The Repubs are NOT moderate....

[CTLawGuy]

Why do they control the entire government then?

if the key to electability is appealing to swing voters, then why are the radical Republicans so successful?

Do they understand something we don't?

My theory, they understand that the way to win is through your base. They run on a platform pleasing to their base and then try to conivnce the middle that their ideas are good. This is successful mostly because the democrats do not do the same thing. The RW convinces people the Iraq war is good. Swing voters agree with the war because they hear no arguments against it. The democrats won't oppose the war because the swing voters support it due to the Dems failing to argue against it.

People, how do we know that swing voters would not agree with us on something like the war if we just had the guts to oppose it as a party. Swing voters are swing voters because they really don't have a preset ideology. They go with what looks practical at the moment. They are malleable. You can't go them and use them as your base. If you try to represent what they want instead of bringing them to you, you end up parroting republican policy, because the Pugs will sell them on the policy. If you do that, your base gets angry at you and stays home, those swing voters see you as wishy washy and end up voting republican anyway.

We gotta stand up for what we believe in and bring the voters to us. We must give them something other than the RW propaganda that dominates. the problem is, in nominating Kerry, we fall into the trap of trying to appeal to people with no real ideology. He voted for the war, patriot act, and supports the tax cuts in a hopeless attempt to attract swing voters. Guess what? bush is for all those things too, so why should any of them vote for Kerry?

I'm sorry, but the DLC's attempt to use the middle as the base will fail.

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