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In reply to the discussion: The GA-6 result discredits the "centrists can win-the left can't" narrative. [View all]zipplewrath
(16,646 posts)The race was almost assuredly unwinnable by anyone with a D after their name. There just weren't enough people who were going to vote for ANYONE that wasn't the republican. I'm not claiming that the race was lost because of a lack of "purity". I'm saying that when you KNOW you're gonna lose, what's the point in not making a full throated case for your point of view, instead trying to somehow appeal to a nonexistent "middle".
The story has been written over and over in this country. There is no "middle" right now. We are extremely divided. That may change some day, but right now, chasing the middle is to chase a mirage. Obama did it for 8 years. All that "reach across the aisle/grand bargain" stuff got him no where. All we keep doing is chasing the voters to the right. It just makes us look dumb and hypocritical and encourages them to move even further right.
Look, we've tried this "move to the middle" for 30 years and it has left us in the worst shape we've been in since reconstruction. We're worse off than after we passed Civil Rights legislation that was supposed to "had the south the GOP for a generation". We're so bad off that that legislation is now being undermined. They are screwing with the elections, they are exercising voter suppression.
It's not about "purity". It's about being right instead of trying to be popular. The "cool kids" are never going to like you. Ya might as well be who you are and stand up for yourself.