Can you name one fringe left dem politician in power?

[cali]

I can't.

I can name dozens of fringe right republicans in Congress, state legislatures and governorships.


the fringe left has no power within the democratic party at all.

[trumad]

1. Come on Cali...

It's Graham.... the new Carlos of DU.

[QC]

15. It's like Carlos and RandomThoughts had a love child. n/t

[annabanana]

49. mmmmmf

giggle

[morningfog]

28. I put that graham4whatever on ignore and completely forgot about it.

[LuvNewcastle]

29. I haven't had anyone on ignore for years, but I'm thinking about

dusting off that list and cleaning out the cobwebs.

[Scootaloo]

77. Why would you do that?

It's like a daily dose of Time Cube!

In 1884, meridian time personnel met

in Washington to change Earth time.

First words said was that only 1 day

could be used on Earth to not change

the 1 day bible. So they applied the 1

day and ignored the other 3 days.

The bible time was wrong then and it

proved wrong today. This a major lie

has so much evil feed from it's wrong.

No man on Earth has no belly-button,

it proves every believer on Earth a liar.

That shit is gold man!

[zbdent]

2. They sure try to make Sherrod Brown as a "far left" ...

and yet, he beat the crap out of the Repug in 12.

[WCGreen]

59. Sherrod Brown likes to say he is a lunch pail liberal...

Meaning Unions, equality before the law and a fair chance to participate in the market place.

[Jake Izzy]

3. Michael Capuano

Last edited Sat May 4, 2013, 02:46 PM - Edit history (1)

D-Mass.

http://www.ontheissues.org/MA/Michael_Capuano.htm

[cali]

5. that's only fringe to anti-choice nuts

sorry, we are pro-choice here and there's nothing whatsoever fringe about that Jakey. The fucking lies that the anti-choicers tell not withstanding. And they tell a bundle of them. It actually amazes me that those idiots believe that "late term abortion" is widespread and legal for any reason. It is not. So which of these do you think is extreme. do tell before you get your pizza pie in the eye.


Strongly supports a woman's right to choose. (Oct 2009)
Voted NO on banning federal health coverage that includes abortion. (May 2011)
Voted YES on expanding research to more embryonic stem cell lines. (Jan 2007)
Voted YES on allowing human embryonic stem cell research. (May 2005)
Voted NO on restricting interstate transport of minors to get abortions. (Apr 2005)
Voted NO on making it a crime to harm a fetus during another crime. (Feb 2004)
Voted NO on banning partial-birth abortion except to save mother’s life. (Oct 2003)
Voted NO on forbidding human cloning for reproduction & medical research. (Feb 2003)
Voted NO on funding for health providers who don't provide abortion info. (Sep 2002)
Voted NO on banning Family Planning funding in US aid abroad. (May 2001)
Voted NO on federal crime to harm fetus while committing other crimes. (Apr 2001)
Voted NO on banning partial-birth abortions. (Apr 2000)
Voted NO on barring transporting minors to get an abortion. (Jun 1999)
Rated 100% by NARAL, indicating a pro-choice voting record. (Dec 2003)
Expand contraceptive services for low-income women. (May 2006)
Rated 0% by the NRLC, indicating a pro-choice stance. (Dec 2006)
Provide emergency contraception at military facilities. (Apr 2007)
Ensure access to and funding for contraception. (Feb 2007)
Focus on preventing pregnancy, plus emergency contraception. (Jan 2009)

[MannyGoldstein]

6. On what issue(s) is Capuano fringe left? nt

[AnotherMcIntosh]

27. Maybe he's not 3rd-Way.

[bvar22]

35. To the 3rd Way, anybody slightly Left of Reagan is "Fringe Left",

FDR and LBJ were Marxists,
and UNIONS are an abomination to The Uniquely American Solution.

[Jake Izzy]

46. Failure to define "fringe" renders this topic useless

Absent a definition we can all, or most of us, agree on, we are going nowhere with this.

[JustAnotherGen]

4. Remember

The media spin about 2008 Candidate Obama being the Most Liberal member of Congress? I do.

They always said it with ominous dark music in the background.

[trumad]

9. Of course...

And how some last here on DU is a clear indication of the slow demise of this once great forum.

