Reply #64: The Problem in my Opinion [View All]

[FromTheLeft]

By the definition of politics in our world today the democrats are only slightly left of center, using a duel ended likert scale as below with 0 being the current state of each issue

-5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5

dems are probably a -1. Four years ago, and on a lot of issues today, the dems are simply fighting to keep things pretty much the same. On the other hand the reps are at a 3 or 4 on the other side. These are the majority of people who represent us, not nessecarily our individual views. Our government has a natural tendency to center itself, not on the scale above, but to those represenatives running our government. This would mean that our government is trending toward a 1 to 1 and 1/2 on the reps side. See republicans almost always vote "republican" because their views are so very different from the way our laws are today. Democrats on the other hand are forced to vote in opposition to their own party basically every time they are anywhere to the right on any issue. The Republicans have more wiggle room. Even if their beliefs are slightly to the left of their party they still often are going to be voting with them because the have not crossed that thresshold line at the 0 on my scale. Once we understand this fundimental difference in where our parties lie we can begin to affect change.

I know that moving farther left scares some dems because the believe it will alienate those moderates in our community, but what we are attually doing is allowing the center of the country to move right.

If you remember high school physics envision this. A see saw on a cold day. Two kids of approximately the same size on each side. The one on the left one foot from the apex the other 3 feet away. Now drip molasses on the center of the see saw and watch it slowly move towards the child that is farther away.