No, Democrats Aren't Going To Win By Becoming More Like Republicans

Watch the video of Rachel above talking about what she called "a parallel universe in our politics." Towards the end she says that "Conservatives have built themselves a very popular, very successful media landscape that doesn't just tell conservatives things that they want to hear in terms of opinion; they just make stuff up. They make up news stories that aren't true. And when they are corrected in other places, they never disappear from the conservative media. And this is, increasingly, what American conservatives consume as their news diet. This is what they think news is. This is their information stream."

I don't believe that all the red-state Democrats are necessarily bad, corrupt people. I know some of them personally and I know for a fact they aren't bad people... for politicians. But they are politicians and they are fully aware that people in their states-- particularly surly, frustrated voters in their states-- are swimming in that information stream. On line, on Hate Talk Radio, on Fox, from reactionary religious hate mongers...

Sahil Kapur speculated Tuesday that McConnell may well be able to break filibusters by stretching his 54 vote majority (assuming the Republicans win Alaska and Lousiana) to 60 by picking up 6 conservative red-state Democrats. Joe Manchin (D-WV), easily the most right-wing Democrat in the Senate, was quoted all over twitter yesterday morning when he thundered, about Democrats filibustering an anti-family Republican agenda, "That’s bullshshit. … I’m not going to put up with that." Of course not; he's on the same payrolls that most of the Republicans are on. This is Kapur's take on the 6 most likely Democrats to back McConnell the most:

• Claire McCaskill (D-MO)

It took Todd Akin of "legitimate rape" notoriety to save McCaskill from electoral doom in 2012, and this second-term Missourian recognizes that she can't vote in lock-step with her party if she wants to stay in the good graces of her conservative-leaning state. Look for her to side with Republicans from time to time to appease her right flank, on issues such as the Keystone pipeline.

• Joe Manchin (D-WV)

This conservative Democrat has always looked for ways to make himself attractive to West Virginians, from literally shooting the cap-and-trade bill in a campaign ad to voting against Reid on filibuster reform. With the ranks of conservative Democrats diminished in the wake of the 2014 blowout, Manchin will look for opportunities to tout his bipartisan bona fides.

• Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND)

Heitkamp won her first Senate election in 2012 by a razor-thin 1 percent margin in deep-red North Dakota. Not shy about breaking with her party, she was one of just four Democrats who voted to block the popular gun background checks legislation in 2013 — the other three have retired or lost reelection. Expect her to hunt for issues where she can align herself with the new Republican majority.

• Joe Donnelly (Blue Dog-IN)

Donnelly largely owes his seat to Indiana Republicans who threw out an untouchable incumbent in 2012 in favor of a candidate to imploded amid a rape gaffe in the general election. One of the more conservative Democrats, he'll likely be willing to partner with McConnell's Republicans in some cases, such as reversing the 30-hour work week definition under Obamacare.

• Angus King (I-ME)

King, a progressive-leaning independent who says he'll continue to caucus with Democrats, has often looked for ways to polish his nonpartisan credentials. In two years as a senator, King has tried to play deal-maker and split with Democrats on issues like gun control and student loans.

• Jon Tester (D-MT)

Tester survived reelection in the Democrat-friendly year of 2012, but his party got wiped out this year in the race for Montana's other Senate seat. Tester has been willing to buck Democratic leaders at times, most notably when he helped kill the DREAM Act by filibuster in 2010.

Manu Raju and Burgess Everett, writing yesterday for Politico claim that the Republican take-over is empowering ConservaDems like Manchin and Heitkamp because they can "determine whether Mitch McConnell or Harry Reid prevails on any given cliff-hanger vote, making these Democrats the new power centers in the Senate."

[A]lready, a host of red-state Democrats signal a willingness to cut some deals with the GOP on the initial items atop their agenda. Donnelly wants to repeal the Affordable Care Act’s medical device tax and restore the full-time workweek of 40 hours under the law, two major GOP priorities. Several senators-- like Manchin, Heitkamp, Donnelly and McCaskill-- want to move forward on the Keystone XL oil pipeline. And Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) said he is pushing for three bipartisan bills — including overhauls of regulations, student loans, and parental and medical leave — that he hopes will get attention in the GOP Senate.

“If the Republicans have an affirmative agenda, things they want to do, they are going to need Democratic or independent votes,” said King, who caucuses with Democrats. “I remember telling people back in Maine, everybody down here thinks they’re in charge. The reality is that anything that gets done has to have bipartisan support.”

Predictably, the DC Establishment blames the defeats of conservative Democrats like Mark Pryor and Kay Hagan on "their inability to exert their independence and distinguish themselves legislatively from an unpopular White House, partly because of the perennial gridlock in the Senate" rather than on their failure to motivate enough Democrats to bother to vote for their conservative asses. But the 10 most conservative Democrats in the Senate-- the ones who have voted most frequently with the GOP on crucial votes-- don't inspire discerning Democrats because they are so conservative, not because they're not conservative enough. These are the 10 worst-- from bad to worst-- along with their lifetime ProgressivePunch crucial vote scores:

• Heidi Heitkamp- 75.95
• Mark Warner- 75.38
• Angus King- 74.68
• Joe Donnelly- 74.36
• Tom Carper- 72.32
• Claire McCaskill- 72.16
• Kay Hagan- 71.01
• Mark Pryor- 66.50
• Mary Landrieu- 65.48
• Joe Manchin- 62.15

Four of these conservatives were up for reelection last week. Pryor and Hagan were defeated outright, he by an incredible 17% (after spending $13,484,442, significantly mnore than his opponent) and she by 1.7%. Landrieu was forced into a runoff almost no one thinks she can win, with the 3 Republicans on the ballot scoring a total of 55.8% to her 42.1%. And Mark Warner-- considered untouchable, retained his seat by a tiny margin, winning 1,071,283 (49.2%) to 1,054,556 (48.4%). Voter turnout was abysmal in all their states and Democrats just stayed home rather than vote for conservatives. In the states where Democrats did well, progressive senators like Jeff Merkley (OR) and Al Franken (MN) turned out their bases and swept back into office. Oregon had a 52.0% turnout and Minnesota had 51.3%. North Carolina-- the race with the most money spent in the country-- only had a 40.7% turnout; Arkansas' turnout was 41.2%, lots of Republicans at the polls while plenty of Democrats sat on their hands and watched the conservative senator, conservative candidate for governor and 4 conservative candidates for the House all lose. In Virginia, Warner almost lost because only 36.7% of the voters bothered showing up-- and the ones who did weren't Democrats. Being more conservative and more disappointing to Democratic voters will not help save weak "centrist" Michael Bennet (CO) in 2016. He's probably the most endangered Democrat up for reelection. But Democrats never learn so watch him turn further right over the next two years.

Are any pundits going to claim reactionary John Barrow (GA) lost his seat because he wash;t conservative enough? There was no Democrat up for reelection in either house of Congress who voted as frequently with the Republicans on crucial matters than Barrow. In the current session, his ProgressivePunch score is a breathtaking 26.87, more conservative than Justin Amash (28.19) and much more conservative than Walter Jones (41.28). Democratic voters didn't turn out for Barrow because he was too Republican, not because he wasn't Republican enough.

That's all, folks