One thing I find boring is the proclivity of people to do self-serving analysis. We joke about every thing that happens somehow being good news for Republicans because that is how our media tends to spin things. But we do the same thing all the time. If Martha Coakley loses, a bunch of progressives are going to blame the loss on insufficiently progressive policies. The moderates are going to blame overly progressive policies. The Republicans are going to blame Marxist/Leninist policies. You know what matters? What matters is how politicians react and vote. And, on that score, it doesn’t matter who wins, because the fact that the election was even close is enough to spook the hell out of the moderate Democrats in red and purple districts and states and make them oppose progressive policies. Obama’s agenda is going to take a hit even if Coakley wins.
A good question for progressives is why no one takes their claims seriously. If we argue that Obama hasn’t really pursued progressive policies and that our politicians would be polling better if he had, no one listens and no one believes it. I actually don’t believe it. Or, to be more accurate, I only believe it on a narrow scope of issues where he could have actually been successful in enacting more progressive policies. I don’t think he or the Democratic Caucus would be in a better place if he had tried and failed to enact a bolder stimulus package or a more robust health care bill. Failure would not be rewarded. Only if he had actually succeeded in doing those things would there be a potential reward, and I don’t see how he could have succeeded.
The Republicans have had successes with their delaying tactics. It’s the Democrats who are being punished for inaction. Sometimes, your opponent just outplays you. I remember some very good New York Knicks teams that couldn’t quite figure out how to beat Michael Jordan’s Bulls. When Jordan drops 60 points on you, it doesn’t matter how well you played. Of course, it’s kind of obscene to compare Mitch McConnell to Michael Jordan or Harry Reid to Patrick Ewing. But sometimes, if your opponent is willing to use the rules to obstruct and delay, and you can’t figure out how to get the ball back, you lose. Remember the old Dean Smith North Carolina four-corner offense they used to run to run out the clock before the advent of the shot-clock? It wasn’t sportsmanlike, but it worked.
Things will be even worse at 59 votes. If the Dems want to learn anything from today’s election (win or lose), they should learn how to make the Republicans pay for their tactics. If the rules need to be changed, then change them. But stop banging your head against a wall.
