After losing a couple of state governorships, the Democratic Party has appeared perplexed about what happened.  I can with some certainty say that in Virginia what happened is Creigh Deeds moved to the right and distanced himself from the voters who voted for Barack Obama.  Mostly younger, educated voters, put Virginia in the blue column for the presidential election, yet Deeds thought he had to cater to the centrists (read conservative) Democrats of Virginia.

What the Democrats seem to never get is that it is the more liberal electorate that puts them into office and for some reason the Democrats after getting into office take a right turn and collude with the conservatives to water down liberal efforts.  This is exactly what they have done by voting for the Stupak Amendment.  We should have known this would happen…..taking single payer health care off the table before the debate had even begun should have been our first clue that the Democrats don’t really stand for liberal ideas.

There has been a lot of commentary about the splitting of the Republican Party but I think the Democrats are going to face the same issue…liberals put Democrats into office and Democrats all of a sudden don’t need their liberal base any more.  Ask the gay community.  Many of them worked hard for candidate Obama and other Democrats and yet we still have the Defense of Marriage Act and Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.  Women in large measure worked for Democratic candidates and now it is their turn to find themselves thrown under the bus of the Democratic Party.

If Democrats cannot support their own platform, then why are they in the Democratic Party?

A big thumbs down to those who voted for the Stupak Amendment:

Bishop (GA)

Cardoza

Cooper

Costa

Costello

Cuellar

Dahlkemper

Donnelly (IN)

Doyle

Driehaus

Ellsworth

Ethridge

Hill

Kanjorski

Kaptur

Kildee

Lipinski

Lynch

Mollohan

Reyes

Murtha

Neal (CA)

Oberstar

Obey

Ortiz

Perriello

Pomeroy

Rahall

Rodriguez

Ryan (OH)

Salazar

Snyder

Spratt

Stupak

Wilson (OH)
Yes, it may be an old country saying, but it still stands true…..you’ve got to dance with the one that brung you or you may just find yourself as a wall flower.

Choice from the THE 2008 DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL PLATFORM, RENEWING AMERICA’S PROMISE

The Democratic Party strongly and unequivocally supports Roe v. Wade and a woman’s right
to choose a safe and legal abortion, regardless of ability to pay, and we oppose any and all
efforts to weaken or undermine that right. SOURCE .pdf

Apparently the parties platform means little to nothing to House Democrats.

After months of work by House Democrats on major health care legislation, the floor debate on the bill was at risk of being overshadowed by an internal dispute among Democrats over the issue of abortion. In the end, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi decided that abortion opponents would be allowed to offer an amendment that would impose tight restrictions on abortions that could be offered through a new government-run insurance plan and through private insurance that is bought using government subsidies. Sponsored primarily by Michigan Representative Bart Stupakhe, the amendment to the legislation passed 240 – 194.SOURCE