The decline of the left...

[kentuck]

There are few leftists in the Republican Party anymore. Their Party has ethnically-cleansed itself of all liberal tendencies. Most of the liberals and the left-leaning voters were left to the Democratic Party.

But the "liberal-left" is very weak, even within the Democratic Party. There was a time when they drove the progressive legislation within the Party. No more. They have joined the DLC and the more moderate elements of the Democratic Party in order to re-gain power from the Republicans.

However, the Democratic Party slogan during the last campaign was "Yes, we can!" It has since evolved into "No, we can't!" We have to compromise with the right-wing fascists if we hope to make any progress at all. Otherwise, we will lose our power in the next election.

The left has lost respect within its own Party. They are a minority that has to be ignored. They are a fringe of the Party. But they have nowhere else to go. So the Democratic Party continues to slide further and further to the right.

[Warpy]

1. I think you've misread a few things

Yes, the party leadership has slid to the right. They're corporatist, Wall Street Democrats, Third Way proponents, and New Democrat/DLC/Blue Dog types who rarely venture outside of the I-495 Beltway to see what the rest of the country is like.

There is as big a chasm between the Democratic leadership and rank and file Democrats as there is in the GOP. Both parties have completely forgotten where the true center in US politics really lies. The difference is that the GOP is playing to their lunatic fringe, the disaffected, alienated people who make up their base. The Democrats are not playing to the center, which has traditionally been where their strength is coming from.

I'm afraid we're going to see the Democrats continue to throw victory away with both hands for a while and the GOP continue to pander to the worst elements in order to grab power.

However, the country is pretty much where it's always been. The majority of this country is centrist. It only looks weak because the party thinks it can ignore the majority. I'm afraid they're in for a rather rude awakening as the majority sits home on election day while the lunatics are whipped into a frenzy to vote.

[BeFree]

5. Great

The left will stay at home and the lunatics will elect more republicans who will impeach Obama given a chance.

Just great.

[Romulox]

7. It's called "cause & effect"--selling out disaffects the true believers. nt

[Warpy]

11. Not the left, the CENTER

Please try to understand these terms are not always interchangeable.

[BeFree]

20. well

If, as you say, the majority center stays home, and the left stays home, then the whacked out right wins?

[Warpy]

24. At last

That was my point.

Actually, the left is less likely to stay home. They're the politically engaged people. However, they are more likely to cast protest votes than vote for a party that ignores reality.

[kentuck]

8. "The majority of this country is centrist"

"Centrist" has become quite a relative term. Do the "centrists" support sending drones into Pakistan? Do the "centrists" support bailing out Wall Street at the expense of Main St? Do the "centrists" support insurance "reform"? Do they support continuing the wars? Do they support government spying on its citizens? Do they support taxcuts for Big Business as a way to create jobs? These have all become "centrist" policies over the years. I'm sure there are many more examples.

[Warpy]

10. Read issue polls

"Centrist" is where the majority lies on certain issues. We never get consulted on things like drones into Pakistan, but we've been quite forthright about ending the wars, not bailing out criminals, ending the attack on civil liberties, capping executive pay, and having a robust public option as part of the solution to the health insurance crisis.

Remember, the DLC types who like to call themselves centrist are not centrist, which was rather the point of my post.

[elocs]

15. Even with the "centrists" there are likely left leaning centrists and right leaning centrists

and centrist centrists, but overall as a hard to specifically identify group they have more in common with each other than either the far left or right. Even within "centrists" they probably fluctuate in their beliefs and don't hold strictly to the left or right on every issue.

The trick is to identify the center of the centrists, whether it lays more toward the Democrats or more toward the Republicans. It seems as though the Republican party is solidifying hard to the right and so perhaps they will miss out on support from true centrists. The thing we need to remember is that it is unlikely that true centrists will swallow hook, line, and sinker what they see as a Liberal agenda.

(A note about "agenda"--there is nothing evil about having an agenda, everyone does to one degree or another. Its definition: "a list or program of things to be done or considered". Republicans have an agenda, so do Democrats, but the point is to be honest about one's agenda.)

