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MODERATE_EXTREMISTS

                                             February 18, 2025       
                                                                     
A fun feature of the modern political scene is the moderate          
extremists among the Democrats. They're deeply convinced             
that the right thing to do is to compromise and play to some         
largely imaginary center.  Whenever this strategy fails,             
their first impulse is to come up with some reason to blame          
the failure on the left for daring to say what they think.           
You see, they can't cater to the left because there's no             
votes there, no one listens to those guys; but then after            
losing the election, it's all the fault of the left and the          
terrible things they were saying about the moderates that            
was so hugely influential.                                           
                                                                     
You try to point out that the Republicans don't behave like this,
they always play to their base, when out of power the last thing
they think of is compromise, instead they start jamming as hard as
they can-- the moderate centrists react in revulsion to the
thought of trying to do a left-wing version of that.
                                                                     
When running for office, they constantly dance to the center,        
trying to sound like a Republican-lite, and they act surprised       
when no one takes that seriously.  The now standard criticism: 
"You know, if they wanted to vote for a Republican they can          
just vote for one" perpetually falls on deaf ears.                   
                                                                      
When they are in power, there are various moves they could make to   
shore it up that are constantly rejected: Drop the Senate's          
fillibuster rule? Expand the supreme court? Statehood for DC and         
Puerto Rico?  Or even just remove the Republican appointees left over
as heads of various agencies (the FBI, the Post Office)?                 
                                                                         
To quote Jen Sorenson's comic strip:                                     
                                                                         
  "Oh no, we couldn't possibly do anything that *dramatic*."             
                                                                     
They will fight to the death for their right to not do very much.    
                                                                     
                                                                     
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