Just wondering..What is the difference between a centrist

[INdemo]

Republican or a Centrist Democrat? I am a Democrat..when I cast my vote for a Democrat and they win I expect that candidate to represent Democratic ideals. So why do Democrats think they have to move to the center to get re-elected?

[HereSince1628]

1. The elected dems are working on an old model

"You do the bidding of the hand that feeds you."

[JoePhilly]

2. The word "ideals" in your post is key, I think.

An "ideal" is often not something you can get in one simple action. "Ideals" are often very hard to attain, at times, impossible. Still they act as guides or goals on a path that may or may not be linear.

In addition, when you have many "Ideals" they tend to compete. And so when you try to achieve one "ideal", your actions may make it harder to achieve another. They might even lead to opposing actions.

Then, let's say you have ten people who actually agree on 10 "Ideals" ... but they don't agree on the priority or order in which to act.

You now how have multiple people who generally agree on the "ideals", but who disagree on the methods and order in which to try and achieve them.

Now imagine that the 10 people agree on only 80% of the ideals. But the specific disagreements vary across the 10 people.

Now multiply the number of people by a thousand, or 10 thousand, but only double the number of ideals. It gets messy pretty fast.

DU is regularly a place where one can find today's "purity" test. Some one posts their ideals and some set of actions that they think will achieve the ideals ... and others who agree or disagree on the actions or even some of the ideals join in ...and then the debate turns to who is or is not a "lesser" Democrat or a "real progressive".

[xchrom]

3. some one who believes that the mere magic of being a dem will make things better.

there really are a series of actions that makes a better or worse democrat.

[msongs]

4. some candidates turn out to have no ideals after they are elected nt