There's nothing wrong with components of the Democratic coaltion asking more in '12

[Ken Burch]

To do what some here are demanding and just agree to back the Dem ticket from the start no matter what is to give up dignity AND to give up the fight for your principles.

The party leaders ALWAYS want the party to stand for nothing in election years...and vagueness leads to defeat over and over(as it led to defeat for everyone who ever fought an election against Reagan). Barack Obama ONLY won because he sounded like he really would be different in office. Every post-election turn to conventional, transactional politics diminished him in the eyes of the voters.

The way to win is for our leaders to reach out to the base, apologize to it for the disses of the 09-10 period, and to renew the party's principles, AND to unashamedly champion those principles on the stump in the fall.

We can only win with a galvanized, engaged base. We're not going to get the finicky centrists back no matter what. They were never really with us anyway and they're aren't that many of them.

It's time to change who has the say in this party.

And it's time to give the "enjoy President(evil Republican)" meme. It is NOT a choice between unquestioning support of the Obama status quo and defeat.

[pnwmom]

1. It IS a choice between Obama and the Republican candidate.

That's it. The fewer votes that go to Obama, the greater the chance that the Republican has. And he can't win without a significant number of votes from moderates, independents, and even centrists. All progressives accomplish by threatening to withhold their votes is to increase the chance of someone winning from the center-right, as opposed to the center-left.

[Ken Burch]

2. Obama could allow free votes on the platform at the convention

If even three or four clearly more progressive planks were adopted, it would make a huge difference.

We don't need our nominee to keep his distance from activists and union members and the poor to win. All he has to do, and a communicator like Obama COULD do this if he really wanted to, would be to find the language to make the case that those groups are just as much part of the American story as are anyone else and should be welcomed into the debate. No one would hold that against him. Our party does best when it fights for inclusiveness.