Thursday, April 26, 2012

Democrats moving to the left?

We've spent time discussing how the Republican base has been pulling the party to the right, but here's evidence that the same dynamic is occurring with Democrats - only in the opposite direction of course.

The NYT reports on two primary election results where a relatively unknown liberal Democrats defeated two centrists (one a member of the Blue Dog Coalition) that had opposed Obamacare. Commentary in the story echoes much of what we've discussed in class:

The ouster of the Democratic incumbents — and the tough primaries being waged against some House Republicans — suggest that redistricting ultimately is going to send more liberal Democrats and more conservative Republicans to the House.
The parties have become more polarized in recent decades, several academic studies have found. The demise of the conservative “Dixiecrats” in the 1960s and ’70s made the Democratic Party more liberal, and Republicans have moved even further to the right than Democrats have moved to the left, the studies show. Elections like Tuesday’s suggest Democrats may be taking the Republicans’ cue, driven by the same activist forces that pushed them rightward.

The story also suggests the same consequence we've wondered about - a more polarized Congress even less able to deal with the nation's problems. Centrism does not get you elected in the primaries. What does this tell us about whose voice really matters"