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In reply to the discussion: All three Democratic presidential losses in the Eighties were caused by centrism. [View all]wyldwolf
(43,891 posts)269. I didn't say you weren't there.
I've said repeatedly you have no evidence. No supportive documentation. You've drawn conclusions based on your opinions and presented them as facts.
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All three Democratic presidential losses in the Eighties were caused by centrism. [View all]
Ken Burch
May 2014
OP
If you had stated that centrism is a major contributing factor, I would have agreed.
cali
May 2014
#1
But it certainly is a valid argument that none of the candidates mentioned in the OP were all that
nomorenomore08
May 2014
#131
Yes, it's hard to ignore the contributions made by dirty Republican tactics.
Jackpine Radical
May 2014
#32
it was because they view and continue to view social program as being handouts to minorities
JI7
May 2014
#8
they would have been won back if the Dems supported a Law preventing BLacks from equal rights
JI7
May 2014
#12
No, that wouldn't have been enough for those who were specifically race-obsessed.
Ken Burch
May 2014
#15
And a candidate that could appeal to those people couldn't possibly be progressive in office
Ken Burch
May 2014
#21
I was one of those Democrats who voted against Obama in the 2012 West Virginia Primary
Lasher
May 2014
#116
Most of those people haven't been Democrats for years, but never bothered to re-register
Hippo_Tron
May 2014
#287
We didn't need to get those voters back, what wich half the electorate sitting on their hands.
Scuba
May 2014
#75
Yep, that's the way I remember it tool. Also, Reagan was a polished speaker, he knew how to speak
RKP5637
May 2014
#58
dukakis lost points after he said he would oppose the death penalty even if his wife was raped and
JI7
May 2014
#5
He also didn't help himself much by driving that tank in a parade . . .
markpkessinger
May 2014
#187
the 'pugs said that stunt made Dukakis look like "a heavily-armed attack rodent" n/t.
Ken Burch
May 2014
#216
There were no candidates to Mondale or Dukakis' right who'd have done better in '84 or '88.
Ken Burch
May 2014
#29
Yes it seems you want to blame the liberals and on a liberal message board no less.
rhett o rick
May 2014
#111
The thesis was that all three Democratic candidiates lost because they went centrist.
Algernon Moncrieff
May 2014
#91
Good points, plus the media played a big part in painting all of them as weak.
Major Hogwash
May 2014
#33
The way to have beaten the "weak" tag would have been to be gutsy on the issues.
Ken Burch
May 2014
#49
I think you nailed it here, he came off as very weak. Americans didn't even 't bother to check
bettyellen
May 2014
#37
We couldn't win in the eighties because there were just too many jittery whites.
RDANGELO
May 2014
#20
Yep, and Bill Clinton swept to victory in 1996 with an unapologetic socialist platform
Nye Bevan
May 2014
#41
so being a centrist in the 80s makes you lose, being one in the 90s makes you win.
wyldwolf
May 2014
#222
An oversimplification, but for those particular campaigns, somewhat accurate.
Ken Burch
May 2014
#241
you're proving yourself wrong the further you go down this "appeal vs. policy" path
wyldwolf
May 2014
#247
No, they were not. No one offered any evidence discrediting my argument at all.
Ken Burch
May 2014
#268
After signing the 1964 Civil Rights Act, LBJ said Democrats had lost the South for a generation.
Lasher
May 2014
#158
Reagan won because the corporate media waltzed him into office. And kept him there.
Zen Democrat
May 2014
#56
It was a media sell-job, but nobody's "liberalism" had anything to do with it.
Ken Burch
May 2014
#57
The same corporate media kept 1-inch headlines counting days the hostages remained in captivity,
Overseas
May 2014
#110
And some of those moves were what gave some Dems reasons to defect to the rosy rhetoric
Overseas
May 2014
#270
True....the problem was, our party wasn't giving those voters any reason to think
Ken Burch
May 2014
#272
The Nixon dirty tricks squad would have made sure ANY Dem went down in flames that year.
Ken Burch
May 2014
#63
Hugging the center means not being different than the right once you're in office.
Ken Burch
May 2014
#130
Anyone who thinks Ronald Reagan or George W. Bush were centrist is living in cloud cuckoo land
Douglas Carpenter
May 2014
#66
Wrong. The votes are on the left, but staying home as they have no candidate representing them.
Scuba
May 2014
#76
You can't expect people to vote in years where no candidate cares about their issues
Ken Burch
May 2014
#227
" Jimmy Carter ran for re-election on an essentially moderate Republican record.."
