It's Time for Moderate Republicans and Moderate Independents to Represent

I know you're out there, reading this blog. Never commenting because you don't want to incur the wrath. I can't say that I blame you.

But, please consider de-lurking today to let some good folks know how the Democratic Party can get your vote. Screeching from both ends of the spectrum discouraged. Let's try to have a serious discussion.

Comments

[Chris Clarke]

Port screecher disabled, captain!

[Shaunna]

they usually get my vote but I haven't been a registered member since the mid-'90s (when they became the let's-appease-the-moderate-Republicans-and-maybe-they'll-vote-with-us-party).

I am now a registered Independent.

[Dan Kauffman]

Disavow and cut all connections withe Moveon and Soros.
I am leery of political leaders who have been purchased publicly by Billionares.

"Dear MoveOn member,

Who will lead the Democratic Party? The answer may come as soon as this weekend, when the state Democratic Party leaders gather to discuss who should chair the Democratic National Committee (DNC) for the next four years.1 The election for chair is rarely competitive. But this year, with the race wide open, we have the chance to elect a leader who will reconnect the Democratic Party with its constituents -- us.

Now it's our Party: we bought it, we own it, and we're going to take it back."

That would be a start. I am now a registered Republican, for most of my life I was a registered Democrat as were everyone in my family. Times change, Parties change, I stayed about the same politically The "Progressives" moved in a Lemming Left direction right over a cliff, They have left many with No place to go, BUT the Republicans.

In a recent Poll sponsored by the DNC there is the clear sign that Shrill and Mudslinging has cost the President and the Republican Party some approval ratiings BUT it has damaged the approval rating of the Democratic Party even MORE.

Shooting themselves in the foot is no way to convince folks like me to trust them with security of the Nation.

[Byrd]

The Democratic Party is so deeply flawed, it's hard to imagine what they could do. I'd like for what's currently happening to happen more quickly.

I want to see the Democratic Party circling the drain faster, reaching the end of its death spiral as soon as possible. That way, the fiscal conservatives (who tend to be socially liberal) will feel emboldened to push harder against the social conservatives (who are fiscally...?) and split off, finally creating the fiscally conservative/socially liberal party that a vast majority of Americans really want to vote for.

[BLT in CO]

Roxanne, Jeff's link leads to a different post, so I'll repeat my thoughts again here, since this is the thread they were meant for:

Howard Dean has called me an evil idiot, Ted Kennedy and the Congressional Black Caucus have implied I'm a rabid racist, and Michael Moore and the lefty blogosphere believe I enjoy killing American servicemen for the sake of being able to drive a big honkin' SUV over the backs of various endangered species and native peoples.

I'm a moderate and I am repulsed by the games that BOTH sides play, but rarely have I been so roundly insulted, marginalized, pigeonholed, and dismissed as in the last two years by the left's leadership.

I like some of the things that the Democrats used to promote, but recently they seem able to voice just one thing: BUSH IS EVIL. That's not a platform. It's not an agenda. It's not a direction. It's not a plan. Blind hatred and negativity don't sell, don't win, and don't move anything forward.

So I'm not sure what I'd need to vote Dem in light of the hyper-negativity from the left, but a renewed focus on basics, a COMPLETE cessation of anti-Bush bullshit, and few heartfelt apologies would help.

[colin]

As a liberal Republican,I could vote Democratic if
1)The Democratic party didn't give its inteest groupsb veto power over their own little fiefdoms.Examples; partial birth abortion-the fiction that it preserves the mother's health gets laughed at by Drs. and lettheinner city kids have a chance at charter schools.Too often the public school system is a sinecure fo those who can't.Let's apply a little thought here .

[SJKevin]

Here are two recommendations:

1. Stop insulting me. (e.g. Al Gore's "digital brownshirts" comments.)
2. Party leadership needs to distance itself from the radical left.

I used to be a democrat. But their behavior has been so abysmal these last 5 years, I honestly don't know if I'll ever be able to vote democrat again. And I'm pretty liberal (moderately pro-choice, pro-gay rights, etc.).

