Shhh, don't tell tell the democrats!
Via Cadillac Tight

Matt Stoller and Chris Bowers of OpenLeft are gathering data on Blue Dog Democrats and New Democrats in order to cull ammunition against them for “breaking with progressives”:

The real money shot quote for me, though, was this line.

One, many of these members feel no pressure to vote correctly or uphold progressive values.

American Politics aren't that hard- the thing that you have to realize is that the Democrats and the Republicans are both coalitions.


What, you say? The us doesn't have Whigs and Tories and Christian Liberal Democrats and Democratic Socialists, etc, etc, etc.. or they do, but only those two parties get elected. Well. there in lies the trick. There's a long list of issues, that the two parties cover- and while you might say these issues are Left and Right, I think most of them are a bit more difficult to grok than that. When you run for office, you pick the issue or issues that are most important to you and choose a party. It doesn't mean that you are going to agree with the entire agenda. I don't even think that it's possible for a sane person to fully agree with either political party. But the republicans are very conscious of their "coalition." Between the Social Conservatives and the Fiscal Conservatives, especially, but of all the other fractures in the party.

Now.

Blue Dogs consider themselves heirs to the Southern conservative wing of the party, and tend to vote for socially restrictive policies and a hawkish foreign policy.

Southern democrats vote the way they do because that is what they believe in, and that is what wins elections for them. If you force them out, they'll just be replaced by Republicans. If you want to win elections, be aware of your coalitions. Or you can continue to look at it simplistically and loose elections. Your call.