Farewell. The Flying Pig Has Left The Building.

Steve Hynd, August 16, 2012

After four years on the Typepad site, eight years total blogging, Newshoggers is closing it's doors today. We've been coasting the last year or so, with many of us moving on to bigger projects (Hey, Eric!) or simply running out of blogging enthusiasm, and it's time to give the old flying pig a rest.

We've done okay over those eight years, although never being quite PC enough to gain wider acceptance from the partisan "party right or wrong" crowds. We like to think we moved political conversations a little, on the ever-present wish to rush to war with Iran, on the need for a real Left that isn't licking corporatist Dem boots every cycle, on America's foreign misadventures in Afghanistan and Iraq. We like to think we made a small difference while writing under that flying pig banner. We did pretty good for a bunch with no ties to big-party apparatuses or think tanks.

Those eight years of blogging will still exist. Because we're ending this typepad account, we've been archiving the typepad blog here. And the original blogger archive is still here. There will still be new content from the old 'hoggers crew too. Ron writes for The Moderate Voice, I post at The Agonist and Eric Martin's lucid foreign policy thoughts can be read at Democracy Arsenal.

I'd like to thank all our regular commenters, readers and the other bloggers who regularly linked to our posts over the years to agree or disagree. You all made writing for 'hoggers an amazingly fun and stimulating experience.

Thank you very much.

Note: This is an archive copy of Newshoggers. Most of the pictures are gone but the words are all here. There may be some occasional new content, John may do some posts and Ron will cross post some of his contributions to The Moderate Voice so check back.


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Friday, September 4, 2009

Who will door knock for the Dems?

By Dave Anderson:


Will David Broder door knock for down ballot Democrats next October?


Will David Brooks door knock for down ballot Democrats next October?


Will self-identified liberals who have not had a major policy victory door knock for down ballot Democrats next October?


Will self identified liberals who have been shitted upon door knock for down ballot Democrats next October?


Will self-identified liberals who receive a few policy wins on issues of high salience door knock for Democrats next October?


No, hell no as it might intefere with his quest to find an Applebee's salad bar, no, no way in hell, and hell yes.


This is basic politics, the door knockers and phone bankers need to feel that their efforts actually translate into tangible policy outcomes.  Otherwise they'll stay home and get on with their lives. Without the doorknockers, running successful campaigns in marginal districts is almost impossible. 


The political challenge is finding policy outcomes that appease the door knockers desire for tangible policy without frightening everyone else.  This has been the problem the Republican Party has had since the Terri Schiavo incident, any GOP effort to motivate their door-knockers scares the living shit out of everyone else.  Democrats don't have that problem.  Their base of door knockers want healthcare reform with a public option, strong subsidies and strong regulations --- so does the public.  Their base is highly skeptical of increasing committments to Afghanistan --- so is the public.  Their base is pissed at the banks for being able to continue on with business as usual, so is the broader public.  Pleasing the base and pleasing the mushy middle for moderately skilled Democratic political operators is not a difficult task. 


And yet, it seems that the national Democratic Party, led by President Obama, Sen. Majority Leader Reid and House Majority Leader Hoyer are seeking to appease people who will neither door-knock for Democrats or even vote for Democrats short of a reaction against Bush-esque fiascos. 


Research 2000 is showing the political costs of being stupid:




Change in Favorability: Democratic Party (From 6/4 to 9/3)


OVERALL: - 10 (From 49 to 39)
DEMOCRATS: - 17 (From 84 to 67)
INDEPENDENTS: - 12 (From 48 to 36)
REPUBLICANS: No Change (From 4 to 4)


Change in Favorability: Republican Party (From 6/4 to 9/3)


OVERALL: +3 (from 20 to 23)
REPUBLICANS: +12 (from 61 to 73)
INDEPENDENTS: No Change (From 11 to 11)
DEMOCRATS: +2 (From 4 to 6)


Republicans by their very definition will not vote for Democrats in any significant numbers.  Democrats by their very definition will not vote for Republicans in any significant numbers.  This is basic politics in a world of relatively ideologically coherent parties.  The challenge is mobilizing core partisans and persuadable non-affiliated voters to form winning coalitions.  The challenge is not to pick off a few points of the opposing party by conceding almost all policy initiatives that are high priorities for core and non-core but reliable voters. 


 



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2 comments:

  1. Ron BeasleySeptember 4, 2009 at 9:36 AM

    I don't think Obama and most Dems realize how pissed off the base that elected them is. I was listening to Thom Hartmann this morning and the people calling in almost all said they are not going to activly work for the Dems and were talking about a primary challenge for Obama in 2012.

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  2. HootsbuddySeptember 4, 2009 at 10:45 AM

    I'll bite.
    By whom?

    ReplyDelete

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