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Comment by h2odragon | Hacker News Reader

You be in the tent, pissing out; or outside the tent in the rain.

Democrats are having "purity spiral" fights over who gets thrown out of the tent, for a while now. Very little "we can work together on $A despite disagreeing on $B"

Republicans are picking up people just because they're the alternative, not because they articulate or exemplify principles.

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who has been thrown out of Democratic leadership? As far as I understand, they are explicitly NOT doing that and instead capitulating and backing candidates and judges who are further right than mainstream dems. Meanwhile in Idaho the extreme right is chasing anyone who isn't a white nationalist out of office, so i guess we have that to look forward to from other Republican strongholds.

Quite a few of the hispanic side of my family (Catholic) have been openly talking about having jumped ship away from the Democrats. I think there are principles involved, even if people on the left don't understand or agree with them.

After the 2020 election, a lot of attention went to the Latino-driven swing in south Florida toward Trump that probably gave him the state. But that was only a few points; Florida was and is a swing state.

Meanwhile, a massive shift to Trump occurred in the Texas border region in 2020. 90% Hispanic counties that had voted Democratic for 150 years saw 30 points' worth of movement. It received little attention because Trump would have won Texas with or without the swing, but if this and Florida are any augurs of Latino sentiment nationwide ...

> Democrats are having "purity spiral" fights over who gets thrown out of the tent, for a while now.

Dude, they haven’t even gotten rid of Sinema or Manchin, and those two have done nothing but grind the Democrats plans to a halt. If they can’t even get rid of their right fringe, these purity spirals can’t be very effective.

The thing with Sinema and Manchin is that the alternative to them isn't a non-obstructionist Democrat, it's a Republican. "Getting rid" of them would do nothing to help Dems.

It wouldn't, and that's why they're still there—but if the Democrats were in the middle of a "purity spiral", they'd be gone. Instead they're in the middle of "we've got these people constantly blocking us but they're slightly better than the alternative spiral". In other words, spinning in circles going nowhere.

>right fringe

That moment when your party has moved so far to the left that left of center democrats are now considered right wing extremists for derailing your agenda.

The democrats own plans and piss poor economy management stalled themselves. If your party’s agenda can’t even unify your own party, let alone attract some bi-partisan support, it might be time to soften the agenda a bit and start doing some things widen your support.

They’re the right fringe of the Democrats, regardless of where they are on an absolute scale.

> let alone attract some bi-partisan support

Hah! Ha ha ha ha hah hah! Ah hah hah ha ha ha ha ha hah hah ha

> Hah! Ha ha ha ha hah hah! Ah hah hah ha ha ha ha ha hah hah ha

“That…is why you fail” - Yoda

Thanks, Lucy—I’m sure you won’t pull away the football this time.

Sometimes you just need to be creative in how you approach…

https://youtu.be/fkxFzkykAd4

Republicans have centrists too, that isn't unique to one party. Representatives will generally take on the ideological positions of those they represent, and the fact is West Virginia is nothing like California so we shouldn't expect the representatives to be the same ideologically.

I agree with everything you're saying, but I think it means the idea that Democrats are in the midst of a purity spiral is bunk.

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