[bvar22]

38. I can't reply to 7 anymore cause a jury hid it,

but I agree!!!!


Does anybody here NOT click on [font color=blue]Show[/font]?

[Blue_In_AK]

39. I always do.

[madinmaryland]

64. Same here. Morbid sense of curiosity, I guess!!

[CrispyQ]

53. I always do too,

& I'm laughing my ass off.

Seriously, this got hidden?

[LuvNewcastle]

56. I saw it and I totally agree. Even the part about the peanuts.

[idwiyo]

60. Of course I clicked and I agree with that post!

[datasuspect]

66. i agree with bonobo too

on that one.

[Eleanors38]

74. A post hidden because of a Baby Ruth reference?

I thought that was great imagery & economy.

[JustAnotherGen]

82. What happened here on this thread?

I hate when we censor people on these damn juries.

[Wounded Bear]

48. IIRC, there were dozens of "most liberal Senators"......

generally a term used to describe whichever Dem they were talking about at the time.

You'd think the term would become rather useless after so much over use, but .

[JustAnotherGen]

81. Yep

I remember that too! It's what they use to get fearful idiots to vote against their own interests.

[TheCowsCameHome]

8. No,

But compared to some of the hardcore fruitcakes on the right, Dems look centrist.

[Kolesar]

10. The party "took care of" Representative Cynthia McKinney

I remember when Paul "I like George Bush*" Begala was bragging about how the party primaried here a decade ago.

*CNN guy: "I like George Bush, I would like to have a beer with him." Which is stupid because bush didn't drink beer. That's like saying I would like to have a an ice cream bar with a diabetic.

[cali]

11. thank goodness she's gone

she really was fringe nutcase left.

[Kolesar]

12. She had her moment

She was quite critical of bush.
Then she turned into a real screwball.

[KoKo]

65. She may have seen how the "sausage is made" and it caused her to

to decide to go in a different direction. One either learns to not ask too harsh questions unless one is under the wing of a powerful sponsor. Cynthia never had that powerful sponsor so there was much she was attacked for...that was a distortion...but, good enough to get her out of there. Max Cleland...and a very few others.

[dsc]

13. I could see a case being made that on foreign policy

Barbara Lee of California is fringe and in power (she voted against Afghanistan).

[cali]

18. I can't. and she looks prescient re Afghanistan. What else you got?

[HughBeaumont]

14. I used to challenge people to name 20 progressives in all of Washington.

I can't even name ten. And that includes loosening the "progressive" label just a bit.

There are, however, TeaHadists aplenty . . .

[treestar]

16. Is it a conspiracy?

Or that no district voted one in?

If you ask right wingers, they would name some.

[Bluenorthwest]

19. This is about a thread that says 'both sides are equally bad, Republicans and Democrats'

and claims there are 'fringe' members of the left in office in the US who are as bad as Cruz or Paul.

[jmowreader]

40. To right wingers we are all "fringe left"

We're running kinda low on actual liberals...let's see...Bernie Sanders, Al Franken, maybe Elizabeth Warren in the Senate...in the House there are a couple but I haven't kept up on 435 people to watch for the good ones...

[JDPriestly]

80. Two things:

1) No opportunity to rise or take responsibility within the Democratic Party unless you curry favor with the DLC types. I'm talking about young people at the local level. Unfortunately, Progressives tend to shun attending Democratic Club meetings or taking responsibility at the local level. The extremists in the Democratic Party prefer to walk picket lines, scream bloody murder at local progressives who are working hard just to stay in low-level local jobs, protest and sign on-line petitions. They aren't willing to compromise even enough to get good progressive candidates elected. That's the problem.

No matter what your opinions, you have to be willing to work with people who don't agree with you on every little thing. You have to be willing to compromise now and then. You can still say what you think and stand up for what you believe, but you have to understand that you will not always get your way.

There are issues on which you cannot offer compromise and still claim to be a Democrat. Unions, Social Security, public education, Medicare, unemployment benefits, food stamps, and other such social programs define the Democratic Party. If you "compromise" on those, you are not a Democrat. What is the point in calling yourself a Democrat if you are anti-union or think that Social Security benefits should be cut?

People who are weak on those core issues should admit what they really are.

