It’s like Tennessee Democratic leadership thinks “It’s just a step to the left, and then a jump to the right,” is some kind of campaign strategy. I don’t know. I’m tired of complaining about the Tennessee Democrats. I would like for them to stand for something even remotely resembling actual Democratic principals, state-wide. And I’d like for them to behave like there’s more at stake than just getting re-elected.
Let me be frank with you, Tennessee Democrats. The threat of the state going completely Republican and you getting re-districted out of existence for the next decade or two has no weight if you also are going to behave like Republicans.
How could it possibly be worse to be governed by conservative jackasses who are upfront with their conservative jackassery than it would be to be governed by conservative jackasses calling themselves Democrats?
See LeftWingCracker and Andy Axel for more astute observations than I can pull off.
(Okay, wait, before I let this completely go. A lot of babies in this state are conceived in petri dishes. That’s a pretty common treatment for infertility. Are we now telling parents who’ve had this done that babies who are a result of scientific intervention are bullshit to Democrats? That there’s something inherently wrong and gross with children brought into being this way?
Are we even going to pretend to be a party that doesn’t have a problem with women? I ask you that. Or is everything with the Dems going to be a sell-out to this idea that letting women control when, if, and how we have kids is a problem that must be addressed by the legislature. Is there anyone who even thinks about the wider symbolism of the images we put out?)
Tiny Cat Pants 
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yeah, we should run raging liberals who don’t fit the district so we can lose and not have ANY power to stop republican nutjob legislation and stand up for environmental protection measures. Good thinking!
yeah, we should run raging liberals who don’t fit the district so we can lose and not have ANY power to stop republican nutjob legislation and stand up for environmental protection measures. Good thinking!
False choice.
You don’t have to lie, you don’t have to bring a mortal enemy of the Democratic Party on the bus, you don’t have to take the citizens of the district as idiots, you don’t have to offer a fake Republican in lieu of a real one.
But ultimately? Caving like this during an election closely mirrors the sort of policy that you get from these folks once they’re elected. Who says that Cobb is going to stand up for environmental legislation if the GOP is going to paint him as a bunny hugger? He’ll just back down. How much nutjob legislation is he going to oppose if it’s not clear that he’s not a nutjob himself? You want to be an apologist for this sort of smear?
Human cloning? Really? Is Pat Marsh responsible for crop circles too????
Well, technically, it goes “jump to the left, step to the right,” but point taken.
I have no problem with trashing the TNDP, but let’s respect the masterworks of Richard O’brien. :)
What?! Okay, people do not do the Time Warp next to me, obviously, or I may hurt you when I jump while you’re stepping.
On the “raging liberals” meme: TN Dems are paying a hefty price for this attitude. Everybody in Memphis and Nashville, the only 100% Dem districts in the state (and where TNDP doesn’t lift a finger), is being told to get lost, drop dead, take their toys & go home, vis a vis their ideas and enthusiasm for supporting Democrats.
At this point, all that’s happening is people who DON’T want to eat Republican family values for breakfast are pointing that out. There is not one goddamn thing wrong with being pro-choice, not anti-gay, not racist, etc.
As Cracker already put it so astutely, if you can’t make a case for Democratic values, get the hell out of the Democratic Party. We’ve only got so many now because a lot of people did the math and figured it’d be easier to get elected as a Dem than to run in crowded Republican primaries.
[right, I know there’s no such thing as a “100% district” for either side. But the fact is there are A LOT more people enthusiastic about what have traditionally been Democratic ideals in those two cities than anywhere else in the state, and they’re continually told their ideas don’t matter.]
Preach it, y’all, preach it from the rooftops, because the TNDP is going to get ROLLED next year at the rate they are going.
While we’ll lose bad Democrats, we will likely lose some good ones, too, and we can’t afford that.
I mean, that’s the thing – if this were a formula that were working, it’d be one thing. But when you watch the Republicans pick off one office after another – losing the Presidency for Gore, taking both Senate seats, control of the state House, then the Senate…it seems more like a moral imperative to start yelling your head off about what’s going on.
What’s it going to take for the apologists to realize this is starting to look more and more like the Party of Rearranging Deck Chairs on the Titanic? Does anybody really think Roy Herron can beat Haslam?
There are endemic. Long standing. Problems. And pretending that somehow they’re going to magically go away is just more wishful thinking.
Saying you want the state Democratic Executive Committee to start doing things in daylight isn’t “wildeyed liberalism,” it’s a start toward fixing what’s broken. I’m not surprised to see folks with a vested interest in the status quo dismissing good ideas that have started popping up in the blogosphere, but I AM wondering how many more elections TNDP is going to have to lose before the rank and file sit up and take notice.
It’s not so much a party problem as it is a demographics problem. And there’s just not much any party can do about that.
Roger: actually, yes they can. It may not work immediately, but what they can do is clearly articulate a party platform and work to convince people that it is the right thing to do. Right now there is NONE of that, and they aren’t fighting for anything.
The Democrats need to present an idea, a reason worth getting out in the streets for. There are plenty of them, and they can be articulated, but running scared doesn’t win anything.
To me, there’s a fundamental difference between “addressing a demographics problem” and “treating your electorate as a gang of credulous morons.”
Pandering to social conservatives in order to swing votes – I can get that at an intellectual level. But forming a coalition with them, running a parallel character assassination campaign with them, standing by as TNRL runs a surrogate campaign? That’s troubling.
I’d absolutely love to know whose mailing list that TNRL used. Anyone taking any bets?
Roger, “demographics” is an apology for bad behavior that only is convincing if you don’t believe that people can change their minds or that they always will vote according to a single identity characteristic. Voters are more complicated than that.
The Democratic Party stands for folks who don’t have alot of capital – period. Whether they be pro-life democrats in rural districts or pro-choice democrats in urban districts, they are still democrats who believe that folks with little means have the same chance as those born with silver spoons. if you want to kick them out of your tent or pack up your toys and go home, so be it. join the green party.
Joey, I once thought like you. I was wrong. And it broke my heart and took being kicked in the face by these jackasses a lot before I would admit it.
Now I know the truth and it sucks but at least I’m done being made an ass of.
I will hold them to Democratic standards and if they don’t meet them, I sure as hell will call them on it, and I’m not going to feel bad about it or feel like I’m ruining things.
They’re the ones who can’t live by their own ideals. That’s on them.
if you want to kick them out of your tent or pack up your toys and go home, so be it. join the green party.
And pro-choice Democrats who live in Dist 62 might just as well vote Republican, if that’s what it comes down to. You realize that this is the game that you’re playing, right?
I’m with Andy and Auntie: not one red cent to the TNDP. Yes, to the national party; yes, to the DCDP; and yes, to specific candidates. What they chose to do to Kurita was just a preliminary of their craziness and now it’s come full circle in Shelbyville.