68% of Democratic voters prefer compromise over principle?

[alp227]

Via the Political Animal blog and Kevin Drum:



At Political Animal, Steve Benen explained: "Self-described liberals are growing as a percentage of the Democratic electorate, but self-identified moderates are still the plurality, and the combined total of moderates and conservative Democrats represent a majority...Democrats are pragmatic and want accomplishments; Republicans are dogmatic and want ideological purity."

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. Political Animal Instincts are wrong.

If anything, democrats realize what it takes to stand up to the ever more crazy GOP. That means no caving in.

If only our president realized that.

[TheWraith]

4. The actual polling seems to prove your faith-based assumption to be wrong. nt

[Blue_In_AK]

2. This just proves the brainwashing is working. n/t

[TheWraith]

3. Because Democrats understand that sitting back and letting the world burn is not an option.

Half of something is better than all of nothing. The Republicans, on the other hand, don't give a shit about anything.

[young but wise]

5. +1000

[Phx_Dem]

6. Exactly. Compromise is how things get done in all aspects of life.

[former9thward]

24. Did the colonists compromise with the British?

[joshcryer]

27. The vast majority of them did, actually.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNu8XDBSn10

[former9thward]

28. The winning side did not, actually.

[Telly Savalas]

35. The ones that didn't did great things for white landowning males.

[former9thward]

37. Whatever that means.

[tekisui]

8. No, the repugs care very much about their interests, and they win

the fights. Dems cave and call it compromise. The half the baby they give us does very little to prevent the world from burning. It simply puts it in a holding pattern until the next repuke onslaught.

[joshcryer]

26. They really aren't smart enough to care about their interests, otherwise they'd be for regulation...

...and single payer and so on.

They don't grasp that the free market analysis that their entire ideology is based on is a failing strategy. Even with evidence to the contrary. For them they need to test it to its eventuality, society be damned.

[Palmer Eldritch]

9. You are correct, sir.

[Bluerthanblue]

11. oh- hell

you nailed it.

[Name removed]

16. Deleted message

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[Bobbie Jo]

19. Exactly. nt

[joshcryer]

25. Yep, they're neofacists wanting to completely destroy everything.

They want to turn the United States into Somalia (don't believe me, look at the early 2000s era free market articles on the internet about Somalia).

[jefferson_dem]

31. Oh, you nailed it.

Indeed.

[phleshdef]

Its a naturally liberal thing to be willing to compromise. Compromise is form of open mindedness.

[Bluerthanblue]

12. that's something I hadn't thought about.

Thanks- The ability to consider someone elses position and to take it into consideration is important.

Ultimately it will lead us to a better society. Even if it takes much longer than any of us have, it's still worth working toward.

[tekisui]

7. THis explains why Dems so often lose and repukes win.

[CrazyBob]

10. Totally wrong. Totally

First, this is self-reporting. After a few decades of having not ONE major candidate willing to admit he (or she) is a liberal, its not surprising that many democrats don't consider themselves liberals.

If instead, you apply an issues test, you will find the numbers hugely different.

My issues I use are these: civil rights, civil liberties, role of government, foreign policy.

If someone agrees with me on all 4 of those, they are a total liberal like me. Then a pollster asks them if they are a liberal and they are like EWWWWWW not me!

Its because we have a weak party at the moment, with corrupt thinking ruling the day. Even if it were true that many people disagree with us, its our duty to go and convince them otherwise, not to find out what they believe so we can parrot it.

[woo me with science]

13. The point isn't that principles are good and compromise is bad.

Of course compromise is necessary sometimes. Of course principles are important.

There is no such thing as a hard and fast rule that compromise is bad or principles are good, or vice versa. It depends on what is at stake. This is an absolutely ridiculous poll.

Major building projects or renovations to national parks, buildings, or military bases this year versus next year? There may be some room for compromise here.

Further cuts to the Social Security check that now, after two years without a COLA, does not even fully cover your 95-year-old grandmother's rent, food, and medications?

That is not an area of compromise. Period.

[Tarheel_Dem]

14. That should read 68% prefer compromise over ideology. We're not teabaggers.

[CakeGrrl]

15. Great point.

Apparently for some it's more important to stand on a soapbox than knuckle down and deal with reality to actually ACCOMPLISH anything.

When people manage to create a SOLIDLY PROGRESSIVE House and Senate, then compromise won't be needed.

But let R's contaminate Congress and we're stuck. One can't make them disappear with a Martian ray gun, so what else do people REALISTICALLY expect?

I suppose shouting principles at each other on C-SPAN makes for a good soundbite, but what good does it do if there's a refusal to ultimately produce a result?