When the DNC chair, house minority leader, and senate minority leader all promote F911 with its nutty conspiracy theory that the Afghanistan war was about a fictitious oil pipeline, well, I have a major problem with that.

[FXKLM]

The easiest thing the Democratic party could change to appeal to me would be to change the way you talk about taxes. You wouldn't even have to substantively change your policies, you'd just have to change your tone and rhetoric.

1. Stop talking about tax cuts in terms of costing the government money. Make it clear that the money we earn is ours by right. You can say that cutting taxes is imprudent given the current fiscal situation. You can say that we need to prioritize cutting the deficit over cutting taxes. But don't act like money that the government doesn't tax is equivalent to another spending program. No more rhetoric about massive giveaways to wealthiest Americans.

2. You might have to raise income taxes, but you don't have to like it. Cut the rhetoric about making the rich pay their "fair share." I can accept that tax increases are probably necessary after the irresponsible spending spree of the past few years, but I can't accept gleeful class warfare. Make it clear that the tax increases will be used to offset the deficit rather than pay for expanded spending. Make it clear that spending cuts are part of the deficit-cutting agenda. Most importantly, make it clear that taxes, even on the richest of the rich, are at best a necessary evil. I wouldn't be such a knee-jerk opponent of tax increases if you can convince me it isn't a slippery slope to pre-Reagan tax rates.

I don't have any advice on appealing to social conservatives (as I'm not a social conservative), but I would strongly advise against a lurch to the right on gay issues. It might not be wise politics to push too hard on gay rights, but I think the best position you can manage is leaving gay rights issues to the states, saying its a personal and not a political issue, and basically discussing it as little as possible. The country is consistently moving towards acceptance of homosexuality and a history of gay-baiting will be politically toxic in a few years.

Ignore the teacher's unions. There's no way they're going to turn Republican and they no longer have much pull with other unions. They drive a lot of bad policy for the Democrats and they're clearly not worth the trouble.

That shouldn't be too hard to do, and it be a good start. It wouldn't be enough to make me vote Democrat over the Republican party of 10-15 years ago, but it might be enough to make me vote Democrat today.

[Sinner]

I will consider the question only after the following:

1. The party apologizes for lettly Michael Moore into the guest of honor seat at the last convention.

2. Dr. Dean is canned and renounced

3. MoveOn, Casey Sheehan, ANSWER and the rest of the extreme left is renounced and contributions are returned.

So I guess what I am saying is when hell freezes over.

[FXKLM]

One more thing. You see that advertisement on the left of the page? The one that says "Fair labor or sweatshops? Blue skies or brown? Clean energy or oil dependence? Government for the people or business?"? Maybe not. I think those things rotate. But it's definitely there.

Just when I think I can't possibly tolerate the Republican party anymore, I see something like that and it drives me back. Don't demonize business. If you're going to complain about something business does, make sure it's a narrow, specific complaint with a narrow, specific solution. This just sounds like a wholesale demand for more regulation.

I've often seen the left use the word "unregulated" as slur. That's totally unacceptable. Unregulated is just another word for free. If you want to argue for specific regulations, you might be able to convince me. But arguing for more regulation as a general proposition is outrageous.

I also want to partially second BLT's suggestion about laying off the anti-Bush rhetoric. I wouldn't go that far, but he definitely has a point. The anti-Bush hysteria is excessive and often unfair. As a result, I usually find myself defending Bush in arguments even on issues where I disagree with him. Causing people who disagree with the president to develop a habit of defending him doesn't help the Democrats anyway. Criticizing the president is fine, but try to retain your sanity. Anti-Clinton hysteria was a long-term disaster for the Republicans. Anti-Bush hysteria isn't serving the Democrats any better.

[Maybee]

For me, a Dem candidate would simply take a look at Daily Kos. Then stay the heck away from anything the Kos posters think is a good idea, an important issue, good framing, or a viable plan.

They could come up with some plan for real fiscal responsibility rather than simply asserting they are now the party of fiscal responsibility while proposing more new spending.

