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Isn’t it a little late to call for Democrats to ‘grow a backbone’?

Governor Deval Patrick addressed the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte Tuesday.J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press

Re “Patrick tells convention Mitt Romney failed Mass” (Page A11, Sept. 4): Governor Deval Patrick says, “It’s time for Democrats to grow a backbone and stand up for what we believe.”

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Millions of liberals wanted a fighter for our economic interests when we voted for Barack Obama. Instead, we got another triangulator, willing to cave in to the GOP's hard right. Instead of fighting back against the intransigence, cynicism, and bad faith of Republicans who had no intention of ever cooperating with him and were eager to see him fail, the president continued to accede to their demands, while criticizing disappointed liberals for being sanctimonious purists.

Since Bill Clinton, the Democratic Party has increasingly tacked to the right and aped Republicans in competing for corporate cash, while taking for granted its liberal supporters, who have nowhere else to go. As a result, it seems most Democrats have lost their integrity as defenders of economic justice, and no longer represent a striking alternative to the Republicans. Obama governs today much like a moderate Republican of the 1990s, accepting the right-wing narrative about cutting social programs in the name of "austerity."

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Elizabeth Warren is a genuine fighter for the interests of working people and will get my enthusiastic vote come November. Would that the president had half her passion and commitment.

Bryan L. Tucker
Jamaica Plain