General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: 1972 McGovern campaign, what would you have done ? [View all]Hippo_Tron
(25,453 posts)There's some cases where you have some Democratic member of congress (much fewer after 2010) representing a district that is insanely Republican on the national level. They take some very very conservative positions, avoid ties with the national party, and sometimes they endorse Republicans.
I don't mind these people being in the "tent". But you can't be on the fringes of the tent and trying to run the tent. And often times, these people have absolutely no desire to do that. Rep. Jim Matheson of Utah, for example, is never going to run for President. He's never going to try to become a member of the House leadership. He's a backbencher from a really conservative district who gives us another vote in the House and is certainly better on the issues than the alternative. He's fine being a member of the big tent and not leader of the tent.
Joe Lieberman, is an example of where you run into a problem with this. Lieberman was someone with a national profile and national ambitions who used that to actively work against the party's position and subsequently the party's nominee. The tent can be big, but not THAT big.