How many on the progressive wing of the Democratic party were duped by Putin?.

[Eko]

208. Of course you put words in my mouth.

Its right there for all to see. "It's the OP that brought up 2016 and I'm trying to get him to stop, since that year is in the past." You even admitted it "OK, I've assumed it was that election that you were referring to when you spoke of "The progressive wing of the Democratic Party" being duped. If that was a faulty assumption, then I apologize-but you'd have to admit it was a REASONABLE assumption." I can admit that could be a reasonable assumption, but it is an assumption and that is exactly part of the problem I am talking about.

As to how important the primary threads are I cant say, but what I can say is the mentality behind those are very important.

I'm sure many here would argue that just because someone ran for office for a different political party that doesn't make them not part of the progressive wing of the Democratic party, Bernie Sanders?

"It appears based on the verbal evidence I derive from the post you made prior to this post, that you believe all sitting Democratic incumbents should be guaranteed absolute freedom from a primary challenge"
And yet again you put words into my mouth. I talked only about one person, Pelosi, and the evidence leads you to believe that means all?

Mainstream Democratic= ones that don't call themselves progressive but can still be very progressive indeed.

"To what degree are those you would label as "Mainstream Democratic" entitled to lecture those you feel are not on the subject of wat is and what is not politically possible?" No one is entitled to lecture anyone.

To what degree should whoever it is you see as "Mainstream Democratic" be treated as "the natural leaders" of the Democratic Party?" The same as anyone else.

"What electoral advantage comes, in your view, from giving special deference to those you would label as "Mainstream Democratic" when the ideas such people tend to stick with are the ideas that lost us most presidential elections between 1952 and 2004?"
More than the progressives who lost all of those.

"Can you accept any political views that are even minutely more progressive than yours as being "Mainstream Democratic", or are all such views anathema and heresy?" Yes to the first part, no to the second.

"And why does it seem to be so much more important to you to lash out at "Progressive Democrats" than to offer constrctive thoughts on how we might unite the country's anti-Trump majority for electoral victory in 2018 and 2020?"
One persons constructive thoughts can be another's view they are lashing out, quite a few people think that saying our party platform needs to change and that is the reason we lost while discounting myriad other things that it could be as well as more people actually voted for us as lashing out.

"In closing, I'd like to ask this: Do you actually WANT the Democratic Party to make a comeback, or do you care mainly about making sure those to your left within this party are silenced and kept out of the loop? It's not really possible to achieve the former objective if you are focused on achieving the latter objective first. " What a stupid question, here, lets flip it, Do you actually WANT the Democratic Party to make a comeback, or do you care mainly about making sure that the party platform is what you want? It's not really possible to achieve the former objective if you are focused on achieving the latter objective first.