So Rep. Barney Frank (D, MA) has told off progressives: he insists that they must only attempt to mount primary challenges to ‘conservative’ Democrats in districts where the Democrats have a lock on the seat anyway. If they don’t, well, apparently the response then is to suffer – or perhaps move: Rep. Frank didn’t say so, but it seems a logical enough alternative. No, really, that’s what he said… while couching it in terms of going out in November and voting for the Democrats that they hate anyway:

“I said don’t defeat conservative Democrats in November . . . the place to do that is in the primary,” Frank said Friday in an interview. But Frank added his caveat that such a primary challenge should only come in districts where a more liberal candidate would win in November.

Now, putting aside the fact that this effectively restricts liberals to their current urban reservations ghettos enclaves (a seat with a ‘conservative’ Democrat in it is pretty much the definition of ‘at risk’ these days, and they won’t get less risky because of a successful primary challenge from the Left), the amazing thing about this statement is not that a Democratic, supposedly liberal politician is making it, or not even that he’s making it in public. It’s that Rep. Frank felt perfectly comfortable telling that to the faces of a bunch of progressive activists. It is fascinating to witness the sheer contempt that the Democratic party has towards its own base; for contrast, imagine what would happen if a conservative politician went to CPAC or the RedState Gathering to tell the activists found there that they must only primary challenge moderate Republican incumbents in districts where the GOP was going to win anyway. Let me put it this way: the response would involve the words “rip,” “head,” “defecate,” and “neck.*”

The activist Left just… doesn’t have any pride left, do they? No pride, no self-respect, no gumption: they just punch the clock, hand over the cash, and make obscene political t-shirts to relax. And they’re not even winning anymore.

Oh, well. Not my problem.

Moe Lane

*But then, we are of the Party That Herds The Cats.

Crossposted to Moe Lane.