Why the Democrats Are Screwed Even If They Make a Course Correction
It’s too late for them to move to the center.
by Ross Kaminsky
March 15, 2022, 12:54 AM
Longtime political consultant Doug Schoen and his Democratic pollster business partner Carly Cooperman released new polling showing that “the electorate is increasingly pessimistic about the direction in which President Biden and Democrats are steering the country and feel that the party’s priorities do not align with their own.” You don’t say.
From the DHS report, obtained by Reclaim The Net:
Their advice to Democrats: “In order to have a fighting chance in the midterms — as well as a shot at holding on to the presidency in 2024 — Democrats need to embark on a broader course correction back to the center.”
Unfortunately for Democrats, when it comes to a Clintonesque tack to the middle, they can’t, they won’t, and most importantly, it wouldn’t help much anyway.
Are Democrats going to abandon their base which is where all the energy and much of their money comes from? Sure, their base is far to the left of the country, even more than the GOP base is to the right of the country. But it’s called “the base” for a reason. Without it, your unstable party topples over. Abandoning the base is not a winning strategy even if the base is not very large.
Moving forward, if Democrats in Congress from time to time tactically abandon the furthest-left part of their base, will Republicans vote for whatever Democratic bill is up for a vote and give Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Biden a political win? Maybe regarding Ukraine but probably not for much else.
Many Democrats are also justifiably frightened of their own base, of the cancel-culture mentality which the relative moderates in the Democratic Party either cheered for or, at best, did not criticize as long as the radicals weren’t going after them. Politically, I would argue that the Democratic majority in Congress has a tiger by the tail when it comes to their radical base but that isn’t quite right; at this point, they don’t even have it by the tail. It’s just a question of when it will try to rip their heads off. Moving to the center on, for example, energy policy would bring just that reaction from AOC, Cori Bush, and the execrable Ilhan Omar.
more
https://spectator.org/why-the-democrats-are-screwed-even-if-they-make-a-course-correction/
