Difficulties With the "Base"

Democratic Party difficulties with getting out the “base,” deserves some exploration. For starters, committed progressives are angry. Indicative of this fact is the strange absence on the laundry list of elections issues of how to fight the War on Terror. No doubt if McCain had won the presidency the wisdom of an escalation of U.S. troop involvement in Afghanistan would be a front and center issue. Almost since President Obama took the oath of office, progressives have been shocked, puzzled, or downright irate over the remarkable similarity of the Obama and Bush policies in Iraq and Afghanistan. It would seem that the new president’s reading of a steady flow of daily intelligence briefings have led him to reach much of the same national security conclusions of George W. Bush. Another troubled plank of the Democrats’ base is the youth vote. Unfortunately for the president and his party, the energy of the youth vote is gone. Perhaps the energy has been diverted towards an exhaustive and mostly fruitless job search. There have been two graduating classes since the magic of the 2008 “hope and change” campaign.

The youth group now includes millions of young voters that may well be wondering if President Obama knows enough about economics to ever create an environment chock full of employment opportunities. Reality is replacing the platitudes and naïve job rhetoric of the aging campaign songs.

Yet another plank of the Democratic base includes millions of racial and ethnic minority voters. In this sphere, not only have job opportunities been virtually non-existent, there has been no sign of the start of the “post racial” era in America. In fact, the topic of “race” keeps surfacing, and it keeps being brought to the surface by the president’s proponents, not by the so-called diversity antagonists. It is becoming increasingly apparent to all minorities that the constant conjuring up of the specter of race is more often a thinly disguised attempt to manipulate perceptions for political gain rather than for promoting real justice and equality……the most recent evidence being the Juan Williams firing by NPR. The efforts to suppress Williams’ free speech rights were met with nothing but silence from the ACLU, and other alleged freedom fighting organizations in the so-called “base.” The lack of outrage was remarkable.

Finally, we turn to the female plank of the so-called Democratic Party base. Here too the actions of those holding the majorities have not mimicked their drumbeat of pro-female rhetoric. Shrill calls for “tolerance” of those that embrace subjugation and intolerance of the rights of women have been ringing hollow for two years and counting. This inconsistency has also not gone unnoticed by female voters in the U.S. It has thus far been a gross miscalculation for the Obama administration, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid to extend remarkable new levels of sympathy and tolerance for governments, societies, and cultures that treat women like second class human beings. It also does not go unnoticed that embracers of the concept of Sharia Law are being treated far more politely by partisan Democrats than the mainstream American GOP women that happen to be running for office.

With a just few hours left before the vote counting begins on the mid-terms, the partisans in the Democratic Party are scratching their heads while trying to explain why they are having to scramble so furiously to “get out their base.” The explanations run the gamut of excuse making. “Irrational voter anger,” a new era of “knownothingness,” and the “party of no” simply managing to win the fickle P.R. battles more cleverly are but a few excuses floated about. There is a more simple explanation. These four planks of the “base” are paying very close attention to inconsistencies in so-called philosophy along with the massive wasteful spending under their watch. Too few traditional Democratic Party base members like what they see or hear from those in control.

Difficulties With the "Base"