Learning To Lose Well

by digby

Are you fucking kidding me? Digby has, once again, sent me around the bend. I can't stand watching an intelligent, passionate activist like him getting played for a sucker.

Let me spell it out for the Democratic Party loyalists: words don't matter, actions and results do. The only thing that matters is whether Alito gets on the Supreme Court or not.

John Kerry's 11th hour call for a filibuster (from Switzerland, no less) is just more political Kabuki for the benefit of the Liberal base. It's great strategy on the part of Democratic Politicians: it allows them to maintain support from their base, while taking no actual risks.

Calling for a filibuster is not taking a political risk, going through with one is. A filibuster and the consequent nucular option would seriously undercut what limited power individual Democratic Senators still have. And as Dianne Feinstein telegraphed weeks ago, the Dems have no intention of going through with it.

In the end, the Dem Politicians will send the same old tired message to their base:

We feel your pain, we were on your side, we tried but... taking concrete action was too difficult, too complicated. Sorry! Be sure and vote for us in November.

And Liberal activists like Digby will take the biscuit. I've tried to understand this kind of perspective, and all I can come up with is that some people have bought into the Democratic Party Establishment's self-serving Conventional Wisdom and attendant noxious memes.

The Democratic Party Establishment knows best.

I hope some of the comments I'm reading around the blogosphere aren't reflections of of a knee jerk cynicism on the part of Democrats who have fallen in love with their assessment that they are superior to their elected leaders. This is a very dangerous state of mind.

What? Since when is blind allegiance to authority figures a Progressive value? Is Digby saying my elected "leaders" are "superior" to me? I thought we were all US citizens, equals, and that Congresspeople are public servants whose job is to represent their constituents?

Also implied in that paragraph, more spelled out in the comments section:

Progressive activists who express dissatisfaction with Democratic Politicians are unrealistic idealists who don't realize that their personal concerns are irrelevant.

What is wrong with believing a woman should have the right to legal and safe abortions? What is wrong with opposing a totalitarian theory of executive power? Are these really "out of the mainstream", "pet issues" like freeing Mumia Abu Jamal?

Does Digby really have so little confidence in his progressive values that he is willing to sacrifice them for the "superior" prerogatives of Democratic Politicians?

Criticising Democratic Politicians only gives aid and comfort to our enemies

Kerry and Kennedy stepped up today. They aren't going down without a fight. This is worth doing and if we lose it, we should reward them and those who stood with them with our gratitude and support not another round of complaints about how they are a bunch of losers.

Right. Let's reward Kerry and Kennedy for their empty words and for failing to organize a filibuster that would have blocked Alito.

Alito's confirmation will be a big loss for US citizens. Saying that the Democrats are ineffectual losers is not cynical, it's the truth.

The Democrats will continue to lose if they are rewarded for doing so. Why wouldn't they? Especially when losing is a lot easier that fighting and winning.

There is a division in the Progressive Blogosphere, see Beltway Democrats, Liberal Elitists and the Rabble. Some guy in Digby's comments actually called me and people like me "treacherous, useless rabble".

Some bloggers see it as their duty to tamp down the Rabble's dissatisfaction with Democratic Politicians' actions, because they have bought yet another Dem Establishment meme:

"Elect us now, we'll stand up for you later". Democratic Politicians can only take effective action if they win a majority in congress. Until that time, they have as much power as the Capitol Janitor.

The Rabble counters that support has to be earned. Through concrete action, dammit!

Some see the key to victory through allegiance to, and unified support for the Party, regardless of its actions.

But instead of appeals for voters to have pity on the poor, powerless Democratic Politicians, wouldn't it be more conducive to a Democratic Majority in Congress to force our representatives to make good on their promise of defending a woman's right to choose?

I can only speak for myself as a member of the Rabble, but I think the reason so many voters are "disaffected" and why almost half of Americans don't vote at all is that they see daily evidence that Democratic Politicians are only interested in their own careers and not in doing anything concrete that affects our lives.

Over the past five years, the Democratic Party has allowed a Corporatist, Authoritarian, Imperialist, Theocratic regime to flourish. They have allowed thousands of people to die and allowed countless atrocities to pass, unchecked. Then they want to blame me for not being "supportive" and "realistic" enough. Well, fuck that and fuck you. Peace.