Reply #27: Who do you think is "the base" of the Democratic party?

[MH1]

Hint: If you think it is the ultra-left, you are wrong - at least in my area.

I would define "the base" as those who knock on doors, make phone calls, get sigs on ballot petitions, etc.

Many, many of those people that I know, are not as unhappy with middle-of-the-road positions as you might want to think.

They only oppose the PATRIOT Act bacause they've heard it's bad. If instead you discuss how the PATRIOT Act allows different agencies to share information and therefore make us "safer", you get a different reaction. Throw into the mix that the version just passed eliminates most of the privacy concerns, and people just aren't getting worked up about it.

As for convictions, whose convictions are you wanting them to stand by - theirs, their constituents' - or yours?

I personally have no doubt that many of our Democratic leaders stand by their convictions - and their constituents - as much as possible in the effed-up compromise world of politics. (Every bill has good and bad points. You have to decide whether getting the good stuff outweighs living with the bad, knowing that there is no other way to get the good.) Also, remember that they are supposed to be representatives for their constituents. Thus someone like Kerry who personally opposes abortion but won't support making it illegal.

As for "distancing" from Murtha, I'm not sure what you are talking about. Of course I pay more attention to Kerry than most of the other Dem politicians, and Kerry has come out strongly in support of Murtha on multiple occasions (although his own plan for Iraq, offered a few weeks before Murtha made headlines, is slightly different). If others are doing differently, I'm sorry to hear that, but for example I wouldn't expect a Joe Lieberman to support Murtha's position on Iraq - that would be going against Lieberman's convictions, for sure. Of course even Lieberman should denounce the smear tactics the republocans are using against Murtha, but I don't know whether he has.