They would be willing to treat taxpayers in the higher brackets with gratitude rather than scorn.

They would have to be willing to face social ills and change the problems along with asking for money to ‘cure’ the social ills. Which yes, means some personal responsibility.

They would tone down the rhetoric. Kerry lost me with his “George Bush is tearing the heart out of the heartland” kind of BS.

[SayUncle]

Become fiscally conservative (like Clinton and Dean before he went insane).

Drop any and all efforts at additional gun control (think feingold/reid not feinstein/schumer).

Do not pander to the chimpy mchitlterburton, no blood for oil, selected not elected, michael moore crazy crowd.

Take a stand on Kelo, denounce the ruling, and become the party of property rights.

In other words, i'm thinking Al Gore 1988 and not Al Gore 2004.

[KurtP]

Sorry, I can't see myself voting for a (National) Dem in the forseeable future.
They have insulted my beliefs, my patriotism, my intelligence, my religion (I'm Christian-not moslem), my hstory, my memory (they keep revising what happened back in the day).
Basically everytime they open their mouths, they find a way to drive me farther away.

BTW- the Reps are starting to follow the same pattern.

[F15C]

From my perspective, if there is single unifying populus issue amongst republicans it is illegal immigration.

Speaking pragmatically from a political perspective, a canny democrat can easily garner many republican votes by taking two stands: First, hacking off the Michael Moore far left section of their party and leaving a bloody stump showing his/her contempt for their positions while crystalizing a strong centrist agenda. Second, coming out for strong border controls, penalizing businesses that hire illegals, and immigration reform that does not reward law breakers with citizenship.

The centrist agenda could even be fairly lame, but swearing off the far leftoid idiots and showing love of country by claiming the high ground relative to our status as a sovereign nation would go a long way to getting my vote, and I suspect many more current republican voters.

[Kevin]

Well... I have commented a couple times. You probably know me better as Carla's other partner at Preemptive Karma.

I've been an Indie since the mid-term elections in 1990. I was a conservative Republican prior to that. Iran/Contra, or rather Bush 41's pardoning of anyone who was in a position to squeel on him was the death knell to my days as a Republican.

What can the Democratic party do to get my vote?

It's very situational. It all depends on who is running, what they are trying to sell me and whether I believe them. I'd sooner vote for someone that I don't necessarily agree with on many things, but who I trust to be honest with me (like the pre-2004 McCain or the 2000 Bradley)... than someone telling me what I wanna hear but not convincing me that they mean a word of it (Gore in 2000, Dubya from conception to the foreseeable future). I''ll sooner vote 3rd party or write someone in than vote for someone that I don't trust, which is what I did in 2000 (Nader).

I can also tell you that trying to recruit me to register as a Democrat would be pointless and counterproductive. I'll be a confirmed Indie for the rest of my life.

On the whole, I am currently a solid potential ally of moderate to liberal Democrats because I am as fed up with the unholy alliance of NeoCons, TheoCons and ex-New England aristrocrats (he wasn't born in Crawford!) currently in control of the federal government as you are. Just understand that I make no promises about what happens after the inevitable paradigm shift inside the beltway, though. That will depend on what those future Dems do with their newfound power.

[Morgaine Swann]

So how moderate do you think these commenters are? Most people will define themselves as "moderate" but in reality, are anything but.

[David R. Block]

The Democrats have insulted me out of the party, and judging from the continuing voluminous screeching, they want to keep it that way. If they want to give the message that they are against any and all religion except Islam, then message received and acknowledged. Islam we must try to understand, you see, but Christians can be demonized and insulted just for fun. Fine, just don't expect my vote. Ever.

Give more than lip service to ending illegal immigration. NO amnesty. Drop that word from their vocabulary.

My money is my money, it does not belong to the government. You don't "pay" for tax cuts, you cut spending, and I wish that the Republicans would do that more, but I don't dare dream that the Democrats would do it at all. Everyone who pays income tax got a tax cut, not just the mega-wealthy and the Democrats need to quit lying about that.

