know I’m not alone. By giving us a whole host of bad choices and sub-par candidates, the Democratic party makes what should be an easy and fun election year, anything but easy or fun.
As Chris says, the ball is in the establishment’s court. They need to figure out, in a hurry, what’s important to the grassroots of the party. Understanding the seething anger over the NSA scandal, and understanding the concern over the erosion of a woman’s right to choose would be good places to start. Producing candidates who speak to those issues, along with all the others I haven’t bothered listing, would be a nice change of pace.
