Says Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina:
“We’re not generating enough angry white guys to stay in business for the long term.”
I think Lindsey Graham succinctly summed up what’s wrong with the today’s Republican Party, which has veered to the extreme right in order to please the “Tea Party” elements within the Republican Party.
The Republican Party has pulled itself so far to the right, we might as well call it a far-right political party. My ultimate goal in life is to make the Democratic Party a “giant tent” encompassing people of various political ideologies ranging from far-left to center-right. I consider myself to be center-left, by the way.
Aaron,
You have a noble goal, but how to do it?
I’d like to see the Green New Deal on the table with the People’s Budget drafted by the Progressive Democrats of America. I haven’t compared the People’s Budget side by side with the Green New Deal, but I think there is some coherence between them. I’d like to see more Green in the Blue myself.
To some extent your goal was Howard Dean’s goal for transforming the Democratic Party. Personally, I think it was a mistake to woo the Blue Dogs. I’m all for diversity, but there’s something to be said for common ground and common direction. I don’t think there’s any advantage to veer rightward.
Even prior to radicalization of the GOP, rightward hasn’t been a productive direction for policy to stray. You describe yourself as Center-Left. Can you describe what makes your political view more center and less left? How do you balance right and left? I ask because the idea of “center” sounds so reasonable, but I haven’t seen any meaningful governance from the “Center.” We need to make much more massive leaps away from the status quo than “Center” seems willing to do.
And in a party with such diversity how does it lead? What is the advantage of diversity in navigating a variety of political ideologies? Again, I’m all for diversity, but if there’s one thing that we should have learned from Democratic “leadership” it is that herding cats might not be possible and might not be effective.
The other matter to consider is how does the Democratic Party organize itself in times of unmistakable political warfare?