{"id":2425,"date":"2014-11-03T14:04:03","date_gmt":"2014-11-03T19:04:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/napervilledemocrats.org\/ntdo\/?p=2425"},"modified":"2014-11-03T14:05:08","modified_gmt":"2014-11-03T19:05:08","slug":"ej-dionne-hope-over-cynicism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/napervilledemocrats.org\/ntdo\/ej-dionne-hope-over-cynicism\/","title":{"rendered":"EJ Dionne: Hope Over Cynicism"},"content":{"rendered":"

EJ Dionne had a nice piece in yesterday’s paper<\/a>\u00a0encouraging\u00a0hope over cynicism. \u00a0Here are a few key sections (emphasis added<\/strong>):<\/p>\n

The speech that made [Obama] a national figure, his keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention<\/a>, is best known for his declaration that \u201cthere\u2019s not a liberal America and a conservative America, there\u2019s the United States of America.\u201d In light of what\u2019s happened since, you want to weep at those words.<\/p>\n

But near the end of his peroration on national unity, Obama hit upon the idea that has always been his touchstone. \u201cDo we participate in a politics of cynicism,\u201d he asked, \u201cor do we participate in a politics of hope?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AP-OBAMA-GOVERNOR-WISCONSIN-BURKE-68340181\"<\/a>A decade later, at a rally last week in Wisconsin<\/a>, where he was campaigning for Mary Burke, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Obama offered the same message more pointedly: \u201cThe folks on the other side, they\u2019re counting on you being cynical. They\u2019re figuring you won\u2019t think you can make a difference.\u201d The alternative? \u201cDon\u2019t be cynical. Be hopeful. .?.?. Cynicism is a choice. And hope is a better choice.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

At the end of a midterm election campaign during which \u201cdark money\u201d has financed one attack after another, nothing is so striking as the triumph of cynicism in the form of a weary detachment from public life. This disaffection is not just a letdown after the possibilities raised by Obama from the beginning of his national career. It is also a flight from the promise of democracy.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The GOP and the dark-money forces have been stoking this cynicism purposely from the beginning. \u00a0For voters\u00a0to give in to it and sit home now hands them a monstrous victory. \u00a0EJ writes about that, too, in the same piece:<\/p>\n

\n

In \u201cThe Cynic<\/a>,\u201d a new biography of Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell<\/a>, New Republic writer Alec MacGillis cites former GOP senator Bob Bennett recalling McConnell\u2019s comments to his party colleagues at a winter retreat in 2009, at the dawn of Obama\u2019s presidency:<\/p>\n

\u201cMitch said, \u2018We have a new president with an approval rating in the 70\u00a0percent area. We do not take him on frontally. We find issues where we can win, and we begin to take him down, one issue at a time. We create an inventory of losses, so it\u2019s Obama lost on this, Obama lost on that. And we wait for the time when the image has been damaged to the point where we can take him on.\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n

MacGillis aptly summarized the approach: \u201cIn other words, wait out Americans\u2019 hopefulness in a dire moment for the country until it curdles to disillusionment.\u201d This is the central cause of the dysfunction that leaves voters so disheartened. It should be rebuked rather than vindicated at the polls.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Don’t be disillusioned. \u00a0Don’t hand them a victory (and don’t think they don’t have very explicit plans for how to be destructive<\/a>\u00a0in the case of that outcome<\/a>). \u00a0Come out and vote for candidates who have put regular people first over and over again.<\/p>\n

As I’ve heard Congressman Foster say more than once, “Bad things happen when good people stay home and don’t vote.” \u00a0Please do your part to be sure those “bad things” don’t happen.<\/p>\n