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Originally Posted by Krazygrrl
Good points... One of the problems with ideology that is overlooked in the USA, is that with only two major parties, it is too broad. There are some conservative Democrats who are more conservative than some Republicans. There are liberal Republicans who are more liberal than some Democrats.
The various ideologies of five, six, or seven, major political parties elsewhere are being pressed into two. Unfortunately, while the parties themselves are both quite centrist, some elements conspire to push them apart. Elements, which disenfranchise some voters in that they are trying to mold the whole in their image. This is why you also have "independents" who can run the extreme spectrum from far left to far right, yet without party affiliation, yet most are also quite centrist.
The problem with the Tea Party (a more right-centrist arm of the GOP) is that it challenges the equally far from center governing faction of the DNC, (aptly represented by Obama, Biden, Pelosi, and Reid) which has become the norm in Washington. Why was there no Tea Party when Clinton was President? Because he, leading the DNC, took a very much centrist course. The current course of the DNC, is well to the left of center and was highlighted by the election of one of them most liberal members of the Congress, Barrack Obama, as President.
Obama hasn't changed, neither has the electorate. It is just that the latter group now understands his policies (and those of the ruling Democrats) and are not amused as they are not centrist. Thus you have the 2010 midterm elections, which were referendum on Obama's policies who have fallen from favor even more since then.
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We most certainly exist in different political universes. I do not occupy a universe in which the Tea Party bears any semblance to being centrist, and in which Obama operates in close proximity to the left wing. Pete loves to give us concrete examples of the many ways in which Obama has been maddenly centrist. Moreover, liberal Republicans have gone the way of the stegosaurus. They are a thing of the past.
Bill Clinton engaged in his presidency as a moderate Republican. The primal ooze, which would later take life as the tea party, was bubbling during his presidency. This was aptly demonstrated by those engaged in an irrational hatred of and fervent desire to bring down that moderate southern boy.
Regards,
D-Ray