The self appointed Dem "center" (btw, just the benefit of the doubt for you, I actually am the center... how could you miss that?) seems to be talking a lot about coalitions.
We have to be anti-"silo" to build a coalition. We have to support Yes votes on Roberts to build a coalition... build build build. This is a fantasy, a narcissistic fantasy. You are pissing people off and telling them they are wrong to have conviction... and then, saying, "It's in the interest of coalition".
It's hard for me to respond to individuals in threads on this, because it is the sum of your collective position on "that side" of this that is really the bad thing.
Look, by 2004 we had a lot of Nader voters (which I am not one of) here together, realizing, yes, they'd rather a Democrat, FAR RATHER a Democrat. But since 2004 it's fallen apart, back to the old idea that to build a coalition, these "radical idealists" need to be insulted and cast aside so you can get some voters that decide who to vote for the day before an election, that would prefer Reagan to Kerry even if they preferred Kerry to Bush II.
You think you have these voters in your pocket.
No, we're telling you, the reality based community and the Nader voters together are telling you... YOU DON'T HAVE THEM IN YOUR POCKET. You don't have them at all. We don't trust Democrats. We like open politics, we don't trust your secret plans... and after nearly a decade in my case of trusting your secret plans... I note they fail and fail, followed by failure, with treachery and betrayal thrown into the mix.
And you tell us the reason we should be understanding of people voting for Roberts, to making a stupid "never use the filibuster" compromise which a child logician could tell was capitulation to the threat of the Nuclear Option... is a VICTORY.
Yes, the power of positive thinking will solve the problem... we won't win, but we'll have faith in our losing leadership.
Here is the basic thing.
I think I'm diplomatic.
I KNOW I'm not dogmatic, I know it better than you, I see plenty dogma in the criticism of the "silos" (single issue voters/groups)... but you think yours is reasonableness. Dogma feels reasonable to the dogmatist.
You want a coalition... use diplomacy, honesty, build trust. You can't get your coalition by:
* sweet talking your enemies and bad mouthing your allies.
Oh, you think that is what I'm doing? After all, while I wasn't rude, I'm critical of all those Yes votes on Roberts. But you mistake, see, my enemies are those that supported Roberts. I'm criticizing an act counter to what I preferred. YOU are criticizing people that want this nation to remain pro-choice. You don't see the difference?
I'm treating Leahy well... he won on Roberts, Feingold, he won, they wanted Roberts. I know, because unless they are liars, they made a solemn vote in the US Senate, and they won, their vote prevailed.
I have GOOD REASON to criticize them, to make them worried they have LOST SOME SUPPORT (because what else can they care about, exactly, if they are voting against me...). You "centrists" have NO reason to attack your allies that support the issues you support, just because your 200 IQ tells you their strategy isn't perfect.
Yours isn't either. And I look around and the single issue groups have guarded their issues (both left and right, for good and ill) MUCH better than the Democrats have with their strategy.
Basically, you wouldn't know coalition if it bit you on the ass.
Like Bush and the world, you guys had Nader voters, activists, the true left on your side again, but you did the same thing you did last time... made an ass of yourselves.
I'll vote however I want, and if you want my vote, you'll never convince me you are entitled to it, you'll not convince me a slow demise is superior to a quick one. You cannot prove that a quick collapse won't be better than a slow one (reconstruction can start that much sooner)... you cannot prove that, even with a 300 IQ or whatever you suppose it is that has whispered the perfect strategy in your ear.
You think I just ought to be happy in your pocket... but it stinks in there, you'll have to do better than that. And if you honestly, in all seriousness, with your grave and serious face, expect me to trust your "secret plans", which I hear a LOT these days around here, well, you'll have to have some plans succeed and build that trust.
You know... Kerry rode a peace movement to prominence... then what? We didn't hear about that again until he ran for President decades later. That is what the historical progressive realizes that all y'all "centrists" don't get. We've paddled your boats to shore a thousand times and been pushed back out to sea because "it was prudent". How fucking stupid do you think I am?
It's my vote. Do you really want it? I don't think so.