We watch the Repubs who are purging their party of moderates in favor of their nutbagger wing

[xultar]

I remember when DUers wanted to do some purging as well.

Yes, it is tough with a bigger tent but we control both houses and the White House.

So my questions to DU for the day are...

If you were in favor of the purge of moderates from the Democratic party back in the day how do you see at what the republicans are doing? What is your opinion on what they are doing.

And if you were in favor of the purge of moderates from the Democratic party back in the day and you laugh @ what the republicans are doing and see it as stupid, how do you resolve the two?

[mmonk]

1. Moderates are ok.

Problem is, some really rightwing people call themselves that these days and prevent progressive legislation from passing as an end product progressive legislation.

[daleanime]

2. O.K. I may be a little strange but....

I don't care what they call themselves, all I care about are their actions. And putting companies ahead of people is not a good decision in my book.

[xultar]

4. I agree with you. But in a perfect world where there were no greedy bastards

helping business would be great. You know, if the businesses used the money to provide free onsite healthcare for workers, paid for all their employees insuance, provided electric company cars, trained people for new jobs before they laid them off. Free company health screenings,
stress management, provided free computers for employees to use at home...no cost or low cost cell service, reimbursed for high speed internet.

but since companies are run by fucking greedy bastards and the assistance isn't passed on then no. we shouldn't put them ahead of people.

I had a friend who told me he was in business with a buddy and it was a 70 30 split of profits. As soon as the company started making money, the guy with the 70 split closed the company because he thought my buddy's 30% take was too large. He'd rather not have a company if he can't have it all.

That about sums up how America works.

[daleanime]

5. Too true....

Take everything you can, then run away from the consequences.

[kentuck]

3. I would not be for a "purge"...

But I would be for getting rid of 2 or 3 of them just for an example. The others would think twice before joining the Republicans after that.

[Warpy]

6. Those "moderates" are conservatives

and reasonable conservatives can put the brakes on overspending and keep the progressives from courting disaster.

However, they hold power disproportionate to their numbers today, aided by venal men who have been bought and paid for by the corporations we need them to regulate.

FWIW, I advocate defeating both conservatives and corrupt men in the primaries. I don't expect to get rid of them all and I certainly don't suggest that is a good idea.

The only group of them we do need to look at very closely are the members of The Family. I'm convinced that's a Moon front organization.

[xultar]

10. The feel their moderates are Liberal. So what's the difference?

[Forkboy]

13. What they actually stand for?

Do their moderates stand for the same thing our liberals do? I don't think so, but your mileage may vary I guess.

[dionysus]

7. i think the people calling for purges would rather be out of power and feel righteous.

i think they have a persecution complex.

[xultar]

12. Which is exactly where the fucking idiot ass repubs are now. In the primaries people

here hated me.

They'd have purged my ass because they thought I was a dino or a moderate...aka conservative.

But shit.
I'm for gay marriage
single payer
bringing the troops home
hate crime legislation
regufuckinglation
kicking the wall street bastards to the god damned curb

So because of some perceived bullshit...they would have lost one of the best moderates they could have had.

I thank god we stopped that shit because McCain could have won if that great moderate purge went down in the Democratic party.

[dionysus]

21. i love the new word you coined ; "regufuckinglation"

:7

[n2doc]

8. Just so long as we don't "invite" them into our party

We have enough wolves in Dem clothing as it is. Having someone who claims to be a Democrat yet votes as a Republican does us no good.

Just what does the Democratic Party stand for? Is it just "the party for everyone not completely bats*it insane"? I think we saw this week what happens if we compromise our core values on reproductive rights.

[Sebastian Doyle]

9. Two right wing parties are KILLING this country

All these "moderate" Republicans - and some of them aren't even that, like Stupak - are taking over OUR party.

So now we have a conservative corporatist party and a batshit crazy dominionist nazi party.

What happened to a party that's supposed to represent the American PEOPLE?

Let the "moderate" Repukes fight for their own party. Not ours. We need to be DEMOCRATS again.

[xultar]

11. But they are saying that their party needs to be Republican again. What is going to

happen is that
There will be a Liberal party and a Conservative party and a Democratic party in the middle. The democratic party will win everytime but not be able to do shit because of the Liberal and Conservative parties.

I know tons of people on DU think I'm a moderate because I'm a pragmatist.

But you'd purge me...
I'm for single payer
I'm for Gay Marriage
I'm for liberal judges

But I also understand reality. While there are more of us than them, the way our government is set up it allows them to fuck with us so we can't do shit. That means no shit will get done.

[dionysus]

14. well said

:thumbsup:

[geek tragedy]

16. Hey, a lot of DU'ers want to purge everyone who voted for the Democratic

ticket in November.

We have a large number of Leftwing Teabaggers here who have all of the tolerance for opposing viewpoints that Ann Coulter does.

[geek tragedy]

15. The nutjobs who want to purge the Obama voters aren't real Democrats.

They're Nader voters engaging in masturbatory fantasies of launching a coup of a party that they despise.

[Arugula Latte]

17. What about people like Stupak?

They do more harm than good for us.

[xultar]

20. Stupak is a fucking nut. Being a moderate and a fucking ignoramus is different.

[Tom Rinaldo]

18. Democrats don't need to purge moderates

Even centrists for the most part can play in our Party. The real problem is the disproportionate influence given moderate and centrist Dems vs that wielded by progressives. As long as the Democratic Party continues to allow a blue tail to wag our rainbow dog we have a problem. It is always the liberal and progressive wing of the Democratic Party that is counted on to suck it up and swallow whatever moderate mush we are served out of "Party loyalty" while the blue dogs get free reign to bend the party line. In other words there is a power inbalence. Unlike the Republican Party, the National Democratic Party is more likely to give lip service to its base while giving an ear to it's most conservative elected representatives.

Faced with this pattern there's an activist temptation to rid ourselves of moderate conservatives so that they no longer are around to hold the Democratic Party hostage to an agenda that is skewed to the right of what most Democrats support.

[TheKentuckian]

19. I'm also anti-purge but something has to be done to once again

have the dog wagging the tail rather than the current inverse situation. The conservatives are dictating to the liberals as well as the moderates in the party and with the help of the media, framing everyone but the party's extreme right as fringe leftists. Like the public option, a center of Broadway Democratic concept, is painted as wildeyed craziness from loony leftists.

If we have to make an example or two then so be it because we can't produce effective policy with folks like Ben Nelson and Lieberman dictating terms.