Progressive dog
May 2014
#257
He didn't send in troops, but he did give his verbal and diplomatic support to him til the end.
Ken Burch
May 2014
#267
I know that. But the Iranian people were trying to remove him and Carter wanted him to stay on.
Ken Burch
May 2014
#298
so Kucinich was not on the Left ? did Elizabeth warren get much higher voters than Obama, or is she
JI7
May 2014
#192
It's not an "admittedly wrong conclusion". I didn't admit anything of the kind.
Ken Burch
May 2014
#226
Has there been a successful Democratic candidate since FDR whom you would not call centrist?
muriel_volestrangler
May 2014
#71
we can debate FDR all day, but the fact remains progressive of the day hated him, too.
wyldwolf
May 2014
#84
Not the FDR who denounced "economic royalists" and "malefactors of great wealth"
Ken Burch
May 2014
#103
Of course you trashed them - unless you now believe being a centrist is a good thing
wyldwolf
May 2014
#221
if Carter, Mondale and Dukakis had had that animal magnetism, they would have won?
wyldwolf
May 2014
#236
Acting like a Republican is not going to peel off votes of the mythical moderate Republican ....
Scuba
May 2014
#78
agree they were too RW and it made them look bad, but I think the country was having a conservative
bettyellen
May 2014
#115
In other words, after everything you've wrote, you have ZERO supportive evidence of your positions.
wyldwolf
May 2014
#140
But we're not discussing 1960. We're discussing the 1980s, where turnout was consistent
wyldwolf
May 2014
#147
"Why?" Because the moneyed interests can't lose when both party candidates are beholden
NorthCarolina
May 2014
#82
Funny. Thats the same thing the right says about their recent losses. Not "conservative enough".
7962
May 2014
#83
Never mind the media collusion, Repubs dealing with Iran to fuck Carter, and such...
riqster
May 2014
#92
Centrism is tantamount to doing absolutely nothing, status quo, laziness at best, why bother
mother earth
May 2014
#95
Right now, the Republicans are radical reactionaries trying to hasten our transition to Empire.
Maedhros
May 2014
#186
I sure hope we're on the road to recovery and beginning to see the good sense of liberal/progressive
gtar100
May 2014
#99
The only election the Democrats lost because of centrism was 1980 and that was due to a primary.
Drunken Irishman
May 2014
#101
I just demonstrated how Carter's conservative policy on Iran caused the embassy takeover
Ken Burch
May 2014
#150
which is beside the point. Lowering inflation was a popular move. It wasn't a 'centrist policy.'
wyldwolf
May 2014
#274
He lost because unemployment went up. Unemployment goes up when you put low inflation first.
Ken Burch
May 2014
#275
The massive grassroots demand that Teddy, with all his flaws, should challenge Carter for the nom
Ken Burch
May 2014
#291
That goes back to earlier versions of DU. And who's this "us"? you only speak for yourself.
Ken Burch
May 2014
#299
irrelevant. What your OP says runs counter to every political science and historical reference
wyldwolf
Jun 2014
#304
My OP doesn't run counter to every political science and historical reference.
Ken Burch
Jun 2014
#305
I don't need to. Read history for yourself for once...and not just the approved corporate version.
Ken Burch
Jun 2014
#307
History? What you've giving is more like 'alternate history' - an exercise in what ifs.
wyldwolf
Jun 2014
#308
I think you know that this country, at least the lower classes, will not survive 8 more years
rhett o rick
May 2014
#188
Apparantly, former independent and one-time GOP supporter Elizabeth Warren thinks Hillary should run
Algernon Moncrieff
May 2014
#213
Not how politics works. Candidates are Party Centric for Primaries, Nation Centric for Generals. nt
TheBlackAdder
May 2014
#228
I think you are trying to hard to make an argument based on a "correlation/causality" premise.
phleshdef
May 2014
#273
Was George McGovern a centrist or Michael Dukakis? Gee, I can pick any decade to fit a premise
lostincalifornia
May 2014
#277
McGovern wasn't a centrist but a campaign run against the Nixon dirty tricks team
Ken Burch
May 2014
#278
That was my point, McGovern was a liberal and lost big time regardless of nixon's dirty tricks
lostincalifornia
May 2014
#283
My point was at that time a liberal was not going to win, and yes I am proud to say I voted for
lostincalifornia
May 2014
#284
Two of those three losses were caused by factors entirely beyond anyone's control
Hippo_Tron
May 2014
#280