Reply #137: Really?

[JamesA1102]

Let's see, you're a Democratic member of congress from a swing district or state that John McCain won in '08. You're up for re-election next year and your base will stay home unless you adhere to a 100% lockstep agenda of ideological purity which is totally impossible to do in Washington. So how does anyone think that Democratic member of congress will vote on issues like Healthcare reform or Cap and Trade or DADT, etc. when he knows he can't count on his or her base and has to curry favor from the center?

Say what you want about Republicans but they get out and vote in every election. Dems seem to vote in one election and then walk away either out of apathy or from making the perfect the enemy of the good. That is why the GOP controlled congress for 12 years. That is way the GOP won 5 out of the last 8 presidential elections. And why the Congress as a whole still leans to the right. Democratic politicians are just not going to stick their necks out because they can't count on the Democratic electorate to have their backs.