Citizens' Daily Lobby

As Democrats in Arkansas face opposition from within their own party,  I am still ambivalent about the effectiveness of the protest vote.   Maybe it works in the primaries (and I’m supporting the idea of a Democratic challenge to Blanche Lincoln), but I’m not sure it’s effective as a tactic in the general election.   I have a very hard time even contemplating the bitter reality of a win by any of the Conservative contenders for the open seats in 2012, and I am not convinced that the party will get the right message.   The Massachusetts special election is a case in point.  The Conservative mass messaging consortium and rightward-leaning Democrats wasted no time in spinning the election results as reflecting a Massachusetts (and entire country) exasperated by the policies of the Left.    Momentum, and an additional vote in the Senate, is with them, but they have misrepresented the meaning of the  election.

Immediately after the election, Research 2000 conducted a poll of 500 Obama voters who either switched to vote Republican in this election (!) or sat out the vote.   Given the hypothesis that Americans are lashing back at the policies of the Obama administration, we would expect that these voters would lean to the Right on issues like Wall Street regulation or health care reform.  The poll results are exactly the opposite.  A plurality of these voters think that Democrats in Washington are not fighting hard enough against the Republican policies from the Bush years.  They say that they would be more likely to vote Democratic in the next election if Democrats laid down stronger rules for Wall Street companies that got government bailouts.  They think Democrats are on the side of lobbyists rather than the public, and they do not support the current health care reform legislation because it does not go far enough.  =    It would seem that these voters represent Progressives who are desperately (and I mean desparately) trying to get a message to the Democratic party.

The message is falling on deaf ears, and those people aren’t going to be better off by one whit for having cast (or not cast) their symbolic vote.   They have unwittingly given the Right a gift that goes far beyond the Senate seat.

How much worse would a similar vote be here in Arkansas, where voters overwhelmingly rejected Obama and are widely viewed as being far more conservative than their Congressional delegation?  Progressives certainly need to protest and certainly need to send a message to the Democratic party that we are disgusted by the “same as it ever was” politics of the current Congress.   What is more certain is that we must act with wisdom and conviction, and we must act now.  Primary Blanche Lincoln now, but do it sensibly, and only with a credible, viable candidate.  Vounteer for a Progressive candidate this year.  Speak up often, loudly, and eloquently.    If you donate politically, donate  to Progressive candidates, and let the Democratic Party know you will not donate money directly to their coffers until the party’s actions reflect its platform.

(additional commentary at HuffPo and cross-tabulated poll results here)

Update: 1-20-10 8:00pm:  You can reinforce the message by signing petitions urging Congress to give us the “change we can believe in” or support health care with a public option at CREDO action, MoveOn.Org, and Democracy for America.