About "The Democrats"

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

"Why didn't we pass all this good stuff when we controlled congress and the WH?"

"Because it didn't have the votes. The "moderates" wouldn't vote for it."

I am like most of you. In am not a witch I reflexively do not think of congress persons who side with the Republicans as Democrats. They are not "real" Democrats.

But there's a pit-fall there. They really are Democrats.

Respond to this statement:

"The Democrats stand for almost nothing and cannot govern effectively."

My gut response is hostile and defensive. But why? The statement is not entirely inaccurate in isolation. (A thing about statements. They mean what they say. That statement does not say that Republicans are principled and can govern.)

THE DEMOCRATS can't do squat. Not "the real Democrats" or "Democrats I like"... THE DEMOCRATS. The Party in aggregate. (If some Democrats always back-stab the agenda then the Democratic agenda is a back-stabbed thing. It is what it is.)

There was a time when the Republican Party was only about 80% racist theocrats but I had no trouble thinking of it as a racist, theocratic operation. I didn't spend much time worrying about who the "real" Republicans were, probably because I was not a Republican. The whole side-show was just THE REPUBLICANS.

To a swing voter without a strong personal sense of identification with the Party, THE DEMOCRATS were not very impressive. That is no excuse to vote Republican, but it is worth remembering the perspective from outside the Party.

[yurbud]

1. largely true. And the ''good'' Democrats seem unable or unwilling to check the power of the bad

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

2. PS: And that hypothetical swing-voter is not an ideologue

The aforementioned hypothetical swing voter does not give a rat's ass about the underlying political philosophy of things.

He has a two axis view. 1) Is the Party in charge powerful -- do they move an agenda? 2) Are things good or bad... getting better or worse?

Every election season we hear impassioned cries from these folks demanding that congress "do something" and that they don't much care what. Voters like activity and self-assurance. They will vote the economy, but tempered by their sense of a party's vigor.