Ideology Pander
by digby
Kevin’s made the point before, and repeats it today, that Democrats have to run to the center more than Republicans because more people identify as conservative than liberal and therefore, they have to appeal to fewer “moderates” or people in the center than the Democrats do. Or put another way, since there are so many more people in their base, they have to pander to it to win while the Democrats have to pander to the center in order to get a majority.
The problem with this analysis is that he thinks all this has something to do with how people self-identify, as if the people who identify as “conservative” are all really conservative or the moderates and liberals are truly moderate and liberal. I don’t know that that’s the case. Sure it’s true in some cases, but I don’t think people necessarily identify with these ideological labels out of ideology. It’s more of a tribal ID or a social designation.
And I think it’s fairly clear that a huge propaganda campaign to demonize the word liberal that has lasted nearly 30 years has taken its toll on the willingness of people to wear it. Even I, old time lib that I am, have found myself in large social and business situations in which self-identifying as a liberal is uncomfortable. So I’m fairly sure that there are plenty of people who call themselves moderates or centrists who are actually ideologically liberal. (And conversely, I suspect there are more than few “conservatives” who would more likely fall into the moderate camp. They identify as conservative because its adherents embrace it proudly, which makes it the default “popular” ideology regardless of its content.
I’m just musing here based on my intuition and experience. I grant there there may be studies which show just the opposite of what I think so I’m not saying Kevin is definitely wrong here. But without some deeper probing of the meaning behind them, just using the ideological label as a way to divide the electorate on issues seems wrong to me, especially in light of the fact that the right so thoroughly destroyed the liberal label that many people have completely abandoned it in favor of the term “progressive” when there is no ideological difference between them. That certainly suggests to me that the meaning of the labels is fairly flexible.
Personally, I think the Democrats are afraid to appeal to their base for the same reason I have felt uncomfortable in those social and business situations. And with the Republicans constantly defining everything they oppose as liberal, leftist, now socialist (again)they run in fear of being associated with it. I think it’s much more a matter of perception and aggressive GOP marketing than it is any real ideological disadvantage.
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