Reply #24: Those conservatives [View All]

[Warpy]

...are pretty much all southern. Those southern Democrats have always been a drag on the party, since they became staunchly Democrat during Reconstruction, and were there only to oppose the party of Lincoln. Few are motivated to quit, because they feel it's "their" party, and should conform to whatever "they" want, since they're the longest members (mah great-great granddaddy Col. Culpepper and all that), with a much better pedigree than all that immigrant riffraff in the North. This is why the DLC exists, and their power grab to counter the Nixonian "southern strategy" has certainly outlived whatever usefulness it had. The only electoral success they ever really had was Carter, and we know what that poor man got stuck with.

I have no idea what to do about these folks. Nothing short of dynamite and a strong shift to the left by everyone else in the party is likely to dislodge them, and the latter is about as likely as the Pope on a pogo stick. All we can do now is continue to educate folks on who the DLC bums really are, while voting for progressive candidates at the local level whenever and however we find them: Green, Socialist, Labor, Progressive, New, or any other progressive party. Get the local pipelines full of progressives, and the DLC will find themselves short of viable candidates. This will take years, of course, but this is what the rabid right did starting in the 1970s, and we all have to admit it's been a howling success.

A party purge may sound like an attractive idea, but do we really want to create a larger GOP? It's far better to take the long view and ultimately render these conservatives toothless in party power fights. We can only do that if we start getting progressives into office at the local and state levels.