Addressing the "Democrats are too liberal" meme

[SHRED]

Glenn Greenwald:

People are suffering economically and Democrats have done little about that. Beyond that, they failed to inspire their own voters to go to the polls. Therefore, they lost. By basing their power in Congress on Blue Dog dependence -- rather than advocating for the views of their own supporters and implementing those policies -- they failed, and failed resoundingly. Building their party around a large number of muddled, GOP-replicating corporatists not only creates a tepid and failed political image, but far worse, it prevents actual policies from being implemented that benefit large number of ordinary Americans. Democrats repeatedly refrained from advocating for such policies in deference to their Blue Dogs, failed to do much to alleviate the economic suffering of ordinary Americans, and thus got crushed. Anyone who thinks that Democrats lost because they were "too liberal" -- rather than because Americans are suffering so much economically -- is wildly out of touch, i.e., is a multi-millionaire cable TV personality who has spent decades wallowing in trite D.C. chatter.

The Republicans have long lived by what they call "The Buckley Rule": always support the furthest Right candidate who can plausibly win. This year, knowing that it would be a wave election, one that would sweep in huge numbers of Republicans in districts where they ordinarily couldn't get elected, they changed that to: support the furthest Right candidate, period. That's because they believe conservatism will work and want to advocate for it. Democrats don't do that. The DCCC constantly works to prop up the most "centrist" or conservative candidates -- i.e., corporatists -- on the ground that it's always better, more politically astute, to move to the Right. Even in the pro-Democratic wave years of 2006 and 2008, the Democratic Party blocked actual progressives and ensured that Blue Dogs were nominated, even though the anti-GOP sentiment was so strong that any Democrat, including progressives, could have won even in red districts (as Alan Grayson proved).

With that strategy, the Democratic Party now reaps what it has sown. Its message and identity are profoundly muddled, incoherent, unclear, uninspiring, and self-negating. Worse, its policies are mishmashes of inept half-measures that, with a handful of exceptions, produce little good for anyone (other than Wall Street, the Pentagon and other corporate interests). They are perceived as -- and are -- beholden to Wall Street, special interests, and the corporations they vowed to confront. They are without any ability to confront the massive unemployment crisis and financial decline the country faces. And as a result of all of that, they lay in shambles. Anyone who can survey all of that and cheer for the strategy which Democrats have been pursuing -- let's build our majorities by relying on GOP-replicating corporatist Blue Dogs -- or who thinks that this election loss happened because "Democrats are too liberal," resides in a world that has very little to do with reality. And that's true no matter how many times they repeat the simplistic snippets of exit polls to which they've obsessively attached themselves.

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/11/06/o_donnell/index.html

[LawnLover]

1. Why not simply counter it with...

Republicans are too conservative.

[midnight]

7. Or Greedy.....

[unblock]

9. because the word "liberal" has been smeared and "conservative" revered.

but yes, we have to counter-attack, discredit them, and pull the "center" back to our side, or at least back to the ACTUAL middle.

[dkf]

2. Democrats put their efforts in creating safety nets, not in building the economy.

We focus on addressing problems through charity type programs instead of incentivizing and subsidizing business hiring because we are hostile towards being perceived as giving businesses a break.

[Bluenorthwest]

4. That is simply false

That is just not true at all. Charity type programs? Name one. And the stimulus was filled with incentives to businesses, with virtually no direct relief for people.
Just a right wing talking point, lacking in specifics as well as facts.

[dkf]

6. Too much emphasis on unemployment extensions and not enough on encouraging hiring

Through hefty tax credits. Just look at legislative priorities.

[bemildred]

5. Both of the parties have been consistent for 40 years in opposing safety nets.

The way you incentivize business hiring and other investments is you tax the hell out of money they don't plow back into the business.

[dkf]

8. I bet if we did that they would insist on firing more people to cut costs.

To make up for the increased taxes.

And Dems did extend unemployment compensation as long as it's ever been.

[bemildred]

10. You are not paying attention .

If they cut costs, that increases profit, and then we take even more in taxes, because the tax system is progressive. See how it works?

[dkf]

11. They will lay off more workers and blame it on government's excessive taxes.

They play the PR game too you know.

[bemildred]

12. This has all been gone through before, the business types didn't like it then either.

But it works fine.

[bemildred]

13. I REMEMBER a booming economy with 90% tax rates.

I REMEMBER good union jobs with secure retirement.
I REMEMBER when being a blue collar worker got you some respect.
I REMEMBER when we made the best stuff in the world.
Those weasels don't scare me.

[bemildred]

3. Well said. nt

[nashville_brook]

14. greenwald nails it again.