Who's more important to the Democrats - liberals or moderates?

[Drunken Irishman]

Answer: Both are equally important.

Democrats can't win with liberal support alone and they certainly won't win without liberals.

This is the tightrope every successful party has to walk during election season. If you stray too far in either direction, you alienate a good chunk of your support.

Liberals aren't the only 'base' this party has. It's also moderate Democrats - who came into the fold during the Roosevelt administration.

I wish the left here on DU would understand this. They want the party to go left. Okay. Well show me how we make up the moderates we'll inevitably lose with a move like that.

'Course, they believe the party is right of center. I disagree. I think Pres. Obama is a pragmatic liberal. He understands you can't stray too far in either direction or you'll fall off the political cliff.

Basically, I guess he's damned if he does, damned if he doesn't.

A good number of Americans think he's too liberal. Another portion thinks he's not liberal enough.

How he reconciles this will determine how well he and the Democrats do in November and beyond. I think he will and has - as polls suggest he still has strong approval among the left and the moderate voters. However, right now, it seems there is an identity crisis.

[Kaleva]

1. Nobody bitches when one isn't doing anything.

When a small segment of liberals and almost all Republicans are raising hell about Obama, then he's most likely doing what he ought to be doing.

[JI7]

2. but there are also those who claim to be liberal but aren't

they most likely did not vote for Obama . either Republican trolls or people who enjoy complaining about everything and think they are better.

remember that even during the election they were on here. the ones who are attacking Obama and the Democratic Party have been doing it for years.

2000 was when i first dealt with these people. i have learned that they really don't want progress.

i also hate how they claim people are attacking them for being liberal if they disagree with them on anything. as if they own the liberal label. fucking asses.

i really hate them as i suspect many of them to be freepers.

one was tombstoned recently.

[Cary]

4. It would be very cool if someone did some kind of sociological study

to explain what is going on here. Your theory is as good as any. Personally I don't understand how this has happened.

[Cary]

3. How convenient is it that the alleged discord and discontent

dovetails with the alleged "conservative" strategy? "Conservatives" threw all kinds of shit against the wall to see if any of it would stick, and even created an astroturf movement for this very purpose.

The whole deal smells. If the discord and discontent is real then some people are profoundly stupid for buying into this garbage. I too have a hard time believing they're bona fide liberals.

I am a liberal. There is very little of the liberal platform that I don't buy into but I consider myself to be a moderate because I don't expect everything at once. I'm pretty sure that President Obama's perspective is virtually identical to my own.

[get the red out]

5. That's what the Republicans have to fight with

Discord, and the reason is that they have pandered to what they perceive as their very radical base to the point that more moderate Republicans don't recognize their party anymore. A life-long Republican friend of mine said her party is now just a bunch of religious fanatics, she is also a very strong Obama supporter. The Republicans have discord to fight with because they have done what some "self-described" liberals are attempting to do, run off anyone with the slightest disagreement with even the timing of their agenda, purity tests! I wish liberals wouldn't fall for it.

[NJmaverick]

6. A little tolerance would go a long way toward solving the problems

but so many people are unwilling to give an inch or bend a little. It's the big tent party with many people trying to declare themselves king or queen of the tent.

[treestar]

7. That's what I've been thinking, the center

is just as important. While they sneer at "centrists" the self righteous "progressives" seem to be saying they are somehow more important. They have to be "thrown a bone" and be rewarded for their alleged support. They're in it all just for themselves and are as bad as the RW about the "weakness" of compromise. In fact their going on about weakness is very right wing and what makes me suspect so many of them.

[graywarrior]

8. God damn indies

There's more of them than dems or repubs in MA. When you classify yourself as an independent, I take that to mean you are a republican.

[HughMoran]

9. Damn, I said "Both" as I clicked

..but you gave away the answer in the first line! :P

I agree with your assessment BTW - good post.

[dcsmart]

10. Dems should vote and campaign for Dems...

[ismnotwasm]

11. I've found that people in general tend to be moderate

But moderate Democrats are the ones who make things work in our current political system. I rarely say this, because it sounds kind of mean, but the Democratic political activists I've met haver either never heard of DU, or have heard that it's kind of loony tunes.

I've never considered myself a moderate, but I *AM* a realist, or pragmatic, whatever you want to call it. Now I am. However, I didn't vote for Democrats until 2000. I voted for socialists who had no chance of winning. I'll use another label example though. I'm a feminist. For a long time, I simply believed I was a liberal feminist. Suddenly, with no change of my personal ideology, I found I'm considered a radical feminist. Blew me away. Now, the same thing has happened with the political left, where I find I'm agreeing with moderates, in spirit, if not actual straight ideology. It's pendulum politics perhaps. (So I'm a radical feminist moderate Democrat? WTF?)

After GWB actually even MADE it to a presidential ticket, combined with the behavior of Repukes during the Clinton administration, and the shuddering evil memory of Ronald Reagan, I vowed never to waste another vote.

It's straight Dem all the way. Proud of it. I agree with you. President Obama is swimming in hostile political waters. As far as I'm concerned, for someone who was considered 'inexperienced' he's doing a damn good job.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

12. *1000