In the aftermath of Election 2004, as endless pundits and pols consider why the Dems lost — especially against a candidate that they thought should be easy pickings — the question that matters keep coming back to is, What next?<\/i><\/p>\n
Did the Dems lose because they were perceived as too extreme to the “left,” too far out of the “mainstream?”<\/p>\n
And, if so, then what’s the right answer? Try to appeal more to the center, and so offend those on the left, and possibly compromise key principles held by many in the “center” of the Democratic party? Or become stronger in those principles, possibly shift even further left, appeal to the “true believer” base, but possibly further alienate those in the center?<\/p>\n
That seems to be coming to a head in the abortion issue, as an anti-abortion Democrat has said he’s vying for the DNC chairmanship<\/a>, and others are dead set against the prospect<\/a>.<\/p>\n The problem is, are principles any good if you can’t get elected to enact them? If the American public is uncomfortable enough with the current state of abortion law in this country to reject those who support it in favor of those who might likely restrict it further, is it better to compromise and keep half a loaf rather than face the real risk of losing it all? Is a victory “in principle” any comfort when it means that the other side can write the laws (and appoint the judges)?<\/p>\n On the other hand, what shall it profit a man to gain the world at the price of his soul? If abortion rights are a keystone of what it means to be a Democrat, is compromise on such a principle possible without compromise on any number of other principles, without putting “winning” over doing what’s “right.”<\/p>\n It’s analogous to the question of human rights in international relations and trade. If the only people hurt by the US declaring it won’t trade with Country X because they’re run by evil and sadistic tyrants are workers in America because other nations will continue to trade with them, that may be principled but it may also be counter-productive. Similarly, if the only people hurt by the Dems taking an absolutist approach to abortion rights are Democratic candidates (and, ultimately, the very people the principle seeks to protect, when those who would restrict abortion rights even further end up winning), what kind of “moral victory” are we talking about?<\/p>\n I would rather not see further restrictions on abortions in the US, not because I’m a gleeful supporter of the practice, but because I’m not sanguine about American politics being able to maintain anything other than an all or nothing approach to it, and I’d rather appeal to conscience than the police to deal with it. <\/p>\n All that begs the issue of where the American electorate, as a whole, actually is (and is goin), and whether the 2004 election was a matter of principles, personality preferences, or better fear-mongering by the GOP than the Dems. Is the populace generally shifting “right,” and, if so, at what point will the Dems have to either shift with them or give up the game to the Republicans? Or were abortion matters secondary to other factors in the election, and are the Dems giving ground where they don’t need to?<\/p>\n I don’t have any easy answers here. I just mistrust any controversial issue being declared the sine qua non<\/em> of a political party … just as I mistrust the idea of too easily abandoning principles just for the sake of winning. I suspect compromise is the only viable alternative, but that, too, is an awfully slippery slope. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In the aftermath of Election 2004, as endless pundits and pols consider why the Dems lost — especially against a candidate that they thought should be easy pickings — the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[52,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-elections-2004","category-politics-law"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":131842,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/10\/20\/a-tale-of-two-issues.html","url_meta":{"origin":6750,"position":0},"title":"A Tale of Two Issues","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 20-Oct-16 7:37am","format":false,"excerpt":"There wasn't a lot new in the debate last night between Clinton and Trump. The only thing that was different was that we actually got some discussion of what usually come up as major political issues. No surprises there, except that they happened.On gun control, Clinton tried to portray herself\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/161020014819-clinton-trump-debate-one-liners-origwx-cs-00012310-large-1695B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13580,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/11\/10\/some_of_these_things_are.html","url_meta":{"origin":6750,"position":1},"title":"Some of these things are not like the other …","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 10-Nov-08 8:17pm","format":false,"excerpt":"How can the GOP come back? By doing all the same things, only more so. Um ... isn't the defnition of \"insanity\" doing the same thing over and over again,...","rel":"","context":"In "Politics & Law"","block_context":{"text":"Politics & Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":51851,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/07\/24\/the-gops-popularity-takes-a-dip-among-republicans.html","url_meta":{"origin":6750,"position":2},"title":"The GOP's popularity takes a dip … among Republicans","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 24-Jul-15 8:00pm","format":false,"excerpt":"And everyone else, for that matter, but most significantly among its own party members. It's not a trend yet, but it is interesting. Honestly, I think it stems largely from the GOP presidential primary candidates and their high quantity visibility right now, especially the Donald. A lot of Republicans I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":133883,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/07\/18\/so-is-the-senate-bill-dead-now.html","url_meta":{"origin":6750,"position":3},"title":"So is the Senate bill dead NOW?","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 18-Jul-17 4:01pm","format":false,"excerpt":"It ain't over until the Majority changes. But ... for the moment ... it looks like there's not enough support to pass a Repeal-only bill. I confess I was worried that it would serve both to kick the can down the road and comfort the folk who would like nothing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":133651,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/06\/11\/how-much-do-the-republicans-hate-obamacare.html","url_meta":{"origin":6750,"position":4},"title":"How much do the Republicans hate Obamacare?","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 11-Jun-17 11:22am","format":false,"excerpt":"Do they hate it enough to allow their new refundable tax credit scheme to be used by people for private insurance plans that cover (gasp!) abortion? Because if they don't, the Senate Parliamentarian has ruled the bill cannot go forward as a budget reconciliation, as it's setting policy (\"Abortion bad!\")\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":22353,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/08\/24\/unblogged-bits-wed-24-aug-11-2330.html","url_meta":{"origin":6750,"position":5},"title":"Unblogged Bits (Wed. 24-Aug-11 2330)","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 24-Aug-11 11:30pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries .... There's a time and a place for this sort of thing, and it's called \"College\" - HA! Wendy Wright's New Job: Stopping The Girl Scouts' \"Radical, Feminist, Pro-Abortion\" Agenda - Yes, you should just\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cars"","block_context":{"text":"Cars","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/cars"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6750\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}