Moderate Democrats Flex Their Power In The Senate, Making Progressives Impatient

[Chris]

Left-leaning NPR with a fairly honest (non-racist/race-baiting) look at moderates in the Democratic Party.

Moderate Democrats Flex Their Power In The Senate, Making Progressives Impatient

Democrats who hoped that narrow control in Washington, D.C., would lead to a rush of votes to approve new progressive policies are facing a major roadblock — moderates in their own party.

Moderate Senate Democrats from Republican-leaning states and swing states are flexing the power that comes along with a 50-50 Senate, where every vote has the potential to make or break a bill.

Members of the small-but-mighty group worked this week with a handful of Republicans to reach an agreement on a $1.2 trillion infrastructure framework. Earlier this year, they won concessions in President Biden's $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package. And they stand as gatekeepers on the path for other major progressive priorities like voting rights legislation, immigration and possibly even infrastructure....

These include Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz, West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., and Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H, Sens. Jon Tester, D-Mont., Chris Coons, D-Del., Tom Carper, D-Del., and Angus King, I-Vt.

[Chris]

NPR still suffers the erroneous belief the left is actully that strong.

The left is not America’s new majority

The leftist tail is wagging the American dog. Whether the left are proportionally larger than previously in America’s history is doubtful; that they have never had more influence is undeniable.

The left are enjoying a unique coincidence of circumstances that is greatly magnifying their political impact, while the rest of America — especially its moderates — are too preoccupied to complain.

...Despite the left appearing to be America’s new majority, the left are a small minority. Exit polling from 2020’s presidential election found just 24 percent of voters self-identified as liberal. Even if all these voters were the radical left, which they are not, they would be just a quarter of America’s electorate.

That every liberal voter is not a leftist supporter is indicated by the fact that 10 percent of liberals voted for Donald Trump in 2020. Subtracting these out lowers the possible leftist ceiling to just 21.6 percent of America’s voters. It is safe to assume that even within this roughly one-fifth of the electorate there is opposition to the radical left. It is therefore plausible that the radical left are outnumbered by over four to one in America.

Although not predominant in the population, the left are in the establishment media....

[MMC]

The left are enjoying a unique coincidence of circumstances that is greatly magnifying their political impact,....snip~


Hence the Lame Stream Media! The problem that needs solving. ASAP!

[DGUtley]

Left-leaning NPR with a fairly honest (non-racist/race-baiting) look at moderates in the Democratic Party.
Moderate Democrats Flex Their Power In The Senate, Making Progressives Impatient



These include Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz, West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., and Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H, Sens. Jon Tester, D-Mont., Chris Coons, D-Del., Tom Carper, D-Del., and Angus King, I-Vt.

I met with my broker Wednesday night. While he described the insanity of the AOC Type D's tax dreams he did say basically the same thing in terms of the moderates holding the line.

[countryboy]

Left-leaning NPR with a fairly honest (non-racist/race-baiting) look at moderates in the Democratic Party.

Moderate Democrats Flex Their Power In The Senate, Making Progressives Impatient



These include Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz, West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., and Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H, Sens. Jon Tester, D-Mont., Chris Coons, D-Del., Tom Carper, D-Del., and Angus King, I-Vt.

1.2 trillion? Republicans are being played for the fools they are.

[Standing Wolf]

...Despite the left appearing to be America’s new majority, the left are a small minority. Exit polling from 2020’s presidential election found just 24 percent of voters self-identified as liberal. Even if all these voters were the radical left, which they are not, they would be just a quarter of America’s electorate.

That every liberal voter is not a leftist supporter is indicated by the fact that 10 percent of liberals voted for Donald Trump in 2020. Subtracting these out lowers the possible leftist ceiling to just 21.6 percent of America’s voters. It is safe to assume that even within this roughly one-fifth of the electorate there is opposition to the radical left. It is therefore plausible that the radical left are outnumbered by over four to one in America.

I've been trying to get the point across on this board for years that not all Democrats, in fact not all liberal Democrats, are supportive of the more radical aspects of the progressive agenda, and I've been told I was wrong. When I reported that Arizona's two Democratic Senators, Sinema and Kelly, were moderates, I was called a liar.

That less than a quarter of exiting voters in 2020 identified as "liberals" says far less about the actual views of voters than it does about the effect of decades of Rightist opprobrium that has been heaped on that term. A great number of those who refused the label of "liberal", because of what the word has come to mean in a large part of the public imagination, undoubtedly hold opinions that would immediately get them so labeled by the average self-identified conservative. In other words, just because someone rejects the "liberal" label doesn't mean that their opinions are necessarily "conservative".

[DGUtley]

Just because someone is conservative on some things doesn't necessarily mean that they are conservative on all things.

[Standing Wolf]

Just because someone is conservative on some things doesn't necessarily mean that they are conservative on all things.

No truer words were ever spoken. One could, if they were in a mood to be reasonable, say the same thing with the term "liberal" being substituted for "conservative". That is one of the major reasons why the use of those two words, especially in the context of a forum like this one, actually creates so much confusion and misunderstanding. Personally, I have gotten to the point where I tend to view things - policies, proposals, beliefs, agendas, etc. - as being either reasonable or unreasonable, regardless of how they are labeled by others.

To your statement of fact, above, DG, I would simply append the thought that not every "conservative" view is necessarily or objectively conservative...and that however conservative a conservative may believe his or her views to be, there are always going to be other self-identified conservatives who don't consider that person to be a "true conservative" at all. And of course the same applies to those who, while themselves identifying as "liberals", are just not liberal enough in the eyes of some.

[Chris]

Just because someone is conservative on some things doesn't necessarily mean that they are conservative on all things.

One is conservative, or liberal, right or left, not on the positions they take but the reasoning they employ to arrive at those opinions.

[Standing Wolf]

One is conservative, or liberal, right or left, not on the positions they take but the reasoning they employ to arrive at those opinions.

Sometimes that contention is supportable, and at other times - not so much. Take the notion, advanced by many, that "conservative" thinking prioritizes the rights of the individual over the perceived welfare of the general populace, while "liberal" thinking does the opposite. That analysis may hold true in some instances...but it fails when one considers situations and scenarios where the standard conservative position places, for example, society's "right" to prohibit same-sex marriage ahead of an individual's claim to equal treatment under the law, and the typical liberal position is to reverse that prioritization.