aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Kos: we work with pols who fit the people in their districts
Still ticked at the strategy of Bush Dog attacks - I argue we should work to develop those of us who live within Marshall and Barrow’s districts to let them know there are
liberals inside and to clear the way so that they actually could vote the way we want and still get re-elected - I point again to Kos who was most articulate on Meet the Press when he said:
“We started pushing Democrats to be proud to be Democrats. This had nothing to do with being centrist or liberal or conservative. It had to do with standing tall for core progressive principles. In fact, one of the first people we, we supported was Stephanie Herseth in South Dakota, who is now a Blue Dog. Ben Chandler in, in, in Kentucky. So we, and in their districts, and help them sort of get over this hump. [...] So it doesn’t matter who I think is liberal enough or conservative enough. I don’t make those value judgments. I don’t--I’m not there--arrogant to think that I should be making those decisions.”
Analogously, I would prefer presidential candidates who support marriage equality. None of the leading candidates do; I don’t expect the nominee will. I will still work for a Democrat; I won’t sit out.
In the state of Georgia today, my take is that Jim Marshall and John Barrow are as good as we’re going to get. Point me to anyone arguing that a more liberal candidate will win here.
Schaller and his crowd may like the notion of a “soft partition” of these United States that in effect writes off the South. I, emphatically, do not.
Posted by Joe Windish at 11:48am in
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I agree with you. Democrats have to fit their districts. We must maintain a broad based party. I happen to be a social conservative who is also populist (if not progressive) on economic issues.
My social conservatism is based upon life experiences and religious background but I also recognize that government has a greater ability to regulate the economy than social behavior.
As a Christian, I believe that we are all responsible for the well being of others. There is certainly a need for a stronger safety net and regulation to protect workers, consumers and investors. In my view, a belief in activist government to improve the quality of life (although we might differ somewhat on the degree of that activism) is the core of what the Democratic Party has stood for in modern times.
Our party cannot be defined by issues like abortion rights, gay marriage or even Iraq although I would certainly like to see our troops brought home in the near future.
Over the years, I have voted for a number of Democratic candidates who did not share certain beliefs on some social issues but were closer to reflecting my philosophy about the role of government. Unfortunately, most of the progressives seem to want to get their way one hundred percent of the time.
Effective politics still requires a certain amount of compromise and any party that wants to actually govern (rather than just cling to power with narrow electoral victories) must find a way to diminish the present red-blue ideological polarization. Democrats need to allow for diversity of opinion on social and national security issues.
The notion that we can elect across-the-board liberals in most of the South and other vast areas of the country is absurd. I appreciate your courage in speaking out for an inclusive Democratic Party.
Right Democrat on 09/30 at 12:05 PM
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