General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: A Short Note On The Democratic Party And The Progressive Left.... [View all]The Magistrate
(96,043 posts)However, a great many Democrats are, and long have been, in the center ranges of our left/right political polarities. With a great many Democratic politicians it is not so much a question of moving to the center, as arising in the center, and voters who consider themselves to adhere to neither extreme are who they see as their natural constituency. Such politicians consider a posture eschewing either end of the pole is their most promising course, and wave a banner proclaiming 'Neither Arctic nor Antarctic, but Equatorial --- just like you folks!'
What is necessary is to move these people who attach a positive value to not adhering to either end of the pole to either come to reject your opponent's end, or to come to value your end over your opponent's. It is easier to get people to reject something than to come to value something, and the right has accordingly concentrated on defaming and disparaging 'liberalism' and 'the left'. It got a good boost in this in the wake of Viet Nam and the waning of the counter-culture movement, and the backlash against the gains of the Civil Rights movement.