Looking forward: 2011
2010 has been a schizophrenic year for us Democrats.
On one hand, we saw many progressive priorities finally see the light of day. Health care reform. Financial regulation reform. Net neutrality. DADT repeal. We also saw California stand as a strong blue bulwark against the crimson tide that drowned the nation this November, with Democrats winning up and down the ballot. We as Californians and as Democrats sent Barbara Boxer back to Washington and Jerry Brown to Sacramento to fight for students, for working families, for a strong middle class, for a renewed Californian Dream left shredded and tattered. California Democrats won up and down the ballot, winning every statewide office race for the first time since 1882 (there was no U.S. Senate race in 2002), flipping one state assembly seat from red to blue, defeating the pro-polluter Proposition 23 by a (somewhat ironic) 23-point margin, and passing Proposition 25, bringing some semblance of fiscal sanity back to Sacramento.
On the other hand, however, Democrats lost the House and had their Senate majority reduced by six. We saw the defeat of climate change legislation, of the DREAM Act, of the Employee Free Choice Act, of DOMA repeal. We saw the loss of progressive stalwarts such as Russ Feingold and Byron Dorgan. Proposition 26 was passed, ensuring that environmental polluters need not sacrifice much in order to poison our communities and our neighborhoods and that minority rule still pervade in Sacramento.
Nationally, 2011 seems like a dark time for Democrats. Republicans, with their newfound House majority, threaten to wreak havoc on progressive measures such as the new health care bill and environmental regulation, instead resuming their pre-2006 record of fiscal irresponsibility, rewarding those who brought our economy to its knees and working families out onto the streets with subsidies and tax cuts. Rather than seeking solutions to problems, they seek to inflame them for political gain, hoping to deny President Obama success and, in turn, reelection. Democrats, seeing their losses, are discouraged and disheartened, at the verge of surrendering to the onslaught of teabagger conservatism.
But now is not the time for internal strife. Now is not the time for the self-destructive circular firing squad. Now is the time for Democrats, especially progressive Democrats, to fight for what we have gained for the American people over the last century. Social Security, once though to be a political third rail, is under attack by charlatans posing as “fiscal conservatives.” Shrill voices in Washington want to shift more of the federal tax burden onto the middle class and the poor, the latest attack on hard-working Americans. School boards from Texas to Virginia are seeking to insert misinformation and lies into school curriculum, diminishing the education of future generations and ensuring an unprepared and ill-informed workforce at a time when other countries are producing top talent. At this critical juncture, Democrats cannot afford to be disappointed and give up, for it is in the face of adversity that we must fight for the principles that had drawn our ancestors to these shores, ideals that had led the Founding Fathers (and Mothers) to create this nation, values that had led us to become Democrats.
We can start here in California. Our state faces an unprecedented budget crisis, papered over the past few years to hide the true damage it has sustained from the recession. Our schools are crumbling, our seniors and children suffer from lack of adequate care, the once-promising state left for dead. But Democrats, now in the driver’s seat, can show that progressive policies are what we need to get California and America back on track. We Democrats can prove that we are the party of fiscal responsibility, the party that invests in a greener future, the party that rewards hark-working families with prosperity, the party of greatness.
In 2011, the keywords for Democrats are: stand up and fight. Whether by calling, writing, marching, or canvassing, we Democrats must make our voice heard: that Democrats stand united and strong for students, for working families, for the middle class, and for a better (and bluer) America.