Why is it . . . .

[Stinky The Clown]

. . . that every repubican 2012 hopeful is pandering to the teabaggers. They fall all over themselves to out "right" every other one of them.They're going so far right that Michelle Bachman is looking more mainstream every day; not mainstream repubican - just plain mainstream.

Meanwhile, on the left side of the dial, no one hears us, sees us, talks to us, woos us. Nothing. We're told we're loons. We're crazy.

Why is that?

[jtown1123]

1. I always wonder this myself...

[LaurenG]

2. Disheartening isn't it.

:(

[damntexdem]

3. A major quake has shifted American party politics miles to the right.

Major damage has been caused by the resulting MSM RW tsunami.

[warrior1]

4. because

they think that they will get elected if they pander to this racist.

[Vincardog]

5. because the DLC and Conservadems don't think we have anywhere to go. What are we going to do vote

GOP? That is their thinking and why even the democratic candidates pander to the same pay masters as the right.

When we have free fair elections and public financing of those elections they might give a flying fuck what we think.

[TomClash]

6. We threaten profits

And the MSM is controlled by people who live to make profit . . . and more of it . . . and still more of it.

[EFerrari]

9. This. nt

[MineralMan]

7. How are you contacting them?

Just here? If so, don't expect much. Direct contact works much better, but only with people for whom you can vote. Universally, legislators don't give a good goddamn about non-constituents. That's unfortunate, but there it is.

If this is your only outlet, though, I wouldn't expect the people you're talking about to even know you exist.

[Tesha]

8. That would be because up until now, the candidate with the "D" after their name...

...has been able to take it for granted that we will vote for
them no matter how badly they suck. Since we on the Left
are never actually willing to exert political power, why would
anyone waste their time listening to us?

Tesha

[EFerrari]

11. I don't think it's accurate to blame voters

for the privatization of our party's leadership. We can't compete with Koch money or its clones.

[doc03]

10. The Democrats do the same thing, in the primaries they

campaign to the left and in the general election they go to the center. I know you find it hard to believe but the majority of the voters are somewhere in the center. Yes there are loons crazies on both extremes. That is why we lost big time in November, the Democrats over reached just like the Republicans are doing now.

[EFerrari]

13. The Democrats do not campaign to the fringe, if such a thing exists

and they barely acknowledge what passes for the left any more.

[doc03]

15. Obama was the darling of the left and now you can

hardly tell him from Bill Clinton.

[EFerrari]

22. Obama and Hillary were nearly indistinguishable in their positions. n/t

[doc03]

24. Gee that wasn't what I saw on DU in 2009, Hillary was

just pure evil here and if you supported her you were shunned. The real left left worshipped Dennis Kucinich and a couple days ago they wanted to string him up.

[EFerrari]

26. The primary stuff here was completely out of control

and I hope nothing like it is ever allowed to happen here again.

[Tesha]

34. Obama was never the darling of *THIS* Lefty!

He was my seventh choice of the eight; Hillary
was the eighth.

'Funny how we ended up with those two as our
choices at the end!

Tesha

[MineralMan]

17. You're right, of course. The question is how important is that

"fringe" to their elections? Not very, I think. People who think that all Democratic elected officials are scum are really not of all that much interest, since they represent what is probably less than 1% of the voting public. Besides, that 1% will probably not support them, anyhow, since they have to deal with a broad spectrum of political viewpoints. So, they're ignoring the "fringe," whatever that is.

On the right, the teabaggers make up a relatively larger number of people, and are a much more vocal group, in a public way. So the GOOPers tend to take them more seriously.

I think it's pure numbers, really.

[SDuderstadt]

18. Well said...

MM.

[MineralMan]

21. Thanks. In another thread,

someone said that Al Franken was no good, since he supported one bill that poster disagreed with. If Al Franken isn't a good choice, I can't imagine who might be. If every politician is judged only on whatever issue is the main issue of each voter, nobody will ever be good enough. The problem with that is that every politician needs lots and lots of votes, from lots and lots of people, each who has issues that are important. It's impossible to satisfy every issue for every voter. Impossible.

So, that's what I'm seeing from what is called the leftist part of the Democratic Party. They don't seem to like Democrats very much, so what's the point of going after their votes. If Al Franken can't satisfy them, nobody can. I'm very proud of helping Al Franken get elected, along with Betty McCollum in the house. They represent what I think should be the trend in American politics. If someone wants to argue that Al Franken isn't a good progressive Senator, then I have no idea what to say to that person, except that they're completely irrelevant to elections in this country.

