I've been debating whether to write this short diary due to the inevitability I will be mocked. Then I thought about it and said, WTF!
Right now, and by that I mean heading into the 2010 elections, Democrats appear to be heading in the right direction. In fact, should the economy turn around, my own belief is that the Republicans are heading towards LBJ numbers in Congress and the Conservatives could break away from the GOP to run their own nominee in 2012. I also believe it could be that way for the next 20 years or so. At least until we screw it up....
A lot of what I'm writing comes from Senator Arlen Specter's press conference explaining his switching party's. He said the Republicans have moved too far to the right. That the Club for Growth has consistently defeated moderate Republicans in the primaries only to lose in the general election. All of that sounds hunky dory for us. Yes, I said hunky dory.
However, what do we read on this board?
Primary Blanche Lincoln
Labor should and will support a primary against Specter
We need real progressives that only vote the way we want them to
Now, I'm a liberal democrat....universal health care, pro-choice, anti-gun, anti-death penalty, etc, etc. I totally agreed with Bill Maher's gun take last week. (I think we could get even more of the female vote, with a strong anti-gun stance.) But if we only included candidates that agreed with us 100% of the time, we will end up like the Republicans. We will move this party too far to the left.
Has Bob Casey (pro-life) done a bad job?
What about Jon Tester (pro-gun)?
Come 2012, I think we could be looking at 70 senators. That's a ridiculous number. If we push too far to fast, it will only boomerang. With a huge majority, we should move ahead with health care, an assault weapon ban and a balanced budget. Just don't expect every Dem to be with us on every vote. And if we start having primaries against them, Progressives could become a regional party in the northeast.