'Way too extreme': Some Democrats warn against moving left

[brooklynite]

Associated Press

BEAVER, Pa. (AP) — The Democrats of Beaver County, Pennsylvania, crowded onto the steps of a local courthouse, dozens of union men protesting a looming power plant closure that would put their livelihoods at risk.

The crowd was overwhelmingly white and male, and few had college degrees. Left unsaid, at least from the podium, were broader concerns about a national Democratic Party many believe no longer represents them.

“Democrats are becoming way too extreme,” Shaun Majors, a 42-year-old high school graduate who has worked at the nearby Beaver Valley Power Station for almost his entire adult life, said before last week’s event began. “I voted for Trump last time, and I would again.”

A few days earlier, tens of thousands of Democrats crowded into a Manhattan park, cheering Elizabeth Warren’s calls for “Medicare for All,” a crackdown on gun violence and the end of the fossil fuel industry. The crowd was ethnically diverse, heavily female and highly educated — people like 41-year-old Kelly Hafermann of Brooklyn, who has a master’s degree and works at an Ivy League university not far away.

“I want the bold ideas,” Hafermann said, praising the leftward shift of her party’s politics. “I want to be around people who feel the same way.”

[IronLionZion]

1. Yeah, nobody ever warns GOP for going too far right

Trump didn't even pretend to moderate on any issues and chose to go for the most extreme positions on everything. No real moderate would vote for Trump ever again. Anyone who would switch, already has.

It's a waste to try to flip Trump voters. We should invest in encouraging high turnout from our side.

[pwb]

2. This is crap?

.

[ancianita]

8. Yep, it's crap.

[ret5hd]

3. Judging by your posted snippet...

we are in danger of losing the high school graduates that voted for trump once and are willing to do it again.

Man...we are SO screwed.

[brutus smith]

4. Just because they are union doesn't mean they are Dems.

Hasn't been that way for a long time. They just want the pay and benefits and would shaft their fellow workers in a heartbeat.

[elleng]

5. Useless, without knowing what 'way too extreme' means to the guy.

[Act_of_Reparation]

14. He probably has no fucking idea what it means.

He's just parroting some stupid shit he heard in line at the Steak N' Shake.

[blm]

6. Hillary Clinton was too far left for this guy the reporter talked to, so let's move

the party closer to Trump who WASN’T too far right for this guy to vote for.

I think there are far more votes to be tapped from an excited, energized base that includes millions of newly engaged activists and younger voters.

[Blaukraut]

18. This! Plus, ask them to specify too far left. Can they name anything other than MFA?

That's the thing. They're parroting what they're being spoon fed on a daily basis via FOX News.

[CincyDem]

7. Those prepared for the future rarely fear it.

Kelly is likely prepared. Shaun is likely not. Her world view is likely learning and interacting with large numbers of people who are different from her. His world view is likely focused on doing the same things as yesterday and interacting with a small group of people who are very similar to him.

We need to figure out how to not leave these people behind and, at the same time, their fear of an inevitable future is debilitating. Not sure how it's all going to work.

Also - the quote "way to extreme" is not from Some Dem...it's from a committed MAGA voter so it feels like the head line is off base.

[BeyondGeography]

9. Bring back Hickenlooper

[BeckyDem]

24. lol +1

[PhoenixDem]

10. Moving too far left too fast is a recipe for a loss

Candidates will not move the party to the left without demonizing the center-left progressives and that destroys the Democratic party while the far left loses on getting anything done.

The residue of purists is a small yet vocal minority and they should be kept at bay in order for us to win. In a perfect world, people like BS would not get much media coverage and would be vetted thoroughly to show how unworkable most of his ideas are.

America likes its market economy and the "seize banks", "seize utilities", "seize insurance companies", "confiscate wealth" type of ideas won't fly here - ever.

[BlueWI]

30. There are no guarantees.

Moderate Democrats have had a poor record in the GE since 2000. It really depends on the candidate.

And it comes down to delivering good policy that solves problems. The quality of the campaign, candidate, and vision matters most. And on this forum, these considerations get discussed the least.

[Autumn]

11. "I voted for Trump last time, and I would again." I should care that person thinks

I'm way too extreme? A Trump supporter thinks Democrats are too extreme.



I really don't care what Shaun Majors or any other Trump Humper thinks.

[pwb]

19. Yea. Some democrats is one guy?????

.