[Tarheel_Dem]

23. I blame the blogosphere. Their bread & butter depends on divisive rhetoric &

hyperpartisanship. Statesmen of yesteryear are now "cavers". Bipartanship is a four letter word. The leftosphere has become what they used to despise. They took a note from Drudge's success, and dialed it up a notch.

Thankfully, there's proof in this poll that only political junkies give a shit what the leftosphere thinks of anything. Independents like divided government, and they like for the parties to work together. They even liked the deal Clinton struck with Gingrich on welfare reform, and the world didn't end, nor did it doom Clinton's political fortunes.

I don't know how many times, or how many ways the president has to say that he won't be cutting benefits before rags like FDL get the message. Of course, FDL is where Obama haters from both extremes intersect. Hamsher made a deal with the devil to fill her own coffers.

[frazzled]

32. I often think of Clinton and the Welfare Reform issue

I cannot even imagine the kinds of discussion that would have occurred if the Internet had been in widespread use at that time, with organized political message boards. I just remember picking up my weekly issue of The Nation (yes, I used to have it delivered to my mailbox back in the 90s), where the rhetoric was at fever pitch. We were all, frankly, pretty horrified. This was uncharted territory: the basic means for keeping the poorest Americans afloat was about to be ended as we knew it. It was as if Obama were to come out and say, I'm going to sign a bill that ends Social Security (and Medicare and Medicaid) altogether, not just perhaps consider slowing the rate of increases in benefits by 0.3 per cent per year, or trying to find some cost savings in the methods for paying hospitals. It was full-out pulling the rug out from underneath a struggling underclass. It was ending a program that had been in place for decades. I honestly thought people were going to be dying in the streets.

But as you say, the world didn't end: some adjustments were made, and there were even some positive things that probably came out of it.

But I can tell you this: this board would have been screaming for Clinton's head if it had existed then. It would have been Armageddon. Frankly, what is being discussed today is far less radical than that was.

[Telly Savalas]

36. Results over ideology

And despite the whining of the wanna-be revolutionaries here, this mindset isn't an excuse to give elected Democrats a free pass.

There are numerous instances where Obama and other Democrats could coax better results out of the process despite the obstacles and constraints in our current political environment. They could be doing better. But they're always going to fall short of the unrealistic expectations set by the DU purity brigade.

[vroomvroom]

17. It's really quite Sad...Democrats, even as voters, are not Fighters. And this is why we lose.

One quality i respect for republicans is that they fight for what they belive in. THis is why, although they are the minority in the population, always have chances of winning elections...because they are willing to fight for their beliefs...even if those beliefs are crazy.

I have lost my respect for democrats because over the years what was considered Left is now a party with values that are really Right.

Remember, demorats today are more right than the mid-80s republicans ... hell...even the mid 90s republicans are more left than todays democrats...WHY? Because of stupid and unnecessary compromises.

If there was a 3rd party that stood for Left ideals i am sure over the years it would continue to grow and the democrat party would again start fighting for its principles instead of selling them away.

[CrazyBob]

21. Dont fall for it

This third way shit just has our side in a funk thats all. And these people who are so stuck on going for the middle that they have forgotten what a political party is for.

One of these days we will have a real leader in our party and we will make a comeback. I truly believe the public will respond to real leadership from our side. But we just have NONE at the moment.

[vroomvroom]

18. Stockholm Syndrome.

Most democrats (incl. people on this board) are "settle for what you can get" kinda people. If the world says there is no more SS, or more taxes for you and 0 for the rich then many on this board and many democrat voters will huff and puff for a bit but will ultimately accept and then defend it.

I wish there were more strong minded people...This is why republicans tend to win on issues.

[Name removed]

20. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[whosinpower]

22. And that is why the republicans will always get their way nt

[ClarkUSA]

29. Yes, they are really happy with HCR, Wall Street reform, credit card reform, the stimulus plan, etc.

[ClarkUSA]

30. Yes, because MOST Democrats are grown-ups, not whiny babies having tantrums like MOST Republicans.

Of course, there's that minority of Democrats who are no different in their approach to politics than teabaggers. Likewise, there's a minority of Republicans who are politically mature and understand how the legislative process works.

Bookmarked:

68% of Democratic voters prefer compromise and getting things done than pointless purist principle masturbation:
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2011_...

[center rising]

33. I would like to reach some type of compromise

But it's not easy to do considering the other side are mental midgets.

[TheKentuckian]

34. "Compromising" with a dangerous and failed ideology is suicidal.

They will extract everything over time in an unending series of crisis where new demands cut away a bit more in exchange for some temporary, high cost, or radioactive "necessary" (and hand to mouth) transaction.

We'll just do some wicked and evil shit to our people to keep the barbarians from going full bore is not a winning agenda.