Far Left Irritated at Hillary's DLC Appearance
NOTE: Joe and I managed to post on the same topic at the same time, but there's enough to talk about here that we're leaving both posts up.
If there’s one thing liberal Democrats such as the folks at Daily Kos hate more than Republicans, it’s Centrist Democrats. So, not surprisingly, Kos had some vitriolic words to say about the recent DLC annual meeting where Centrist Democrats gathered and laid out what I thought was a very reasonable and smart platform.
What makes the Kos post interesting is that it condemns Hilary Clinton for attending the DLC meeting. If Clinton really is a Centrist (or is at least committed to portraying herself as one), upsetting liberals like Kos is a great step in the right direction. There is no way that a Centrist Democrat can be a true Centrist and still pander to the far left.
Best case scenario for the Democrats is that the far left realizes they have no home with the Democrats and go start their own party. While folks like Kos will spend their time shocked at how few Americans follow them, the Democrats can go about winning over the broad middle. Can Hillary lead the way or at least speed the process along? We’ll see.
posted by Alan Stewart Carl @ 10:48 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Oddly enough, I also posted about the same basic thing (I must have been putting mine together when you and Joe were posting) and got blasted for daring to speak out against Kos. My entire point was that the Demos are going to have to find a good moderate candidate in order to win in 2008. If it ends up being Hillary or Evan Bayh or who knows who and that infuriates the progressives, then I'm not going to feel sorry for them. The progressives had two turns up at bat and struck out both times. It may be time to just get on base instead of trying to go for the home run.
Robert,
Yeah, heaven-forbid you criticize the Great Kos. ; )
This is nothing new for the Dems. After the disaster of McGovern they had to regroup and go Centrist with Carter (who WAS a Centrist when he ran, despite his liberal rep these days). Then they made the Mondale, then Dukakis blunders and had to regroup and go with the Centrist (Center-left) Clinton.
In fact, the Dems haven't been able to elect anyone who might be considered a true liberal since Johnson, and even he was a tough-ass liberal. There just aren't enough true liberals in America, although I think there are still a lot of center-left folks. Which is why a strong Centrist Democrat is about the only kind of Dem who can win a national election, in my opinion.
Post a Comment
<< Home