Congressional Democrats are abandoning ObamaCare like passengers on a sinking Titanic. Liberal writers are deeply ashamed. Kevin Drum writes:

I and my readers are mostly the sober, pragmatic sorts. Willing to compromise. Sensitive to political realities. Etc. And even we’re disgusted. I can’t remember ever being as embarrassed to be a Democrat as I am today.

I actually give Kevin credit for being sober and pragmatic, so his comments should carry some weight. Naturally, those who are less sober and pragmatic feel similarly.

Kevin also notes this tweet from Matt Yglesias, to the effect that “Congressional Dems on cable this AM looked like the French retreating from Russia.” I consider it unfair to compare the Democrats to the French, but I guess Matt has that privilege.

On his blog, Matt writes,

Explaining the October Revolution, Trotsky said “power was lying in the streets—we picked it up.”…

Ever since November of 2008, power has been lying not in the street but in the halls of Congress. And it seems to me that many members of Congress have been simply unwilling to accept that fact. They want to evade responsibility…

The power is there. Anthony Weiner and Barney Frank and Evan Bayh are all autonomous human beings. If they choose not to pass health care, then they have the right to do so. But it’s up to them and they just need to decide.

It’s pretty normal for liberal pundits to denounce Evan Bayh’s timidity. But what’s going on if even Barney Frank is to weak for the Democratic left? Why have perceptions of the possible diverged so greatly between liberal writers and liberal pols?

Even before Brown’s victory, TNR’s Jon Chait warned Democrats not to panic:

The difference between the parties is that Republicans ignore the establishment’s advice. After Obama’s election, conventional wisdom insisted that the GOP would have to move to the center. Instead the party moved further right. And whatever the policy merits, it has worked politically. If Republicans had cooperated more with Obama, it would have given him bipartisan accomplishments and made him even more popular.

The GOP’s ability to ignore establishment nostrums in the face of defeat is its great electoral strength. Democrats, by contrast, have a congenital tendency to panic.

We can argue about whether the GOP moved to the right in 2009 or Barack Obama moved to the left. But it’s true that the Republicans didn’t panic.

I’m not sure I can really explain the difference. My best hypothesis is that the GOP has a conservative base, whereas the Democrats are a coalition of liberals and moderates. When moderates abandon the Democrats, the party has much greater cause to worry.

I think that’s a fairly non-partisan analysis. Would you Democrats out there agree?

Cross-posted at Conventional Folly