What Responsibility Does The 'Center' Have In This Election ???

[WillyT]

Not power, but responsibility.

I'm genuinely curious as to what y'all think. Believe it or not, I am familiar with 'normal' political calculus, but this is not a normal election year.

And it seems to me, that people who are well informed, active in the process, and passionate in their politics, are readied for crucifixion if they stray from party dogma, or waver in their ABBness, while those in the mushy middle are given peeled grapes and are fanned with waving palm fronds in an effort to please them into voting for our side.

These guys are watching the same things we are. They've seen a stolen election, illegal voter purges, corporate take over of our environmental safeguards, secret industrial task forces, pre-emptive illegal war, the breaking of treaties, the loss of well paying secure jobs, just to name a few.

So how come the 'center' gets a pass?

If * wins in November, how come the activists get pilloried, and the 'Centrists' walk away scott free?

I'm not sure what the solution is, but if we lose this thing, I'm all for starting a movement that makes 'Centrist' a term of derision. Sort of like the right was able to do with the term liberal, no???

:shrug:

[AndyTiedye]

1. None whatsoever

because they will turn on us and vote Republican at the slightest excuse.
We have to accept that, and be very very nice to them,
and not give them an excuse.

[WillyT]

2. Damn... Must Be Nice For Them !!!

All that power, with none of the responsibility!!!

And with the friggin fate of humanity in there widdle hands.

:puke:

[WillyT]

3. *tap* *tap* *tap* Hello ??? - Is This Thing Working ???

:shrug:

[WillyT]

4. Eureka !!! --- I Have Found The DU Unanswerable Question !!!

On edit: Well, apparently, Oneanswerable, LOL!

I'm all alone... and scared.

:scared:

[drfemoe]

5. I'm from an

"Independent" state .. maybe you can call that the "Center" .. not committed to Left or Right .. but many "conservatives" I know have not found a candidate yet. They are willing to put whoosh* out of office, but not willing to vote for the "D" "presumed candidate".

But maybe our state won't be a deciding factor .. then we'll just live with it ...

[troublemaker]

6. Zero responsibility

Thats what makes them the center. Flip but true.

[WillyT]

7. Thanks, We HAVE A Consensus, LOL !!!

A consensus of three, but a consensus nonetheless.

:hi::bounce::hi:

[nomaco-10]

8. And does it not strike you that.....

the responses in this thread are symptomatic of the democratic party as a whole. "I don't know, but I'll think about it for awhile. I could, but I can't, but I might, but then again I might not, but I could if I would, but I don't know if I should, but I think I will, but then again, I don't know, can I get back to you later?"

Pretty much sums up the democratic party at this point in time. That is, I think it does, but then again it might not. Can I get back to you later?

[WillyT]

9. It's Like We Don't Know Whether To Scratch Our Clocks, Or...

wind our asses!!!

:shrug:

[WillyT]

10. I Know... 'The Vote That Dare Not Speak It's Name'

Waddaya think???

:shrug:

[MisterP]

11. it appears to me that the "center" is a lump term for

swing voters, occasional voters who mainly ask "what has so-and-so done for me?" DLCer wastrels, independents, and the undecided.
The DLC and its Frank Luntzes pretend that they are the One Way to gaining the center, by moving ever rightwards (they call it "centerwards") for their own ends. Repeating RNC obfuscatives about how great the WTO is and how prison rape is a good "deterrent" ("tuff on crime") won't attract much besides Boll Weevils.
I hope that made some sense.

[WillyT]

12. Man, Is This Topic Toxic, Or What ???

Last bump for tonight.

:shrug:

[proud patriot]

13. Perhaps their responsibility is to help the healing process begin

Maybe I'm an optimist :shrug:

[WillyT]

14. And I Love You For That !!!

:hi::bounce::hi:

Had a great time with youse guys in Tahoe last weekend. Can't wait til the next time!!!

[proud patriot]

24. I love you back

:loveya: I had a blast though a little sore .

I definately want, no need to get out more.

Tahoe was Beautiful .

[John_H]

15. The Centrists apparently feel the responsibility to vote for Kerry

at least according to the polls. Thank God for their sense of patriotic resonsibility, especially since the far left apparently will accept none. As long as Nader's polling at four it means the left wingnuts are up their usual boneheaded, bush-enabling, self-absorbed tricks.

Ans as per ususal, they leave the Dems no choice. Write off the far left, who apparently are unwilling to learn from the 2000 election, and winb it from the center.

[Mike Daniels]

16. Speaking as a centrist

I think it's the responsibility of the political parties to give me a candidate that I can vote for because of their merits and not just because of a "anybody but the opponent" mentality.

Also, you better have a good enough platform that makes me want to vote for you even if a lot of your issues may be against my personal better interest as compared to your opponent.

[WillyT]

17. Oh Really, Your Personal Interests, Huh ???

What about what's good for your country. What about what's good for the American people, the American Experiment, and Humanity in general???

You've been here long enough to know what has happened to this country by these illegitimate bastards in power. And you're gonna vote your own personal interests this time around???

I hope your not female, or a college student, or elderly, or a veteran, or in the military, or poor, or a minority, or outspoken, or anything else that will garner you the suspicion and derision from the right-wing Armageddon loonies running the place at this time. Cause if you are, and you vote for Bush, your personal interests are if for a big shock!!!

:shrug:

And yeah, I'm out there on the left plank, and votin for Kerry, for EVERYONE'S interest!!!

[lastliberalintexas]

18. Well that's interesting

Funny that it's apparently ok for "centrists" to demand a candidate who speaks to/for them, but not so for lefties.

[WillyT]

19. BINGO !!!

"We won't commit, but we will decide."

:puke:

[porkrind]

26. You nailed it.

"We won't commit, but we will decide."

Sums it up perfectly.

[Tinoire]

22. Which is exactly why I've HAD it.

If there was ever a time to get a Progressive with a clear vision in, this was it!

I don't blame the centrist voters, I blame the Democratic party and especially the infiltrating corrupt PNAC-enabling DLC because it's not that they have to cater to the Centrists, it's that they want to or rather they use the centrist & elusive "swing vote" to justify their own political perversion.

It's time to tell the few people who believed in & voted for criminals like Reagan and Bush to please hush up for a little while because their judgement has been proven to be fatally flawed. I would like my party to, for once, tell the "welcomed home crowd" to hush and observe or to sit out the elections- the catering has got to go. But again, I don't believe there are as many swing voters as the corporate-beholden New Democratic Party wants us to believe. You either have principles or your don't & if you don't, there's NO need to come over here!

WillyT, you touched a RAW nerve with this one & on a very bad week where the milk of human kindness has evaporated from my now icy veins! Abu-Ghaibr. Fallujah. Millions of Iraqi dead during a war that lasted 13 years. Haiti. Yugoslavia. Latin America. Globalization. Palestine. It's been too rough my friend but I love you anyway :hi:

[WillyT]

27. Love You Right Back T !!!

Just wondering if anybody had thoughts on this.

:loveya:

[WillyT]

20. Kick !!!

:kick:

[WillyT]

21. OK... Last Tooth Pulling Kick From Me !!!

Was this that hard???

:shrug:

[Only Me]

23. I am a Democrat down the ticket. But I don't understand the

logic in non Dem people not seeing the criticalness in the situation of our country. Honestly, I believe our country is going to fold if Bush is re-elected. Our ethics, dogged determination on select issues, party politics, religion, or what ever sways peoples votes is not going to mean one darn thing if our nation crashes.

In my humble opinion, you have to put survival of us and our country on the top burner and the rest has to wait.

[Nlighten1]

25. This is a most excellent question.