And, again, if you want to argue that Democrats ignore the will of the people, you need to identify which Democrats, and which people. That Blanche Lincoln or Bart Stupak ignore the will of Californians is hardly an indictment; that isn’t who they are supposed to represent.
Even taking Der Trihs’s claim about the disposition of the majority of the country with respect to single payer, it is a pretty safe bet that a majority of voters in Nebraska, Louisiana, North Dakota, Arkansas, and Montana are against it.
What you’ve gotta understand is that the Democratic Party & Republican Party are, historically, historical legacy parties. The GOP would love you to believe the Dems are more ideological than they are, but in fact neither party has traditionally been run for ideological consistency.
The GOP are, in much of the country, very strongly associated with the “conservative movement” but the Dems are not so strongly associated with “liberalism.” You can vote for a Dem & get a conservative, or someone who’s almost a conservative on major issues. And then there’s the question of what liberalism means. Conservatism, at least, can be boiled back to, “Don’t make changes, just hold on to what you’ve got.” There is no mass movement to change everything, or even most things, in an agreed-upon way. Reformers are necessarily diffuse; when the GOP tries a reform (remember privatizing Social Security?) they often fail as well.
So if there were 65 Dem Senators, & ~50 of them were self-described progressives; there’d still be differences of opinion on how to organize the agenda, & what actually needs changed & what doesn’t, & what changes to make. It would still be slow going.
None of which is any great reason to vote for conservatives; since most progressives are conservative about something, it’s arguably more useful to vote in liberals who will act as moderating forces on each other. The legislature will be moderately progressive in effect, & able to change course without dominance by hardline conservatives.
And there’s no excuse here to put Boehner in the Speaker’s chair. He hasn’t earned that; not with his refusal to compromise in an economic crisis. He’s a game player, more brinksman than statesman, & he should be left to cry in a corner.
I must say that sounds about right. So this means that liberals in this country are pretty much f@#ked, no matter how you slice it. Even West Coast states like California and Oregon have some of their liberal laws superseded by federal law. No wonder Der Trihs is so disillusioned.
People are fond of blaming politicians for not getting stuff done. But we’re the onse who vote those people in. You’re not going to change the politicians without changing the electorate.