Open Left

As I said

It's moving the overton window of the debate one step to the left.

Let's game out some scenarios.

Let's say we have a 20 vote edge on the Republicans but we have 25 Blue Dogs. What happens? You end up having to cater to 80% of the Blue Dogs. You need a lot of them and they know it. That means concessions. That means watering down legislation.

Now let's flip 15 Republican seats to Blue Dogs. 40 Blue Dogs but now you have a 50 vote edge. Suddenly, you don't need the Blue Dogs.

People forget the immense value in not having a Republican there. Even if the Blue Dog turns out completely useless, if nothing else they are taking up a seat that would be occupied by a Republican.

But maybe I'm being optimistic. Maybe we only flip 5 seats. 30 seat edge, 30 Blue Dogs. Now you only need to garner the vote of one Blue Dog. Their bargaining power is vastly reduced. Almost no concessions. Better legislation.

(Note: This is what the current situation actually resembles.)

Now, finally, let's game out a situation where all those seats belong to Republicans, a purity progressives wet dream, the Chris-Bowersverse if you will. The Republicans steam roll legislation ala 1995-2006. Total clusterfuck right?

Not at all! You'll be pure and uncontaminated by differing viewpoints within the party and that's what matters in the end. Mission accomplished!

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by: sugarfree @ Wed Apr 01, 2009 at 20:56:25 PM CDT