Jonathan Chait in The New Republic comes out squarely in favor of using primaries against selected moderate Senate Democrats. It's an idea who's time has long since come. For some reason Democrats don't like the idea of utilizing mechanisms of power in order to exert caucus discipline. Trying to lead politically while at the same time refusing to exert leverage on wayward Democrats is a fools errand. As we've seen throughout Harry Reid's tenure as Majority Leader without even a threat of retribution for failing the party on key votes there's no incentive for moderate Dems to stay in line.
Politicians respond to pressure, some require more overt pressure than others but they do respond. Sometimes that pressure should come from interest groups and other times that pressure should come from leadership itself. Other times it should come from both. The key is strategic and thoughtful exertion of pressure on wayward caucus members. If we Democrats are not willing to do that then we have to just accept the failure of large portions of our agenda. I'm not willing to do that.
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