Welcome to the Party, Pal…

It was in May 2007 that I wrote this diary at Daily Kos about the importance of the independent vote during elections.  In it, I detailed how the independent vote gave the Democratic Party the majority in Congress in the 2006 election.

In Dec 2008, I wrote this essay on how both political Parties could lose the independent vote.

After two and a half years, who is finally starting to agree with me?  Daily Kos.

When you see the latest poll done by Daily Kos, you see a very interesting trend; Democrats are down, including, President Obama.

PRESIDENT OBAMA 55 (58) 40 (38) -5

PELOSI: 33 (34) 58 (57) -2

REID: 32 (33) 57 (56) -2

CONGRESSIONAL DEMS: 40 (41) 54 (53) -2

DEMOCRATIC PARTY: 43 (44) 50 (49) -2

But, beyond the numbers, is the commentary done by Steve Singiser:

A continuation of the base erosion that began to raise its head last week, in addition to (for the first time) a significant dip in support from Independent voters, drove the Democrats lower for the second consecutive week.

President Obama’s favorabilities dropped the most substantially this week, propelled by another three-point drop in support from Democrats (down to 80%, the lowest of his presidency), as well as a big shift among Independents (from 66% last week to 62% this week).

For the Democratic Party, and Congressional Democrats, the more modest dip in their numbers was driven, in equal parts, by Democrats and Independents.

On the flip side of the coin, the GOP and their counterparts in Congress get a modest bump this week, driven in fairly equal parts by Republicans and Independents.

The fairly interesting backdrop to this week’s numbers is the fact that, for the first time in several weeks, the right track/wrong track metric saw some improvement, edging back up from a spread of – 11 (41/52) to a spread of – 9 (42/53).

Well go figure… somebody finally realized that independent votes matter.  Of course, it only took winning the trifecta in 2008, then losing over 25% of that support in a matter of months for people to notice.  

Yes, this is an “I told you so”.  Why?

Markos himself crowed to Jonathon Chait about his reversal:

What happened, Jonathan, to change your mind since 2006? Perhaps it’s the fact that our case against Lieberman wasn’t about “deviation from the party line”, but about full-throated obstruction of Democratic priorities while enabling Bush and his Republican allies? Now, you’re demanding primary challenges to Senate Democrats, INCLUDING Lieberman, even if it “temporarily costs the Democrats some seats”! Wow.

Better late than never, I suppose. Too bad you spent all that energy trashing people like me who clearly had a better understanding of the corrosive effect of the likes of Joe Lieberman on the Democratic Party, and pushed for a Democratic Party that was, indeed, able to build a majority. A big one, at that.

Except, that majority was made possible by?  The independent voters.

But, it gets better.

Remember when we, and by “we” I mean everyone here who was called a “purity troll”, who were told we weren’t helping the Democratic Party because we dared to call out Democratic politicians who sold us out, who pretty much got ran out of DK?  Guess who is joining that party now?

DarkSyde of DK wrote on the same day Markos crowed about being right:

If mandated private health insurance with no public option — and almost guaranteed lax or non existent regulation — is a trial balloon, call it the Hindenburg. A grand, over sized, decadent engineering affectation doomed for catastrophe. A barely functional, jewel encrusted impractical monstrosity lucky to get high enough off the ground to crash back to earth as a blazing sarcophagus of twisted, glowing metal embracing the charred skeletons of passengers and crew, burning out on a layer of crushed innocent onlookers helplessly trapped beneath the flaming giant. Carrying the reputations and careers of anyone even tangentially associated with it to a grave every bit as final as the swirling carbon ashes rising above the fiery, smoky plume that once formed men and machine.

Maybe I’m just pissed. Maybe there’s something I’m missing. But right now, I’m tempted to add that if this passes, I’m with Hunter, I’m with Kagro, hell I’m with the freakin teabaggers.  I might actively work to defeat anyone who votes for such an abomination, preferably in a primary, but in a general if need be. Healthcare reform — the real stuff, not an imitation — with a public option and a robust regulatory body is that big of a deal to me, to you, to all of us. And nothing else, not appeals to reason or morality or even long term political survival, seems to be getting that message through loud and clear to the Senate clowns. And I just don’t know any other way to demonstrate the severity of such a miscalculation on the single most important issue we have busted our asses for, rang on doorbells for, made calls for, and emptied our meager checking accounts for, than to finally kick these worthless greedy lying sacks of shit out of power and start over from scratch.

So, let’s see, DarkSyde, Hunter AND Kagro have all joined the club.  Hmmm… What did Markos say?  Oh, right.  Better late than never, I suppose.  Too bad they spent all that energy trashing people like me who clearly had a better understanding of the corrosive effect of the Democrat’s who continually sold us out, and, who are now losing that big majority that the independent voters helped them build.