Worried about Dems

[mikeyj84]

I've been a life long Democrat,since I started voting, that would be about 38 yrs. now. what puzzles me is that they take their base for granted and try to lean toward the middle. They'll never get the right wing vote and I can understand their reasoning to lean toward the middle, but you can't neglect your liberal base. sometimes I feel like they're a two headed turtle who can't decide what direction to take. Take the war in Iraq, Some like John Murtha and John Kerry think we should pull the troops out and re-deploy them. I for one happen to concur with them, Iraq has become an Occupation, and a civil war. Thinking we can bring a democracy to that state is ludicrous, these people have been killing each other since the inception of time. Others like Hillary Clinton and Joe Lieberman think we should stay and let the Iraqi govt. see this thing through. All the Polls show the American people want out of this war especially since it was all based on lies, "blood for oil" . I just don't care to see another 58,000 names on another wall. I'm tired of seeing our boys and now women, dying for "fat cat corporate america"!!!

[Totally Committed]

1. I totally agree.

Nice post, and right on the money!

TC

[Jaundice James]

2. I'm with you...

I hunger for Democrats who represent MY values.

I'd rather vote for candidates that fight for democratic values and lose than vote for ones that waffle on the issues and, um... lose.

I think there are a lot of disenchanted people out that who don't vote because NOBODY represents their values. The Democrats need to be fishing in that pond. Screw what the pundits think. Have some good values and ideas, sell them, and people will ge on board.

Give them a REASON to vote democrat, for crying out loud. -JJ

[left is right]

3. I just posted this on another message

If my only choice is between a repuke of any stripe and a DINO, I am writing in the name of a true liberal Congressman or Senator from another state. I am willing to throw away my vote to send a message to the DINO

[barb162]

4. Both parties try to get that middle and tend to ignore their base

during elections. And if they aren't successful, they lose the election

[JohnstownDEM]

5. it has to be done

Are you actually sincere in thinking they should not move towards the middle on certain issues? They're smart for doing so. Those who lean, know they can lean, and their base won't put them out of office during the primaries. They're not neglecting the base, they're just not pandering. They know their base isn't going to abandon them come general election/Democrat vs Republican choice time. However, they can tip the scale to their favor by going after middle of the road voters. Let me put it another way:

If you had to choose right now, who would you vote for between the following: Rick Santorum or Joe Leiberman. You might not like everything about Leiberman, but you don't like ANYTHING about Santorum, you know it and I know it, you're going to pick Leiberman.

The liberal base is a guaranteed vote on election day, so why pander to those you know are going to vote for you anyway? You'd want to go after the people who are genuinely undecided, or have voted republican for a long time but are *just* about fed up with republicans.


So I guess the question boils down to this: Do you want to see a Democratic majority or not? If not, then continue chastising them for sliding to the middle, more broad range of voters. If you do want to see that majority, there's going to have to be a few sacrifices. Don't fear, their liberal core is there, they're just covering it up to be put into office. Once elected that liberal core will be looking for a reason to legitimately appear without making them look like a hipocrite.

"If my only choice is between a repuke of any stripe and a DINO, I am writing in the name of a true liberal Congressman or Senator from another state. I am willing to throw away my vote to send a message to the DINO"

No offense, but you're not throwing your vote away, you're throwing it in the ballot box of the republican. True republican voters know how to bite the bullet and keep the guy who has SOME of their values into office, rather than to try to be noble and send a message. You're never going to get ALL, so you might as well settle for SOME, rather than NONE.

The republican voters' willingness to bite the bullet vs the liberal "send a message" voters' unwillingness not to is what is keeping the Republicans in power.