When Americans are asked if they want Social Security they do not only say they want it, they say they are willing to pay for more. This holds true for both Democrats and Republicans. Most Americans support Medicare and Medicaid uncut or expanding. The Conservative site The Blaze reports in a telling story titled “Bad News for Social Conservatives? Annual Survey Finds Americans Moving Closer Toward Social Liberalism” details the distinct tilt of Americans toward Liberalism on most social issues.
The reality is if you ignore asking about labels and ask about people’s wants and values, it is immediately apparent that America is a Liberal country. When Liberals go to the polls, Liberals win. Bill Maher nailed it with this New Rules monologue.
With that in mind the New York Mayoral Democratic Primary is a lesson every politician must learn. Notwithstanding the NRA’s win in Colorado in knocking off two gun control Democratic State Senators for supporting more stringent ‘gun control’, if Liberals vote they will win. In fact if one analyzes the Colorado race, Liberals were disinterested and stayed home, something that must be worked on going forward. Voters must learn that it is their civic duty to vote every time. Political engagement must be a requirement for effective citizenship.
Last night Bill de Blasio won the New York Democratic primary decisively. What is more compelling is that he did it with a decidedly Progressive message, a complete break from the mush of Mayor Giuliani and Mayor Bloomberg. Joy-Ann Reid of thegrio describes it best.
De Blasio won every age group, religious faction and income group, both men and women, and every borough, to take just over 40 percent of the vote, technically enough to avoid a run-off, though second place finisher Bill Thompson is not done fighting yet. …
And he ran an unabashedly progressive campaign, vowing to raise taxes on the rich, end the emphasis on “stop-and-frisk” policing, stopping a string of community hospital closures and working to make New York housing more affordable for ordinary people — an anathema to a city overtaken by mass gentrification over the last 20 years. For that, he was rewarded with a commanding 50 percent of the vote of very liberal voters, and 34 percent of those describing themselves as “somewhat liberal.” He lost moderate voters to Thompson by 3 points.
More importantly, de Blasio’s independence, and the inability of the big city papers, his well-funded rivals and their institutional backers, or the Michael Bloomberg media and cash machine to stop or even slow his late and sudden rise, signals a potential end to a period in the Big Apple’s history dominated by two pugnacious mayors who put the city squarely in the service of the rich, and who cast all of the blame for the city’s ills on squeegee men and black teenagers. Or to put it in Bloombergian terms, it’s the rich people who pay the bills, people, so all you 47 percenters bow down and say thank you. [Source]
Will 2014 be the reawakening of the Liberals, the real working middle class? Will it be 2016? Will all voters force intransigent representatives out of office, safe district or not? Or must the entire economic system come crashing down on the heads of the non-voting Liberals to really force a change; not only in New York City but throughout the land.
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Here’s to the hope that enough Americans will wake-up to how they have been been acting against their own interests. That is, if it is not already too late.
How to you get the low information fox voter to see that they act against their own interests. Especially since they are targeted with the fearful messages that prompt them to vote against their interests.
I am interested on your thoughts on whether implementation of successful liberal programs, such as the ACA and others you mentioned, might eventually convince at least real independents and centrist conservatives that a liberal social agenda is good? I think that when conservatives tied the name ObamaCare derisively to the ACA, they didn’t realize how popular that might be someday.
You are so right. They have codified President Obama as the one President, a Democrat after many have tried, to bring Universal Healthcare to America. Most importantly it will cauterize the Republicans as been the “anti” middle class party.
Bye, bye, Democracy!
http://magree.blogspot.com/2013/09/bye-bye-democracy.html
Today is the primary election for Duluth School Board and City Council.
At 10:30 I was the 36th voter in my precinct. My wife is an election worker in another precinct. At about 11:00 she said they had about 45 voters.
In the 2012 election, Duluth had an average of over 1600 voters per precinct, and that was with a turnout of over 70 percent.
If we can’t even show up for local elections, do we deserve a democracy?
And this happens all over the world. George W. Bush was elected because many Democrats didn’t show up in Florida in 2000. Morsi was elected in Egypt because many boycotted the elections. North Carolina has a Republican legislature because only 44% showed up in 2012, probably mostly Republican activists.
If you don’t vote, please don’t complain about potholes, taxes, schools, or anything else that government does.
See also “If you don’t vote, you have only yourself to blame”, Reader Weekly, 2004-10-28. http:www.cpinternet.com/~mdmagree.vote_2004-10-28.htm
Maybe it’s not so much that America is a “Liberal” Nation as it is that the extreme right has managed to get their extreme agenda into the Republican spotlight often enough (through the new media access of the internet) to make moderates look liberal. I would like to think that America is a Liberal Nation, but I think that’s just one way of looking at the situation.