An Internet hub with domestic and international news, analysis, original reporting, and popular features from the left, center, indies, centrists, moderates, and right
Brown-Coakley: The Election of the Century
I’ve been live-blogging the Brown-Coakley election/results over at my place, and, with Brown now declared the winner, I’ll be following up with analysis and commentary, looking ahead to what comes next.
Yes, yes, I bring a liberal Democratic perspective, but I do it with such moderatation.
If you’d like to check it out, see here.
I’ll also post some of my thoughts here either tonight or tomorrow. And make sure to keep checking back here for some great posts from Joe and the co-bloggers.
52 Responses to “Brown-Coakley: The Election of the Century”
I guess I wonder aloud whether one can, on the one hand support and work by night to the benefit of 3rd parties, and then by day, in the voting booth, vote for the traditional Democrat.
I think you're looking at this entirely the wrong way, spirasol (with respect). There's no contradiction here.It's much easier to elect third-party candidates on the local level, especially progressive ones, and much easier to implement progressive agendas on the local level. You've got to start on the local level, nurture progressive candidates, and then encourage them to seek higher office. I'm not talking about electing progressive third-party candidates locally and then just leaving them there and continuing to be satisfied with major party candidates on the national level. I'm talking about *creating* a national third party movement *by* starting on the local level.
I don't see how one can do it any other way. You cannot change the entire way our political system functions from the top down. Working from the bottom up is much more likely to succeed in the long run.
Ms Kattenburg pls read my posts again. I did not define “right” as “moderate” nor “leftist” as “left” or “progressive” as “left” or any of the other quotes you attribute to me. Nor did I state there were no conservatives on TMV, nor that this site was left wing. You put those words in my mouth.. (DLS stated that TMV was left leaning… and he might be right. But I did not state that.). You seem to argue that if I identify a position or ideology as liberal, such is because my view is distorted through a conservative looking glass. I would respectfully suggest that you are then aiming at the messenger instead of the message. Sometimes a wise strategy… sometimes not.
I in black and white replied to DLS that I did not know whether TMV was a liberal site or not. I stated that the site however did have some “prolific liberal authors” that “do not speak in moderate voices”. Those are indeed the quotes from my post. I also stated in a previous post that TMV commentators from left of center accurately mirror the left wing of the wing of the Democratic Party. (paraphrased because it is late and I am tired of this b.s., but I think pretty close.) Such is not the same as accusing the entire site of being left or otherwise, or believing that “moderate” = “conservative”. There are left of center authors on TMV and, if it makes you happier, conservative and moderate voices also.
But liberal, moderate, and conservative voices and ideologies differ. I need not be wearing conservative tinted glasses to say so and need not be a conservative to consider some authors on TMV to be “liberal”. I am a life long liberal Democratic and very familiar with our ideology and positions, thank you. I assume those TMV authors that advance liberal arguments over and over, post after post, are liberals themselves. Not because I believe “moderate” = “conservative”, but because of the liberal arguments and positions they advance.
What's so wrong about identifying a cause or ideology as liberal or not? It's not a value judgment, or certainly not meant so by me. Maybe there is an epidemic of thin skin around here. Is it that hard to admit to being a liberal? It's certainly not to me. I am one.