Ten minutes was the absolute maximum I could endure of any one
television news outlet last night without having to switch channels in
the futile search for something more bearable, but almost every time I
had MNSBC on, there was Lawrence O'Donnell trying to blame "the Left"
and "liberalism" for the Democrats' political woes. Alan Grayson's loss
was proof that outspoken liberalism fails. Blanche Lincoln's loss was
the fault of the Left for mounting a serious primary challenge against
her. Russ Feingold's defeat proved that voters reject liberalism in
favor of conservatism, etc. etc. It sounded as though he was reading
from some crusty script jointly prepared in 1995 by The New Republic, Lanny Davis and the DLC.
There are so many obvious reasons why this "analysis" is false:
Grayson represents a highly conservative district that hadn't been
Democratic for decades before he won in 2008 and he made serious
mistakes during the campaign; Lincoln was behind the GOP challenger by more than 20 points back in January,
before Bill Halter even announced his candidacy; Feingold was far from a
conventional liberal, having repeatedly opposed his own party on
multiple issues, and he ran in a state saddled with a Democratic
governor who was unpopular in the extreme. Beyond that, numerous
liberals who were alleged to be in serious electoral trouble kept their
seats: Barney Frank, John Dingell, Rush Holt, Raul Grijalva, and many
others. But there's one glaring, steadfastly ignored fact destroying
O'Donnell's attempt -- which is merely the standard pundit storyline
that has been baking for months and will now be served en masse -- to blame The Left and declare liberalism dead. It's this little inconvenient fact: Blue Dog Coalition Crushed By GOP Wave Election.
Read this entire article at Salon.com
