The Importance of Moderate and Conservative Democrats

On his show from the other night Lawrence O'Donnell explains very clearly why we need moderate and even conservative Democrats in Congress. Because the alternative often as not is a rightwing nutjob like Todd Akin. Not every state is Massachusetts. Not every seat represents a liberal or progressive district.

But if we can get a moderate to sit in the Senate for the rather conservative state of Missouri, we get to have Pat Leahy chairing the Judiciary Committee instead of Orrin Hatch, and we get Supreme Court justices who respect women's rights and minority rights and the rights of average working people instead of another rubber stamp for the Koch Brothers. We get representatives who can help broker deals and get actual legislation and responsibly funded budgets passed. We might even see a Congress that functions. But more importantly, by electing moderates like Claire McCaskill we get a Democrat sitting instead of a bizarrely ignorant Republican like Todd Akin. It's about numbers.

This year the GOP has purged several more conservative but rational members of Congress, who knew how to cooperate with others to get things done, and replaced them with fruitcakes who behave like ayatollahs, who refuse to compromise, who want the economy to fail so the black guy doesn't get re-elected, who want to turn America into a large non-union sweatshop, or, better yet, want to help their wealthy contributors ship more American jobs to Indonesia, who want to make rape victims bear the children of their rapists as long as their rapists didn't break their arm or their nose and said thank you afterwards. Think about this next time you criticize the moderates in Congress. They are an endangered species.

Extreme Politics is Killing Our Democracy

Today's must-read is a piece from Reuters. Extreme gerrymandering of districts has eliminated moderates, especially moderate Republicans. (We still have a number of Blue Dog Democrats, who resemble the Republicans of Nixon's day.)

Extreme politics is making it impossible for us to find a deal on raising the debt limit. Here's a good history of the debt limit issue from the CBC. It's an artificial crisis that suits the Republican caucus very well. The Republican leaders voted for George W. Bush's raises to the debt ceiling. Every president in the past fifty years has raised the debt ceiling, repeatedly. Who did so the most? Reagan, almost 200%. Second place? George W. Bush, almost 90%. It's only become a GOP issue since Obama took office, raising the question: is this Mitch McConnell's way of delivering on his pledge to make Obama a one-term president? In the midst of the biggest economic crisis in 75 years, McConnell said his top priority was to make sure Obama wasn't re-elected. This is the economy the Republicans want.

Extremes in incomes is killing us too. Here's an interesting study from the Washington Post. If the ratio between rich and middle class earners had remained the same as it was in the 1960s there would be no deficit and no recession. Better paid workers are better consumers, better at keeping up with their debts, more secure homeowners, need fewer government programs, and they don't evade taxes as aggressively as the rich do.