What Democrats don't get (but Republicans do)

[Bonobo]

It isn't the position you take on an issue that creates an inevitable pushback from the other side. It is the result of the two-party dynamic.

THIS has implications that are more important than anything else in politics.

It means that whether you take a hard left or a moderate left or centrist or even an originally right-wing idea, the political tension created by the Republicans picking up the other end of the rope and pulling will always pull you somewhere to the middle of that newly created balance.

Many examples, I'm sure, could be given and I will open up the floor to that for those who are interested in making this discussion more concrete, but I will throw one out there -the one that spurred me to write this. Rachel Maddow and her coverage on gun control. She has focused so much on the "common sense" idea of limiting the larger magazines on guns. She has pushed hard to re-extend the ban on these mags that were previously banned but that Bush allowed to end.

While I agree completely that banning these mags/clips is a no-brainer, it has allowed the gun control fight to become about this -a fight gun advocates are happy with because it means it more deeply entrenches the idea that OF COURSE normal guns are the right of everyone. In other words, she ceded important ground on the gun debate and we, as Dems, have actually been pulled to the right.

THIS is emblematic of Obama's approach. He takes a position that he thinks is centrist enough to be acceptable to everyone and then allows the inevitable political clamoring to move us to the right when we had started too close to the center.

The Republicans understand what taking far right positions will mean in the ultimate end-game. It means they will get more of what they want. It is a simple and obvious negotiating tactic and is hard to see why the Dems don't get it.

Do they want to get it? I struggle to understand how this could not be more obvious, but then again, maybe it is. Maybe it is just too hard for some people to be dishonest about their beliefs in order to stake out a position. Maybe Obama is just a centrist who is too honest to be a liar just to negotiate a better position like the Repubs. That may be admirable, but it is a losing strategy.

[DontTreadOnMe]

1. I have been saying this same sentiment for years

There is NO FAR LEFT PARTY in the United States. We have the Conservative Right and the Democratic Centrists.

[MrScorpio]

4. We used to have both and center right and a center left party in America

The Righties said, "Fuck that!" and gave in to their baser instincts.

[TheWraith]

2. FYI, three things.

One, Bush originally supported renewing the "Assault Weapons Ban." It was killed by Democrats who were well aware that it was a big factor in the Republicans crushing victory in 1994. The then Speaker of the Houes asked Clinton to pull the AWB from the 1994 crime bill because it would destroy Democrats at the polls if they passed it; Clinton later acknowledged that the Speaker was right.

Two, normal guns are the right of everyone. That's the definition of the right to keep and bear arms. The number of people who support banning even just handguns, let alone all guns, is a vanishingly small minority.

Three, this is off-topic for GD. There's a message right there at the top of your posting box. Gun issues go in the Gun Control and RKBA group.

[Bonobo]

5. Guns are not the issue here.

That was just an example.

[Fumesucker]

3. What leads you to believe the Dems don't get it?

I think the Dems know very well what's going on and are doing what they do with full expectation of the results that we so often see.

[MrSlayer]

6. Oh they get it.

It's part of the plan.