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)That people respond sometimes not to what they read, but to something they bring to the reading.
Nowhere do I say left and progressive people should sit down and stop pushing.
I said left and progressive people do not have a sound ground, either by history or present numbers, to claim the Democratic Party is theirs by right, and to claim that people in any degree to the right of them, but still not of the right, are not real Democrats and do not belong in the Democratic Party. That is a statement of objective fact.
I said the real dispute is about how to achieve goals just about all of us here share, and about how we can have more success in achieving left and progressive goals, in terms of law and policy. I think we on the left need to get better at 'pushing' our views, better at convincing people who are left of center or center left, or even smack in the center or center-right, that our views are best, and that they should move towards us.
I did not identify any particular faction as over-indulging in hyperbole; I think people whose principal mode of disputation is argument by hyperbole do not help their own cause, and often damage it, as well as damage the entire discussion, and this regardless of the faction they uphold.