Duct tape Michael Moore's pie hole. Cindy Sheehan too, while you are at it. The rank anti-Semitism of the left is too much. It makes the old conspiracy nut-job fundamentalist preacher Carl MacIntyre look sane, and I didn't think that could ever be done. Every time they open their mouth, I hear the Democrats moving farther away from me.

Quit living in denial of media bias. Fake but accurate, my butt. Fake is inaccurate, by definition.

[BadLiberal]

I'll ditto the above comments on the insults Dems and the Kossack/Atrios/Ted Rall wing have larded upon us who actually fly the flag.

But also, how about this: why not give up on ideas that have clearly proven not to work?

Subsidized housing hasn't created thriving neighborhoods. The war on poverty hasn't ended poverty, and gun control hasn't ended violence. Public schools get worse the more we try to control them, and environmental regulations are so under-supported by cultural consensus that we're in danger of losing them entirely.

I work in the health insurance industry and what we've done to the health care sector is beyond a mess. Democrats I know refuse to entertain the notion that malpractice insurance is hurting the sector, and yet, doctors keep telling us it is. Huh.

Finally, Democrats should might want to entertain the notion that a continually expanding tax roll isn't actually a good thing.

However, to make all of the above happen, Democrats would need to be willing to piss off teachers, civil service unions, trial lawyers, and the academics who promote them. Don't see that happening anytime soon.

Can't see the Democrats pulling out of this death spiral, particularly as they continue to sabotage their one safe bet, California.

[Kevin]

BadLiberal,

The problem that I have with tort reform is that it benefits businesses at the expense of the citizenry by removing a significant deterent to malfeasance. I am in limited agreement that malpractice insurance is a financial burden. But, in order to sell me on tort reform, you're going to have to entertain regulating those same doctors. The average citizen needs some kind of remedial leverage to protect his/her rights. Instituting slap-on-the-wrist award caps doesn't adequately protect the consumer, IMHO.

Tort reform or deregulation. I'll cooperate on one. But, never both.

BTW, I don't prefer "a continually expanding tax roll." But, it would be preferable to a continually expanding federal credit card balance. Which is to say that I find "tax and spend" to be infinitely more fiscally prudent than "borrow and spend."

[Mike C.]

Although I probably wouldn't be considered a moderate I haven't been averse to voting for Democrats in the past. I cried when Jimmy Carter lost (I was too young to vote), I voted for Mondale and Dukakis and as close to a straight-party Dem ticket as I possibly could have in the very Republican state I lived in during those two elections. I didn't vote in '92 or '96 but would have voted for Clinton in '92. I even voted for Harry Reid for Senate once. Now let me show you my perception of the Democratic party today.

Howard Dean, the DNC chairman, has said of the current political climate,

"This is a struggle of good and evil. And we're the good."

Harry Reid, took the occasion of a discussion of Senate rules with a group of high school students to express himself thusly,

"The man's father is a wonderful human being," Reid said in response to a question about President Bush's policies. "I think this guy is a loser."

He later apologized for this comment but explicitly refused to apologize for also calling the President of the United States a "liar."

And, finally, from the very politically astute and normally congenial Bill Clinton last year at the Democratic National Convention,

[T]he Republicans in Washington believe that American should be run by the right people -- their people -- in a world in which America acts unilaterally when we can and cooperates when we have to.
They believe the role of government is to concentrate wealth and power in the hands of those who embrace their economic, political and social views, leaving ordinary citizens to fend for themselves on important matters like health care and retirement security.

Statements like these, and believe me I could find dozens more if I wanted to spend the time, and the actions of elected Democrats (judicial filibusters, to name just one example) reveal to me that the Democrats, or at least their national leaders, don't see their differences with Republicans as merely policy disputes between well-meaning people. Rather, they see these differences as arising from sinister motives on the part of Republicans. Until the Dems can come to grips with the fact that there are intelligent, well-informed, honest, and well-meaning people that can disagree with them they will be unable to honestly evaluate their beliefs and policies and present alternatives that will make me consider voting for one.

