Matt O’Malley, a Boston progressive who has twice run for city council, suggests that it’s a rare candidate who can generate enthusiasm among the new progressives and also marshal that energy into an effective grassroots campaign. Patrick was that rare exception. It is not surprising that others fall short, says O’Malley.
Many progressives only get fired up, one pol suggests, by an underdog candidate — which Patrick certainly was at the time they flocked to him — or by a candidate who deliberately appeals to the far left, itself hardly a strategy for electoral success. After all, it’s hard to feel as if you’re challenging the system by supporting a front-runner.
Others, such as Democratic consultant Scott Ferson, say that many ardent progressives are standing on principle and refusing to compromise. “They are true believers,” he says. “They would rather be right than win, and there’s nothing wrong with that.”
Feeling marginalized
Regardless of the reason for the progressive neglect at the ballot box, the result is that Massachusetts officeholders don’t fear paying a price at the polls for standing against the liberal base of the Democratic Party, a perception that State House staffers confirm.
Patrick’s casino initiative is a case in point. Despite mounting opposition, voiced mostly in left-wing blogs, Patrick chose to champion multiple casinos licensed by the state.
The apparent popularity of the casino plan, and of Patrick, wrote the left-wing blogger The Outraged Liberal, “suggests no one is listening to us.”
One reason these progressives are feeling marginalized might lie in their lack of unanimity on the issues. It was easy to feel united and effective on an issue like gay marriage, says O’Malley, because all the progressive groups were working together on it. It’s been hard to find other issues that bring the left together in the same way.
That leaves progressives often splintered, working at cross purposes, or fighting losing causes. But Walsh is not discouraged. “If people say they would rather be right than win,” he says, “and they can get enough people organized and work hard enough, they can be right and win.”
On the Web
David S. Bernstein's Talking Politics: //www.thephoenix.com/talkingpolitics
