Like it or not, Puritopians will not win in the South

[redstateblues]

I am elated that moderate Democrat John Bel Edwards will be the next Governor in LA. Those of you on DU that hold candidates to a standard of ideological purity need to understand that being hard left doesn't work down here. Some here might not like some of his positions on certain issues but I would rather have Democrats like him in office than extreme right wingers. The idea advanced by some here in the bubble that all we need to do is run pure progressives and we will have large majorities in State Houses and in Congress is a nice fantasy. It was a good day for Democrats.

[Ex Lurker]

1. I think a lot of DUers must live on the coasts

and in tech or university enclaves. There doesn't seem to be a lot of understanding of flyover country, and not much willingness to learn.

[Xipe Totec]

10. If you're talking about Louisiana, it's on the coast. So is Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia...

[NutmegYankee]

22. The reply means the Northeast and West Coast.

I grew up in the Southeast but never cared for the weather (or politics), so I moved to Connecticut. It is interesting to see the perspective difference.

[Hortensis]

28. If you're thinking of a type that hangs on the GD-P forum,

fwiw, it's my belief that that draws both left- and right-wing extremists from around the nation and has little correlation with coastal or urban living or with higher educational levels. Personality comes first, then come the passionate political positions.

[Spider Jerusalem]

2. He's not a moderate, he's a conservative (n/t)

[Ex Lurker]

4. DU would consider him a DINO

But a candidate acceptable to DU would get steamrolled in Louisiana.

[Spider Jerusalem]

5. You don't need to tell me that, I lived in Georgia.

I remember having Zell Miller as governor.

[tularetom]

3. What's the point?

If he wants to stay in office he'll have to trash Obama, so the slack jawed yokels will keep supporting him.

Everybody gets all moist about a Democrat getting elected, but you know and I know, he will govern exactly like Vitter would have, had he won the election.

And his state will remain mired near the bottom in education, income, and health statistics.

[herding cats]

7. The point is he can make gains for the people there.

This is how things were done before the Great Purge in 2010. By and large the candidates sucked to our standards, but they sucked a hell of a lot less than the Tea Party candidates who swept them out of office.

The end result is the poorest people, the women and the minorities suffer the brunt of these changeovers. Then there's the laws they enact, some of which end go up to the SC and could very well end up impacting all of us before this is said and done.

It's was far from perfect, but it was better before than it is now. What matters is if the people are being disenfranchised from voting by lawmakers, if women are losing their right to choice, if minorities are living with racist policies, if the public educational system is being gutted, and if the impoverish are being denied a chance healthcare and to get out of poverty. To name a few things.

If we can fight some of these things, maybe even erase a few of the regional losses in those areas, it puts us on better footing to gain support in the future there. Not to mention the population has a better chance of feeling real improvements in their lives. Which really does matter when it comes to local politics. What we have to overcome is the bigoted hate and divisive mentality the Republicans have fostered there first. Which takes time, and a lot of delicate stepping until your gains are sustainable in the region.

I wish it wasn't like this. I wish things were cut and dried in the land of local politics like some people believe they are. But, it's not. We're not even close to that stage of majority social evolution yet in some of our states. We do have some true progressives in all states, though. Which is great news! We need to keep them working toward changing the minds of the populations in their regions, and believe it or not, a moderate kicking someone like Vitter to the curb is something being celebrated by a lot of real progressives in Louisiana tonight. It's a fire they hopefully can use to ignite others to their way of thinking a little at a time.

Every step in the right direction is one less in the wrong one. Unless you live under some really insane RW rule at the moment, I realize that's not an easy thing to understand out of hand. Some peoples lives have been going backwards now for years in ways many people don't bother to stop and think about much, and this is a salve to one state's population of such people.

I just hope it works out for them if even only marginally.

[jtuck004]

13. I remember being told we were still going forward, even if we had to sit in the back of the bus.

Wasn't true then, isn't true now.

The most potent weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.
Steven Biko

[herding cats]

14. That's what you go from my words.

Really?

I've lived in the south before, I know it intimately. What I said had nothing to do with "sitting in the back of the bus." Which I find highly offensive of you to say to me.

Screw the real people suffering there now? Regional political climates be damned, I demand what I demand? The people in Conservative states can't have change if they don't do it like I want?

Yeah, you're helpful.

[jtuck004]

15. What I actually get from your words is that you seem to get offended by people who you pretend to be

allied with, as opposed to being offended by people who are really and truly hurting others.

You confuse helpful with enabling.

bye.

[joshcryer]

17. This governor is literally, quite literally, going to save lives.

People are not going to die prematurely because this governor won the office.

[jtuck004]

18. You sound convinced. Again. I'll save my cheerleading for after they make the plays. n/t

[joshcryer]

19. The Medicaid expansion is by Executive Order.

You will wake up Monday and he will have signed it most likely. It will cover a quarter million impoverished people. It will literally, and when I say that I mean it in the strictest sense of the word, it will literally save some lives.

This was his biggest campaign promise, expanding Medicare. People bashed Democrats for losing in 2014 because they ran from Obama. Well, Bel Edwards ran toward him on this issue.

It'll get signed and this is super easy to test so you won't have to wait long to cheerlead him on this issue.

Like halfhearted supporters said, they had a choice between an anti-abortion guy who didn't want to expand health care and an anti-abortion guy that wanted to expand health care.

[jtuck004]

20. My standards won't ever get low enough to think that is much of anything. Too many tradeoffs. n/t

[joshcryer]

21. Blame Louisianans who won't vote pro-choice...

...for the governorship. That might change in a couple of generations but it's the reality now.

