Ezra Klein - Demoralized Democrats

Ezra Klein - Demoralized Democrats: "Reader MK writes:

I've voted for Democrats all my life. I've campaigned for and donated to the Democratic Party. But if they say they can't or won't go any further on health care because they only have 59 votes in the Senate, they deserve to lose.

I'm hearing a lot of this. Last night, I was talking to a committed Democrat. A Massachusetts Democrat, in fact. And her despair was persuasive. 'I didn't vote for a party that would abandon my agenda because it lost one seat in the Senate,' she said. 'The party I voted for, and want to be part of, would recognize political opportunity in the waning days of its supermajority and pass what it could pass, and then keep coming back for more.'

The loss in Massachusetts was a terrible disappointment to Democrats. But it can be explained away. Martha Coakley was a terrible candidate. Scott Brown ran an excellent campaign. These things happen.

But the reaction congressional Democrats have had to Coakley's loss has been much more shattering. It has been a betrayal."