The 'Professional Left' didn't take its ball and go home

From Sam Stein at Huffington Post:

As approaches to the 2010 campaign go, the AFL-CIO's is, perhaps, the most illustrative of the mindset adopted by the disaffected or "professional left" -- as the White House pejoratively labeled it. Griping over the way the past two years played out and eager to demonstrate its discontent, the community nevertheless bit its tongue and invested itself in the elections. It wasn't spending money for the sake of it. And with respect to the cable chatterers, it was hardly full-throated endorsement of the president or his approach. Rather resources were offered and arguments made with specified purposes and the begrudged recognition that as disapointing as the Democrats were, it could get worse.

The problem is how you motivate the followers even if the leaders are finally, begrudgingly, on board.

In some quarters, the animus towards the party has been too palpable to ignore. The gay community, in particular, has found self-motivation for Democrats difficult, certainly after conservatives began co-opting the same-sex marriage debate and Congress and the White House punted on their key issues. Gay donors stopped taking out their checkbooks for Democrats in June. And little has changed since, save the protests at Obama rallies, which have grown increasingly louder.

"[W]hat do I tell my LGBT readers this time around?" said John Aravosis, editor of AMERICABlog. "'Vote for Democrats. They won't keep their promises, but they suck less?' Of course I'm voting, and of course I'm urging our readers to support Democrats who have actually kept their promises. But it's difficult motivating people to vote once again for the same guys who already threw them under the bus."

And the problem is really worse than that. If Sam's story is true, then the "Professional Left" risks sending the message to Democrats that regardless of how often politicians break their promises to us, we'll still support them come election time. What's the incentive for Democrats to keep their promises if they know we won't hold them accountable the only time we can hold them accountable, election time?

I'm not sure what the answer is. I don't want the Republicans running Congress and sitting in the White House. But I also don't want Democrats to think they can break any and all promises with impunity, or they will. So what's the solution?