Weird Liberal Ideas: The Fact That The Blue Dogs Got Creamed Proves The Party Shouldn’t Move To The Center

Since the Blue Dogs are moderate and got slaughtered on Tuesday, it proves that the Democratic Party shouldn’t move to the middle. That theory may make no sense, but, it’s ALL OVER the liberal blogs. It’s hard to tell whether that means they’re dishonest or just not very smart, but it really does have to be one or the other.

Why?

Well, first of all, let me just note that I can fully understand liberals not wanting to move to the center. I can also understand their disliking Blue Dogs. We certainly don’t like Republican squishes; so it’s no shocker that liberals don’t like Democratic squishes.

Still, let’s look at some facts.

At a meta-level, the Blue Dogs got shredded for exactly the same reason that Republican moderates got massacred in 2006 and 2008: The national party was extremely unpopular and they tended to be in competitive districts.

Because they live in la-la land, a lot of liberals don’t get this. They think a Democrat can represent a +1 Republican district, vote like Nancy Pelosi, and do just fine because liberal policies are so popular. Actually, liberal policies are extremely UNPOPULAR in most of the country, which is why Democratic politicians who live in even marginally competitive districts have to incessantly lie about what they’ve done, what they believe, and what they want to do. Even that baffles a lot of liberals, who complain that Democratic politicians won’t run on their “accomplishments,” which polls show that voters hate with the burning intensity of the sun.

Here’s the reality: Liberals probably traded somewhere around 2-4 Senate seats, 30-40 House seats, and a ton of governorships and state legislatures for Health Care Reform, the Stimulus, and the continuance of the bailouts. Was it worth it? It depends on how important those policies are to liberals.

Will the Left’s political fortunes improve if they genuinely move to the center as Clinton did after the 1994 bloodbath? Yeah, they probably will. Given the mood of the country and the increased number of Republicans in the House, barring extreme levels of “dumb” from the GOP Leadership, the Democrats aren’t going to get any more of their beloved programs passed in the next two years anyway. So, is it worth it to try to move to the center to save Obama in 2012 and perhaps better yet, hope that the public turns on the GOP? Yeah, probably. Will the Democrats do that?

Doubt it…but, we’ll see. Personally, I hope they keep on pushing to the Left and telling everyone who’ll listen that Republicans are all woman-hating, extremist bigots. The American people have already rejected that message and the longer Democrats keep hammering it home, the more time they’re going to waste.

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