[Bluenorthwest]

17. I use the term 'in office' but no, not one. The 'both sides are the same' routine is just what

right wingers say when they get sick of being so fringe themselves. That poster is heavily Republican, each day promoting mass ammo purchases and that sort of thing. Very right wing, very.

[Recursion]

20. The closest to both ("fringe" and "in power") is Sanders, but ...

... he's not very close to either.

[frazzled]

21. Weird that you should use the term "fringe"

It generally has a negative connotation, meaning peripheral or extreme; or at best, out of the mainstream. We criticize Republicans for elevating fringe figures (the Sarah Palins and Michele Bachmans). So why would we bemoan (I assume that's what you're doing here) that we have not elevated "fringe" candidates of our own?

If you had said far left or solidly progressive or something like that, this thread would make some sense. But to wonder why the mainstream of Democrats--that is to say, the majority of people voting--would not pick someone from the fringes is puzzling to me.

The problem with the Republican Party is that they do not see these fringe characters as being at the fringes at all. It is becoming the mainstream of their party: and it is why they will disappear except in the fringe pockets of congressional districts in fringe states.

[sabrina 1]

22. 'Fringe' is a word used to describe Progressive democrats even here on DU. I don't know what

prompted this thread, but anyone who supports the New Deal policies that used to be the platform of the Dem Party, people like Kucinich, Grayson eg, who supports what not so long ago, used to be overwhelmingly supported on DU itself, eg, a National Health Care System, are now being portrayed as 'fringe'.

Considering the sources of these attempts to drive out of the party what is also now considered to be 'fringe', the Left, (which btw Dems depend on during election season in order to have a chance of winning) I am proud to say I am a Fringe Leftie. I support the Democratic Party's PLATFORM.

Money buys votes. Until that is changed there will be fewer and fewer Progressive Dems in Congress.

[magellan]

57. Woah, wait! Grayson is considered fringe?

Grayson is my rep. He's one of a very few old school Dems with principles left in Congress. If that makes him fringe, then I'm proud to add my name to the Fringe Lefties list.

[sabrina 1]

62. Yes, which is why the Party Leadership did not get behind him when the Right Wing spent millions

to get rid of him. Even here on DU airc, there was criticism of his attempts to expose his right wing opponent for what he was. You know, we were being 'pragmatic' etc.

He tells the truth, which is very inconvenient for those who want to pretend that it's all 'The Republican's fault'. So yes, he is considered the 'fringe' by the Third Way infiltrators who have taken over the Democratic Party.

I love him, he is a fighter, spirited, never gives up and came back swinging despite the efforts to shut him up.

[magellan]

68. Pragmatism has its place

But so does exposing rw lies and telling inconvenient truths! Where that's concerned, Grayson has indeed showed the backbone and pluck so many Democratic Party supporters long to see in their reps. And fittingly it won him an overwhelming victory in this new district last November, despite the naysayers.

I just peeked back at the threads leading up to and including his victory; eye-opening in many ways.

[sabrina 1]

78. I love Grayson, so that makes me and you 'fringe' also in today's Orwellian world. We need

a few hundred more Graysons in Congress and that is what our goal should be for 2014. He needs people to back him up and there are not that many willing to do so right now.

[Eleanors38]

75. Interesting. Used to be finding a "Lefty" in Congress

Got you into an argument over the finer nuances of democratic socialism, but 40+ years ago was a modern era. A three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust liberal like H.Humphrey would be a borscht-breath Stalanist, now.

[Tom Rinaldo]

23. Not since McKinney Republicans have at least a dozen if not more that far or further to the Right

About as close as Dems get on the national level is Alan Grayson, and he is by no means fringe. By European standards Grayson is a centrist Social Democrat. In the Senate "the left" has Sanders (who is not even a Democrat) and Elizabeth Warren furthest out from the center. But there are almost ten times as many Republican Senators at least as far from the center to the right as Sanders and Warren are to the left

[hfojvt]

37. but by Kansas standards

Kathleen Sebelius and Dennis Moore are "fringe left" just like Pelosi, and Obama.

[LuvNewcastle]

24. The Democratic Party is the center party.

I honestly don't know any "fringe" people who call themselves Democrats. Maybe a case could be made that Kucinich is "fringe," in regards to his Department of Peace idea, but other than that, no one with the Democratic label.

