That’s pretty much what I think. However, assuming that the Democrats take big hits in the House and Senate in November, the political conventional wisdom will be that it was because Obama’s and his party’s policies were far too liberal for the American public.
And where exactly is this “left-progressive wing” you speak of? I have yet to see any significant left-wing equivalent of the Tea Party holding large public rallies and constantly prodding the Administration and Congress from the left. Also, who could viably challenge Obama from the left? The situation in the Democratic Party is not like 1979 when liberals could turn to Ted Kennedy or even Jerry Brown when they became with disappointed by Carter’s ineffectualness.
No, it isn’t. The highest-profile progressive in the Democratic Party is Dennis Kucinich (Bernie Sanders being an independent). And there’s the Congressional Progressive Caucus (all Dems save Sanders). But, really, the left-progressive faction of politically interested Americans is sort of half in the party, half out of it (Greens, Socialists, Ralph Nader, unorganized lefties, etc.).
However, taking that into account, there are a lot more of them than you might think. In the Pew Political Typology, they would be included under the heading of “Liberal” (although they probably don’t make up that whole group) – 17% of population, 19% of registered voters – a group that nearly doubled between 1999 and 2005. (The next update of the study, BTW, is to be done at the end of this year and released early 2011.) The Disadvantaged Democrats are 10%/10%, and while they might have an old-fashioned social outlook they probably can be relied on to take that left-progressive side on economic issues. And I think the left-progressives have the best chance in the long run of picking up the Disaffected vote, if not the Bystander vote.
So this is what you thought in 2006 and 2008? Do you really believe that the political “center”, if you will, moves so dramatically in such a short time period?
I guess if you suppose that people truly vote predominantly based on political ideology that might make sense. But even then it seems very odd that folks ideologies change so dramatically so quickly. Seem rather more likely that outside of the 25-30% on each end the center doesn’t give two shits about political philosophy and just votes based on how the country is doing, and which party is in control.
No. The Obama WH been center-right on domestic issues and continued Bush’s far-right foreign policy. So, to say that he is too far left would be absurd, since he is not even left of center.
As for what the populace thinks, I would say that, *despite *an enormous propaganda campaign by the right-wing, most Americans still do not consider Obama too far left. Now, the Democrats may lose the House, and that would indicate a (well-justified) disgust with most of the party. But note that people’s opinions of Democrats are rock bottom and even lower for Republicans.
There is only two ways the country can go in the next few years. Toward truly radical reform of our socioeconomic structure, or a descent into all out fascism. The Glenn Becks are doing their best to stretch the Overton Window in their preferred direction.
Why? When the Democrats made big gains in 2006 and 2008, was there any talk that the Republicans’ policies were too conservative? Has there been any effort or suggestion that they moderate their views more toward the center? If anything, they’ve moved to the right, digging their foxholes a little deeper and yelling a little louder; but it’s the same message they’ve been campaigning on for my whole life.
I hope it isn’t snarky to ask the relative rare clueful Dopers to include an appropriate emoticon when posting satire. (For those not in on the joke, Nixon’s plan, rejected by Demos 36 years ago as not-liberal-enough, was much more liberal than the plan now rejected by almost the entire GOP as too liberal! Even in the 1990’s GOP was proposing plans at least as liberal as this one.)
OP’s question itself is too flawed to bother answering…
Woosh! Dang, and I thought I had a perfectly operational irony meter.
SanDiegoTim: You appear to have some misconceptions about US politics. Elections swing to a large extent on the basis of the economy, incumbency and a standard midterm loss by the governing party. This has been shown statistically by Ray Fair and others. The stuff they jabber about on TV might swing the vote by a couple percentage points. It’s kind of sad, but unfortunately most reporters shy away from numeracy.
Lest you be wary of liberal bias, here’s what The Economist has to say about Obama’s presidency. The Economist is considered a conservative magazine in Europe, though admittedly some argue that it is left of center in the US:
The idea that the Obama admin has been especially radical is silly. Conservatives trot this argument out during every Democratic Presidency since Roosevelt. There’s always a fat-cat backed movement that makes its way out of the woodwork purporting to be grass roots that consists of warmed over nativism, empty sentimentality about the consititution, and a motley collection of conspiracy theories. The Liberty League flourished under Roosevelt, John Kennedy was accused of treason(!) by the Birchers and Clinton was accused of causing about 60 people to die prematurely. Now it’s the Tea Party’s turn. Ugly, nutty stuff. Cite: Old Whine in New Bottles. Smart consumers of information learn to ID those who consistently make claims that fall apart under scrutiny.
It appears that the president, vice president, and a former Democratic presidential nominee agree with most of the posters to this thread (and its political siblings): anyone voting against the Dems has either been swayed by campaign slogans or they’re just too stupid to know what they’re doing.
The thing that remains certain is that liberals are always correct and there is no legitimate reason for dissenting political beliefs or points of view.
Nah, most of 'em can’t do that anymore (at least not without Viagra or Replens :D). Whether this is due to past drug use or the passing of the years is anyone’s guess, but these days the former mud-fuckers have either come to their senses and become more conservative, or they’re voting for Obama, et al. and looking down their noses at anyone who doesn’t share their views politically.
So we’re still back to where we started, which is that Democrats and liberals believe - and I think they believe it with all their heart and soul - that they are simply smarter than everyone else. This self-deceit would be not only laughable but tolerable if not for the fact that they are so quick to use their self-perceived superiority as the basis for hatred and insults toward anyone who disagrees with them.
How many conservatives were saying “We went too far to the right. We need to pull back to the center to win back the voters.” in 2008? No, the main line was “The voters rejected us because we didn’t follow our principles. We didn’t go far enough to the right.”
And that’s what liberals will say if they lose influence in 2012. (I say influence because I don’t feel liberals really have power. Obama is no liberal and has never claimed to be one.) The liberal wing will move further to the left.
This is the ugly truth of the modern Republican Party - they court the stupid vote.
Do you honestly think Barack Obama was born in Kenya? Of course not - you’re intelligent and no intelligent person would believe that. So why do people keep saying it - even people who are themselves smart enough to know it’s not true? Because they know that stupid people will believe stupid things. And the Republican Party has a policy of telling stupid people lies that will get them to vote Republican - Barack Obama was born in Kenya, gay people want to marry dogs, atheists want to abolish Christmas, Mexicans want to kill your family.
Democrats have their flaws. But at least they don’t pander to ignorance.
I mention this pair of truisms mainly because, for some reason, a lot of people seem to get it exactly backward, and I see it given as, “Liberals think conservatives are evil. Conservatives think liberals are stupid.”
Wow. That cite doesn’t say anything like what you claim it does. It’s an opinion piece, for one. Two, Obama called Republicans “irresponsible”, not stupid.
Maybe you will answer the question, since none of the other righties in the thread have. Did the GOP losses in 2006 and 2008 mean that the Republican party had gone too far to the right for the American people?