The mainstream media narrative of what happened last night in Massachusetts is of a Democratic Party facing enormous setbacks, and of a voter population turning against Obama and his agenda. I’m here with a different perspective; I think something different happened last night in Massachusetts, and here it is:
Massachusetts’s voters did their damndest to save the Democratic Party from itself by electing Scott Brown. They fired a warning shot across the bow of an administration and congress that has mismanaged the wall street bailouts, and has turned healthcare reform into a ghost of a bill due to its fixation on pleasing and avoiding confrontation with Republicans.
Last night was a protest.
Look at it this way—Scott Brown will serve only three years, the loss of one vote doesn’t really hurt the Democrats since the “supermajority” in the Senate proved to be anything but that in reality, and this special election took place far in advance of the far more substantial fall midterms.
So what was Massachusetts telling the Democratic Party in perhaps the strongest way possible? What do the post-election polling numbers reveal and convey?
Easy. Voters revolted not because they have turned against the Democrats’ agenda, but because they want to the Democrats to go farther, push harder, and stand up to the obstructionist Republicans in the Senate.
A new poll from Research 2000, conducted for Democracy For America, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, and MOveOn.org proves what many of us on the left have been screaming into the deaf ears of party leaders for months. It reveals a mixture of populist anger over the way the bailouts were conducted, as well as anger over the party’s seeming inability to stand up to Republicans and its own conservatives over the very progressive agenda it was elected to enact.
Let’s start with the populist anger. According to Research 2000, 18% of Obama voters who voted in the Senate race ended up supporting Brown. A majority of these said that Democratic policies were doing more to help “Wall Street than Main Street.” The left has been calling for a Main Street focused jobs bill for months. Quite clearly, if Democrats want to win in the fall, they need to attach harsher regulations on the banks that caused the economic crisis, and they need push forward a new stimulus package designed to help struggling homeowners, small business owners, and create jobs. Why this was never part of the original plan is beyond us; it takes no political strategic genius to figure out that voters will be angry when they feel like Wall Street is getting a fat deal at their expense—especially when Wall Street is to blame in the first place.
Of these Obama voters who switched their support to Brown, 37% said that their reason for doing so was because the Democrats were not being “hard enough” in challenging Republicans. This can be said no more clearly: voters want a party with backbone. They do not want a party that will concede, appease, and concede over and over again. The advice here is clear. Give Republicans an opportunity to vote their true colors, and then pass the strongest, best legislation possible and don’t fret over being called “socialists.” It seems that voters want Democrats to take to heart kindergarten advice. Sticks and stones…
Furthermore, 48% of those who switched, and 43% of those who didn’t vote stated that they opposed the senate healthcare bill. Why? Well for Brown voters, 23% said it went too far, but 36% said it did not go far enough! And the numbers are even worse for voters who stayed home: over half of them opposed the bill for not going far enough.
The Democrats are once again being their own worst enemy, not for pursuing too progressive an agenda, but for being ineffectual, too unwilling to stand and fight, and for not being progressive enough.
I don’t know how much more clearly this can be said, but the Democrats need to hear it loud and clear and wake up before the real disaster comes in November.
