Click on the title to link to the "Daily Kos" home page. This site is valuable, mainly, to get the polls and other technical information that major party politics thrives on.
Markin comment:
Unlike the major political parties, academic institutions and think-tanks I have neither the time, financial resources nor inclination to take the pulse of the American electorate via some ‘quasi-scientific’ poll, and draw conclusions accordingly. Primarily, whatever the value of such polls as a general proposition, I do not, and those who are likewise struggling for a communist future should take note, do not need such general information. Our area of concentration, assuming that we are looking for such information, is that extreme left wing of the political population that is today sitting, for the most part, uncomfortably at the edges of the Democratic Party (and, perhaps, a little overflow into the Green party, but that is really the same thing for our purposes). And without the aid of reams of data, a slew of telephonic conversations, e-mailings and “exit” polls I am here with some information. Not all is well in Obama-land as Year 1 of his reign comes to a close. Here, my friends, is our opening and why.
As readers of this space are aware, one of my interests is folk music, old- time music, roots music or whatever you would like to call it, as well as connecting that cultural strand in with our leftist heritage. Therefore, I attend more than my fair share of folk concerts, coffeehouse performances and “open mics” (ad hoc performances) in the local area. Once a year, usually around this time there is a grand gathering of devotees in the area in one place and for a long night of free-for-all singing and playing. (And maybe not so grand, as the numbers are beginning to dwindle as the old time devotees die off and are not replaced by Generation Xer’s, or whoever is not attached by the umbilical cord to some new technological device). The number this year was probably around one hundred and fifty to two hundred. Thus, a fair 'poll’ sampling for my purposes.
Those familiar with the devotees of the folk revival of the early 1960s know that this milieu was made up of, usually, highly educated, slightly radical (or at least left-liberal), kind of quirky types from good homes with some financial security who were not ready to march in step to whatever ‘vanilla’ commercial music was available to youth consumers at the time. The gathering I attended the other night was the ‘remnant’ of that folk revival crowd. Older, grayer, weaker, on the whole less driven by some political vision, although as they will be the first to tell you, their hearts are still in the right place.
Why is this important? Well, figure it out. This group and their kindred in little enclaves throughout the country, my friends, was one of the key early social bases from which the Obama drew in 2008 (and Hillary to lesser extend, but Obama was their real choice from the get-go). These are people who in their youth worked, one way or the other, in the civil rights campaigns, North or South and the Obama candidacy and then election were the epitome of what they fought for back then. Thus at the 2007 and 2008 (held just after the inauguration) gatherings the songs, the talk, the spirit in the air were all keyed to this changing of the guard under the guise of anybody-but-Bush. These last couple of years, I could hardly contain my anger at their naiveté, especially on the question of that pending Afghanistan escalation that Obama made no effort to hide as he campaigned.
Fast forward to this year (2010). For several hours of songs and other such doings, in contrast, not one political comment was made (except by me, of course), not one reference to anything political in song or presentation. Nada. This is important. Not, as one might think, because it is prima facie evidence that Obama is on the ropes with the left wing of the Democratic Party. Nor that there is to be a left -AARP (American Association of Retired People) uprising to throw the scoundrel out. No, what is important here is that these people have children, mainly college students now, or a little older. Just the kids who formed the shock troops for Obama. And these kids, unlike when we were kids in the 1960s, listen to their folks. That is where Obama’s trouble is going to come from. And I needed neither a crystal ball nor a “scientific poll” to come up with that wisdom.
What is more problematic is what we communists do about it. After all, one of the truisms of politics is that it abhors a vacuum (which may be one of the few true generalizations that you can make about the subject).
Some of Obama’s problems will come from the right: racial, political or just plain ornery, the Tea Party-crowd. But for us of the left, the communist left in particular, we might be able with some work pick up some of those left-liberal kids. Hey, where do you think the radicals of the 1960s, including this writer, came from? I will repeat what has become something of a mantra for this space. After Obama, Us. Or at least we better act that way.
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