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Hillarysworld -> The Democratic Party -> Losing the Middle: Democrats' Discontent (Real Clear Politics 8/27/10)
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TOPIC: Losing the Middle: Democrats' Discontent (Real Clear Politics 8/27/10)
Jen the Michigander


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Losing the Middle: Democrats' Discontent (Real Clear Politics 8/27/10)
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http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2010/08/27/losing_the_middle_democrats_discontent.html

Through Pres. Barack Obama's alchemy, these temporarily enlarged congressional numbers were supposed to be transformed into a permanent realignment. It hasn't worked out, obviously. In the past 20 months, Democrats have had the power to do almost everything they want, except command the allegiance of the public. That has made them and their allies feel embattled, isolated, and perpetually aggrieved. They act like a forlorn minority at the same time they control every lever of elective power in Washington.

The ultimate source of the Democrats' discontent is quite simple: They've lost independents. In 1994, in taking Congress, Republicans won independents by 14 percentage points. In 2006, in taking it back, Democrats won independents by 18 points. In the latest Gallup survey, Republicans lead among independents by 11 points, a trend that puts at risk Nancy Pelosi's misbegotten speakership.

Since 1992, according to Gallup, ideological opinion has been roughly constant: Self-described moderates have been 40 percent or a little lower; conservatives in the high 30s (although they've spiked to 42 lately); liberals in the high teens to low 20s. Both sides need the center, but especially liberals. It'd be rank foolishness to try to govern on the strength of only one in five people. But such has been the Obama-Pelosi project - with unsurprising results.

The Pollster.com average of Obama's approval rating among independents is a dismal 37.9 percent. This meltdown should have launched a thousand agonized liberal op-eds, conferences, and strategy papers on how to win back the center. If, that is, liberalism had any realistic sense of its limits. In the midst of a catastrophic loss of the middle, Obama's supporters exhort him to get more angry, insistent, and ambitiously liberal. Having already pushed for a bridge too far, they want to go farther still. When they can't, they conclude that it's a damning indictment of Obama's failure of nerve and the nation's ungovernability.

There's little acknowledgment that the country is in a different place than they are. To the extent there is, so much the worse for the country, which is condemned for its backwardness and intolerance. The majority is not just wrong on immigration enforcement and the Ground Zero mosque, it's contemptible. Who knew that the American public would get accused of bigotry more often after electing an African-American president than before?

As former Bush speechwriter Peter Wehner writes, liberals "are expressing deepening alienation from our nation and turning on the American people with a vengeance." They thought they had a mandate from heaven in 2008, and can't bear the thought that they deluded themselves. They've gone from triumphalism to a petulant and uncomprehending tantrum in less than two years. The rump majority looks more exhausted by the day.

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greenleaf


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Fantastic article!

As an independent, I'm amazed by the attitude of the liberal Dems.

As a former Dem, I haven't been able to figure out what they are thinking. no

Lowry provides some insight.

-- Edited by greenleaf on Sunday 29th of August 2010 08:50:55 AM

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Sanders


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Terrific article!

They thought they had a mandate from heaven in 2008, and can't bear the thought that they deluded themselves.

LOL yep!  The halos are disappearing and the tubelights are coming on. There is no messiah.  Words are not enough.  Campaigning expertise does not translate to governing from the WH.

And, yes, they did have a mandate in 2008, and the mandate was from the PEOPLE.  And, they forgot about Democracy.

While they have "lost" the middle, the middle remains unaligned for the most part. I just hope good people who are centrists, and unaffiliated with any party, show up on ballots as independent candidate. Yes, it is hard and takes money and a lot of signatures to get to that point, but it is doable.  And, I hope that happens in many elections this year.

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freespirit


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I agree - excellent analysis.

This is what makes no sense.

In the midst of a catastrophic loss of the middle, Obama's supporters exhort him to get more angry, insistent, and ambitiously liberal.

Obama's supporters do just that.  They keep pushing for more liberal action.  From whom, other than themselves (all "fewer than 20%" of them) do they think suppport for such action shall arise? 

And, Obama, himself, as we've seen in recent articles, seems to either not know or not care that the rest of the country is not on board with the policies he is pushing. 

Obama and the Obamacrats must not get that O ain't goin' back into office in 2012 by embracing an ultra-left agenda.  Either they don't get it; they don't care (which I find hard to believe); or they have even more tricks up their sleeves than they did in 2008. I sure as hell wouldn't be surprised if it's option number 3.  They've probably been working overtime, renting buses to drive the Obamakids all over the country to vote in every state.  Or, they may be lining up a few thugs to stand guard at the polling places - waving the opponent's voters away with clubs.  Maybe they know something we don't. 



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