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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsOn Abortion, Gov. Brown: No 'Ideological Purity' for Democrats
Today's 'Meet the Press' (from transcript)
CHUCK TODD:...How do you tell the Democratic base that says, "Look, sometimes you've got to compromise." So, for instance, the issue of abortion. We talked about culture. You've got some inside the Democratic Party, some major Democratic leaders from a senator in New York, Kirsten Gillibrand, to others who think, you know what? The Democratic Party, should not support -- abortion should be a litmus test, should not support Democrats who are not pro choice on abortion.
But you have people like Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer who say, "You know what? The Democrats need to be a big tent." And sometimes you have Democrats that will say they love what you say when you announce, but, "Wait a minute. Why are you working with the other side and compromising some of your principles?" How do you square those two? How do you tell the Democratic base, "You've got to learn to compromise"?
GOV. JERRY BROWN: Well, first of all, I don't know who this Democratic base is. It's shifting. The segments of our party are highly differentiated. There are environmentalists; there are gun owners; there are pro choice people; there are religious fundamentalists, not very many, but they're there.
So I'd say, look, even on the abortion issue, it wasn't very long ago that a number of Catholic Democrats were opposed to abortion. So the fact that somebody believes today what most people believed 50 years ago should not be the basis for their exclusion. In America, we're not ideological. We're not like a Marxist party in 1910. We are big tent by the very definition. We're not ideological in the European sense of what political parties used to be. Even in Europe now, they don't have that same ideological purity.
America is not one place. Alabama is not San Francisco or California. To come together, as a great Jesuit once said, everything that rises, converges. So we have to rise above some of our most cherished ideological inclinations and find a common basis. And the economy has often been that common basis, or security in the world could be a part of that common basis. But you can't let these hot button issues, that work great in particular congressional districts one way or the other, to be the guiding light for a national party that covers a very wide spectrum of belief.
CHUCK TODD: So you don't believe there should be a litmus test on abortion? Or is there an issue there should be one on, for the Democrats?
GOV. JERRY BROWN: Well, the litmus test should be intelligence, caring about, as Harry Truman or Roosevelt used to call it, the common man. We're not going to get everybody on board. And I'm sorry, but running in San Francisco is not like running in Tulare County or Modoc, California, much less Mobile, Alabama.
ismnotwasm
(41,975 posts)And I'm not going to shut up about securing abortion right for all
yallerdawg
(16,104 posts)Does the Republican Party now consider Obamacare part of the Republican Party platform because 3 senators voted against the last chance to fulfill 7 1/2 years of campaign promises?
Even though those 3 senators are on the right side of history. Arcs and justice and all.
HeartachesNhangovers
(814 posts)... gun owners in CA have reason to feel they've been demonized, thrown under the bus and run over repeatedly. In other words, he's not exactly practicing what he preaches.
yallerdawg
(16,104 posts)Some Democrats consider the 2A the most misread and misinterpreted sentence in the Constitution!
The point is, neither side is barred, and neither side holds sway!
Compromise can be seen as either irritating for both sides - or a little something for both sides.
I bet you can find something "good" in Gov. Brown's position - if you look for it.
lindysalsagal
(20,648 posts)and anti-choice is anti-freedom.
He's confused.
BannonsLiver
(16,352 posts)When you can't muster anything more substantive than "no exceptions" in a debate you've lost. That's what I've seen all week.