[Eleanors38]

76. The three choices today: The center, the far right,...

...the crap-peanuts-and-go-to-heaven right.

That "left-right" crap is media myth and has been for years.

[PD Turk]

25. Ummm....no

I think Bernie Sanders is about as far left as anybody gets and I'd hardly call him fringe

[Shankapotomus]

26. I can't name one in existence nt

[Smarmie Doofus]

30. No, in a word.

Hard to define "fringe". Everything is skewed right from the time I first got my bearings.

Would Fulbright, Morse, Gruening, McCarthy, McGovern, et al. be considered fringe today?

Probably.

[bvar22]

41. Eisenhower would be "Fringe Left" today.

[YoungDemCA]

31. Hell, it's increasingly tough to name one Center-Left Democrat in power...

..since the entire political system has moved so far to the Right.

[Botany]

32. Sen. Brown

game over dude

[LuvNewcastle]

34. Is Sen. Brown a communist or an anarcho-socialist?

Because that's basically what "fringe left" means.

[Wind Dancer]

33. No

I wish we did!

[hfojvt]

36. what about Obama?

He's a muslin socialist.

[jmowreader]

44. If you have a Body Piercing by Glock bumper sticker, he is

[backscatter712]

54. Next thing we know, he'll inflict Polyester Marxism upon the world!

[eridani]

83. At least he isn't a Satinist or a Linenist, right? n/t

[AgingAmerican]

42. What is a "fringe left" Dem politician?

Please explain.

[ananda]

45. I'd like to know too.

..

[SomethingFishy]

47. Anti-War, Anti-Corporate,

pro-choice, pro Social Safety net, pro Single Payer, you know... a liberal.

[AmericanLoudspeaker]

43. No and thank goodness. nt

[Apophis]

52. You type that as your third post.

Is there no more room underneath the bridge?

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

50. Hell, it's hard enough to find a somewhat left liberal let alone an actual leftist.

[Apophis]

51. What's "fringe left?"

Liberals who don't make war their first option? Liberals who want more environmental regulations? Liberals who support a woman's right to choose? Liberals who want more government oversight on big businesses? Liberals who believe in equal rights for all?

Aren't those supposed to be normal Democrat values?

[backscatter712]

55. From the category of Awesome Left: Elizabeth Warren.

Though she's fairly mainstream left. She doesn't go for conspiracy theories like Cynthia McKinney.

[Douglas Carpenter]

58. there are not even enough LBJ/Humphrey type Democrats left to swing a cat at to say nothing of

"fringe left" - There are probably a few scattered local level space cadets in minor town council type positions - but certainly no one holding national or probably even state office that any politically educated person could possibly call fringe left.

[idwiyo]

61. Grayson?

[Douglas Carpenter]

67. What policies does Alan Grayson advocate that are in any way, shape or form out of the mainstream?

[idwiyo]

69. Mainstream politics? I think he was for single payer health insurance, wasn't he?

[Douglas Carpenter]

71. I'm not sure if that is his actual positon or not. But most Americans support Medicare for all

or some form of universal single payer healthcare. It would be fringe to oppose it



http://www.medicareforall.org/pages/Chart_of_Americans_Support

[idwiyo]

72. I am aware of that. Not sure how many actual politicians were as vocal as Grayson was about the

issue.

BTW, in no way shape or form do I consider Alan Grayson to be "fringe". I am a commie, to me he is just a centre guy. But I can see how he could be considered "fringe" by a large proportion of Americans.

[BainsBane]

70. The problem is the right views any Democrat as fringe

They think Pelosi and Obama are fringe. They're completely out of it and have no sense of their nation's own political history.

[Democracyinkind]

73. 80-20, 50-50

Extremists on both sides... Fringe left... yada yada yada.. Beer money, due experiences

Carter should have voted for Reagan, and Marx loved Reagan, secretly admiring Ayn Rand and Rand Paul long before they were born.

Also, if you're poor, you are a loser, if you're poor and old, you had it coming, greedy bastard. Yada Yada Bloomberg is the apostle of freedom yada.

[Cleita]

79. Until recently Dennis Kucinich, but the powers behind the PTB sure

made sure that they got rid of him.

[mmonk]

84. By fringe, do you mean a traditional Democrat?