Hey Moderates, Objects are Further Away Than They Appear

Dear Moderate Democrats,

Stop screwing up the Democratic Party.  Thanks!

No seriously, you need to stop.  You need to stop putting your own personal agenda ahead of the rest of the party.  You're doing more to ensure Republicans stay in charge than anything else coming from the Left.

Moderates are the ones who always balk when it comes to a strong Democratic front in the face of Republican resistance.  Hold W. Bush accountable for the Iraq War?  Nope, they didn't want to upset the moderate Republicans who they thought would work with them.  They decided to not hold anyone accountable for all the US military dead and wounded.  Hold Wall Street accountable for  purposely torpedoing the world economy?  Nope!  Moderate Democrats are the Democrats the banking industry supports.  This ensured even asking bank CFO's what happened to the money would never happen under oath.

Instead, Moderate Democrats tried to appease the rest of the Democratic Party with their stern wagging fingers.  "We won't hold these people accountable, but look at us wag our finger at them as we give them a stern glare."  With the moderate Democrats 'leadership,' we never got justice for the American people.

And there were consequences!  Moderate Democrats insist the reason the Democratic voters stayed at home in 2010 was due to the unpopular Affordable Care Act they passed.  Not only is that laughable (I'll come back to that in a second) but it ignores their own failed promises from 2006 ("elect the Democrats and we'll hold Bush and Cheney accountable") and 2008 ("re-elect us and we'll hold Wall Street accountable!").  One of the main reasons Democrats stayed at home in 2010 is the broken promises of the moderate Democrats.

And let's talk about the Affordable Care Act.  Not only did the moderate Democrats screw up the bill by allowing the inclusion of Marco Rubio's poison pill addition ("look at us compromise!") you then immediately turned on what should've been a winning signature bill for the next 20 years, terrified of Republican cries of "socialism!"  You yourself took the wind out of the sails of Democrats who had addressed the health care crisis in America.  You spent the next 6 years bad mouthing a bill YOU PASSED, a bill which most people loved.  You guys could screw up free ice cream day...

Then came Trump, and when it was clear he was corrupt, racist, crooked and likely working with the Russians (he did call for them to help them on camera during the campaign) you insisted there was something FAR more nuanced to him and his supporters, attacking people like myself who dared to call out the racists, the bigots, the purposely ignorant and Trump himself.  You helped validate him.  Today I've been proven 100% correct in my initial assessment.  Meanwhile, moderate Democrats are shockingly less vocal than they should be when it comes to Trump's racist attacks, most of which are on members of their own party!!!  Heck, I've heard more moderate Democrats imply the squad of popular Freshman Democrats are somewhat responsible for Trump's inexcusable racism targeting them.

But in 2018, the Democratic Party stopped listening to the moderates for their marching orders.  They put forward a traditional Democratic platform, highlighting bread and butter, populist Democratic issues, and a renewed call from Democratic leaders to "elect us, get us into power, and we'll hold Trump accountable."  We won big.  Since then, moderate Democrats have returned to their pre-2010 hemming and hawing, trying desperately to hush their own base, filtering their decisions thorough a misguided appeal to a handful of moderate Republicans.

And that's where we are at right now.  Moderate Democrats are telling me we need to ignore the fiscal and social issues of the progressives, issues which bring in traditional and progressive Democrats, along with a large portion of the minority voters.  I've been told "Matt, they're gong to vote Democrat anyway, so their issues are not important."(WTF?!?)  Moderate Democrats plan on ignoring LGBTQ issues, AND most women's issues.  Moderate Democrats have insisted the Democratic Party should ONLY be focused suburban women, and winning over a handful of Republicans.  That's their "sure fire plan" to victory.

It won't work.  We did it that way in 2010, 2012 (which would've been FAR worse if not for President Obama), 2014, and 2016, and every time the moderate Democrats "sure fire plan" failed.  2018 was a return to true Democratic ideals, just like 2006 was, and look at the success the party had.

Moderates, stop screwing this up!

First off moderates, you could learn a few thing from the Republicans.  They don't care what names you call them, as opposed to you, frantically trying to get their approval like the new girl trying to join the popular clique in high school.  Republicans NEVER take their party for granted, and almost always vote in unison with each other.  Moderate Democrats are FAR more eager to work with moderate Republicans than their own party.  It causes them to sacrifice WAY too much in a pathetic attempt to get the moderate Republican's attention.

And most of the time, THEY WILL NOT VOTE WITH YOU!  They voted for Trump for God's sake!  You're spending all your time trying to win over Republicans who pretty much hate you and the party you represent.  And you're ignoring the 110 million mostly Demcorats who sat out 2016.  You started to bring them back to the polls in 2018, and now you seem determined to push them back to the sidelines.

Let me explain it better this way.  Imagine the Democratic Party as a farm, a huge plot of land; 100 acres by 100 acres.  Moderate Democratic farmers are standing near one of the fences.  On the other side of the fence is a neighbor from the Republican farm.  He's 10 feet away from you, but he's clearly on the other side of the fence.  Meanwhile, the rest of your farming buddies in the Democratic Party are WAY on the other side of the field, still on your plot of land, but much further away than the Republican farmer is.  I understand why you think the guy on the other side of the fence is far closer to your mindset, but there's a fatal flaw to your theory.  Even though the farmer on the Republican side has a simile on his face, he HATES you.  He doesn't see ten feet, rather 1000 miles.  You're trying to be neighborly, they're thinking Hatfields and McCoys.

Moderate Democrats, stop screwing this up.  Work with your own party!  Embrace the core values of the Democrats!  Embrace the issues which appeal to minorities, the LGBTQ community and women! Stop trying to win over a few Republicans who will never agree with you!  Follow through on your promises! And stop worrying about what the Republicans will think of you!  They will always bad mouth you no matter what you do, so stop caring what they say!

Worry about getting the 110 million to the polls, most of whom HATE Trump.  The only thing which can stop you from winning is your own foolish, repeatedly proven wrong strategy.