Reply #72: Then if you don't want the liberal, left wing of the party to abandon the Dems, [View All]

[MadHound]

Start tossing us a fucking bone now and again, you know, reward us for all of our hard work, give us a reason to stay in the tent, some other reason than that the Democratic candidate is less evil than the Republican one.

You can't continue to expect the support of the left, without paying us back, realpolitik simply doesn't work that way. FDR, among others, realized that, and a good thing he did too. He was getting a major challenge from the Socialist party for his first reelection bid. What did he do, he went out and nicked a couple of planks from the Socialist platform and made them his own. That's how we wound up with the bedrock programs of the New Deal, Social Security and Unemployment Insurance, because FDR was smart enough to give the left a reason to vote for him, not simply assuming their support because he was not as bad as the 'Pugs.

If you don't give the left, or any group for that matter, reasons to vote for you, they will go off on their own, either not voting or going third party. The 'Pugs recognized this thirty years ago, when they started courting the religious right, who previously had abstained from voting. They started backing some of the RR programs and thus won over an entire new voting bloc, one that has been a force at the polls ever since. The largest uncommitted voting bloc out there right now are disaffected liberals, those who don't see a point in voting for either party, because both parties screw them over. If you start rewarding those people, giving them a reason to vote for Democrats, gee, you would have a massive return to Democratic power for decades.