[Autumn]

20. I don't care if it's a hundred. I have no fucks to give that they think I'm too far left. I don't

think I'm far left enough.

[Ninga]

12. It's just too darn bad people don't know the history of the Democrats.

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/11/04/elections-2018-democrats-history-liberal-progressive-socialist-222187?fbclid=IwAR358tcQ5-POloGuIy4oTY_HROLs6bG-9n2TVGPKAGNcLdhy2IBF0vIwUKQ

[SharonClark]

13. He's no Democrat. He's a Trumper.

“Democrats are becoming way too extreme,” Shaun Majors, a 42-year-old high school graduate who has worked at the nearby Beaver Valley Power Station for almost his entire adult life, said before last week’s event began. “I voted for Trump last time, and I would again.”

[bucolic_frolic]

15. Your average high school graduate cannot explain the political spectrum very well

They don't know left from right, extreme from leaning. I think maybe the quoted guy is a closet Republican who THINKS he's a Dem, or says so because it's a legacy identity. I get it, folks like this are not socially liberal, they're the same meat 'n potatoes of the 1950s. They don't want change.

I talked with a northern-raised women who worked for a few years in the deep south. I said, "They're very conservative down there." She paused, and finally said they keep it quiet, you have to know them a long while before they let you into their private lives. They're married, but have girlfriends, boyfriends, affairs, and trans people. But all behind closed doors. To look at them, you'd never know it. Don't know if that's true, but that's how it was described to me.

[The Mouth]

22. Bingo!

"I get it, folks like this are not socially liberal, they're the same meat 'n potatoes of the 1950s. They don't want change."

this describes a *LOT* of my family. 'Things were fine in the 1950's', 'change sucks'.. *AND* 'I'm a Democrat'.

One thing that nauseates them is the quote about how when you are privileged, equality feels like oppression, which seems to be almost a given with most progressives I know. Simple fact: almost no one is going to vote for a system that disadvantages them, period. The phrase, or the implication (We're going to)'take 'X' away from you, be it guns, union health plans, private property rights (being able to build on one's land, burn trash, hunt) and the like are toxic to them. On the other hand they really have no problems with POC, LGBTQ, healthcare for all or, to some degree, environmentalism.

I kind of get it; most (non genuinely racist) folks are cool with that which pulls other people *UP* (such as, in my case, to my admittedly privileged position), but anything that removes advantages they've had all their life will be fought to the death. Sometimes the semantics of the situation are hard to nail down. Like the toxic phrase 'white privilege'; which if properly explained actually means that POC are treated in a disadvantaged and illegal way, not that whites are treated above the law; both accurate and counter productive.

[Blue_true]

28. I agree. A guy like that probably has been voting republican all his adulthood.

We can't count on people like him and should have no remorse about admitting that.

It is interesting that they are protesting a power plant closing. Trump promised them that would not happen. People like Shaun are buggy-whip aficianators that are scared stiff about that new-danged thing called a horseless carriage.

[treestar]

17. What is the point of striking over a shutdown?

They can’t force anyone to stay in business by striking. Striking is only effective if they need the workers. That high school didn’t teach him the basics of the free market too well.

[Blue_true]

29. Striking over a power plant shutting down.

All they are going to accomplish is it closes sooner.

It is interesting that he will again vote for the man that sold him the lie that such power plants would undergo a revival under his watch. When will Shaun and people like him figure out that they have been conned?

[BlueMTexpat]

21. Anyone who says that he

voted for Trump last time and would again is NOT a Democrat.

[Politicub]

23. Like clockwork, "the ermegherd... too liberal!" chorus chimes in.

I'm so over it.

[BeckyDem]

25. Standing in the middle on policy to be near the GOP is so motivating.

Trump Impeached 2019

[empedocles]

26. Successful impeachment of trump is more likely to be hindering of the general electorate

support, by the rw media advertised left - than helpful of general electorate support. Elections are won in the middle of the field.

[Zen Democrat]

27. The Trump Party is populated by racists.

I had an aunt, now deceased, who voted for every Democratic candidate since FDR, including twice for Adlai Stevenson. But Barack Obama was too much for her. She told me, "I don't know what it is, and it's not because he's black, but I just don't trust Obama." Her last vote was for the very white McCain & Palin. The reason why no one can successfully argue with Trump supporters is because their support is based on their hidden or unrealized racism.

[Bettie]

31. Wow, white males who voted for Trump

don't want Democrats to be, well, Democrats.

Shocking.