This is exactly what I had mentioned yesterday. What's even worse is that I heard the same complaint from people who tended to side with Democrats but would not be considered to be the base of the party. The Democrats would be lucky if the problem was only limited to the base, but it's much more widespread than that. It's clear that the Republicans can smell the fear of a fight as well and are taking advantage of the weakness. Who wants to support leaders or a party who are afraid of standing up and fighting back? Certainly not me and I suspect I'm not alone.
More from Eugene Robinson.
That's the question I've been hearing from the Democratic Party's stunned and dispirited base. For the past month, I've been on a book tour that has taken me to Asheville, N.C., Terre Haute, Ind., Austin and elsewhere. Everywhere I go, supporters of President Obama and his agenda ask me why so many Democrats in Washington don't stand up for what they say they believe.
I confess that I don't have a good answer. What I can say with confidence, however, is that the White House and Democrats in Congress ignore these grumblings at their peril. Call it polarization, call it conviction, call it whatever you like: These are not wishy-washy times. If you don't stand for something, you get run over.
We saw this principle in action last week. Anomie among the Democratic base was not the main reason the party suffered what Obama called a "shellacking" in the midterms, but clearly it was a factor. Elements of the party's traditional coalition - minorities, women, young people - voted in much smaller numbers than they did in 2008. The "enthusiasm gap" turned out to be real, and it had real consequences.
