I just had a conversation with a good friend (he lives in Virginia) who's a political independent, pretty much right down the middle (the last few years has been trending Democratic; before that had been trending Republican; not sure where he'll be in 2010). I think it's highly revealing of a broader mindset out there, so I thought I'd share.My friend began the conversation by commenting that the Democratic Party had moved too far to the left and that it needed to be more "moderate" or "centrist." He further added that he can't stand extremists on the "left" or the "right." OK, I said, so give me some specific examples of where the Democratic Party has moved to the "left?" Also, I asked, please tell me how the Democratic Party has in any way, shape or form moved to the left from what every single one of its presidential candidates espoused during the 2007/2008 election cycle on a variety of fronts: reform that provides high-quality, affordable health care to all Americans; strong action on climate change and clean energy; ending "Don't Ask Don't Tell;" ending the war in Iraq; closing Gitmo; pushing for comprehensive immigration reform; putting an end to waterboarding and other forms of torture; etc., etc. Finally, explain to me how there's an equivalency between the angry, organized, demagogue-fueled right-wing/"tea party" populist uprising on the one hand and anything happening on the left?
The answers from my friend? First off, he couldn't name one area where the Democrats had moved to the left since the 2007/2008 election. In fact, the more we talked, it turns out that the Democratic Party has moved to the right in many ways. Examples: the war in Iraq continues; "Don't Ask Don't Tell" hasn't been ended; Gitmo hasn't been closed; Democrats have participated in bailing out big capitalists on Wall Street, in Detroit (the auto industry), etc; Democrats have not (yet) taken strong climate/clean energy action; Democrats have backed off the strongest forms of health care reform, such as single payer or even a truly robust public option (without an "opt out" or "triggers"); there's been essentially zero movement on comprehensive immigration reform; the policy of torture has been "mended not ended"...we could go on all day. And my independent friend acknowledged all this.
Second, after we talked about the 24/7 drumbeat of demagoguery, lies, scare tactics, outrageously offensive rhetoric and imagery (e.g., comparing health care reform to the Nazi concentration camps by showing photos of victims - and not getting any condemnation from Eric Cantor and John Boehner); etc. coming from the right wing (Beck, Limbaugh, Bachmann, Hannity, O'Reilly, Palin, Boehner, Cantor, etc., etc.) and what we've gotten from the left (blogging, Maddow and Olbermann, not much else), my politically independent friend acknowledged that, yeah, there's really no left-wing equivalent to what we're seeing on the right (an angry, quasi-organized populist uprising). And, by the way, my friend - a wealthy white male/military veteran in his 60s - absolutely despises Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, et al. He also hates Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann, but I think I've gotten him to the point of acknowledging that there's not even close to an equivalency between the power and reach (and vehemence and lies) of the Becks/Limbaughs on the one hand and the Maddows/Olbermanns on the other.
Finally, getting back to the core argument that "Democrats need to move to the moderate center," my politically independent friend finally said, "you know what, I agree with you, it's not about being more 'moderate', it's a communication issue." And to that, I agree in the sense that what we've gotten from the Democrats is a cacophony of voices ("herding cats"), whereas on the Republican side we've gotten a near lockstep/monoculture of "government's going to take over health care" and "government's going to "cap and tax you to death" messaging.
Anyway, that was my conversation with a political independent who started off by saying the Democrats had moved "too far to the left," but when challenged to provide specific examples of where that's the case, eventually conceded that it simply wasn't the case. Have any of you had similar conversations recently? If so, I'd be interested in hearing about them.
P.S. On two other fronts, my friend believes it's time to get out of Afghanistan and that we need to "stop worrying about being PC" and do more "profiling" to catch people like the Fort Hood shooter. As I said, he's an independent - and a feisty one at that! :)
