Thursday, March 1, 2012

To win, Georgia Democrats must look to the Center/Right

State Progressives Complain, but the party can't achieve gains without attracting or regaining Centrists & Conservative Democrats

Right now, Georgia Democrats need to focus on how they can win consistently, and that requires engaging the party's moderates & conservatives (Yes there are still conservatives in the party). It does not mean abandoning core beliefs or giving up on efforts to influence opinion. But it's easier to influence opinion when you WIN, let me repeat, WIN elections.

Democrats can embrace the middle and win, but if Republicans push too hard to embrace the middle, they will lose too many of their activists and non-activists. The key, in my opinion to victory for Georgia Democrats is to force Republicans to fight for the middle, it's a win-win strategy for Democrats, as they attempt to grow their coalition and divide the already strong, steady Republicans.

The Republican coalition is smaller, but it's uniformly conservative. But there remains a divide between Democratic activists and non-activists. Non-activists are very moderate and include quite a few conservatives. Furthermore, non-activists make up the vast majority of the party and are ideologically situated right between the liberal and conservative "peaks" of each party's activist base. Republicans can win by attracting those moderate and conservative Democrats; in fact, the GOP is sunk without them. (Remember, many of these republicans nowadays used to be Moderate/ Conservative Democrats). If Democrats can bring them securely into the fold, they are unbeatable.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Seems the core activists in Atlanta don't realize that THEY may be the problem we are a minority party in GA. The world doesn't revolve around them. They've be running the show for a long time & look where it's gotten us! Its time for Page Gleason and company to step aside and let people outside of Fulton to have input.

And YES, I'm posting anonymously, the same way they posted their accusations!

Keith said...

Hmmmmm....OK!

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