General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Democrats should be wooing progressives, not scolding them. [View all]jeff47
(26,549 posts)It's amusing how many "pragmatic" people turn away from what has actually won recent elections, instead insisting we do what has lost over and over again recently. It isn't 1992 anymore.
2006, 2008, 2012 - "Hope and change". AKA, turn away from centrism. Yeah, Obama didn't live up to his campaign theme. The reasons as to why can be debated for centuries.
2014, 2010, 2004, 2002, 2000 - "Republican lite". Democrats lost.
Someone who was actually pragmatic might notice all those failures, and realize that winning requires a different strategy. Especially when polling shows that "the vast middle" does not actually exist, and cross-party-line voting almost never happens now. They might also notice that polling shows massive support for a whole lot of "crazy liberal" ideas.
Someone who's an ideologue and refuses to compromise might insist that centrism is the only way to win. The ideology wasn't wrong, Gore, Kerry, Coakley, Grimes, Landreau, Hagan and so many others failed the ideology.