Nobodyspecial: Don't Vote Obama -- If you want some crazy-ass far-right extremist running the U.S.

[BzaDem]

62. There is a really easy answer to that.

Actual independent voters (who go back and forth between Republicans and Democrats) don't generally have to cede ground, because they have another viable choice on the ballot if the Democratic party doesn't cede ground. An actual independent actually prefers a Republican to sufficiently progressive Democrats.

Polls indicate that there are approximately 20% liberals, 35% conservatives, and 45% moderates. That means that a Democratic candidate has to win about 2/3 of the moderates and all of the liberals to win. If fewer liberals vote for the Democrat, then the Democrat has to move further to the right to get even more than 2/3 of the moderates, because the moderates that think the Democrat is too far to the left will happily prefer (and elect) a Republican.

So while hypothetically, a large block of liberals can end up effectively electing the Republican, they can't move the Democrat to the left. They can either go with the Democrat as-is (that gets the requisite moderate support), or go with the Republican. They can only move the country to the right -- not to the left.

The only way that is ever going to change is if the percentage of liberals increase and the percentages of conservatives and moderates decrease. That's it. As long as conservatives and moderates are both approximately twice as big as liberals, liberals will have little leverage. The way to get more progressive policy is to convince voters to vote for progressive candidates.