Why Are So Many Democratic Politicians So Far Out of Touch? - New York Times

[candycorn]

From the New York Times, not Fox News. Even they realize that the democrat party is not in touch with ordinary Americans. From the article:


In January 2025, when the U.S. House took up legislation to bar trans women’s participation on women’s sports teams, all but two Democratic representatives — Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez — voted against the bill.
When the Senate took up a similar proposal three days ago, every Democrat present voted against it.
Why don’t more Democrats explicitly moderate their stands on transgender rights, immigration and other issues? Those who maintain far-out positions are well to the left of the electorate and its emblematic median voter. The trans issue clearly weakened Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, leaving her open to devastating pro-Trump ads.
In the case of one of the most disputed rights claimed by some parts of the transgender activist community — transgender women’s participation on women’s sports teams — Democrats have clear liberal grounds to challenge that claim, by asserting that they are protecting a woman’s right from unfair competition.
But this phenomenon — drifting far from the median voter — is hardly limited to the left. There are many factors behind the reluctance of both Democrats and Republicans to shift to the center.

For one thing, donors, especially the growing legions of small donors, prefer more extreme candidates. Adding additional pressure, what have come to be known as “the groups” — advocacy organizations on the left and the right — demand fealty to policies that are sometimes politically costly; they threaten to support primary challengers to run against those who defy their authority. On a psychological level, Democrats and liberals are morally committed to protecting marginalized groups from harm and defending racial and sexual minorities.
Before exploring these pressures, let’s go to the dominant political fact of life working against moderation, which is that there are decisive majorities in both the House and the Senate that have no interest in abandoning more extreme stands. Many Democrats and Republicans won their seats with the promise to fight the partisan opposition until hell freezes over.
The combination of partisan gerrymandering, the deepening of affective polarization — smoldering hatred of partisan adversaries — and the steadily growing number of safe seats has created a calculus encouraging, nurturing and fostering political positioning far to the left or right of the median voter.

The key piece of evidence: Of the 435 House districts, The Cook Political Report identifies 36 as competitive, broken down as 17 tossups, 15 leaning Democratic and four leaning Republican. Adding the eight likely Democratic and 17 likely Republican districts, which are much less likely to be competitive, brings the total to 61, or a measly 14 percent of all 435 members.
In this one-seventh of House districts that are at least somewhat competitive, there is a real payoff on Election Day for a candidate to moderate more extreme stands.

That is decidedly not the case in the remaining 86 percent of House districts — 374 of them, 189 solid Democratic and 185 solid Republican — that are not competitive, with the winner chosen in the primary and the general election a formality.
Candidates in these safe districts are under no pressure to moderate in order to win a general election, and primary voters are free to vote ideologically instead of strategically.
Senate races are less preordained, but still a majority are foregone conclusions, partywise: Nine to 11 states are considered battlegrounds, or “purple,” while 39 to 41, depending on who is doing the analysis, fall into the solid red or blue camp.
For a decisive majority of House members and a slightly less commanding majority of senators, then, the cost of adopting more extreme and intensely partisan stands drops close to zero, with a payoff in added voters in ideologically driven primaries.
What this comes down to is that in the calculations of incumbents in safe districts, adopting the hard-nosed position leaves no ideological space for challengers in the primaries.

In fact, among polarized primary electorates in these districts, the successful nominee is very likely to be naturally comfortable positioning himself or herself at the further end of the political spectrum, deeply hostile to the opposition party, opposed in principle to compromise.

https://archive.is/a9ef0#selection-519.0-519.59

Its an OP/ED.

 

[Stann]

Its an OP/ED.

That's what I.trief to.explain.to.these trumpers. They took.the author's opinion.as fact. BTW , the author does not have to be an employee of the agency involved. It could be an independent writer. Not interested enough to investigate if that was the case or not. Only one person's opinion.

 

[EdwinAMartin]

A Closer Look at the Billionaires and Organizations Funding the Global Trans Movement

Megyn is joined by Jennifer Bilek, journalist at The 11th Hour Blog, to discuss the billionaires funding the global transgender movement, exactly which philanthropic organizations and Silicon Valley corporations are pushing trans surgeries and gender clinics, the role of Salesforce founder Marc...

www.megynkelly.com

The Transgender Money Pipeline

How ultra rich activists are funding the trans movement

www.justthefacts.media

Point team of the kiddie grooming industry:

Homepage - Glisten

Glisten: Championing LGBTQ+ issues in K-12 education. Together we can transform our nation's schools into the safe and affirming environment all youth deserve.

glisten.org

Changed their name from GLSEN; guess the old one was getting too well known to outsiders, same reason another Democrat front, La Raza, changed its name.

 

[Stann]

A Closer Look at the Billionaires and Organizations Funding the Global Trans Movement

Megyn is joined by Jennifer Bilek, journalist at The 11th Hour Blog, to discuss the billionaires funding the global transgender movement, exactly which philanthropic organizations and Silicon Valley corporations are pushing trans surgeries and gender clinics, the role of Salesforce founder Marc...

www.megynkelly.com

The Transgender Money Pipeline

How ultra rich activists are funding the trans movement

www.justthefacts.media

Point team of the kiddie grooming industry:

Homepage - Glisten

Glisten: Championing LGBTQ+ issues in K-12 education. Together we can transform our nation's schools into the safe and affirming environment all youth deserve.

glisten.org

Changed their name from GLSEN; guess the old one was getting too well known to outsiders, same reason another Democrat front, La Raza, changed its name.

