Numbers may point to an underlying trend. Tea party, while it started out as a corporate backed shill of an organization grew out of control, encompassing everything that was bad about the GOP but oh so appealing to those self-safe GOPers. Obama and the Democrats may not have actually done anything, and the ballooning deficits they claim to care about may actually have come from Bush, but goddamnit they were united by their mutual, imaginary fears.
And it's working, it's really working. A Research 2000 poll by Daily Kos shows
a huge enthusiasm gap between Republicans and Democrats. If these numbers are accurate, Dems are going to get slaughtered in 2010, and by a Republican party that is probably going to consist of take-no-prisoners teabaggers. And if they get power, well...
It's hard to give a concrete reason why the Democrats are floundering so badly, but if I had to give a reason I'd venture that it's because they're total wimps. Given majorities in both chambers and a Democratic president and they just can't get shit done. They went through the trouble of selling the public on the best ideas in health reform, then gave them up before negotiations even began. Progressives and minority and labor groups who worked their asses off to get these guys elected feel justifiably betrayed. Republicans may have been bullies and brutes, but when in power they gave their constituents what they wanted.
Just over a year ago it seemed like the Democrats had it all. They had control, their opponent was self-destructing, and they had public support at their backs. But they blinked first, and we may be the worse off for it.