So Americans are more liberal than politicians think we are and

[Skidmore]

DC (and state capitols) believe that self-generated methane they all breathe instead of air. I suggest start using a little behavioral modification on politicians in general. We all know that the Teabaggers are just a solid minority. Let's really focus on the timid to the left.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/03/04/one-study-explains-why-its-tough-to-pass-liberal-laws/

One study explains why it’s tough to pass liberal laws
Posted by Dylan Matthews on March 4, 2013 at 9:30 am
69
Comments

More
Last year, a group of political scientists took a random sample of state legislators and asked them a slew of questions, most of which boiled down to: “What do your constituents think about policy?” Do they support gay marriage? Do they support Obamacare? Do they support action to combat global warming?

Friend-of-the-blog David Broockman and Christopher Skovron, graduate students at Berkeley and Michigan, respectively, have released a working paper based on that research and the findings are rather astonishing.

Broockman and Skovron find that legislators consistently believe their constituents are more conservative than they actually are. This includes Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives. But conservative legislators generally overestimate the conservatism of their constituents by 20 points. “This difference is so large that nearly half of conservative politicians appear to believe that they represent a district that is more conservative on these issues than is the most conservative district in the entire country,” Broockman and Skovron write. This finding held up across a range of issues. Here, for example, are their findings for health care and same-sex marriage: .... more

[Kolesar]

1. yesterday's thread from the WaPo:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=2457975

[Demeter]

2. Because the incoherent minority have big mouths and lots of money

and no obligation to act on anything but selfish, impulsive, and belligerent motives.

[treestar]

3. Then quit electing conservative ones

We do have some power in this area, especially at local level.

[NewJeffCT]

4. This is why Republicans have been buying the media up over

the last 40+ years - to change the political direction in this country. Notice how there has not been any really big infrastructure investments in the country since the 1970s? How the debate is cutting programs that help the poor & middle class instead of returning to a more progressive tax code when America was a net creditor nation? And so on & so forth.

[Jackpine Radical]

5. I bet the obverse of this strange state of affairs is that

the voters think their elected representatives are actually as liberal as they are.

Remember that the average citizen is not a political junkie, and most politicians don't exactly advertise their intentions to cut SS & MC, and to block or repeal environmental legislation.

The whole thing is a breakdown of a basic informational feedback loop that is presumed to exist in society, the breakdown working to the benefit of the Right.

[ananda]

6. But not more activist.

The sustained, organized activism is lacking..

.. and that's the only thing that will bring positive change.

[NewJeffCT]

7. That's part of the reason why Republicans

have been buying the media over the last 40 years. Back in the 1960s, the activists were mostly on the left - protesting civil rights and Vietnam. They forced the debate to the left because Democratic politicians could take a still liberal position, but be to the right of the "crazy" activists.

However, with the rise of RW media, those left-wing activists have been ridiculed and marginalized - why was Glenn Beck's rally given days of media coverage, when an equally large gay rights rally a few weeks later got nothing in the media, save the Daily Show (who mocked the media for not covering the just as big gay rights rally...)? The media is mostly in the pocket of Republicans and their allies, so doesn't even acknowledge there is any left wing activism.

Now, the activists are on the right (Tea Party, etc) and if a Republican just strays from their hardline right stance on just one issue, that Republican politician is thought of as reasonable & moderate by the media and a traitor by the crazy activists.