The reality - WE ARE IN THE MINORITY. We are ignored because we don't have the votes, period.

We see a lot of Liberal/left whining about the little attention-at least little positive attention-paid to us by the Administration, and by the center/right policies of the Admininstration and congress.
the reality is simple - there are not enough of us to made much difference to the Democrats. Their effort is more profitably spent courting the right and center and relying on enough of the left voting for them out of fear of the right or out of habit.
Here are the numbers- this is how US voters identify themselves as of June 2010:

Conservative - 40%
Moderate - 36%
Liberal - 22%

The administration goes where the numbers are and with 76% of voters moderate or conservative, that is where they will stay.

There simply are not enough of us. We do not matter. It is all politics and it is all numbers.

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_liberalism_in_the_United_States



"Fired up!"


mark

mark

As far as voting politics, the first 40 are extremely unlikely, far far far less likely to be successfully appealed to than "liberals".

So the real voting block that will elect Democrats will be the moderate and liberal. So, out of 58% indeed the moderate vote is the more important. But if you lose significant #s of either group we have big trouble.

These numbers still SCREAM "need to give more to the left". Because the Moderate group is likely already far more content.

You see that here. Do you think the moderates on this board are at risk? No, it is that 22% that is at risk.

Its like with people denying the unemployed jobs because they have bad credit, which in turn increases unemployment, which in turn decreases consumer spending, which in turn starves businesses for cash, which in turn makes their employees and owners unable to pay off debt, which in turn gives them bad credit which in turn keeps them from working making it all worse.

The reason to go left isn't about giving people what they want, its about being willing to define something really worth wanting and fighting for it. Its about getting folks excited for their country again with people centered ideas. If we are constantly running from that then we get in these loops where more and more people are leaning right, just because they have SOME product, SOME ideal they are fighting for.

Because such a stigma is place on the word itself, that there is a tendancy to call one's self moderate even if they are politically on the liberal spectrum.

Most every time I see a poll on "positions", the statistics seriously suggest the number who actually are positionally "liberal" is much higher than those who identify themselves with the label itself.

The Republicans did a heck of a job on the use of the word. It is a powerful phenominon.

Yeah, it'd make no sense to attempt to realign the political spectrum; its best to just play the game as its last setup and let the right wing worry about moving goal posts and realignment.

nt

granted, given what the Demcoratic Party should stand for, the line has been dropped

very low -- and that's the problem!

BRIBERY has done that - and it's too little discussed here and in most political

discussion --

Those who are deranged enough for vote for more Bush are either racist, sexist and/or

homophobic or know little about their stake in a people's government --

politics effects your life every moment of your life!

Blame me for my "defeatist" attitude, but the numbers are there.

Hope is great - politics is numbers.


mark

And that's really ironic, innit?

First, let's start with your numbers:
Conservative - 40%
Moderate - 36%
Liberal - 22%

Now I need to modify the words slightly:
Conservative (currently lock step NO) - 40%
Moderate (on some issues) - 36%
Liberal (on some issues) - 22%

Here's what happens .... let's take issue X. It does not matter what X is.

1) The "40% conservative" are currently AGAINST anything Obama does, claiming he goes too far.

2) The 22% liberal (on some issues) group splits on issue X. 11% decides that Obama is making progress on issue X and they SUPPORT him. The other 11% of that group decides that on issue X he is not doing enough, and so they are AGAINST him.

3) The 36% of moderates includes about 10% who follow the majority (plus the 2% who did not identify). The remaining 25% decides that Obama seems to be taking a middle path and so they SUPPORT him.

So where does that put you? You get this.

51% are AGAINST Obama on issue X (40% conservative 11% liberal).
37% SUPPORT Obama on issue X (25% moderates, 11% liberal on some issues)
10% are waiting to be told what to think. As are the 2% who did not pick a label, so 12%.

The media reports that 51% of Americans are AGAINST what Obama is trying to do, mainly because he is going too far, and that only 37% supports the direction he's going in. Let's assume the media does a bad sell job and the 12% of sheep splits evenly.

The final result as reported by all media ... 57% of Americans think Obama is going too far with on issue X, while only 43% agree with the direction he's taking. Why does Obama hate America??

And not the other 70%

Conservative, Moderate and Liberal have actually lost their meaning in today's politically charged America. The right wing has spent at least 30 years trying to demonize the word 'Liberal'.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OKWRGuaUis

the new meme