Criticism is fine --- as long as it's from the right

It Depends On Who's Doing The Criticizing

by digby

Quick question for those who believe that criticism of the the president and the Dem leadership is what's depressing the Democratic base: is this criticism a problem?
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is giving Democratic candidates a free pass to run against her and other party leaders.

A number of moderate Democrats are running against her, portraying themselves in ads as a check on the liberal House speaker from San Francisco.

Pelosi is giving them free rein to do this, so the party has no problem with it. But what if Raul Grijalva and Alan Grayson and Russ Feingold did the same thing from the left? What if they ran ads against the health care plan saying it doesn't contain the public option? Or said they were a check on Pelosi and Reid's rubber stamping the president's war plans? I'm genuinely curious: would that be ok?

The fact is that while the party is publicly complaining about the base failing to rally to the cause they are letting their conservatives publicly trash the party from the right. Indeed, they are rewarding them handsomely with your money. So the rule seems to be that you don't depress the base if you criticize from the right, but you do if you criticize from the left. I don't think that's true: if criticism depresses the base then surely hearing that your congressman is going to be a "check" on liberal policies would depress it more, no? Don't these Democrats need at least some non-conservatives to vote for them? If they don't, then it's hard to see why they are Democrats at all.


.