Skip to comments.
Centrists Losing Ground in Democratic Tug of War
the los angeles times ^
| june 21, 2003
| Ronald Brownstein, Times Staff Writer
Posted on 06/21/2003 12:41:30 PM PDT by liberalnot
Edited on 06/21/2003 12:47:13 PM PDT by Admin Moderator.
[history]
click here to read article
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20, 21-34 last
To: DPB101
dontcha think the clintons are loving every minute of it?
hillary's not the world's most humble woman. nor bill.
21
posted on
06/21/2003 1:23:52 PM PDT
by
liberalnot
(what democrats fear the most is democracy . /s)
To: liberalnot
Bring it on. McGovern, redux.
22
posted on
06/21/2003 2:27:24 PM PDT
by
ntnychik
To: ntnychik
yep.
23
posted on
06/21/2003 2:29:48 PM PDT
by
liberalnot
(what democrats fear the most is democracy . /s)
To: liberalnot
The Democrats problem is they need to appeal to moderate voters to win a general election but they need to also cater to the liberals who dominate the party's primaries. What wins liberals' hearts stinks with the general public. Its trying to square the circle. If Democrats appeal only to their base, which is around 20% of the electorate, they will never win a general election. In other words, if the Democrats insist upon being ivory pure, they'll be a powerless minority. That's what the debate in the party is all about: to reconcile dogma with the fact there aren't and will never be, enough liberals to get a Democrat elected in this country outside of California and Hawaii to public office.
24
posted on
06/21/2003 2:40:12 PM PDT
by
goldstategop
(In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives On In My Heart Forever)
To: liberalnot
Wasn't aware Gephardt and the DLC were on the outs. My take is the DLC type Democrats were kicked out of the party in 1972 and 1974. What we have now is a pretense of sanity. But I guess the fanatics see differences among themselves I don't.
25
posted on
06/21/2003 2:45:44 PM PDT
by
DPB101
To: goldstategop
the way things are going, dubya might take california in 2004.
26
posted on
06/21/2003 2:46:36 PM PDT
by
liberalnot
(what democrats fear the most is democracy . /s)
To: DPB101
the dlc is the moderates.
gephardt and dean are on the left, pitted against the dlc.
27
posted on
06/21/2003 2:49:20 PM PDT
by
liberalnot
(what democrats fear the most is democracy . /s)
To: liberalnot
Many of the centrist Dems left the party and joined the Pubbies back in the 70's and 80's. It was possibly the greatest single transfer of political talent in modern American history. Reagan himself was a former Dem, and although he made the move earlier than most it was for the same reason, the hard left having moved into the 'Rat party on the left coast earlier than in the east. Other political or policy geniuses we acquired include Paul Wolfowitz, Elliot Abrahms and Jeane Kirkpatrick, and we also got editors and political commentators like Norm Podhoretz and Charles Krauthammer. Many of these figures were part of the Council for a Democratic Majority (CDM) which was the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) of the seventies. Some of them remained in the Democrat party, including respectable figures like Les Aspen and Ben Wattenburg, but for most Jimmuh Cahtah was about the last straw.
28
posted on
06/21/2003 3:05:41 PM PDT
by
Stultis
To: Stultis
that's right, and many people on this forum were once dems.
i was until the late 1970s.
the issue for me was the take over of our universities by the sickies.
29
posted on
06/21/2003 4:33:15 PM PDT
by
liberalnot
(what democrats fear the most is democracy . /s)
To: liberalnot
Gephardt was OK on Iraq so I assumed he was with the DLC.
www.blackcommentator.com is a good source for viewing the ethnic conflicts in the Democrat party. Fast loading and right to the point.
30
posted on
06/21/2003 8:12:39 PM PDT
by
DPB101
To: DPB101
i think the difference is domestic vs. international.
according to this article, gephardt and dean are to the left of the dlc. most of the article focused on dean.
the important thing is there is a lot of internal strife in the democrat party right now. and, of course, this makes the clintons happy.
31
posted on
06/21/2003 8:18:02 PM PDT
by
liberalnot
(what democrats fear the most is democracy . /s)
To: liberalnot
The further left the democrats move, the more irrellevant they will become... by surrendering the middle ground, they are guaranteeing themselves a place in perpetual obstruction party.... and the more obstructionist they become, to pander more and more to their core, the more and more of the everyday non politicos they will lose....
Dems are in a self defeating spiral, the party is on its way to join the whigs if it does not recognize that the leftist agenda is DOA.
To: HamiltonJay
yeah, that's what this article indicated. if they wanna move back to the left, then they'll pay the price of being the minority party for a long time.
i think it was sean hannity, or someone that i was listening to the other day, that made the point that the republicans are here to stay for awhile.
33
posted on
06/21/2003 8:27:45 PM PDT
by
liberalnot
(what democrats fear the most is democracy . /s)
To: liberalnot
It was damn close. GOP took Congress in '46 and '52. Beaten back both times. After the Rats gains in '96 and '98, it appeared we were not going to have the generational change in direction we thought. Now it appears certain we will. There is no Rat second team coming up. The union base is being eroded as Bush privatizes their jobs and enforces Beck. And with national security an issue, only those who hate America will vote to put a Rat in charge of the military. Happy Days are here again...
34
posted on
06/21/2003 8:56:42 PM PDT
by
DPB101
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20, 21-34 last
Disclaimer:
Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual
posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its
management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the
exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson