Opinion piece on US political parties

[jimbogumbo]

Even mahagonny will like this one: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/02/15/both-parties-extreme-ideas-repel-center-matt-bai/

[marshwiggle]

Even mahagonny will like this one: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/02/15/both-parties-extreme-ideas-repel-center-matt-bai/

Great piece. I like this:

This is about the point where some (most likely some in my own business) will scream: "Both sidesism!" That's the now-cliche argument that any criticism of Democrats whatsoever must be some kind of journalistic reflex to equate the parties, when clearly one is worse than the other.

One is worse than the other. But that doesn't mean we have to feel jazzed about supporting a party that would grade our worthiness as people on a sliding scale of identity. It doesn't change the fact that the broad center of the American electorate — traditional conservatives and liberals both — no longer has a political home.

And while the specifics are American, some of the basic principles unfortunately apply in other places as well.

[dismalist]

It doesn't change the fact that the broad center of the American electorate — traditional conservatives and liberals both — no longer has a political home.

It sure looks that way. But it could well be that there are few traditional conservatives and liberals left! Then it wouldn't pay either party to move toward the center, for they would risk losing more votes than they could gain that way.

And the parties are certainly responding to that in other ways. The Democrats are no longer clearly the supporters of the white working class, which has some overlap with traditional liberals and/or conservatives. Instead, they are fashioning a new minimum winning coalition through identity politics, and seeking new voters [16 year olds], all without as many working class whites. These voters have a new home with the Republicans.

It's not the politicians doing this, it's us.

[mahagonny]

It doesn't change the fact that the broad center of the American electorate — traditional conservatives and liberals both — no longer has a political home.

It sure looks that way. But it could well be that there are few traditional conservatives and liberals left! Then it wouldn't pay either party to move toward the center, for they would risk losing more votes than they could gain that way.

And the parties are certainly responding to that in other ways. The Democrats are no longer clearly the supporters of the white working class, which has some overlap with traditional liberals and/or conservatives. Instead, they are fashioning a new minimum winning coalition through identity politics, and seeking new voters [16 year olds], all without as many working class whites. These voters have a new home with the Republicans.

It's not the politicians doing this, it's us.

The democrats are losing black and Latino folks too.
My two cents: democrats having been giving the appearance of winning the debate, but they haven't won the hearts of the electorate. As a result, we've got policies emerging as a consequence of the debate having been won by the democrats that the public hates. Radicalized K-12 public education, city district attorneys who won't prosecute street crime and no southern border (both equally unpopular).
The reason they appear to win the debate for the last 8, 10 years is any rebuttal to their ideas is cast as racism. This has long history. Every white republican since Ronald Reagan has been called racist by the left. If you follow the public debate, it may appear that Americans have accepted that our nation is so racist we need drastic action to rectify it (if that's even possible by now). But according to polls people not only don't believe this, they're getting damned tired of it.
Since the cries about racism haven't helped anyone, the democratic party needs more racism.
Haven't seen the article. I'm too miserly to pay.
The stage is set for black conservatives to change the conversation.

[dismalist]

On another blog/board I came across a link to a paper put out by the Progressive Policy Institute, not right wing extremists, as far as I can tell, analyzing the state of the Democratic Party in 1989, in the wake of the Dukakis defeat. It is a bit long, but almost entirely factual. It pays to study it, for, to me, it looks like nothing has changed with the party, to put it mildly.

https://www.progressivepolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Politics_of_Evasion.pdf

Just to suggest the flavor, from the conclusions:

The Democratic Party must choose between two basic strategies. The first is to hunker down,
change nothing, and wait for some catastrophe deep recession, failed war, or a breach of the
Constitution -- to deliver victory. This strategy has the disadvantage of placing the party entirely at
the mercy of events. It puts the party in the position of tacitly hoping for bad news -- a stance the
electorate can smell and doesn't like. And it is a formula for purposeless, ineffective governance.
The other strategy, active rather than passive, is to address the party's weaknesses directly. Thus
the next nominee must be fully credible as commander-in-chief of our armed forces and as the
prime steward of our foreign policy; he must squarely reflect the moral sentiments of average
Americans; and he must offer a progressive economic message, based on the values of upward
mobility and individual effort, that can unite the interests of those already in the middle class with
those snuggling to get there.

[apl68]

It doesn't change the fact that the broad center of the American electorate — traditional conservatives and liberals both — no longer has a political home.

It sure looks that way. But it could well be that there are few traditional conservatives and liberals left! Then it wouldn't pay either party to move toward the center, for they would risk losing more votes than they could gain that way.

And the parties are certainly responding to that in other ways. The Democrats are no longer clearly the supporters of the white working class, which has some overlap with traditional liberals and/or conservatives. Instead, they are fashioning a new minimum winning coalition through identity politics, and seeking new voters [16 year olds], all without as many working class whites. These voters have a new home with the Republicans.

It's not the politicians doing this, it's us.

Depending on how you define "traditional conservatives and liberals" I'd say that they are probably far less numerous now.  But I think the majority of voters still have more in common with those older types than the people pulling both parties in their respective directions seem to think.  Part of the problem is that extremist fear-mongering is driving many people to support candidates more extreme than they'd really like, for fear of letting the extremes in the other party take over.

[dismalist]

It doesn't change the fact that the broad center of the American electorate — traditional conservatives and liberals both — no longer has a political home.

It sure looks that way. But it could well be that there are few traditional conservatives and liberals left! Then it wouldn't pay either party to move toward the center, for they would risk losing more votes than they could gain that way.

And the parties are certainly responding to that in other ways. The Democrats are no longer clearly the supporters of the white working class, which has some overlap with traditional liberals and/or conservatives. Instead, they are fashioning a new minimum winning coalition through identity politics, and seeking new voters [16 year olds], all without as many working class whites. These voters have a new home with the Republicans.

It's not the politicians doing this, it's us.

Depending on how you define "traditional conservatives and liberals" I'd say that they are probably far less numerous now.  But I think the majority of voters still have more in common with those older types than the people pulling both parties in their respective directions seem to think.  Part of the problem is that extremist fear-mongering is driving many people to support candidates more extreme than they'd really like, for fear of letting the extremes in the other party take over.

The paper https://www.progressivepolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Politics_of_Evasion.pdf says something about the Democratic Party losing parts of the middle class.

Extremist fear mongering apparently doesn't get the votes.

[marshwiggle]

The paper https://www.progressivepolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Politics_of_Evasion.pdf says something about the Democratic Party losing parts of the middle class.

Extremist fear mongering apparently doesn't get the votes.

Because the electorate are smart enough to recognize one-sided arguments when they hear them.