Keeping the Big Tent - The American Rejection of Liberal Ideals

The Liberal Agenda is winning, it's winning for the moderates and conservatives. For the first time in history Americans have a united position against liberalism, the majority believes the liberals are destroying the United States of America.

The Democrats brag about their wide base and big tent politics; sheltering Liberals, Centrists and Conservatives under their tent, but now that the Liberals are calling the shots they are quickly losing their own base, as well as the majority of the rest of the Democrats stuck under that Big Tent too.

The Washington Post summarizes the situation as a nice Christmas Present for united conservatives and moderates from all parties, for Democrats the writing is on the wall, they must either move to the center or face the end of their control.

"The announcement by Alabama Rep. Parker Griffith that he is switching to the Republican Party is just the latest warning sign that the Democratic Party -- my lifelong political home -- has a critical decision to make: Either we plot a more moderate, centrist course or risk electoral disaster not just in the upcoming midterms but in many elections to come. "

"Rep. Griffith's decision makes him the fifth centrist Democrat to either switch parties or announce plans to retire rather than stand for reelection in 2010. These announcements are a sharp reversal from the progress the Democratic Party made starting in 2006 and continuing in 2008, when it reestablished itself as the nation's majority party for the first time in more than a decade. That success happened for one major reason: Democrats made inroads in geographies and constituencies that had trended Republican since the 1960s. In these two elections, a majority of independents and a sizable number of moderate Republicans joined the traditional Democratic base to sweep Democrats to commanding majorities in Congress and to bring Barack Obama to the White House. "

"These independents and Republicans supported Democrats based on a message indicating that the party would be a true Big Tent -- that we would welcome a diversity of views even on tough issues such as abortion, gun rights and the role of government in the economy."

"This call was answered not just by voters but by a surge of smart, talented candidates who came forward to run and win under the Democratic banner in districts dominated by Republicans for a generation. These centrists swelled the party's ranks in Congress and contributed to Obama's victories in states such as Indiana, North Carolina, Virginia, Colorado and other Republican bastions."

"But now they face a grim political fate. On the one hand, centrist Democrats are being vilified by left-wing bloggers, pundits and partisan news outlets for not being sufficiently liberal, "true" Democrats. On the other, Republicans are pounding them for their association with a party that seems to be advancing an agenda far to the left of most voters.The political dangers of this situation could not be clearer."
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