Democrats

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Democrats’ lack of enthusiasm.

Glenn Greenwald has a post on Salon titled:

Glenn Greenwald
Thursday, Sep 2, 2010 10:03 ET
The profound mystery of the “enthusiasm gap”

Here’s an excerpt, providing some of the relevant factors Greenwald cites:

(3) Substantial polling data makes clear that Latinos are among the most disenchanted Democratic voting bloc, as they are furious at the White House for repeatedly violating promises on immigration reform.…

(4) At Daily Kos, Joan McCarter documents that progressive and even Democratic Party journalists are now openly acknowledging what has long been clear: President Obama’s Deficit Commission was structured so as to ensure recommendations for, among other things, cuts in Social Security benefits, to be voted on right after the election is nice and over with (an election the Democrats are trying to win by parading around as the protectors of Social Security). Also at Daily Kos, Laurence Lewis describes how similar this dynamic is to prior political controversies, where Democrats held themselves out publicly as believing one thing while privately working for the opposite.

(5) Following Robert Gibbs’ announcement that liberal Obama critics should be drug tested, and before that, Rahm Emanuel’s declaration that the same group is “fucking retarded,” a new book by former Obama “car czar” Steven Rattner describes how Emanuel worked to thwart union interests and declared, in the midst of the auto bailouts: “Fuck the UAW.”

These are among the reasons I myself find this election so difficult. They focus on the White House. I cop to being among those Emanuel and Gibbs were referring to. I feel betrayed. I have a very, very hard time imagining I’ll feel any different in 2012. In fact, if the suspicions about Social Security prove accurate, I’ll feel even worse about Obama.

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But that isn’t the whole story. In this district, I’ll be voting in November for a member of Congress, a U.S. Senator, a governor, and several candidates in the state administration (attorney general etc.). I don’t know if it’s really true that all politics is local. But I do know that I’m very enthusiastic about this year’s local election. I will not be voting for or against President Obama. I will be voting for candidates who will think and act independently and not according to White House scripts.

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