A letter to Democratic Party Leadership

I am not happy with the final agreement on the debt limit and deficit cutting, and I suspect you aren't either. While I understand that this probably was the best deal that could be reached with the irrational Republican Tea Party faction, I am deeply concerned about the result, and the process that led to the result, as it will apply to the 2012 campaign.

Coming off the criticism of the Ryan Budget and the NY-26 win, we had the opportunity to stand as the Party that would defend Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security to the death; now we appear to be the Party that won't cut it too much. While restructuring may, in fact, be a good idea in the long term, I don't see how we can message that this will be good thing in a period when people are worried about having income and insurance at all, much less whether they need to wait until 65 or 67 to get it from the Government.

We stood as the Party and the President that saw a responsible role for Government activity to encourage and support private sector activity and to protect the most vulnerable during the extended economic downturn. Now, we apparently agree that we must all live within our means, supporting that Republican assertion that all our spending policies in the last two years were irresponsible and misguided.

We also had the opportunity to stand as a Party which believed, as the President said, in shared sacrifice, in making the wealthy pay their fare share, and in fighting irresponsible tax entitlements for yachts and private jets. Now, a week after the President reiterated this point in his Primetime speech, we've given away revenue as well, for no apparent reason other than, "Republicans said 'no'". Perhaps it was a necessary negotiating point, but I haven't got a clue what we "got" for it, and I don't think anyone else does either. And while I recognize that the Bush tax cuts are scheduled to expire, again, at the end of 2012, nobody I've talked to have the confidence that Democrats won't cave, in an election period, and acquiesce to the inevitable Republican demand that they be renewed (or made permanent) in toto.

The bottom line is, you need to think long and hard (and soon!) about what this new situation means to the Democratic message, and how you're going to create a compelling argument for restoration of Democratic control of the House, retention of the Senate and re-election of the President. While the alternative will obviously be worse, I think many low-information voters see the Republicans and Democrats as equally blameworthy for the chaotic situation in Washington, and are not likely to be won over by campaign message that is, effectively, "vote Democratic and it won't be as bad...".

I am starting to build my 2012 campaign database, and XXXX and I will plug money in to competitive races where we see viable and compelling candidates. Our ability to further support the Committees however is likely to be determined by whether or not they are able to recognize the current political situation and respond to it effectively.

(nb - this was sent to a private email account that I have access to)

put your head between your legs and kiss your sweet ass goodbye.