Sorry, I didn't see a dedicated thread for this topic, which seems a good catch-all for all discussions related to the midterm. I posted in a thread that seems less pertinent... so with apologies... this seems like an important news item that will be worth watching. btw, Robert Costa of the WP has also confirmed this story.
Interesting... perhaps they simply play both sides, or perhaps it suggests a more important change...
Well, the Kochs have helped create the strange monster that is today's personality-over-policy GOP but they're much more truly conservative than they are Trumpian. In fact, they are probably in most ways horrified by the delusional man-child in the oval office and his armies of apologists.
Heitkamp has been on air force one and is besties with Trump. Basically the total opposite of what you said lol she's the only democrat in that group
While she is the centrist of Democrats in congress as one might expect from someone representing North Dakota I don't know if I'd go as far to say say she is "besties" with trump... at least not based on her voting record: http://congress.freedomworks.org/legislators/heidi-heitkamp
Maine also voted to again to implement ranked choice voting across all non-presidential elections so goodbye vote splitting (which they do quite often there to the detriment of Democrats). So its not all bad.
The gap between moderate Democrats like Heitkamp or Joe Manchin and even the most moderate Republican (like Susan Collins) is still quite wide. We're long past the era when you could compare "moderates" from each party and find similar voting records.
Back in the day the Kochs helped fund the Democratic Ledership Caucus that Bill Clinton was head of before becoming president. The Koch usually find Repubs superior to corporate Dems for their purposes, but Blue Dogs are helpful if they cannot have a real Repub. Koch Industries gave funding to the DLC and served on its Executive ... americablog.com › News Aug 25, 2010 - Back in April of 2001, The American Prospect's Bob Dreyfuss reported that the Kochs also funded the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC):. How the Koch brothers helped dismantle the Democratic Party | Sam ... https://samsmitharchives.wordpress.com/2015/04/14/6467/ Apr 14, 2015 - The DLC would later help bring Barack Obama to the fore, although its ... The Soul And The Steel reveals that some of the early funding came
That's very true, the left has moved so far away from the center even those who are now their "moderates" are pretty close to where their far left candidates used to be a decade or so ago.
On social issues that's definitely true. On economic issues, I'd argue there's been a general move to the right on a lot of things. Moderate Democrats from the 70s would be called communists today by some people. On the right, you've also seen a corresponding rightward shift. Basically everyone has gone towards the right on economic issues while social issues have generally seen a larger left-right split. A lot of this is just perception. Even crusty and conservative Southern Democrats would be considered leftist on economic policy. The whole spectrum around economic policy has moved so dramatically that left-right orientation doesn't really make much sense anymore in historical terms.
I dunno, I feel like both parties have moved pretty far to the left when it comes to economic policy too. Remember the relative fiscal responsibility during the Clinton days? That's nowhere to be found anymore. Now it's just the 2 parties trying to spend the most money the quickest on their pet projects and programs. Today Clinton would be considered a Nazi by many in the Democratic party due to how conservative some of his old views look compared to where the party is now. I mean, just him working with the Republicans for the best interest of the country would be something Democrats would shun him for.
Way too early of course, but interesting considering how easily trump won this congressional district in WV...
George Will, one of the most respected conservative writers of our time, says... George Will: Vote against GOP in midterms http://thehill.com/homenews/393728-george-will-argues-for-voting-against-the-gop-in-midterms
I generally root for gridlock. At this point I just hope they can't get anything done because the garbage they do pass is 4000 pages long and none of the members of congress even bother to read what the lobbyists wrote for them.