General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Salon: Democratic moderates fear the socialist left will wreck the party... [View all]Blue_true
(31,261 posts)I feel that for politics in really conservative areas, we elect a democrat and have his or her administration perform well, that sets us up to elect a more progressive democrat as a replacement.
When we lurch to far left, we suffer setbacks that take years or luck to reverse. California is a case in point. In the seventies, California was headed toward becoming a democratic stronghold, then democrats there swung far leftward and California got a succession of republican governors and democrats did not win the number of House seats they should have. Then the republican governor Pete Wilson went of on his anti immigrant effort and the luck democrats needed happened there. There was a setback with Gray Davis, but the die was cast, California had started a sustained march toward being heavily blue. If Newsom wins as expected and does an excellent job, republicans there are likely finished as a party.