Who Are Democrats Now?

Did Democrats think that they could rest on the laurels of 2008? Did they think they didn’t have to fulfill their campaign promises to be re-elected? Was it a lack of party leadership? Was it that they have had no clear take on what’s going on in the country? Did they miss the vociferous hatred on the part of the religious right and others on the far right? What did they think that guy we saw on the nightly news with a shotgun slung over his shoulder was saying about the President at the Obama rally he was stalking? What did they think was meant when Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said that, "The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term President?" Do they think they don't have to worry until 2012?

Democrats seem to have a propensity for turning possibility into missed opportunities. Remember that it practically took shooting themselves in the foot to let a Gore Presidency slip away in the wake of his popularity. That George Bush ever won the White House is a crime that left Obama to inherit huge disasters. But the right is still trying to sell the lies that would have their minions believe that Obama invented our wars, the deficit, and the fact that he is an American. Think about it for a moment. Is it possible that those accusations are in part meant to cover their racism? Can you imagine how offensive it is for Tea Partiers to even think about this intelligent, educated attractive African American as the leader of the free world? You may have a few things you’d like to say to them as well, because in the final analysis the fate of the future does not lie just in their hands, the Democrats’ hands or the President’s hands. The future lies in the hands of each and every one of us.  And that’s just the beginning: we also have to look out for more Mitch McConnells, who just want all progressive and liberal types gone. So we have to be inventive and look at how daringly we are going to play our hands.

President Obama gave us the slogan, “Change We Can Believe In,” and though the Democrats blew the chance to create change through the strength of controlling both houses of Congress, they’ve become adept at overcoming, which means they are even better suited to create change, so let’s not count them out. In fact we must never forget how skilled and artful the Democrats have become over the years at misreading opportunities. The time has come to turn politics as usual into a government that is actually, rather than theoretically, “of the people, by the people and for the people,” including our “people,” and not just at election time. Reality lives between elections where the less glamorous work pleads with us, urges us, and demands us to become more deeply involved as we are called upon to look towards the future where America once again begins to live up to its original promise. It’s not going to happen overnight. It’s going to take work, and it’s going to take a massive effort. It’s been a long time.