It’s only been a week, and I am already sickened unto death of the re-positioning tango over how to re-position ourselves to win the next election. Of course, maybe one of the reasons I am sick of it is that it happens after every losing election. The biggest reason I am sick of it, though, is that none of it really matters at all to the voters Democrats lost in this election and need to win back. The swing voters we lost in this election, as I wrote about here, are the economically stressed working and middle class- the ones whose mortgages are underwater or in danger of getting there, the ones whose family members are losing jobs or having hours being cut back, the ones who haven’t gotten a raise in 2 or 3 years, the ones whose pensions and savings are worth a lot less than they were 3 years ago. And you know what: they couldn’t care less how Obama or other Democrats are positioned. What they do care about are having good jobs come back to their communities, and having their homes’ value start to edge up again.
That’s why the new memo from Third Way doesn’t do much for me. It doesn’t make me angry, either, although I know it is supposed to: you know, get the debate between liberals and moderates engaged and all that. What it does do is go to my friends at Third way’s favorite stalking horse, the fact that self-identified liberals only make up 20% of the electorate. You know what? Just so Third Way folks don’t feel like they have to keep beating this dead horse, I will be glad to stipulate that point in this and all future arguments: self-described liberals are a small minority of the electorate, and you can’t win elections with only their votes. See, we agree. And who ever said progressives couldn’t get along with moderates?
