Now, about this habit we progressives have of referring to ourselves as the Democratic “base.”
Why do we do that?
You’ve heard this repeatedly over the last few months, right? Sure you have.
Whenever a bunch of millionaire pundits sit around a table in front of a camera and try to explain why President Obama’s approval rating isn’t in the 60s, the stock answer is “he’s losing his base.”
Every time someone makes an errant comment about the health insurance reform bill that gets some progressives in a tizzy and crying, they cry that “Obama had better be careful, or he’ll lose his base.”
What they are usually referring to when they discuss the
"Democratic base” is white-guilt-ridden upper-middle class progressives; you
know the type; the ones who drive Mom and Dad’s SUV to an anti-war rally so
they can protest marijuana laws. They're the ones who react with anger because the Obamas took a dog as a gift from Ted
Kennedy, rather than spend several months combing through shelters looking for
a hypoallergenic dog. They’re the ones who shout “public option” as if they had
Tourette’s Syndrome and who seem more than willing to sacrifice all other
health insurance reforms to get it, even though they can't describe what it is, exactly. They're the ones who think every country with a national health care system has single payer.
Now, I’m a proud progressive/liberal, to be sure, although I don't have much white guilt. But in order to be a part of a constituency’s “base,” you have to form a reliable voting bloc for that candidate or party. Among progressives, I think it’s safe to assume that black voters are, by and large, part of the base. Non-Cuban Hispanics can be reliably counted upon to vote Democratic. But most white progressives -- you know, the ones the white millionaires in the media refer to as "the Democratic base" -- can’t be counted on to vote at all. Funny how those white millionaires don't refer to blacks or Hispanics as "progressive." But then, I get a sense that many of those white millionaire media pundits think "hippie" when they think "progressives." You know, because all of us progressives have long hair, smoke pot, wear tie-dye and are vegan.
Progressives have this strange habit, you know; they don’t always vote, and when they do vote, they often vote for a candidate who has no chance of winning and call it “voting on principle.” It’s one of the key reasons the country was forced to endure twelve disastrous years being “led” by two members of the Bush family. If we were actually part of the Democratic base, Al Gore would have been president in 2000, George W. Bush would be a mere footnote in history, rather than the worst president we have had to endure to date. Follow-up polls in the embarrassing Senate race to succeed Ted Kennedy show that progressives largely didn’t vote, which is at least partly to blame for putting a teabagging nude model into Teddy’s Senate seat.Some 'base," huh?
If you want to know the reason progressives have been largely toothless, politically speaking, it's because politicians really don’t play to them, and haven't for about 30-40 years. Because self-described progressives largely don't vote, and when they do vote they often throw their vote away, the Democratic Party wrote them off a long time ago.
See, in order to be part of a party’s “base,” you have to constitute a reliable voting bloc for them, and you have to provide reliable support for them. You can't offer conditional support, and then set conditions that force candidates to accept positions that cause them to lose support elsewhere. That doesn’t mean you can’t complain, and it doesn’t mean you can’t move your support to someone else when a politician is unresponsive. But to be part of a party's "base," they have to be able to count upon you to deliver a vote for them on a regular basis, even if you occasionally have to hold your nose when you do it.
Unfortunately, white-guilt-ridden progressives can’t be counted upon for much of anything. They largely stayed home when Bill Clinton was elected; they refused to support his health care reforms because they didn’t go “far enough;” they stayed home from the polls in 1994 and Republicans took the House and Senate majorities in a veritable squeaker; they stayed home in droves or voted for Ralph Nader in 2000, because Al Gore wasn’t “progressive” enough; and while they showed up in greater numbers to vote for Kerry, progressives still represented a poor turnout in relation to all other voting blocs.
I kind of gave up working on party politics when my son was little. Part of the reason was because I was a single parent and didn’t have sufficient time, but largely it was because I was sick to death of going to Democratic meetings as a progressive voice and being outnumbered. If you want to know why the Democratic Party moved to the right, and continues to do so, pull out your voter registration card. If it says “independent” or sports the name of a “third party,” you’re certainly not part of the “Democratic base.” The “Democratic base” chooses Democratic candidates. The “Democratic base” chooses the issues that go into the platforms. The “Democratic base” gets legislation passed that makes them happy.
In order to be a part of the “Democratic base,” one actually has to be a Democrat. One has to be counted upon to vote in every election, and to vote for Democrats in almost all of them. And they have to be active in Party politics.
Put simply, if you’re wondering why there are so few progressive politicians, and why Democrats in power seem to take such conservative views on most issues, it’s because the base has shifted. If you want the Democratic Party to move left, you’ll have to push it there. If you have the attitude, “Well, if they want my vote, they’ll have to earn it,” you’re part of the problem. If you tend to withhold your vote unless a politician speaks to you, specifically, you’re part of the problem.
Progressives are not part of the Democratic Party’s base, and they haven’t been for a long time. You can tell by the small number of elected progressive politicians. They used to make up a majority of the Democratic Party’s contingent in Congress; now they occupy the corner and get voted down by people called “Blue Dogs.”
I wish progressives were the “Democratic base,” but it’s just not true at the moment.
