Saturday, May 9, 2009

The different factions of the democratic party

http://www.openleft.com/diary/13227/#166385

I don't think its a matter of the more liberal democrats seeing obama as a conservative though.

Its mainly a matter of priorities. EFCA is something Obama supports, but it isn't his priority. So those democrats that have EFCA as first priority are going to be unhappy with Obama.

Much like how the Republican party used to have the libertarians vs the social conservative the democrats have the unionists vs the professionals.

The unionists already have good healthcare. And they don't see themselves as fitting into the culture of the new energy companies so Obama's main priorities are a wash for them. And Obama's transformational style doesn't really benefit them either.

Obama won because he united the minorities of the democratic party with the professionals. Obama both fits with some of the culture of minorities and some of the culture of the professionals. But he only supports the priorities of the unionists. He doesn't go out of his way to promote them.

So its perfectly reasonable for the unionists to be unhappy with Obama's priorities.

And that's not going to change. I think in the end they will be happy enough with how things turn out, but they will never be happy with Obama.