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Originally Posted by Jim Russell
huh, DADT repeal, end to DOMA defense.
I'll give you the repeal of DADT, but I think it's pretty disingenuous to claim that instructing your DOJ no longer to mount a legal defense of the constitutionality of a law that's still in full force and effect amounts to some sort of serious victory for gay rights. "We won't use our legal team's resources to defend it" -- it being the biggest federal impediment to marriage equality -- stops pretty far short of what gay and lesbian people deserve.
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On the state level it is even better with gay marriage and legal weed becoming the norm in liberal and Democratic states. that's not happening on the fed level with Boehner and the T-Party controlled House.
These things are all being passed by ballot initiative, i.e. non-partisan popular vote, i.e. direct democracy. These are cases where legislators, who were elected by the people to do the job of making law and representing the interests of their constituencies in the law-making process, are essentially abdicating that responsibility. Whenever there's a tough and controversial issue that's likely to have serious consequences for politicians' reputations, they basically all decide to punt the question back to the people, so they can both avoid being answerable to supporters if it fails or held accountable by opponents if it passes. It's hard to see that Democrats deserve much, if any, credit for these things.
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Originally Posted by AlexM
I don't think they need to cave entirely on economic issues, but they should definitely be much more moderate. Also, they do need to cave entirely on the environment.
Agree re: the environment.
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But if the Republican libertarians switched entirely over to Democrat, it would probably result in the collapse of the Republicans, which would be replaced by...
The biggest problem with the two party system is when they've made you feel like you have to vote for them as the lesser evil, they can just ignore you. The Republicans totally take the libertarian vote for granted, so they have zero reason to ever be more libertarian.
This is an excellent point. Until libertarians decide to punish the major parties, and until they stop conflating their rhetoric for their policies, the status quo alignments (and cultural associations) will endure.
Last edited by DrModern; 11-09-2012 at 08:47 AM.