What to do about funding requests?

I got email today from Chris Bowers (Campaign Director, Daily Kos) asking me to donate money to support the recall of GOP politicians in Wisconsin: “On Monday, I sent you an email about how the recall against Republican state Senators had begun in Wisconsin. You can support the recall by contributing to the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, which is the central organizing hub for the campaign. The DPW has already gathered 15% of the petition signatures required to force a recall election.”

Every day I get solicitations from progressive and Democratic causes. It’s hard to know which causes to support.

It’s a shame but many people are hesitant to donate to the Democratic Party because of its mixed record with regard to defending progressive values. Sure, the Republicans are worse, but my point is that many donors, and voters, are reluctant to support wishy-washy compromisers who use progressive rhetoric but in the end turn around and support conservative views.  Republicans rarely compromise and often vote unanimously for hard right positions. Many  Democrats are “centrist” and compromise.   So, of course, the nation’s politics are moving further and further to the right.

President Obama himself said, “We lose ourselves when we compromise the very ideals that we fight to defend. And we honor those ideals by upholding them not when it’s easy, but when it is hard.”

But I gotta say: President Obama’s repeated compromises with Republicans, and his repeated betrayals of progressive values, will likely cause tremendous damage. He deserves a large part of the blame for the shellacking in November and for the Democrats’ failure to stop playing defense.