This is my first diary (will be kind of short, too), so I hope all will be forgiven if I make a few mistakes. After reading a number of non-supportive diaries and comments regarding President Obama's support of Blanche Lincoln, I feel like I need to provide a counter point to that opinion. If this has already been diaried, please let me know and I'll delete this one.
We, as Democrats, have always prided ourselves on being the "Big Tent" party and in fact appeared to work purposely in the most recent presidential election to assure moderate Republicans who had enough of the Bush administration that there was room here and they were plenty welcome to come over. And, many did move over to vote for President Obama. The Republican Party, to the "amusement" of many here, has been moving further and further to the right, demanding and intimidating more mainstream and moderate Republicans into meeting purity tests in order to get re-elected and/or elected for the first time. Their tent continues to diminish in size, in terms of numbers of party members and states that can still be called reliably red. All of that is great for our party as it may eventually lead to a larger and larger majority that would someday be insurmountable, thus, providing us with a permanent majority. Hallelujah! Isn't that what we all want?? Isn't that what we are all working towards??
So, why are we doing the same thing as the Republican party is doing? I get that we want more and better Democrats and we should actively seek that. But, when the effort looses, and we sulk, threaten to leave the party, not vote, and generally not participate when a more Conservative Democrat wins, aren't we guilty of demanding the same purity tests and finally, aren't we, in essence, sending the message that our "Big Tent" is not really as big as we claim it is? Where do our more conservative Democratic friends go when they believe their point of view is not welcome? Many Republicans made the switch to our party because they felt their point of view was no longer welcome. Do we risk sending our conservative friends over to the other side because they feel they are no longer welcome?
In my opinion, President Obama as the leader of this party, is doing the right thing in continuing to publicly support the conservatives in our party. He is sending the message, in his very large bully pulpit, that our party continues to be the "Big Tent" where all reasonable people are welcomed!
Yes, moving the progressive platform along can be intensely frustrating, but usually worthwhile goals don't come easy.