OPINION:
To understand their stinging election defeat in 2010 and their perilous prospects in 2012, Democrats on the Hill and in statehouses across the country need only reflect on President Obama’s demand to freeze the salaries of federal civilian employees (“Obama demands 2-year pay freeze for federal workers,” Page 1, Tuesday).
In 2010, Mr. Obama’s waffling and caving - on everything from card check to health care’s public option and the stimulus - failed to appease conservatives, but succeeded in dispiriting liberals. Democrats lost in no small part because discouraged members of their base didn’t donate, didn’t volunteer and didn’t show up at the polls like they did in 2006 and 2008.
Federal workers understand that politics is a blood sport, and they didn’t expect to emerge from the forthcoming budget battle unscathed. But given the support federal unions have provided the Obama administration, they had a right to expect that Mr. Obama would not throw in the towel before the first ring of the bell and receive nothing from conservatives in return.
If Democrats hope to avoid another disaster in 2012, Mr. Obama needs to learn one of 2010’s key lessons: If you don’t dance with the ones who brought you, you end up dancing alone.
NATHAN AUSTIN
Dulles, Va.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.