". . . But once the primary is over, [most of us] are all Ds. And we support all Ds. At least that is how I look at it. Does this mean SYFP during the general election? Nah. First of all, it ain't going to work anyway. Folks are not going to. But it does mean being cognizant that our election system is binary. None of the above does not win elections. And it means being realistic about Political Space Time Curvature:
What [Crashing The Gate is] talking about is a Democratic Party that is committed to its core values and also is a Big Tent -- the type of party required to be a majority party in the United States. They are arguing for a party that has defined its values while at the same time NOT requiring lockstep agreement on all the issues across the country. It will be a party where Ben Nelson will stress his fight for working Americans and contrast that with the Republican Party's neglect of the common man, but also a party where a Ned Lamont will battle with Joe Lieberman over the Iraq War and where Ted Kennedy will fight for civil rights. Much may divide Ben Nelson, Ned Lamont and Ted Kennedy, but their core values, values of the Democratic Party, pull them together. And each should stress those values in ways that make sense for each of them in their respective political situations. And in this way a national Democratic brand can be created that appeals in all sections of the country.
How did Dems win in 2006?
This was the intellectual battle the Netroots, led by one Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, has fought with the DC Establishment for 4 years:
While Brownstein is right about the belief from most of us that the right politics demands confrontation with Bush and contrast with the Republicans, I think he is wrong to believe that this approach alienates independent swing voters. If anything, the alignment that Indys are having with Dems in most polling shows that it is exactly the opposite. That this approach is ATTRACTING swing voters. This is where the fundamental divide between the DLC Centrists and us lies. Where we think the swing voter will land. Take my friend Ed Kilgore of the DLC for instance. Ed is a sharp thinker and writer, but Ed lacks confidence in our Democratic ideals:
[S]everal other centrist party strategists worry that the hyperpartisan turn-out-the-base strategy that many online activists demand won't work for Democrats, because polls consistently show that more Americans consider themselves conservative than liberal.
"We are more of a coalition party than they are," says Ed Kilgore, the policy director for the DLC. "If we put a gun to everybody's head in the country and make them pick sides, we're not likely to win."
[T]his is simply not true. . . . When we make folks pick sides against the GOP Extremism of Dobson and the committed support to a policy of making sure the government leaves you alone in your private decisions advocated by Liberals, they will pick our side, in droves. Don't fear that fight.
And that [wa]s the real lesson, at least for me, of Markos and dailykos.
Are we forgetting these lessons? I fear we are. The Netroots must not forget this fight, how we won it and how we must continue to win it in our Democratic Party.
How was this internal struggle carried out in our Big Tent? By Crashing The Gates:
[Michael Crowley] explains that "Democrats say there's a key difference between liberals and conservatives online. Liberals use the Web to air ideas and vent grievances with one another, often ripping into Democratic leaders....Conservatives, by contrast, skillfully use the Web to provide maximum benefit for their issues and candidates."
Update by kos: Good. Let people think that. People have always been naysayers. Instead of getting riled up about, we'll keep doing what we're doing. And at the end of 2006 we'll be able to take stock of the situation and declare, definitively, that the conservative blogosphere is merely a redundant extension of their noise machine.
We fight for what we believe in in our Big Tent. And then we come together as Democrats. And we do this every day, every week, and every year. That is the importance of the Netroots. It is why, together, we accomplished what we did these past years.
STFU? Never. Ever."
I wrote that post in February 2007. I think I have not strayed from that approach. I assert that the Netroots has. I looked at the agenda for this week's gathering in Austin. I saw nothing that leads me to believe that anyone there will be discussing this subject. Perhaps they are comfortable with what has transpired and where they are going. That is certainly their right to feel that way. It is a big blogosphere as Markos always says.
Some of us have chosen a different path. I respect the choices of others even as I choose to criticize it. I hope they can return the respect even as they choose to criticize others.
By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only