[No Vested Interest]

24. I agree re Southern Dems promsing to expand Medicare. That was, I believe, the biggest mistake

of Kentucky Dems - Allison Grimes and Jack Conway - running away from Obama and the ACA, when they really needed to be promoting the good done in KY with kynect.

[TeddyR]

30. So you think Vitter = Edwards

And perhaps don't care that Mary Landrieu lost to a Republican? What sort of candidate would you approve of that you believe could win in Louisiana, which hasn't elected a statewide Dem since 2008? I shy away from purity tests, because they represent the extreme wing of the party and are completely divorced from reality. Liz Warren is a great senator, and she wouldn't stand a snowballs chance in hell of being elected in about 40 states. I like to see Democrats elected to state or national office, especially governors, where we are getting or clock cleaned, or the United States senate, so that the next Democratic president can accomplish his/her goals.

[tularetom]

32. Vitter is a POS, and I hope he doesn't = Edwards

Only time will tell, but I'm skeptical.

And no, I don't care that Mary Landrieu lost to a Republican. A real republican will beat a fake republican every time. In fact I don't much care what happens in Louisiana at all. They have access to the same information I do and if they choose to ignore it for whatever reason, it ain't my problem.

It appears that anybody and his dog can call themselves a Democrat. I'm not in favor of purity tests but the amount of latitude we have granted to some of these candidates is ludicrous.

[herding cats]

6. It's a good win.

It's not a perfect win, but it's good and people will benefit from it.

Some people don't understand regional politics, and as such grade them on a curve against their own areas. They honestly believe in their hearts that all regions have enough pure Progressives to win if they'd get out and vote.

I know that's not the case. Politics are local and people vary in their ideology by region. A region with a minority of ideologically pure Progressives is likely to feel marginalized and become less active when their candidates are defeated by extremist RWers, even if they had a Progressive candidate on the ballot they fully believed in. Yet, a win by a moderate can light a fire that just may spread if we push the agenda by a few feet rather than miles at a time.

Real, sustainable change can't all come at once or the opposition can, and usually will, successfully rebel. Which makes gains in Conservative regions frustrating for many people who support a progressive agenda.

What we can't do is become complacent in these regions if we get a moderate in, we have to keep inching our agenda along. That is what the Republicans have been doing for decades, and it works. It just takes time.

For all the ground we've lost in the past 5 years, I hope this is a step again forward in the right direction.

[Dr. Xavier]

8. I agree cats, sometimes you look for the silver lining

where you can find it. And it may get Vitters out of politics for awhile. Good luck to our Creole and Cajun buddies with your new Guv.

[No Vested Interest]

11. Vitter has announced that he will not run for re-election to the Senate.

Apparently many Republicans are eyeing Vitter's Senate seat, including Boustany.

The question is - will Democrat New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu consider a run for Senate, now the political climate in LAmay be changing?

[No Vested Interest]

9. How did the Dems do in the down ballot races? Did the Edwards votes

have a positive effect down ballot?

[MisterP]

12. Christ, what a bore

[murielm99]

16. Thanks for posting that.

It is not just the South. There are many areas where a moderate to conservative Dem could win and do a lot of good.

Some of the purists here need to get out and do some actual work. They need to get to know people who hold office and to help GOTV.

Remember the fifty state strategy? We did not get one hundred percent progressives. We never will. But we do need to win more elections.

[FLPanhandle]

23. It's part of the polarization of politics

In the past there were a high number of Republicans and Democrats who didn't follow party block votes.

Now, you have the Tea Party driving all Republicans hard right.

The Democrats have their own purists that won't accept anything less than hard left.

[BainsBane]

25. I remember when they cheered Mary Landrieu's defeat

Now, I was no fan of hers, but I prefer to have her than a Republican in the Senate. One expects Republicans to cheer for a Democrat being voted out of office, not "progressives."

[treestar]

26. Exactly

We have to make what progress we can. In a red state, this is progress.

[cascadiance]

27. I think where it could change is if one put up populist conservative candidates...

Traditionally, "moderate" candidates in the south have been just DINOs that may help Democrats on a few social issues, but depart on others, and are a LOT more tied to big money (as are their Republican counterparts).

Though perhaps we can't expect a person running on pure progressive social policies to win down there as a way to help candidates get elected, I think that there might be a way to go with the newer movement shift of working on some issues that are more populist down there in nature, where many conservatives are just as fed up with big money controlling their politicians (and Democrats as well) as we are. I think there many down there against things like TPP and other free trade policies that are supposedly "moderate", but really are more "corporate" serving in those situations. I think we might be surprised on how some candidates with positions on things like TPP and Guest labor programs, as well as accountability for banksters, etc. ripping us off are put forth as big more populist issues, we could have those candidates win down there and help us start the real revolution we want for the 99%. They may need to be more nuanced on some social issues and things like gun rights, etc., but if we can help the 99% take back America with strategic selection of candidates down there that doesn't allow big money to prescreen them, we could make some progress down in the south.

I think referendums on things like minimum wage winning in states like Oklahoma and Arkansas in last election show that on some issues that some claim are to "puritoipian", we could actually win on and make a lot of progress down there.

[Hortensis]

29. I'm glad he won too, RedStateBlues. He may not

be my kind of Democrat, but that wouldn't be a good fit for people who've had a long-time preference for conservative governors. I hope this turns out to be a really good step for Louisiana.

[TeddyR]

31. He seems to be a pretty solid Dem

A social conservative, which is unfortunate, but progressive on other issues. But if folks here prefer to see Vitter elected governor of Louisiana then whatever.