Is "liberal washing" at the heart of discord in the Dem party?

[geek tragedy]

13. There is no widespread discord in the Democratic party. This is fictional bullshit

being peddled to make Nader/McKinney types feel superior to mainstream liberals.

Note that Sirota prefers Ron Paul to Barack Obama, so he's qualified to speak for neither Democrats nor liberals.

The fringe is still the fringe.

http://www.salon.com/2012/01/10/what_makes_a_progressive_president/

Of course, an Obama supporter might argue that the set of issues they can agree with Paul on are less monumental than the set of issues they agree with Obama on. But don’t mistake such a conversation-ending declaration as fact. On the contrary, it’s merely a subjective opinion — and a debatable one at that. Indeed, Paul supporters would make a compelling case that it’s exactly the opposite — that the progressive side of Paul’s program relates to more pressing issues than Obama’s progressive positions in this, the age of multitrillion-dollar bailouts, deficit-exploding defense budgets, assaults on the most basic tenets of the Bill of Rights and what the Pentagon now calls “the era of persistent conflict” (read: Permanent War). And they have a strong case to make that by virtue of the modern presidency Paul would be guaranteed to actually enact the progressive parts of his program, whereas the progressive parts of President Obama’s program are more a question of congressional politics (a good example of that truism was the healthcare bill, which went from a mildly progressive White House proposal to a public-option-free boondoggle for the insurance and drug industries by the time Obama and his lobbyist friends finished massaging it through Congress).

In holding this pragmatic view, it doesn’t mean Paul’s progressive-minded supporters believe in the reactionary tenets of Paul’s agenda (eliminating major social programs, opposing civil rights laws, ending all taxes, having a history associated with racist newsletters, etc.) any more than it means Obama’s progressive-minded supporters are thrilled with all of the president’s ultra-conservative actions (wars, mass killing of civilians, trampling of civil liberties, bank bailouts, a racist drug war, etc.). It only means that there’s a calculation at work — one that takes into account the realities of presidential power.

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/ron_paul_and_our_selective_definition_of_bigotry_20120120?ln

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-sirota/what-dems-dont-want-menti_b_583807.html

http://www.alternet.org/story/153246/why_do_young_voters_love_ron_paul