I saw Harold Ford Jr on Bill Maher's Real Time (watch episode here) the other night. He seemed like kind of a stiff and not all that liberal. I was just reading in today's NY Times that the Dems in some key races are rather socially conservative or "centrist". Some of these Democrats are pro-NRA, "pro-life" and even conservative "christian" and it's speculated that these new Democrats "could influence negotiations with Republicans on a variety of issues, including Social Security and stem cell research."
On the other hand, the NY Times ran an article called Liberal Republican Suburb Turns Furious With G.O.P. It's about Bellevue Washington home to many profession people, but it could be about where I live on Long Island we are socially very liberal compared to the rest of the country. The Republicans here aren't voting that way (I recently converted to Democrat even though they are a bunch of wussies). Like Bellevue denizens, Republicans here embrace diversity, support stem cell research, are concerned about the national debt, believe scientists over politicians, are anti-abortion but want to keep the right to choose, want equal rights for gay people and want the government out of our bedrooms and off our phone lines. We'll be seeing more centrist people voting for Democrats and it probably will impact the party. Then again, the party never could define itself anyway.
I'd like to see politicians learn a little bit more about the bill of rights, civil rights, how government works, the role of government in a pluralistic society and some basic economics rather than opening their mouths on subjects they know nothing about, particularly science, medicine, religion, etc.
What do you think? Can we stand centrists- it's better than neocons, right?
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