Bill Daley, brother the present Mayor Daley and son of the late Mayor Daley, warns the Democratic leadership of the risks of their present course:
These independents and Republicans supported Democrats based on a message indicating that the party would be a true Big Tent — that we would welcome a diversity of views even on tough issues such as abortion, gun rights and the role of government in the economy.
This call was answered not just by voters but by a surge of smart, talented candidates who came forward to run and win under the Democratic banner in districts dominated by Republicans for a generation. These centrists swelled the party’s ranks in Congress and contributed to Obama’s victories in states such as Indiana, North Carolina, Virginia, Colorado and other Republican bastions.
But now they face a grim political fate. On the one hand, centrist Democrats are being vilified by left-wing bloggers, pundits and partisan news outlets for not being sufficiently liberal, “true” Democrats. On the other, Republicans are pounding them for their association with a party that seems to be advancing an agenda far to the left of most voters.
The political dangers of this situation could not be clearer.
I doubt they’ll heed him. Too many of the members of the leadership have safe seats in decidedly blue states. I have little doubt they’ll be so flushed with victory after passing the disastrous policy they’re thinking of as healthcare reform that they’ll be even more eager to throw Democratic centrists off the back of the troika.
Frankly, I don’t find the prospect of oscillating back and forth between a heedless Republican leadership that doesn’t speak for most Americans and a heedless Democratic leadership that doesn’t speak for most Americans particularly appealing. That’s the price of moving ever so steadily in the direction of programmatic parties. Programmatic parties are fine in parliamentary systems but in systems like ours they’re the pits.
