> ... As I argued earlier on this list, if someone run for a national office
> on a
> left-of-the center liberal or social democratic platform, he/she would
> get about 22% of the popular votes (if that) - as the survey results I
> posted seem to suggest. From that point of view, criticizing
> Democrats that they are not liberal enough is groundless - they know
> the sentiments of the great majority of the electorate and gauge their
> standing accordingly, while ignoring the tiny liberal minority. Doing
> otherwise is assured political suicide in this country.
Wow, you really accept what Americans say on tendentiously worded surveys as accurate portrayals of how they'd perform under seriously different conditions? Based on 20 years of teaching 18-30 year olds of seriously different income and status levels, I firmly believe that the majority of Americans are populists... they have little or no actual political consciousness beyond: "The local I know is - and places I believe to be like it are - good and the big and powerful people and interests outside of those places cause the problems those places have (or at least the problems not caused by the strange people over there.)" Such people can be swayed by right and left libertarians and right and left populists such that they are powerfully impacted by political marketing rather than political reflection or much conscious interrogation of their understanding of their interests (much less whether their xenophobia holds up to any scrutiny - any by scrutiny I don't mean comparison to what strangers are actually like but comparison to their experiences with folks an awful lot like those strangers.)
I see this every day in the students who only take Soc 100 because their general education requirements make them do so. They know, from personal experience, that their racial, gender, sexual and religious stereotypes don't hold any water but they don't know that they know. They know that local businesses/Main Street isn't often any better for employees and customers than international corporations, but they don't emphasize that knowledge because no one is encouraging them to. They know people who deal drugs, who are Islamic, who are gay, and who are on public support who are decent-to-wonderful people but they don't remember that in political conversations because no one is asking them to remember it. 65-70% of my sociology classes are about reminding my students of things they already know that resonate with the material, only 30-35% is material driven by things beyond my students' ken.
What drew so many young people and "independents" to Obama was the charismatic populist rhetoric critical of how powerful interests had screwed the country... now, for 58% of white people who voted this rhetoric didn't trump a combination of cultural conservatism, nationalism and racism tacked onto their right wing populism but it is absolutely imperative to remember that no Democrat has taken a majority of the white vote since 1964. Democrats who have won - 76, 92, 96 and 08 have all run on a confidently-to-charismatically expressed soft left populist/mildly progressive reformist rhetoric (though, of course, they haven't followed through on that rhetoric after being elected.)
The reasons Democrats don't run on a center-left/social democratic platform is not because it'd be a sure loser as a result of popular reaction but 1) the party and its sponsors are not center left/social democratic and 2) because the corporate media would savage such a political program. I am firmly of the opinion that Obama could easily have savaged the conservative critique of Obamacare and/or Ryan's budget with a simple, charismatic/compassionate emphasis on the ways Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security are funded by the public's contribution to its own health and security and that they have a proven record of coming through for Americans. Rhetorically, he could have taken on the insurance, pharmaceutical and banking industries in populist fashion and enriched his popular political base though, of course, he would have experienced an utter exodus w/r/t his funding base.
A few weeks ago Doug posted something that led him to re-emphasize how important it is never to underestimate the intensity of the American public's commitment to individualism and I think he is right. But I simultaneously think it is equally imperative never to underestimate the public's commitment to an utterly indeterminate populism. I think it is politically contradictory to accept that the American public is anything but contradictory in its social, political, economic and cultural commitments. To do as you have done, accepting surveys and polls as accurate reflections of what the American public "simply is" is simply a way to defend having thrown up your hands in political disgust and backing away so nothing is demanded of or reasonably expected from you.