boot the blue dogs

[littlewolf]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/24/opinion/24berman.html?_r=2&ref=opinion&pagewanted=print



October 23, 2010
Boot the Blue Dogs
By ARI BERMAN
IN 2008, Barack Obama’s presidential campaign seemed to rewrite all the rules in electoral politics and herald a new progressive era in America. Democrats assembled a huge Congressional majority and, in the euphoria that followed the historic election, were poised to enact sweeping change. However, despite some notable successes — the stimulus package, health care reform, tighter rules for the financial industry — things have not gone according to plan. Just two years later, Democrats face a bad economy, a skeptical public, a re-energized Republican Party and a coming avalanche of losses in the midterm elections.

What happened? One important explanation is that divisions inside the Democratic coalition, which held together during the 2008 campaign, have come spilling out into the open. Conservative Democrats have opposed key elements of the president’s agenda, while liberal Democrats have howled that their majority is being hijacked by a rogue group of predominantly white men from small rural states. President Obama himself appears caught in the middle, unable to satisfy the many factions inside his party’s big tent.

Conservative Democrats in the House of Representatives — whose election in 2006 and 2008 enabled Nancy Pelosi to preside over a supermajority (there are 255 Democrats and 178 Republicans) — increasingly question whether she should relinquish her position as speaker. Representative Heath Shuler of western North Carolina, a leader of the restive Blue Dog Coalition of Democrats, has even hinted that he may run for her job. Representative Shuler is an unlikely candidate for leader of the party — a devout Southern Baptist who voted against the stimulus, the bank and auto bailouts and health care reform. Yet he’s exactly the kind of Democrat that the party worked very hard to recruit for public office.

In 2005, Howard Dean, who was then the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, carried out a campaign to elect as many Democrats as possible. In long-ignored red states, both Mr. Dean and Rahm Emanuel, then the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, backed conservative Democrats who broke with the party’s leadership on core issues like gun control and abortion rights. Mr. Shuler was one of Mr. Emanuel’s top recruits. The party leaders did not give much thought to how a Democratic majority that included such conservative members could ever effectively govern.
Far from hastening the dawn of a post-partisan utopia, President Obama’s election has led to near-absolute polarization. If Democrats alter their political strategy accordingly, they’ll be more united and more productive.

Ari Berman, a contributing writer for The Nation, is the author of “Herding Donkeys: The Fight to Rebuild the Democratic Party and Reshape American Politics.”


read the rest at the link

[HillbillyBob]

1. They should have moved

decisively instead of f kin around with that bi partisan bs which they KNEW would only be a boondoggle .....
You cannot reason with crazy / selfish bast ds.

PS and not hired all the gd retreads from prior maladministrations.

[polichick]

2. Ari's book, Herding Donkeys, is an important one if you're interested in...

...rebuilding the Democratic Party - and yes, boot the fucking blue dogs.

[elocs]

3. You boot Blue Dogs in the primaries, not in the general election.

Their names in the Democratic column helps to keep the Democrats in control of each house of Congress and that means more than just not getting their votes on specific issues (I think if there was intellectual honesty that it could be admitted that even Blue Dogs vote mostly with the Democratic Party).

When it comes to the GE I would rather keep a Blue Dog and Democratic Party control of Congress and the Senate as opposed to having a Republican and losing control of one or both houses. Imagine the Republicans controlling the Congress and the committees and having subpoena power. Imagine them impeaching Obama and furthering their right wing agenda to move the nation's wealth to the very rich and to rape and plunder the land.

No, in that case I could swallow the Blue pill.

[kctim]

4. In order to boot them

you have to convince their voters to vote for a progressive. What's you're plan to accomplish that? How are you going to convince moderate Democrats to vote against their best interests and vote for what somebody else thinks is best for them?

[polichick]

6. The plan is simple - make it clear that Dems look out for middle-class Americans...

...Republicans do not.

[kctim]

10. That doesn't answer the question

The problem isn't getting people to vote for a Democrat, it is getting them to vote for a progressive. So, what is the plan to convince them to vote for somebody who does not represent their views and beliefs instead of one who does?

[polichick]

15. Economics trump social issues, especially when times are tough...

It is progressives, more than centrist Dems, who represent middle class Americans when it comes to economic policies.

[kctim]

16. Ok

So what is the plan to convince us to vote for progressives economic policies we have so far disagreed with? Calling us ignorant for daring to have our own beliefs and values hasn't worked, neither has trying to force those policies on us. So if progressives want to boot the moderates from the party, you guys surely have a plan to do so and I would love to hear it.

[NNN0LHI]

5. Voters in these states think the earth is 6000 years old but we will get them to vote for liberals

These people suggesting this stuff crack me up. Shit for brains.

Don

[RaleighNCDUer]

9. The voters who thing the earth is 6000 years old vote REPUBLICAN.

They wouldn't vote for a Dem no matter how much he wags his blue tail.

There are sane people in the insane states - a lot of them. They will support Democratic principles, but not necessarily anyone with a (D) behind their name. They are those who drift off to the Greens and Libertarians.

People will back a candidate who is clear about what he stands for. A well-spoken, well defined Progressive will fare better than a wishy-washy 'maybe I'm a Dem and maybe I ain't' candidate. Progressives DO get elected in red states - but usually don't last long because 'leaders' like Rahm haven't given them any support, and throw party money at 'safe' seats.

Blue dogs are not our friends or allies.

[LoZoccolo]

12. Then there should be no problem them.

There are no blue dogs because these people didn't vote for them, right? So which blue dogs should we boot if there aren't any?

[alsame]

7. Important quote - “A real Republican motivates us to work. A fake

Democrat de-motivates us.”

It's very hard for Democrats to harshly criticize the conservative positions on issues when there are Dems who hold the same positions. And it always gets thrown back in our faces by the right wing noise machine, "Even XXX agrees with the GOP!"

It also blurs the Dem/GOP distinction for a lot of voters.

[BlueDemKev]

8. I read this article....

...but the problem is the Democrats cannot get a majority in the House without some conservative Democrats in the caucus. There are so many rural districts throughout the country and we have to win at least SOME of them in the south and western states if we are to have more than half the seats in Congress. No one can expect progressive Democrats to win in these rural districts.

[LoZoccolo]

11. Latinos for Reform thanks Ari Berman for his concern and you for posting it.

Same fucking message from conservative PACs and fake-ass "progressives" who can't be bothered to look up the fucking voting records or even name the fucking "blue dogs" they want to see booted.

[LoZoccolo]

13. I'd like someone to actually fucking name a blue dog they think should get booted.

We'll look up his voting record and you can tell me every fucking bill he voted with the Dems on and why you think we should fuck over the people the bill benefits, as well as hear your fucking explanation about how a more progressive candidate didn't not win the primary.

This academic and sociopathic strategy about fucking people over to spite people for not voting for your favorite progressive who supports your pet issue is ass-slurping bullshit of a deadly order and just so much posturing and acting like an ass. If you want to elect progressive candidates then BRING IT ON but when you destroy the work of other Democrats in making some progress when more was impossible you have both US AND THE REPUBLICANS as enemies and we'll BOTH be after you.

[LoZoccolo]

14. PS Gore was considered a blue dog by the FUCKING NADERITES who wouldn't lift a finger

in defending us against Bush*.