Earth to Obama: Go Left, or Go Home!

Republican Scott Brown's victory over Democrat Martha Coakley in the Massachusetts special election to replace Ted Kennedy, the late "liberal lion" of the senate, has shocked the Beltway and rattled nerves in the White House and Congress. Although Coakley's particularly lackluster campaign played a significant role in her improbable defeat, the larger problem facing the Democrats is the ineffectiveness of the Obama-Pelosi-Reid leadership. If reports from the Coakley campaign are true, Obama's unwillingness to directly challenge Wall Street has become a massive electoral liability, with angry voters directing their rage over the state of the economy squarely at the White House. Seen also as having been a referendum on current health care reform legislation, the Brown victory spells major trouble for Democrats in the upcoming 2010 congressional and 2012 presidential elections. While Joe Lieberman is making a predictable and laughable pitch for the Democrats to move even further to the center in hopes of preventing a rapid slide from power, their only real hope lay in the exact opposite: a move sharply to the left.

As Arianna Huffington notes, the loss in Massachusetts could prove a blessing in disguise if it inspires Democrats to abandon their present middle-of-the-road approach in favor of a bolder and more progressive agenda. FDR, after-all, was nothing more than an astute politician who could tell which way the wind was blowing; he chose to confront the "banksters" because it was popular to do so. It may be too late for the Democrats to begin channeling populist anger in their favor, or it may just be impossible for them to do so given how beholden they are to corporations. But, if any of the Democratic leadership actually still have spines, now is the time to use them. Soon to be lacking the coveted 60 seat majority in the senate, Obama should press the reset button on health care and recommend that Congress pass a progressive bill--with a public option--using the budget reconciliation process in which only 51 votes are needed. If they were to follow this with a new attempt to pass serious financial regulation while devising a comprehensive strategy for stemming the tide of unemployment, it could be possible to reinvigorate the Democratic base and make an electoral comeback centered on actually delivering "change" rather than capitulating to the status quo.

Yet the likelihood of such a reversal is slim indeed, and progressives may at this point be better off pursuing strategies that bypass the Democratic party altogether. This would likely lead to a Republican revival in the short term, but in the long term it could force a much needed political realignment and lead to the formation of a social-democratic alternative offering real solutions as opposed to mere slogans.