To build off my last post, I think it is important to counter what is going to be the dominant narrative in the next few days — that the Democrats are too liberal and are trying to do too much.
Basically, I just don’t buy it.
The reality of the last 12 months is that voters were promised significant change — even if that promise was never explicit in the kinds of programs then-candidate Barack Obama was offering voters. He talked about hope and change, of making big strides into the future, of returning America to its earlier glories — essentially mixing JFK and MLK into one, overarching narrative designed to plug into the nostalgic streak that drives conservative politics while also offering liberals a progressive idyll to which they could connect.
Liberals heard what they wanted, disaffected conservatives and independents waited and the president, once in power, turned out not to be FDR, Truman and LBJ, but a triangulating Clinton-type (without the sex-capades) without the benefit of the humming economy to keep everyone happy.
The problem is and will continue to be the economy and the Democrats have shown that they have few answers — or lack the will to aggressively rebuild, to do battle with the interests (banks and investment houses, insurers, the permanent military industry) who stand in the way of change.
As this post on Truthdig points out, the calls from the mainstream media, Republicans and the meak and moderate wing of the Democratic Party to say “Democrats need to move to the right” ignore one simple fact: The party has been heading right “ever since our community organizer in chief walked away from a public option, opened up the national checkbook for the banks and doubled our troop levels in Afghanistan.”
Democrats have failed to improve anything since Obama became president, instead offering the nation the spectacle of a handful of Democrats from small states holding the rest of the party hostage.
The Democrats, as I said earlier, deserved to lose this seat, one that had been held by the Liberal Lion, a progressive champion (despite his warts) who always championed the progressive cause. If they want to staunch the bleeding, they need to move to the left, need to embrace the kind of populist remedies — single-payer healthcare, aggressive bank regulation, an end to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
They have to stop worrying about what the media has to say, stop worrying about strategizing for November and just stand for something.
Hank Kalet 
Too many Democrats are gutless and timid. I wish they would act like actual Democrats and not pseudo-Gopers. Today, Eisenhower and even Nixon would be considered as liberals. That's how far right wing this country has moved. The Democratic party (right wingers love to say Democrat party) does indeed need to move leftward and become more liberal. I wish there was a true liberal party I could vote for. All the other advanced DEMOCRACIES have some form of universal health care but we're still struggling with this issue. I want to scream and I do blame the American people for being so stupid and for being so easily duped by the right wing propaganda machine.
Instead of trying to pass their entire progressive agenda at once, the Chicago mafia ignored one of the first lessons of leadership. Run in and grab the low hanging fruit. Engender confidence by scoring quick easy wins. (1) Make healthcare tax deductible to individuals. (2) Make intrastate competition the norm.(3) Make all lawsuits subject to a \”reasonability\” test. (4) Make insurance companies report on \”claims satisfaction rates\”. (5) Cap ALL salary compensation at the President's. (Moves all the packages to stock options where it aligns the exec with long-term success.) Direct the IRS to audit any one and the company who's salary exceeds that of the President's. (Embarrass the transgressors.)(6) Spin off GM and Chrysler to every American taxpayer.(7) Limit the size of buz. That is \”too big to fail\” is \”too big to exist\”.Simple stuff. Not scary. And, big winners. Quickly!