Own It

Nobody expected these midterm elections to be good for Democrats.   While it is tempting to break out the possible gloom and doom scenarios for the next two years about Republican majority rule in both houses of Congress, this should also be a time for serious introspection among liberals nationwide.    I know many left of center people are reluctant to even use the "L" word, lest we alienate someone in the center or allow conservatives to use that politically dirty word against us.   That's part of the problem.   Liberals have allowed right wingers to define them as socialist bleeding hearts since the Reagan era.   The Tea Party Republican narrative about the Obama administration is totally false, yet Democrats look the other way or play defense.   In Kentucky, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell had a serious challenge from Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes.   That fizzled when Grimes refused to admit that she even voted for Obama based on the President's poor 2012 election performance in Kentucky, even though Obamacare has worked pretty well there.   When you're that worried about an out of context quote being repeated in McConnell political ads, people see right through that. 

This is the frustrating thing to a self-admitted liberal Democrat like myself. Democrats and liberals too often fail to own what we truly stand for.   The other side can champion all the corporate welfare they want while blocking minimum wage increases for people forced to stay in low-wage service jobs longer than they used to.   They can lie about President Obama's alleged socialist (even communist) economics.   Let them deny the most basic tenets of science.   They can praise President Putin's "leadership".   Then there's our unsecured southern border that lets in record numbers of illegals.   The gun lobby lies about gun confiscation while the GOP sells it with no questions asked.  It's all nonsense, yet Democrats in red, purple and even blue states play down their Obama connection, which also happens to be their ideology.   I might add that Connecticut Democrats failed to own up to the accomplishments of the Malloy administration, allowing a nasty, personal replay of the 2010 governor's race.   If you think like some detached ivory tower type liberal who is disappointed in the "change" promised by Obama, please wake up and realize where we are now compared to 2008.   The GOP still won't, since they're under no pressure to.