General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: The imminent backlash of the Democratic Left. [View all]reACTIONary
(5,771 posts)By "If they win?" I meant the hypothetical centrist Democratic candidate who is a so-called "Republican Lite" - the one you aren't going to vote for anymore. What if the "Republican Lite" Democrat wins?
The premise seems to be that these centrist Democrats can't win without tricking or cajoling more left-leaning voters to vote for them - inevitably disappointing their more left-leaning supporters. Maybe, however, they just have to move a slight bit more to the right and they can pick up more than enough votes to make up for the ones that decide to vote for the "best" candidate, however that might be. While the prospect is not comforting, it may be that the hard-core leftist positions actually are a minority in the party and in the country as a whole, and that those votes really don't make much of a difference one way or another.
As far as being told that their "ideas are retarded" goes, doing so would be wrong on many levels. Hopefully that doesn't happen on DU. On the other hand, those that disagree with a policy position or an ideological principle do have a right, even a responsibility, to disagree publicly and to explain why we disagree. Disagreement is not denigration.
My own strategy is to vote for the best candidate that has a realistic chance of winning. And since that often is the best candidate over all anyway, I'm pretty comfortable with it.