I don't officially affiliate myself with either political party. If I were to label myself, I'd say I'm a liberal/progressive Independent. However, given the limited options on election day, I tend to vote Democratic. In saying all of that, I think liberal purists are hurting the Democratic Party.
As a liberal who tends to vote Democrat, I think fellow progressives need to step back for a moment, take a deep breath, and come to the realization that we don't want to follow a similar path as Republicans have over the past couple of decades. Over the past 20+ years, with the help of Fox News, talk radio, and now the Internet, the Republican Party has been increasingly trending right. Progressive Republicans have gone the way of the dodo bird; moderate Republicans have been placed on the endangered species list; and the GOP has seemingly reached the point where, if an aspiring Congressional member of the party doesn't keep in lockstep with the party's leaders on each and every issue, they and conservative media outlets will tell their followers not to vote for this person on election day. Now, 20 years later, the GOP has become about as diverse in thought as The Bachelor is diverse in body types. This has closed the party off to demographics such as: Women, Latinos, blacks, Muslims, LGBTs, teachers, scientists, fact-checkers, etc. If the Democratic Party wants to remain relevant for the long haul, they can't follow that same route and I'm fearful they're on the verge of doing so.
We all have our beliefs, our ideal vision of America, but we have to remain realistic and do everything in our power to help bring this nation closer to our ideal vision of it. While that will happen when we hold steadfast in certain areas, it will only happen if we compromise in others. We can't expect to continually make progress if we exclude people from our party for holding a single different viewpoint than us. What we should be doing is the direct opposite. Instead of telling a person he or she isn't a Democrat because they're "pro-life," for example, what we should be doing is telling them, "While I disagree with your opinion on reproductive rights, we have a big tent over here at the Democratic Party, welcome you with open arms, and hope we can come to some form of compromise with regard to our difference in opinion on the matter, to where we can decrease the number of abortions in this country, yet maintain a woman's right to choose what to do with her body when she becomes impregnated."
While I admit to being fairly liberal, I know a majority of people in this country identify as moderate, and it will do absolutely no good for myself or other liberals like me to continually exclude moderates from the Democratic Party due to a single difference of opinion. If we do that, the party isn't going to last very long...
As a liberal who tends to vote Democrat, I think fellow progressives need to step back for a moment, take a deep breath, and come to the realization that we don't want to follow a similar path as Republicans have over the past couple of decades. Over the past 20+ years, with the help of Fox News, talk radio, and now the Internet, the Republican Party has been increasingly trending right. Progressive Republicans have gone the way of the dodo bird; moderate Republicans have been placed on the endangered species list; and the GOP has seemingly reached the point where, if an aspiring Congressional member of the party doesn't keep in lockstep with the party's leaders on each and every issue, they and conservative media outlets will tell their followers not to vote for this person on election day. Now, 20 years later, the GOP has become about as diverse in thought as The Bachelor is diverse in body types. This has closed the party off to demographics such as: Women, Latinos, blacks, Muslims, LGBTs, teachers, scientists, fact-checkers, etc. If the Democratic Party wants to remain relevant for the long haul, they can't follow that same route and I'm fearful they're on the verge of doing so.
We all have our beliefs, our ideal vision of America, but we have to remain realistic and do everything in our power to help bring this nation closer to our ideal vision of it. While that will happen when we hold steadfast in certain areas, it will only happen if we compromise in others. We can't expect to continually make progress if we exclude people from our party for holding a single different viewpoint than us. What we should be doing is the direct opposite. Instead of telling a person he or she isn't a Democrat because they're "pro-life," for example, what we should be doing is telling them, "While I disagree with your opinion on reproductive rights, we have a big tent over here at the Democratic Party, welcome you with open arms, and hope we can come to some form of compromise with regard to our difference in opinion on the matter, to where we can decrease the number of abortions in this country, yet maintain a woman's right to choose what to do with her body when she becomes impregnated."
While I admit to being fairly liberal, I know a majority of people in this country identify as moderate, and it will do absolutely no good for myself or other liberals like me to continually exclude moderates from the Democratic Party due to a single difference of opinion. If we do that, the party isn't going to last very long...
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