Obama may have a Democratic Majority, but he doesn't have a LIBERAL majority [View All]

[CTLawGuy]

The fact that a legislator is a Democrat doesn't make that legislator a liberal who is going to automatically support liberal ideas. The Democratic party has been, and is, a mix of liberals, moderates with a few conservatives.

This is especially true in the US Senate where low-population conservative states have disproportionate influence.

For example: ND (Kent Conrad-D), MT (Max Baucus-D; Jon Tester-D), NE (Ben Nelson-D), SD (Tim Johnson-D), AK (Mark Begich-D)

Of course there are a fair share of Dems who represent conservative southern constituencies:

For Example: AR (Blanche Lincoln-D; Mark Pryor-D), LA (Mary Landrieu-D), NC (Kay Hagan-D), VA (Mark Warner-D; Jim Webb-D), FL (Bill Nelson-D)

And finally, there are the oddball conservatives/moderates:

For example: CT (Joe Lieberman-I), PA (Arlen Specter-D), IN (Evan Bayh-D), CA (Dianne Feinstein-D)

That leaves at most 43 actual liberals in the US Senate, hardly a majority.


So forgive the president if he isn't getting it done as fast as you would like it. He is not a king and he has to deal with moderates and conservatives in his own party who are the key to getting ANY reform passed.