Getting Tough with Progressive Constituencies...Amy Sullivan..The Gadflyer

[RedEarth]

Folks if you aren't familiar with the site The Gadflyer, you should be. It's a new site that takes a get tough approach in dealing with the radical right. It's got some outstanding writers and has been recommended by numerous other sites(Josh Marshall, The Daily Kos, etc..).

http://gadflyer.com/articles/?ArticleID=39

Getting Tough with Progressive Constituencies
Time for some tough love
by Amy Sullivan, Contributing Editor
3.17.04

During an average election season, Democratic candidates can expect to be bullied, lectured, criticized, mocked, dressed down, blackmailed, and publicly humiliated. And that's just by their friends.

As in any dysfunctional relationship, political constituencies test the strength of candidates' devotion, making them earn love through public displays of affection, expensive candlelit dinners, and professed love for ethanol subsidies. It's a relationship built on distrust, however, because with such a closely divided electorate, issue groups know that once the primaries are over, their chosen ones will need to move to the middle to attract swing voters. So they demand signs of commitment early, putting candidates in the difficult position of either remaining wedded to an extreme stance or becoming vulnerable to the charge of "flip-flopping."

It's time for this to stop. It has never been a particularly mature way of conducting political business, but with the stakes so high and the margin for error so slim, candidates need to learn how to stand up for themselves and progressive constituencies need to keep the larger picture in mind as well as their specific individual interests.

This does not mean that Democrats need to abandon their core constituencies if they want to win. On the contrary, many of these groups are responsible for giving the Democratic party its identity and for providing many of the values that drive progressive politics. But when Democrats focus on individual constituencies to the exclusion of their ability to appeal to a broader audience, they become simply unelectable. If they don't show some tough love to a handful of their oldest – and often most demanding – supporters, they will marginalize themselves beyond repair.