Monday, August 14, 2017
Elizabeth Warren - let's move left
For those who might be interested, I have a longer post at my blog about Elizabeth Warren's recent speech in which she urges the Democratic party to move to the left, not to the center ... Amid 2020 buzz, Warren urges Democrats to reject centrist policies and move leftward. And here's a link to a supporting article: To Win, Democrats Don’t Need Trump Voters. This is in the wake of the pro-life effort to gain a foothold in the DNC. I think Warren is right.
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The ever-increasing middle rank of voters will NOT vote for the "far left." The best way to continue to concede governance to the RepubliKKKans is to follow the Warren/Sanders meme.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteBut the majority of voters voted for Hillary. And if those who didn't vote at all because they wanted Bernie instead of her had voted, she would have won the election. The most popular politician in the country right now is lefty Bernie, with a 60% approval rating, not some Republican.
ReplyDeleteDemocrats can't win by trying to be the "Republican-lite" party - it is the party of taking away people's health care, of harming immigrants, of stepping on women and gay people, of racism, of crushing the poor. It won't just lose us the election, it's wrong.
Sorry, I'm "Republican lite" or maybe it's actually Democrat lite. If it was between Warren and Trump, I'd vote for Warren. But if it was between Huntsman or Collins and Warren I'd swing the other way. I'd be voting as much against extremes on either side as "for" anybody's agenda. Bottom line, we can't have another president who is an Alt Right candidate. If peop!e have to tack to the center to keep that from happening, I'd think it would be worth it.
ReplyDeleteObviously the Democrats aren't going to pick up any hard-right voters. But they do have a chance to pick up the moderates who are turned off to the max by Trumpism.
DeleteI know that most of you guys feel this way, but you guys are not typical of voters at large, much less of the average Democrat. You are Catholics who are pro-life. That is a minority in the country and even more so in the Democratic party, which I just read is 75% pro-choice.
DeleteThe Dems will lose more votes from their own party and left Independents by going pro-life than they will ever pick up from Republicans.
I don't see Warren or Sanders, for that matter, as far left or extreme. Anyone who does may be suffering from the skewing of the American consciousness taken place over the last 35 years. Warren and Sanders, would Germans think they are extremist? Not at all. Among the "developed" countries, it's the US that's extremist.
ReplyDeleteStanley, I wouldn't call them "extreme", especially measured against some truly extreme examples we have seen lately. However, Sanders described himself as a socialist in the past. I would call it more along the lines of Social Democrat. But for various reasons, the "s" word is political kryptonite here.
DeleteYeah, I don't think they are extreme either.
ReplyDeleteOK, I'm sick of the pro-life baiting and discussions about keeping the Democratic Party ideologically pure on this issue.
ReplyDeleteYes, some of us are Catholics, but my guess is that if you asked people here to define the parameters of exactly what it means to be pro-life with regard to abortion and birth control and legal solutions, you would get a pretty wide variety of answers.
This blog isn't fun anymore. I think I'm done.
I'll 'say' this once, and try not to dwell on it hereafter ...
ReplyDeleteI'm not pro-life bashing. I think it's fine for individuals to be pro-life.
But in these discussions about contemporary politics and the Democratic party, it would be just weird to not mention the pro-choice and pro-life movements' effects on what's happening.
Yes, I am pro-choice, but I have as much right to be that here as you guys have to be pro-life. Being pro-choice is not some extreme fringe godless feminist pathology that can't be mentioned by good people. People of all walks of life care about women's health care and people of all walks of life get abortions - Democrats and Republicans, poor people and rich people, Black people and white people, Catholics and atheists - and people of all walks of life are pro-choice.
Yes, I am pro-choice, but I have as much right to be that here as you guys have to be pro-life.
ReplyDeleteYou post here by invitation, not by "right." That invitation can be rescinded if the other contributors do not find your posts appropriate or if it appears you are driving other participants away.
As I recall, some time ago you said you were not going to promote the pro-choice position here. I think that was a good choice on your part.
I'm not promoting any agenda but in a post about whether the DNC should go right or left to win more votes, abortion rights does come up, and I do have an opinion, which in this case is the same as that of the person I was posting about, Elizabeth Warren.
ReplyDeleteIf people want me to leave, that's fine.
I don't want anyone to leave, but I believe that we've said all that there is to say on this topic. I feel that it would be a good idea to move on to other topics.
ReplyDeleteI'm not asking anyone to leave. I have no problem talking about how far the Democratic Party should bend to accommodate both abortion factions.
ReplyDeleteWhat I dislike is the constant insistence that "true" Democrats must accept the party's abortion plank, and comments to the effect that "I'm the only real Democrat here."
I'd be sorry if Jean left and Crystal stayed. Crystal has a right to her opinions; she doesn't have the right to skew every post on politics so that pro-choice/pro-life becomes the only political issue.
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ReplyDeleteWhat will win elections: purity or pragmatism?
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/08/democrats-abortion-litmus-test-controversy/536352/
Should the Democratic Party Reject Pro-Life Candidates?
Its current platform upholds “safe and legal” abortion, but some activists want its leaders to draw a line at supporting those who would legislate based on their beliefs.
Clare Foran
| Aug 10, 2017
From the Atlantic article Jim refer'd:
Delete"But some activists ... want the party to tell its 2018 candidates that they must uphold the pro-choice policy agenda embedded in the platform if elected—and they believe the party should withhold support from any candidate who isn’t willing to do that."
The article also notes that 84 percent of Democrats don't want Roe overturned. (It's actually 75 percent.) But that doesn't mean that the majority of Democrats are in lockstep with NARAL or want Hyde overturned.
According to its own poll, Pew notes that 77 percent of Americans want abortion legal or illegal "in most cases." That suggests to me that the majority of Americans support at least SOME restrictions on abortion and that it makes sense for the party to soften its prochoice plank language. http://www.pewforum.org/fact-sheet/public-opinion-on-abortion/
Speaking tactically, not theologically or ideologically.