I haven’t weighed in on the special election in Massachusetts. I hope Martha Coakley wins, but I don’t know if she will. I don’t have any advice to offer, and I’m not interested in running her down as a candidate because I don’t see how that will help. Frankly, I haven’t been paying enough attention to critique her performance as a candidate. But, if she loses, and people start pointing fingers, I don’t think Armando really hits the mark when he says “don’t blame internecine fighting.” More explicitly, Armando makes the point that it makes no sense to shout down the disaffected left, even if they are partly to blame. Let’s think about that.
He’s 100% right that the left does not need to hear a lecture from Rahm Emanuel, or any squishy Blue Dog/New Dem ‘centrists’ about how we’re all a bunch a cry babies who are hurting the party. But what about people on the left talking to other people on the left? How about an internal debate on whether our tactics are working or not? Because, I don’t think they’re working, and a lot of what I’ve seen in the progressive blogosphere this year has been more effective at demoralizing and dividing the troops than it has been in persuading anyone not on the left to do what we want or advise.
If Coakley loses and this starts some soul-searching debate or circular firing squad, I think the real conversation needs to be the left talking to itself.