An observation about DU that might be worth mulling over

[ClarkJonathanKent]

I've lurked here for a very long time. In that time, so much hostility has been directed towards the actual progressives of the party, and praise heaped on the level-headed centrists of the party.

I can't think of one major legislative effort that was destined to help people but was single-handedly blocked by AOC or Bernie Sanders. But examples after examples are piling up showing the centrists preventing progress, centrists being bought and paid for, centrists preventing the progressives from helping people. So who here will admit to that and acknowledge how messed up that is?

How many people here are proud of Pelosi completely disregarding a few weeks ago the idea that members of Congress shouldn't have the conflict of interest of owning stocks and commodities that could be affected by their own legislation and decisions?

There is corruption and stupidity in our own party. Pretending otherwise makes one barely any better than those pretenders in the other camp.

[Stuart G]

2. Double Hmm.

[XanaDUer2]

3. Pass the popcorn nt

[Hekate]

12. I brought extra butter to share

[Haggard Celine]

5. That's because centrists don't come up with

that much legislation for progressives to oppose. The centrists in the Democratic Party are akin to old-style conservatives. Conservatives are resistant to change, so their default position is to keep the status quo. In order for progressives to get centrist support for their legislation, they have to water the bill down so that it doesn't have the potential to change the status quo very much. So generally speaking, centrists don't want to write new laws. Their idea of government's role is very different from that of progressives. The progressive's idea of government is to use the entity to make people's lives better. The centrist's idea is to be a caretaker and make sure government and the rest of society are stable.

[leftstreet]

11. +1

That's probably the best description I've heard about the current state of things

Forty years ago it would have been the best description of the differences between the two parties. Times have changed

[brooklynite]

6. Let's discuss math...

When the Democrats took back the House in 2018, they did it by defeating 41 incumbent Republicans. How many of those pickups were by the "actual progressives"? Answer: none. AOC, "the Squad" and the other progressives you admire won election in safe D seats that were vacant, or defeated other Democrats. The largest component of the Democratic Caucus are the "level-headed centrists" who decide on leadership and policy direction. Perhaps you could find a way to make progressives more attractive to a larger pool of voters.

[uponit7771]

7. This post sounds like a trial balloon, no ...

Dems are not perfect and don't pretend to be and any problems we have we have the courage to ... face them a little.

[Scrivener7]

8. Lol!

[stopdiggin]

9. I agree wholeheartedly that one MUST be willing to

to examine the flaws in oneself, as well as organizations, associations, etc. Basic ethics. Just about everything else here is self serving twaddle.

[Nixie]

10. Thank God Pelosi put the BIF up for a vote and finally shut

these losing talking points behind us.

By losing, I mean voters rejected the revolution twice. Voters don’t believe what you are pushing.

[Hekate]

13. Oh deary deary me. By the way, I am very proud of Mme Speaker. She's probably the best in history

pass the salt, someone

[ismnotwasm]

14. Yawn