The Keystone State

It is a testament to Ed Schultz's sincere and zealous belief in the progressive movement that he maintains that the Affordable Care Act will start to work before the upcoming congressional midterm elections and that the Democrats should vigorously defend it in the fall campaigns.  Because Mr. Schultz is utterly alone in that assessment.  No one expects the health care law to suddenly work as intended in time for November.  Pundits left, right and center are all agreeing that Democrats will alienate independents if they champion Obamacare but will still shoot themselves in the foot by alienating their liberal base if they don't.  (Personally, I think Obamacare is working out so poorly that even the base is going to turn against it.)  Chuck Todd has even said that only misogynistic statements by Republican candidates could bring out enough women to the polls to reverse the Democrats' fortunes, and John Boehner and Mitch McConnell are working over time to make sure that GOP congressional candidates don't spew out any woman-hating remarks (at least not until they're safely elected). 

I think the one issue that could theoretically save the Democrats is the Keystone XL pipeline . . . if President Obama rejects it.  As ticked off as the base might be if Obamacare is slighted in the midterm campaigns, it will be livid if the pipeline carrying dirty oil from Canada across some of this nation's richest and most productive farmland - including a vital aquifer that nourishes said farmland - were to be approved.  If built, it could leak and possibly do irreversible damage to the land and the aquifer.   If the President rejects it, it will energize the base and show that he is on the correct side of a crucial, high-stakes environmental issue and is eager to pursue the sort of progressive ecological agenda that liberals thought they'd see from him when they voted for him in 2008.           

If the Keystone XL pipeline is approved, you might as well kiss the Democrats' chances goodbye - not just for 2014 but for 2016 and beyond.  And thanks to voter suppression, Citizens United, and a condescending mainstream media establishment (need I cite Chuck Todd again?), the Dems could either end up a permanent opposition or go the way of the Whigs.