Propaganda

 

[candycorn]

That's what I.trief to.explain.to.these trumpers. They took.the author's opinion.as fact. BTW , the author does not have to be an employee of the agency involved. It could be an independent writer. Not interested enough to investigate if that was the case or not. Only one person's opinion.

Here is where I take up for the OP--sort of.

The author was expessing their views. This particular author is a member of the legacy media so it carries some weight.

 

[candycorn]

From the New York Times, not Fox News. Even they realize that the democrat party is not in touch with ordinary Americans. From the article:


In January 2025, when the U.S. House took up legislation to bar trans women’s participation on women’s sports teams, all but two Democratic representatives — Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez — voted against the bill.
When the Senate took up a similar proposal three days ago, every Democrat present voted against it.
Why don’t more Democrats explicitly moderate their stands on transgender rights, immigration and other issues? Those who maintain far-out positions are well to the left of the electorate and its emblematic median voter. The trans issue clearly weakened Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, leaving her open to devastating pro-Trump ads.
In the case of one of the most disputed rights claimed by some parts of the transgender activist community — transgender women’s participation on women’s sports teams — Democrats have clear liberal grounds to challenge that claim, by asserting that they are protecting a woman’s right from unfair competition.
But this phenomenon — drifting far from the median voter — is hardly limited to the left. There are many factors behind the reluctance of both Democrats and Republicans to shift to the center.

For one thing, donors, especially the growing legions of small donors, prefer more extreme candidates. Adding additional pressure, what have come to be known as “the groups” — advocacy organizations on the left and the right — demand fealty to policies that are sometimes politically costly; they threaten to support primary challengers to run against those who defy their authority. On a psychological level, Democrats and liberals are morally committed to protecting marginalized groups from harm and defending racial and sexual minorities.
Before exploring these pressures, let’s go to the dominant political fact of life working against moderation, which is that there are decisive majorities in both the House and the Senate that have no interest in abandoning more extreme stands. Many Democrats and Republicans won their seats with the promise to fight the partisan opposition until hell freezes over.
The combination of partisan gerrymandering, the deepening of affective polarization — smoldering hatred of partisan adversaries — and the steadily growing number of safe seats has created a calculus encouraging, nurturing and fostering political positioning far to the left or right of the median voter.

The key piece of evidence: Of the 435 House districts, The Cook Political Report identifies 36 as competitive, broken down as 17 tossups, 15 leaning Democratic and four leaning Republican. Adding the eight likely Democratic and 17 likely Republican districts, which are much less likely to be competitive, brings the total to 61, or a measly 14 percent of all 435 members.
In this one-seventh of House districts that are at least somewhat competitive, there is a real payoff on Election Day for a candidate to moderate more extreme stands.

That is decidedly not the case in the remaining 86 percent of House districts — 374 of them, 189 solid Democratic and 185 solid Republican — that are not competitive, with the winner chosen in the primary and the general election a formality.
Candidates in these safe districts are under no pressure to moderate in order to win a general election, and primary voters are free to vote ideologically instead of strategically.
Senate races are less preordained, but still a majority are foregone conclusions, partywise: Nine to 11 states are considered battlegrounds, or “purple,” while 39 to 41, depending on who is doing the analysis, fall into the solid red or blue camp.
For a decisive majority of House members and a slightly less commanding majority of senators, then, the cost of adopting more extreme and intensely partisan stands drops close to zero, with a payoff in added voters in ideologically driven primaries.
What this comes down to is that in the calculations of incumbents in safe districts, adopting the hard-nosed position leaves no ideological space for challengers in the primaries.

In fact, among polarized primary electorates in these districts, the successful nominee is very likely to be naturally comfortable positioning himself or herself at the further end of the political spectrum, deeply hostile to the opposition party, opposed in principle to compromise.

https://archive.is/a9ef0#selection-519.0-519.59

Interesting you think so much of his writing.

He also wrote:

New York Times columnist (the author of the OP/ED) Thomas B. Edsall views Donald Trump as a transformative, dangerous force in American politics, arguing his rise represents the most significant threat to the U.S. democratic system since the Civil War.

 

[EdwinAMartin]

Propaganda

Yes, facts bother you a lot.

 

[Stann]

Here is where I take up for the OP--sort of.

The author was expessing their views. This particular author is a member of the legacy media so it carries some weight.

Like what trump says carries some weight. It's laughable.

 

[candycorn]

Like what trump says carries some weight. It's laughable.

Silly comparison.

 

[Stann]

Silly comparison.

Not so silly , especially if the author is a crazy loon supporter of trump.

 

[candycorn]

Not so silly , especially if the author is a crazy loon supporter of trump.

You’re right about that.

However in this case, the writer is anything but a “crazy loon supporter of trump”.

Essentially, from the writings of his I read, he’s calling for a Clintonesque Democratic Party, not one that is along the lines of Sanders and AOC.

 

[Stann]

You’re right about that.

However in this case, the writer is anything but a “crazy loon supporter of trump”.

Essentially, from the writings of his I read, he’s calling for a Clintonesque Democratic Party, not one that is along the lines of Sanders and AOC.

Clinton was good sensible business. That's a plus. Looked it up the New York times has done tons of articles on what's wrong with trumpers. So it was probably time for them to do one about what's wrong with Democrats. Can't be impartial , don't want to be like trump. Newspapers can't be bigoted and biased.