Can you be both a partisan democrat and a liberal?

[cali]

Yes, you can be both, but if your partisanship takes precedence each and every time, then your liberalism has been drowned by your partisanship.

There's quite a bit of evidence both on DU and in the larger world that a number of people put more stock in their partisanship than in their purported values.

[hobbit709]

1. You can't be a true liberal and a turd way Democrat at the same time.

[redgreenandblue]

2. I think the great majority of people are "lesser of two evils" voters.

I think this stretches all across the political spectrum. I think it would be extremely hard to find a single person in the USA who agrees with the official party line of one party on everything. At the end of the day, people vote for what they think sucks the least.

[datasuspect]

3. anyone who condones evil of any stripe,

especially for political expediency or for base partisanship is the enemy of the people, plain and simple.

[redgreenandblue]

9. I put evil in parentheses.

I think most people base their vote mainly on a hand-full of issues and sacrifice other issues for the sake of them. "evil" is in the eye of the beholder. Some people will always vote for the anti-choice candidate.

[Notafraidtoo]

4. I agree and its scary to witness.

It all seems very black and white,the partizan's assume if you dislike a few policy's you are somehow a enemy to the party its very much like a dear leader mindset as if Obama is a perfect infallible human being,I love Obama but hes not perfect and its ok to disagree with a few things especially on principle.

If we don't stand on our principles then do we stand for anything? The patriot act hasn't changed if you opposed it when it was signed then you may be a hypocrite for supporting it now.

Also opposing the patriot act isn't showing hatred of Obama as i said before i really like him.

[reformist2]

5. Especially in the year after an election, we should feel "safe" to challenge our leaders without

jeopardizing the next election. Obviously, if an issue is important enough, as this one is, the timing of the election shouldn't matter at all.

[leeroysphitz]

7. Not these days, IMO. n/t

[liberal N proud]

8. In the primaries we must use our liberal values to elect good candidates

When that fails us, we must choose Democrat over republican. So yes, you can be both partisan and liberal. It is important to know when to be the partisan though.

My liberal values and history have proven to me that there is no republican that can be trusted! Some Democrats too, but when forced to choose, I will take a bad Democrat over any republican.

[sibelian]

10. Agree.

barely worth the effort of maintaining to oneself that one has any "principles" if they don't affect anything you do or say...