[Peter Jackson]

Try capitalism.

Beneath all of the layers of Democrats' worldview lay spurious economic premises that haven't been seriously taught in an economics department in decades. Today, capitalism *is* economics, and virtually everything the left thinks it knows about economics is now commonly understood to be mistaken.

:peter

[G. Bob]

I'll bite. Hi, I'm G. Bob and you might remember me from such voting blocs as "Clinton '92" and the less popular "Clinton '96". You know, back before the Democratic party showed that they couldn't be trusted with a law firm in Arkansas, let alone a nation. Good times.

I had been voting against Republicans my whole life. I admired the Democratic party for it's support of the civil rights movement. I applauded the party for it's support of free speech. I stood with it as a check against those who would try to impose their religious and moral views on me. I supported it for the memories of visionaries in spreading democracy and human rights across the globe.

The fact that many in the Democratic party can't see that they no longer stand for those things is why I will never vote for another Democrat for a long while.

Instead of trying to create a color blind society where all have equal access, the modern Democratic party panders to race-baiters and destroys the years of hard work that got us to the point we are today. Quotas have become a means unto themselves, rather than a tool to correct a great wrong. When people of color, like Clarence Thomas or Condoleeza Rice rise to power they are torn down by the Democratic party. Shameful.

Democrats once stood for freedom of expression. Now they stand for laws that limit speech. They have created a society where one is afraid to speak without fear of someone being offended.

It's no longer the Moral Majority I have to fear. It's the Nanny state. From laws against video games to regulations on drugs and alcohol, it's the Democrats who hand out the scarlet letters. Instead of claiming God as their driving moral force, they now say "it's to protect children".

As for spreading freedom and democracy.....well, that speaks for itself. Because of one man in the white house, there are 50 million people in the world who have been able to vote for the first times in their lives. Women are no longer stoned in Afghanistan for the crime of wearing nail polish. The rape squads in Iraq have been shut down and for one brief shining moment, a chance for a better world is at hand. Perhaps I could have forgiven the Democrats if they sat on their hands and did nothing, like the Republicans did in WW2. They didn't. They have instead decided to do everything in their power to undermine the war on terror and American effectiveness abroad.

No, I don't think the Dems will ever win me back. Instead they'll pay lip service to the Nascar crowd and become once then what they were before. I'm not a Republican, but I sure as hell will never be a Democrat again.

[G. Bob]

errr...that should end "and become worse than what what they were before". Stupid whiskey.

[Chap]

I was a single issue voter last time: national security. I need a serious understanding of how a military is able, and supposed, to be used; institutions which support a serious study of strategy and policy, and a party that supports and thrives upon such study and execution. (Breitbart's New Republic article in December of last year is good for this discussion.) Sometimes it's not a law enforcement problem; it's war.

What I see instead on the Dem side is rallies organized by A.N.S.W.E.R.-level commies, pacifists who haven't thought through what real pacifism entails, military service grabbed on to like a flavor shot in a latte, and unserious thought on the use of force and how and why to use it.

There's more but this is the one issue I need to ensure I am comfortable with before I vote.

[The Real JeffS]

Having voted both Republican and Democrat at all levels (heck, I've even voted Libertarian!), I suppose I'm a moderate.

I will likely continue to vote that way on local elections.

However, I have found it, since 1997, very difficult to vote moderate on the state level, and impossible to do so at the Federal level. The 2000 Presidential election merely confirmed my analysis. Further idiocy at the state level has me looking at Libertarian candidates far more closely than I would have thought a mere 10 years ago.

Frankly, I'm fairly certain that the DNC will not get my vote (at the state and Federal) ever again. Between Kerry, Clinton, Clinton, Dean, Reid, Byrd, Kennedy, Boxer, Pelosi, Rangel, Murray.....aw, hell, just about all of the current DNC big names! Between all of them, I'm convinced that the DNC is in the middle of a major meltdown, and is so brain dead as to not realize it.

Fix that little problem, and I'll be listening.