Barack Obama

Unifying moves are those that recognize that progressive as well as third-way ideas are deserving of being on the table and, when good, being proceeded upon. Not traded away for some chickenfeed thrown out by the intransigent Republicans. When only third-way type ideas are considered serious, because only third-way type ideas are considered (possibly) acceptable to the Republicans, it means that the Democratic party isn't setting its own agenda.

I'm not a Dem because I'm not a US citizen - I'm here because the discussion is great. I see a pic of a bus, but in other threads I see a pic of another bus such that there appears to be two factions, Dems of each faction feeling that the other is non-supportive and leaving them out in the cold, under a bus. That isn't a winning formula.

IMO a comparison to the Dem "progressive" faction as being akin to the Rep "tea-party" faction, in that both are "extremes", is unfair to "progressives". I see very little difference between the ideas of so-called moderate Reps like McConnell and those of the $$$-people/foundations behind the "tea-party". Doctrines like Grover Norquist's pledge, which is an absolutist pledge and in that sense can't get any more "extreme", are mainstream Rep doctrines. There is no compromise with such absolutism, there is no "center" that can be defined in those terms. It follows that a "center" has to be defined in terms of a mutual understanding between factions of the Democratic party.