Netroots Need to Focus on Beating Republicans, Not Democrats
Posted by: Katie Merrill on December 13, 2006
On the contrary, my post far from backfired. In fact, the critical responses to my post on CMR and on different blogs prove my point.
Rather than unifying behind a common purpose to move the country forward under the Democratic leadership of Speaker Pelosi and Senate Leader Harry Reid, which the moderates are doing, those who responded critically reaffirmed their desire to target (e.g “primary”) moderates they don’t like – no matter how strong the moderate’s record is on key Democratic issues and no matter how well they serve their districts.
A full quarter of the Democratic caucus of the 110th Congress identify themselves as moderate Democrats – many of them newly elected last month. If we eschew the Big Tent and cannot unite as a party to support a quarter of our House Democrats, then our party is in big trouble.
Despite the fact that the internet has become a powerful small-donor fundraising tool, the resources that we Democrats (I say “we” because, despite our disagreements, we are ultimately on the same side) can devote in any cycle is finite. So every volunteer hour spent targeting an incumbent Democrat for defeat is a volunteer hour not spent helping a challenger Democrat beat a Republican. Every contribution made to a candidate that is trying to knockoff a moderate incumbent Democrat is a contribution not going to a Democrat trying to beat a Republican in a competitive open seat. Not to mention the resources that are being diverted from protecting our vulnerable freshman for 08. As more than one commenter pointed out on Kos, it took resources from all over the Bay Area to get Jerry McNerney in CD-11 elected, and we will need all of those and more to get him re-elected. Let’s focus on our common goals and win.
Netroots Need to Focus on Beating Republicans, Not Democrats
Posted by: Katie Merrill on December 13, 2006On the contrary, my post far from backfired. In fact, the critical responses to my post on CMR and on different blogs prove my point.
Rather than unifying behind a common purpose to move the country forward under the Democratic leadership of Speaker Pelosi and Senate Leader Harry Reid, which the moderates are doing, those who responded critically reaffirmed their desire to target (e.g “primary”) moderates they don’t like – no matter how strong the moderate’s record is on key Democratic issues and no matter how well they serve their districts.
A full quarter of the Democratic caucus of the 110th Congress identify themselves as moderate Democrats – many of them newly elected last month. If we eschew the Big Tent and cannot unite as a party to support a quarter of our House Democrats, then our party is in big trouble.
Despite the fact that the internet has become a powerful small-donor fundraising tool, the resources that we Democrats (I say “we” because, despite our disagreements, we are ultimately on the same side) can devote in any cycle is finite. So every volunteer hour spent targeting an incumbent Democrat for defeat is a volunteer hour not spent helping a challenger Democrat beat a Republican. Every contribution made to a candidate that is trying to knockoff a moderate incumbent Democrat is a contribution not going to a Democrat trying to beat a Republican in a competitive open seat. Not to mention the resources that are being diverted from protecting our vulnerable freshman for 08. As more than one commenter pointed out on Kos, it took resources from all over the Bay Area to get Jerry McNerney in CD-11 elected, and we will need all of those and more to get him re-elected. Let’s focus on our common goals and win.
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