Open Left

Moderates (4.00 / 5)

I agree with the post, but we really need to get a better word than "moderates."  So long as those blocking change are called that, the public will side with them.  After all, if you are not a "moderate," you must be an "extremist."

This all reminds me of a stanza from an old Phil Ochs song about the battle over civil rights:

Some say they're past their darkest hour
Those moderates are back in power
They'll listen close with open ears
And help us out in a couple of hundred years
But don't push them--whatever you do
Or else you'll get those extremists back in

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by: hilltopper @ Mon Jun 29, 2009 at 12:04:19 PM CDT

moderates (4.00 / 9)

I am beginning to think of them as Katrinacrats, because their agenda is to leave poor people for dead.

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by: AliceDem @ Mon Jun 29, 2009 at 12:11:57 PM CDT

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Conservadems (4.00 / 6)

is more accurate.

Corporate whores also works.  

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by: Tom Wells @ Mon Jun 29, 2009 at 13:57:21 PM CDT

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I Go With Conservadems (4.00 / 8)

No need to go slandering honest, hard-working whores.

"Senate passes expanded GI bill despite Bush, McCain opposition"

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by: Paul Rosenberg @ Mon Jun 29, 2009 at 14:01:57 PM CDT

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LOL! (4.00 / 2)

Good point.  Whores do work for a living.  :-)

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by: Tom Wells @ Mon Jun 29, 2009 at 15:41:32 PM CDT

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i know it's all ijn good fun (4.00 / 4)

but some of us actually do know some sex workers and/or people who have done sex work.  a little courtesy please ;)

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by: dr anonymous @ Mon Jun 29, 2009 at 18:38:51 PM CDT

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When I Was A Teenage Hitch-Hicking Hippie (4.00 / 3)

I met a number of prostitutes in diners and such.  They were, as a group, the least pretentious people I met.  Fellow outsiders, I guess.  

I'm dead serious about not slandering them.  Though I don't mind poking fun at conservadems in the process.

"Senate passes expanded GI bill despite Bush, McCain opposition"

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by: Paul Rosenberg @ Mon Jun 29, 2009 at 22:08:39 PM CDT

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I prefer the term "Centrist"... (0.00 / 0)

Although to be honest, they're more center-right than center. Ultimately, whatever we call them, they're bought and paid for by the corporate elite and they always demand their pound of flesh, that they can then offer to their corporate benefactors, in order to allow any legislation through.

Want to save marriage equality in Maine? Ask me how! ;-)

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by: Andrew Davey @ Mon Jun 29, 2009 at 14:00:38 PM CDT

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I prefer the term "Centrist"... (0.00 / 0)

Although to be honest, they're more center-right than center. Ultimately, whatever we call them, they're bought and paid for by the corporate elite and they always demand their pound of flesh, that they can then offer to their corporate benefactors, in order to allow any legislation through.

Want to save marriage equality in Maine? Ask me how! ;-)

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by: Andrew Davey @ Mon Jun 29, 2009 at 14:01:19 PM CDT

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doesn't work (4.00 / 2)

We bring our kids up with the Goldilocks story.  Not too hot, not too cold, just right.  Not too hard, not too soft, just right.  Not too left, not to right, just right.  If we let these corporate sellouts call themselves "centrists", we lose.

If we use the word "centrist", it should always refer to the median position of the American people on an issue, not to a position halfway between Senate Republicans and Senate Democrats.  To say otherwise leads to absurdities, like calling a position that is to the right of the bulk of the public "liberal".

So, for example, when 60-75 percent of the public support a public option, it's the centrist position.

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by: Joe Buck @ Mon Jun 29, 2009 at 23:19:04 PM CDT

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