[lbo-talk] Nader, et al

Michael Smith mjs at smithbowen.net
Tue Aug 7 10:22:21 PDT 2007


On 08/07/07 12:50:32 PM, Doug Henwood wrote:
>
> On Aug 7, 2007, at 11:44 AM, Michael Smith wrote:
>
> > The fact that they never get
> > sanctioned for breaking from what the party supposedly advocates
> > suggests to me that, far from contravening the actual will of the
> > party, the aisle-crossers in fact *represent* the actual will of the
> > party
>
> Do you have any sense of political geography? A lot of the new crop
> of Dems elected last November came from conservative districts whose
> voters were fed up with Bush, but think Nancy Pelosi is some sort of
> Bolshie.

But... but... doesn't this rather undercut your insistence on the difference between the two parties? You laid a lot of stress on the fact that some, or even many, Democratic officeholders express mildly liberal sentiments. And of course you're right, there are such. But if the "swing" legislators were elected to be Bush-lite -- then the liberalism of the Kennedys et al. is just decoration, isn't it? Which was sorta my point, except that I think the legislators are responding to their donors rather than their constituents.



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