This is a great election year, so much enthusiasm and the Democrats are about to paint the country blue. But something has been causing me to lose sleep as of late.
Our growing majority in congress is good and all but when is our tent too big?
We're on our way this election season to electing tons of new Democrats in the house, expanding our majority. But while these are all Democrats not all of them are the progressives that you all on here are, they like to be known as "Blue Dogs" and some here in the blogosphere like to call them "Bush Dogs".
I think that they have a place in the Democratic party just as much as any progressive does, but I can't help but think that we're going to have some internal problems in our party real soon between the progressives who want to propose new spending programs and the fiscally conservative DLC Democrats who are socially moderate but want to balance the budget.
Then there is the socially liberal Democrats, who believe in gay rights, restrictions on guns, etc... and the Southern Conservative Democrats who are pro gun, pro life and against gay marriage. People like Travis Childers, Dan Cazayoux, Bud Cramer, John Barrow and countless others.
This is not concern trolling by me by a long shot I was reading an article in TNR online yesterday and progressive hero Donna Edwards shares these concerns:
But, when Kratovil wandered off to try and shoot some hoops with the pastor, the mood darkened. Do you worry, I asked Edwards, that as the Democratic Party tries to gain the whole country it could forfeit its soul? She does, she admitted. She recalled the day in September when she found herself on the House floor, arguing against a bill that would force the District of Columbia to loosen its gun laws--written by Travis Childers, a freshman Blue Dog from Mississippi. "I was like, my opponent is a Democrat?" Edwards said.
I love our expanding majorities, but I think there will become a point where our tent is simply too big and we start saying things like "either they go or I do". I don't want to see a new "progressive" party formed and I don't want to see our conservative Democrats pushed to the Republican ranks. I tend to be a realist and I'm expecting some infighting to brew in the 111th congress between these opposing factions in the Democratic party and what happens when the conservative faction wants to challenge the Pelosi leadership as House Speaker?
By the next session they will have a lot of new allies in the house and if they want to challenge her for the House Speaker posistion they will have the numbers to unseat her.
I don't want to see conservative Democrats turn coat and go to the other side of the aisle and I don't want to see progressives break rank and see a new party as the only way to have a voice.
We need to start figuring out ways to come to a consensus real soon with all of these new emerging factions that will be on display in the next Congress. If we want to get President Obama's legislation passed, the Democratic congress has to be in sync.