GOVERNMENT operates by the wrong values and rules, for the wrong people and purposes, the Americans I’ve surveyed believe....If they are to win trust, and votes, Democrats must show they are as determined as the Tea Party movement to change the rules of the game. In our surveys and media work for Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign, we found that only if people thought a candidate was going to change government in fundamental ways — starting with welfare and reinventing government — would they give permission to spend their money.
Not according to the progressive caucus. Their faith in government is unshakeable; they are the ones Obama is talking to when he claims that any cuts in Federal spending will result in science grinding to a halt, kids not being educated, the poor starving in the street, fill in the blank. They believe it all. Unfortunately for them, they are at most 20% of the country. The rest of the country thinks government needs an extreme make-over, like Stanley Greenberg found in his polls.
They are also the ones who really, truly believed that Obama was "The One". Their disillusionment is extreme. I wonder who will get out the volunteers and the votes to support Obama next year, I really do. The public sector unions, for sure. The DNC and its major PACs. But the progressive caucus? They're talking about primary challenges for Obama. Bernie Sanders thinks he should be primaried. The fate of false messiahs is not a pretty one. |
