General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Yup...the schism on DU is deepening [View all]hfojvt
(37,573 posts)at least in those two cases.
A majority of Democrats in the House voted against the IWR (thanks to the leadership of Kucinich) and almost none voted for the Bush tax cuts. Bush tax cuts of 2003 passed the Senate by 51-50 with every Democrat and even a couple Republicans like Chafee voting against it.
A Blue Dog like Dennis Moore of Kansas did vote FOR the Bush tax cuts, but that was only for show. First, because he had already voted for Rangel's Democratic alternative to the Bush tax cuts, and second, because the Bush tax cuts were gonna pass anyway so his 'yes' vote was meaningless, except as a way to appease the conservative Kansans in his district.
Yes, I agree that the DLC sucks for policy and message reasons http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022085948
but voting independent or registering independent may mean you cannot vote in a primary (and thus help to defeat the DLC candidates there) and doing it in the general just helps the Republican to win.
Gore was DLC, but he would NOT have invaded Iraq and he would NOT have signed the Bush tax cuts into law. Clinton, the spineless triangulating weasel that he is, signed a huge tax cut for the rich in his 2nd term, but again, said odious tax cut could not have been passed without a whole excrement load of Republicans in the House.
Electing Republicans is almost never a good idea. And voting independent, at best, it accomplishes nothing, and at worst it enables a Republican to win in spite of getting a minority of the votes.
So. yeah, when people threaten to help the rats who will chew America's face off, then people who are paying attention tend to get upset at the thought.