Is the Left being ignored? I don't know. The definition of what is the Left is so fractured that I'm not even sure what it means any more.

[SDuderstadt]

40. I could not agree with you more...

MM.

[EFerrari]

25. What fringe are you talking about?

"Fringe" is what the establishment calls any position that is inconvenient for them.

And it isn't pure numbers because Democratic voters have supported progressive positions in number on issues like the Iraq war and like a less supine attempt at health care reform and they were ignored.

Or, maybe the numbers you're talking about are $$$. If that's the case, I agree.

[MineralMan]

28. The fringe is made up of outliers. That's why it's called the "fringe."

People who think Al Franken isn't sufficiently progressive. People like that.

And no, politicians don't listen to the "fringe." They have no reason to. They cannot ever please that group. So, instead, they look for replacements for their votes elsewhere. For Democrats, that means the middle of the bell curve. It's the system, I'm afraid.

We're very close to being evenly divided politically in this country. Things switch back and forth between a little left of center to a little right of center frequently. They never shift very much to either the left or the right. During my lifetime, the trend has been leftward, at least where human rights are concerned.

To expect a very large shift to the left is to have unrealistic expectations. It's not going to happen. It is that simple. So, what I do is work locally to get the most progressive candidates possible elected. In my area of Minnesota, that means Al Franken and Betty McCollum, along with some state legislators. I'm very proud to have them represent me, even though they don't go far enough in some areas. If they did, they wouldn't have been electable.

You see, I'm all about electability. I can't change the will of the population. I'm just a writer from St. Paul. What I can do is to work for candidates in my area who are the most progressive who can be elected. We almost didn't get Al Franken. And yet, I saw someone saying that Franken was no good, based on some issue I didn't even recognize. That trick just flat never works.

In some places, the most progressive candidate that can win is a Blue Dog Democrat. Ignoring that means losing that seat, as we saw happen in 2010. Instead of a Blue Dog Democrat, we got a teabagger in most of those seats. That seems sort of like cutting off your nose to me. But, that's just me.

I'm an idealist philosophically. Practically, I'm practical. I helped get Al Franken and Betty McCollum elected, and I did that by walking my precinct in 2008 and 2010. I'm proud of that. I'll do the same thing in 2012. You may do as you please.

[EFerrari]

29. People who don't think Al Franken is liberal enough is your answer?

Both of them?

And the Democrats do not listen to the middle, they've been going to the right of that ever since they decided to leave Jimmy Carter twisting in the wind. The electorate chases the ever-rightward drift of this party, not the other way around.

It's not pragmatic to keep chasing your opposition's tail unless you profit from doing that, and that's what the Democrats do. Elections are now big business and the electorate itself has been priced right out of the process from their election systems down to the spam in their mailboxes.

What we saw in 2010 was people voting for the real Republican instead of the blue dog. That should be a lesson to somebody but it won't be because the people who own our elections and our media have zero interest in democracy and every motivation to sell bs to voters like, America has drifted to the left for fifty years when the rightward roll of this country probably has poor FDR spinning in his grave.

[MineralMan]

41. We disagree, and I suppose we will always do so.

See you around on DU.

[hootinholler]

44. Why Beth, you and I are the fringe

To hear some talk around here.

:hug:

-Hoot

[Stinky The Clown]

31. Thanks for saying it so clearly.

You're exactly right. The "fringe" that I'm talking about (that gets ridiculed here regularly, often by a few of the folks in this thread) actually holds positions that are **widely** held in poll after poll of the population at large.

[walldude]

12. Ever since Reagan...

the country has been inching to the right. Slowly but surely. Now we have reached a point where we are so far right that moderates look like "liberals".

Many of us have stood still and watched the line being moved. I stand for the same things I did before St Ronnie got elected. However in the 70's and early 80's my stands would have been considered "Democratic". Now I'm part of the "fringe", and I got there without moving an inch or changing a single ideological position.

Sad that being anti-war, and pro-justice are now considered the positions of the loony far left.