[MuseRider]

2. Nowhere else to go?

I beg to differ.

[liberal_at_heart]

4. that's what I was thinking

There is no shortage of third parties. I'm leaning towards Socialist party but I still have to do some more research.

[MuseRider]

25. I am in the same place

you are. I just have to wade through all of it and decide what to do. I may just remain unaffiliated because there is no alternative here in Kansas so joining would do me no good but I will decide eventually and keep up with their messages.

[el_bryanto]

3. Yeah that's probably right in the short term

In the long term, hopefully things will switch around.

Bryant

[Romulox]

6. The majority of the country is to the left of the Dem leadership right now

w/r/t war, bankster bailouts, and healthcare mandates.

There is no sense that modern politicians are bound by the whims of their constituencies any longer. Nowadays, politicians choose their constituents, not the other way around.

[Javaman]

9. meh...

I've read your posts in the past and consider you a centrist.

I always pay attention to the source.

[kentuck]

14. That may be true but...

I am to the left of the national Party. Are they centrist also?

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

12. The "not as bad" party is going to find a lot of "no sale" responses from voters on the left.

The nose holding pleas are wearing thin in the face of corporate bailouts, sham HCR bills that favor the insurance/pharma conglomerates, and useless, self-defeating wars.

[Mari333]

16. [phone]

[amborin]

26. ditto!

[xchrom]

13. Yeah - all the more reason to sit out some elections. Nt

[Tippy]

17. No Sir ! I will not compromise........

"We have to compromise with the right-wing fascists if we hope to make any progress at all."...

I am a proud Yella Dawg,I will never give up because. I really believe we can take our country back one person at a time if necessary. But it sure would be easier if people would quit saying "No we can't".

[Ozymanithrax]

18. The Left was never strong in theU.S. in either ruling party...or our culture.

The Union movement took 70 years to finally make unions legal, and they have been in decline since that point. The left drove the antiwar movement in the 60's and made continuing the Vietnam war unacceptable but that led to few legislative victories.

And there were no leftist in the Republican party going back before WWII. There were Centrists who sometimes voted for progressive programs, and not many of those since the Civil Rights act of 1964. The Reagan revolution with its stress on conservatism, consumerism, and corporatism (otherwise known as the CCC) provided the impetus to eject moderates and centrists, and for the most part the majority of the country was happy to go there.

But even the Democratic party would be more of a Center Left party (at best) in Europe. Bill Clinton was more of a Classic Conservative of the Eisenhower type than a social liberal, and he won only with a plurality not a majority.

If liberals want a liberal party, and actually think they have enough voters to make them viable, the answer is probably to either start a new party or move into an existing party. But it would take at least a decade because the laws in the states govern parties, and they are not created to shake up the power structure. I have been considering a move to the Green party, myself. It is more left than the Democrats (though anti-immigration Republicans tried to take over the party in California.) It has had a few small victories in electing Candidates. But building a party is a thankless task and not a short term goal.

[Gman2]

19. We allowed the enemy to define us. We are supposed to be passive, polite, quiet, etc, and we bought

it. It started with Newt getting us to buy his crap. Then, it was used like a noose. They say things like, I thought you guys were supposed to be---------------------. Hamstrung by their conception of us. Liberals should be FIERY. We bought the loser conception of the strawman they made us.

[krabigirl]

21. Well, it's our own fault if we continue to allow this to happen.

[liberal_at_heart]

22. It's so weird

Centrists claim the left is no longer needed and yet when we talk about voting third party they tell us that we are to blame for the republicans winning. It would seem that the Democratic party does still needs the left.

[kentuck]

23. Of course they do..

But the left doesn't seem to realize it. This is similar to the conservative Democrats running in red states. Why don't they run as Republicans if their states are so red? They are pretenders. They depend on the left to keep them in power.

[David Zephyr]

27. K&R.

Because I've known Kentuck nearly 9 nears now, I know that this wasn't an easy thing for him to write and, that he, like me and a lot of folks like us, are seeing something we'd rather not see.

Good for you, Kentuck. Happy New Year to you, my brother.