Blue On Blue: Democrats Gear Up For An IntraParty Civil War In 2010

While the mainstream is obsessing over the idea of a Republican civil war, they’re largely ignoring the fact that there’s a fight that is every bit as ugly, if not uglier, shaping up on the Left:

A few days ago, the left-wing activist group MoveOn.org began sending out emails seeking contributions to fund primary challenges against any Democratic senator who does not fully support “health care reform with a public option.” Now there’s an update: MoveOn executive director Justin Ruben says the group has raised $3,578,117 for the project and is thinking of new ways to punish errant Democratic lawmakers.

“It’s a huge sum, and the clearest signal yet that any Democrat who helps Republicans filibuster health care reform will face an enormous backlash from the grassroots,” writes Ruben. And now, working in conjunction with Howard Dean’s old organization Democracy for America, MoveOn is starting a drive to take away the committee chairmanships of any Democrat who fails to live up to MoveOn’s progressive standards.

I’d also note that from what I’ve seen, the Left’s narrative is much less rational than that of conservatives who are, for the most part, simply insisting that the GOP has to stop sabotaging conservative candidates.

According to the Left, the Democrats were buried in 1994 in large because they DIDN’T pass an extremely unpopular health care plan. Moreover, they believe the Blue Dog Democrats in Republican districts, who don’t understand this, and foolishly believe that supporting unpopular legislation hurts their electoral chances, need to be driven out of office. Then, they can easily be replaced by liberals, whose support of political unpopular liberal policies will allow them to easily be elected in rightward leaning districts. Of course, that is well….just crazy. Republican districts seldom elect liberal Democrats and passing unpopular legislation makes you less electable, not more likely to be sent back into office.

Moreover, it’s worth noting that this is a poison brew of the Democrats own making. Because they have tried to pass so much, so fast, and have done such a poor job of it, the public has stopped giving them the benefit of the doubt. In other words, one of the biggest reasons that health care is so hard to pass is because of the Democrats have already had votes on TARP (Yes, Bush did it, but they still supported it and thus, own it, too), the stimulus, Cash-for-clunkers, Cap and Trade, etc, etc.

Had Barack Obama actually lived up to his campaign promises, tried to be bipartisan, and pushed a less ambitious agenda, it’s entirely possible that health care reform would have already easily passed by now and this war on the Blue Dogs wouldn’t even be given serious consideration.

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