Politics Conservative? No and Yes a little.
posted by on November 10 at 9:21 AM
Liberal bloggers are out to debunk the “conservative Democrats” spin. In the House it looks like the lefty bloggers have a point:
Think Progress, for example, has this to say:
According to Media Matters analysis of the 27 House candidates who (as of the morning of Nov. 8) unseated majority Republicans or won open seats previously held by the majority party, all support a core progressive agenda. All 27 candidates back raising the minimum wage, advocate changing course in Iraq, and oppose efforts to privatize Social Security. Only two of the 27 oppose embryonic stem cell research, and only five describe themselves as “pro-life.ā€¯
But what of the bigger win, the U.S. Senate? The six winning Democrats in the pivotal races (Virginia, Montana, Missouri, Rhode Island, Ohio, and Pennsylvania) certainly played up their conservative credentials. Congressman Sherrod Brown (the D winner in Ohio) was cowed by all the GOP election year traps: He voted for the military commissions bill that iced habeas corpus; he voted for the immigration fence; he voted for the GOP tax trifecta which cut the estate tax and docked wait staff pay; and he voted for the flag burning amendment. Claire McCaskill from Missouri, supports pharmacist refusal clauses and supports parental notification laws. Jon Tester (pretty in synch with the Ds on most issues actually) hyped his anti-gun control position. Casey in PA. hyped his pro-life position. Webb, in VA., is an anti-gun control military man who served in the Reagan administration as Secretary of the Navy and as an assistant to the Secretary of Defense. (He also had some weird stuff to say about women serving in the military.) Sheldon Whitehouse, in RI, seems pretty liberal actually.
Certainly, all of these candidates, particularly McCaskill (stem cell research!) and Tester and Casey (thanks to his wingnut opponent) were far more liberal than the GOP candidates they took out. But let’s be honest, they all highlighted their down home values and moderate-to-conservative credentials in order to win. This was, without a doubt, a response to the fact that the GOP controlled the debate.
This isn’t a bad thing, though. In fact, I think the Democrats have beaten the GOP to the 2008 punch on claiming the mainstream mantle … which is smart. I was scared that Bush’s polarizing policies had fueled so much lefty anger that the Ds would blindly tack left and the GOP would surprise them with a curve ball by nominating a moderate to win in 2008. Ha! Not gonna happen now. The Democrats have filled up the middle and revealed the GOP as a wacky right wing party.
Yes, this does mean the longstanding GOP strategy of moving so far right—successfully pulled the Democrats rightward. But it also means the GOP strategy backfired. They tacked so far right that they lost power. Who’s in control of the debate now?
While I generally hate David Brooks, I think he was right to recently say that this election was a revolt of the middle against the hard-right (and also the hard-left, so take that Bernie Sanders!).
But Josh is also right. What is considered mainstream keeps getting more right wing.
I might add that as a result, what was once seen as common sense is now labeled as blindly tacking to the left. Exhibit A would be how the Dems refuse to say that they will raise taxes, even though Bush's tax cuts are a major part of what has put our economy in such a perilous place. How many more social programs can we cut to get a balanced budget, Clinton-style?
Centrism is your friend. Ask Bill Clinton about the 92 and 96 elections.
the Democrats have beaten the GOP to the 2008 punch on claiming the mainstream mantel ā€¦ which is smart.
OHH GOOD. Just what we needed, Yet Another Pathetically Indifferently Moderate Government. God, I hope not.
After six years of the government being pulled right, the correct thing to do is pull it back left, instead of just putting on the brakes. In the latter scenario, the net result is a more right government than before. Me, I want a rollback to 1998, and then get back on the track of social progress.
Otherwise, all that effort and support of the Dems that us libs put in will be wasted, and it'll be Nader in '08 leaching votes off the psuedo-leftist party again.
The lesson Dems should have learned is that exploting the progressives and liberals and not paying them back is a way to lose their future support. We were desperate this year. But soon, if we don't get any concessions, we'll decide we're tired of sucking centrist Dem dick and the cycle will continue.
If the country can be fuled for six years by a whacked-right party, why the fuck can't there be just a few years of whacked-left party to make up for it?
There is no hard-left to rebel against.
I don't think "cowed" is the verb you're looking for there.
The simple reality, which has been proven time and again, is that, in order for Democrats to gain control at a national level they MUST tack more toward the center than many left and far-left Dems would prefer.
That being said, however, a "centrist Democrat" is still going to be much further to the left than a "progressive Republican" on most issues of substance. So, while some may decry what they see as the Democratic Party being pulled to the right, I would point out that this also has the beneficial effect of pulling the entire political system further to the left than it has been in quite some time.
And frankly, I think it's a GOOD thing for the Democratic Party to demonstrate it can tolerate such a wide range of viewpoints, as it serves to emphasize they do indeed operate under a much larger tent than the lock-step GOP ideological homogeneity which has become that party's litmus-test-for-inclusion these past couple of decades.
Right on Comte.
On a very similar note: This is now the party that the two Independents: moderate Lieberman & lefty lefty Sanders have decided to caucus with. This sends a powerful message to the country that the D party is the inclusive partyā€” while the GOP is angry and boxed into a lonely right wing corner.
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