I Support the Radical Center, Hillary Clinton, and I Believe America Seeks a Third Way

[tritsofme]

I am a moderate Democrat who is turned off and do not support the radical politics of Dennis Kucinich and John Edwards.

I am the future of this party and offer the only path back to an enduring governing coalition.

Throw us under the bus and enjoy a hundred years of wondering through the wilderness.

[slick8790]

1. Then go start the third way party.

And leave the Democratic party for the liberals.

[tritsofme]

9. People are sick of the old fights of left and right.

Bill Clinton found success in the 1990s by rejecting the old consensus and seeking out a third way.

Bill is the most beloved figure in American politcs for a good reason.

[slick8790]

13. Bill threw liberals and progressive causes under the bus for the sake of power.

Don't ask don't tell?
DOMA?
NAFTA?
No universal healthcare even with a democratic congress?

Maybe you're sick of the old fights. I, for one, am not willing to give up my core beliefs for power.

[HeraldSquare212]

16. He didn't find success - he capitulated to Republican's goading him into things he didn't want to do

like DOMA and welfare reform.

[Kucinich4America]

22. People are sick of right wing corporatists passing themselves off as the "center"

Dennis Kucinich would be a centrist candidate in any other Democratic country. John Edwards would be a moderate conservative. Hillary would be far right, and someone like 9u11iani would be a right wing fringe candidate without a hope of ever being elected to anything.

As for Bill Clinton, he certainly looks good compared to the imbecile who took office after him. But when you factor in NAFTA, the telecommunications act, Don't Ask Don't Tell, DOMA, and welfare "reform" (among others) he really wasn't that great, was he?

[RaleighNCDUer]

2. You are really, really confused. Or I am.

WTF does "radical center" even mean?

That's about as oxy a moron as I can think of.

[Skidmore]

5. DLC

[Mythsaje]

6. It's actually something Thom Hartmann says...

Of course, Hartmann supports Edwards, so... :shrug:

[David__77]

3. McCarthyite semantics. I guess FDR was a "radical."

"Radical?" So acknowledging class is "radical?" FDR must have been a "radical" too. And let's not forget that he forged the greatest progressive coalition this country ever saw.

[Kucinich4America]

23. Here's what the DLC has to say about the greatest President of the 20th century.

"The New Deal political philosophy that defined our politics for most of the 20th century has run its course; the political coalition it spawned has been split. Like Humpty Dumpty, the New Deal coalition cannot be put back together again. The new electorate is affluent, educated, diverse, suburban." Al From, founder of the DLC, Blueprint magazine January 2001

And further DLC opinons about the middle class.........

"the shrinkage of the middle class and widening gap between the wealthy and the poor" must not be seen "as grounds for returning to a New Deal-style politics"; nor be the grounds "to mobilize lower-income groups for a new rounds of interventionist, centralized government that protects Americans against all forms of economic insecurity."

"the assumption of rising poverty and near-poverty is false.... The ... middle class is shrinking ... not because poverty is on the march, but because millions of Americans are surging into the ranks of the upper middle class and wealthy. As labor's share of the Democratic vote declines, the share provided by better-educated upscale voters will increase further ... unions will be less and less likely to provide working majorities...." - William A. Galston & Elaine C. Kamarck, Blueprint magazine, Fall 1998

[Vincardog]

4. good luck with that. Delusion much? A radical shift to Populism is the only thing that will save us.

[NoBorders]

7. I thought Obama

was the radical center and the 3rd way, and clinton was same-old same-old.

[tritsofme]

11. I like Obama as well.

Clinton is just my first choice.

I have voted for Obama in the past and would be honored to have the opportunity again.

[mike_c]

8. I choose the wilderness....

Thanks, but no thanks.

[madrchsod]

10. you`re funny....

[question everything]

12. I suspect that if FDR and JFK were alive today

they, too, would be considered moderate.

(Of course, Nixon would be rejected by his party as being liberal..)

[democrank]

14. Thank goodness you posted this information about Edwards.

Feeding the poor and saying mill workers are as valued as mill owners is so very radical. I just can`t support that kind of nonsense.

[hfojvt]

15. I wonder as I wander ...

Do you ever wonder if anybody gets your song references? I do.

Do you mean that you are so centrist that you will vote Republican if somebody as radical as Walter Mondale gets the nomination? Edwards is probably a little to the right of Mondale. No more radical than John F. Kennedy.

Just a guess, but do you by any chance make more than the median income?

[tritsofme]

18. I think the rejection of Edwards in this primary cycle by Democrats speaks volumes about the

direction this party is headed.

I have the luxury of living in a comfortably blue Illinois and reserve the right to leave the top of the ticket blank. I have yet to see a real candidate so objectionable that I couldn't bite my tongue and pull the lever, but I always have that option.

[slick8790]

19. Well aren't you special.

John Edwards has been effectively blacked out from media coverage, who was making this a 2 person race even when there were 8 candidates left.

[hfojvt]

21. it may also speak volumes about where the country is headed

but neither of those are necessarily good things. Our country is being pushed in that direction by the rich, and by corporations. Most of us here at DU are people who are committed to the purpose of changing that direction for both the party and the country.

Check out the facts, Our party was stronger before Clinton, when it was truer to its ideals.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=3460552#3461034

here's one. Did Clinton lose it? Well, it happened on his watch.
http://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/history/one_item_and_t...

distribution of the US Senate

87-89 55D, 45R
89-91 55D, 45R
91-93 56D, 44R
93-95 57D, 43R
95-97 48D, 52R
97-99 45D, 55R it just gets worse!
99-01 45D, 55R

Bill Clinton weakened our party and Hillary promises to do it again. 8 years of a solid and growing Democratic majority washed away in Clinton's midterms. Hurray for the new Democrats. Like the Coke formula change - people prefer the classic.

[DJ13]

17. Chelsea, your dad know you post here?

:evilgrin:

[Flarney]

20. The Democratic Party of today is to the RIGHT of the Republican Party of 50 years ago...

...Dennis Kucinich and John Edwards, and the policies they support, are actually mainstream when you strip away all of the corporate media distortion. "They" (corporate media) have succeeding in dragging the "acceptable debate" so far to the right of the political spectrum that there really is no "radical left" in the US anymore. How many Communists do we have in this country today? 11? 12?

I don't mean to impugn your intentions or value by any means, but I firmly believe that the conservative ideology of the Republicans and Centrist Democrats have sold out the United States...I think you could fairly go ahead and rename the country The Corporate States of America.

(edited to clarify "they," above)