[MuseRider]

19. True.

Me too and I am not budging. Nor am I voting for someone who I know is lying to me, nor will I vote for someone who does not stand up loudly for the people rather than the corporations nor anyone who would rather blow up other people and their countries with the money from the hard working people here rather than doing the much harder work of making peace. And that is just the beginning. Used to be part of what a Democrat was all about, without a question. Now we just feed the MIC and the wealthy and leave others out to perish. Won't vote for that, not now and not ever.

It is what it is right now and I will work on what I do in my own little state and try to keep our heads above water but support the Right side of the Democratic party? Not going to do it. I can always find someone else to vote for. I am too old now to even consider doing otherwise, I consider it giving them more reason to run to the right. One day, when it gets bad enough they will either wake up or there will be someone to lead us out of this mess.

Silly me, I forgot. They don't need us anymore. What a long and tedious and infuriating ride this is.

[Stinky The Clown]

33. Waldude, please this thread from my journal. Written a little while ago.

Says what you just said:

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Husb2Sparkly/92

[CrispyQ]

37. Great entry.

"Cuz there's no more there there, where I seem to be going. My new There is where?"

[lpbk2713]

14. They're taking their cue from the RW Media Hatemongers.

Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck et al. They did the same in all other recent elections.
The candidates hope to get a mention on their shows. It's like money in the bank.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

16. Because they're convinced that we'll accept the "not as bad", "lesser of two evils" meme.

They believe they own the votes of the left because we have fallen for that meme for decades.

[Cleita]

20. Because as scary as it is to contemplate, they are

a powerful faction. Why? Because all this tea partyism is nurtured in our conservative mega-churches particularly in Middle America and until we cut the heads off of that hydra, they can make or break any conservative candidate.

[LanternWaste]

23. Not a very encouraging choice...

Not a very encouraging choice... either pandering or ignoring.


I imagine there's a middle-ground should we choose to see it.

[ecstatic]

27. I don't think it's that. Our tent is pretty big

We're not on the same page about everything, and someone always ends up angry and unsatisfied.

[blindpig]

30. The left side of the dial is all static and white noise.

And that is because it ain't left, it is leftish at best. The entire 'left' of the Democratic Party and it's sympathizers do not oppose Capitalism, they just want it to be kinder, gentler. This causes the capitalists to laugh up their sleeves. There is no real opposition to capitalist deprivation, just whining, begging, wheedling, mebbe some harsh talk, but not too harsh. Small wonder the working class fell away from the party, what's in it for us? Working folks know the bastards are out to get us, but nothing but mush comes out of the mouths of the leftish, while the right offers up answers, very bad ones but answers nonetheless. There is no Left, but conditions assure that there will be, and then the leftish will be forced to decide which side they're on.

[unblock]

32. because there aren't a couple of billionaires looking to throw money at the looniest left-wingers

seriously, there's a huge amount of money available on the right for anyone capable of giving airtime to the right-wing agenda. now, you could earn celebrity status legitimately, or you could become a clown by just trying to be as wacky as possible. either way, the right is willing to throw money at you if you can advance their cause.

there's no one (or at least, not nearly enough money) on the left willing to do the same. and if there were, the right would quickly identify them as a threat and tear them down. they have a smear machine that, similarly, doesn't care about actual facts.

[Tesha]

35. That's a very significant factor. (NT)

[spanone]

36. M E D I A

[Horse with no Name]

38. Because the DLC was funded by Koch. Because the teabaggers were funded by Koch.

They hedged their bets and bought themselves into both parties. Unless the sane citizenry stand up to this--and fast--it will be too late. We were completely and 100% sold out.



"I pledge allegiance to the wallet of the United States of Koch, and to the republic for which it stood, one nation under Jesus, divisible, without liberty and justice for all."

[hootinholler]

47. Well DUH

Thanks for that! I hadn't connected those two dots before.

-Hoot

[Enthusiast]

39. The far right has control

of the propaganda mechanism.

[TomClash]

42. I forgot to rec this

An excellent and overlooked point.

[Brigid]

43. This has been going on for over a century now.

Ever since the mainstream labor movement became conflated with the anarchist movement of the 1870s. We've been very effectively marginalized.

[Angry Dragon]

45. bachmann is the 'Minnesota Loon'

[underpants]

46. The poor and powerless are not the ones organized to screw me over

[Shagbark Hickory]

48. For the same reason pimps constantly remind their ho's who owns them.