Are the neoliberals beginning to lose their grip on the Democratic Party?
Remember this moment?
How about this moment?
Way to go at stimulating the progressive base, Hillary! Way to go at creating excitement with your voters.
Of course Hillary was just following in the footsteps of Obama and the rest of the establishment Democrats. Consider the public option.
But among the Democratic base, the public option was extraordinarily popular. Many liberals turned on the entire bill when that element was cast aside. And it wasn't just liberals. The option commanded substantial public support. Poll after poll showed it to be one of the more popular elements of health-care reform...
So its absence in the political discussion is a bit curious. And since the strong version of the policy was estimated by Congressional Budget Office to save more than $100 billion over 10 years, it would be a natural talking point in the budget debate. It would seem like savvy politics for eager Democrats to take up the public option again: Just as Republicans are going to need bills that respond to the problems that will crop up amidst the implementation of Obamacare, Democrats are going to want to be able to promote their own answers to the problems that will crop up in the first year.
Yes, just a bit curious. Just like Hillary's determination to not debate it.
And then Hillary lost the election to an insane clown.
And then Bernie Sanders became the most popular politician in America, in defiance of the Democratic establishment's wishes.
The Democrats appear to be struggling to cope with their election loss in November, and hold an approval rating at 36 percent, just a few points higher than Sanders’ disapproval rating. While there may not be much love for Sanders from Democratic party leaders, there is plenty of love outside the beltway.
It wasn't just one poll.
So when Bernie Sanders proposed Medicare-For-All, this happened.
The primary Medicare for All bill has more support in Congress now than it has ever before.
John Conyers' Medicare for All bill (HR 676), which he has introduced in each Congress since 2003, has seen a recent surge of new cosponsors -- 32 since March 8 and nine on April 3 alone. As of this writing there are 93 co-signers (and counting), representing more than 48 percent of the Democratic Caucus. This is the highest number of cosponsors ever, both in terms of members and as a percentage of the House Democratic Caucus. The count is up from just 62 cosigners -- 33 percent of Democrats -- in the last Congress, and an average of 37 percent since the bill was first introduced in 2003 (see chart).
This is an astonishing development for many reasons. Just a year ago the Democratic establishment was recklessly (and disingenuously) maligning the policy to help keep Sen. Bernie Sanders from winning the Democratic Primary.
It's only one issue, and it's only one measurement, but it just might be the first indication that the Democratic politicians could be getting nervous at the growing unrest at the grassroots.
Yes, the Democratic insiders continue to undermine any and all progressive candidates, but liberals no longer suffer in silence and apathy.
“The DCCC will continue its longstanding and failed model of helping only most favored candidates until grassroots disgust makes that stance untenable,” said Jeff Hauser, a longtime progressive strategist.
Health care is probably the easiest and most popular issue to drive the progressive grassroots. Especially when every Republican alternative means tens of millions without health care, and the ACA continues to break down.
A Monmouth poll from February showed that 25 percent of Americans view health care as "the biggest concern facing their family right now." Health care was, by far, the most cited concern, dwarfing issues like immigration (3 percent) and terrorism (2 percent).
Public support for Medicare for All has been confirmed by pollsters for years. An April 6 poll from the Economist/YouGov showed 60 percent of the public support for the policy, including from a plurality of Republicans.
A March 23 Quinnipiac poll showed a paltry 17 percent of Americans supported the GOP plan, and only 41 percent of Republicans.
Comments
So proposing stuff that will never pass --
is an indication of a political sea-change?
The ruling classes need an extra party to make the rest of us feel as if we participate in democracy. That's what the Democrats are for. They make the US more durable than the Soviet Union was.
What did you do when Hillary said "never, ever"?
Or there was the Obama method of conceding points before the negotiations ever started.
Nothing will ever change until you try to get it.
No one is stopping you from giving up now.
Update:
Medicare-For-All, or something like it is inevitable.
The ACA is breaking down. By next year it will be obvious. Trump was right about that.
What is also obvious is that the only plan the GOP has is throwing tens of millions of Americans to the wolves.
That's why Washington will eventually have no choice but pass Medicare-For-All. But it will only happen if the grassroots demand it, and the first step is to pressure the Dems to get onboard.
I mistyped it.
It would be nice, though, if single-payer had a chance.
The ruling classes need an extra party to make the rest of us feel as if we participate in democracy. That's what the Democrats are for. They make the US more durable than the Soviet Union was.
This isn't the Dem party of 2009
In 2009 the Blue Dog Coalition had 54 members.
In 2015 only 14 Blue Dogs were left.
Obama and Hillary kept the neolibs in power, but they are gone now.
Even more importantly, the rigging of the primaries has broken the trust with any independent thinking progressives. They can't put the genie back in the bottle. Not with the same corrupt faces.
Just because the Blue Dogs don't CALL themselves
Blue Dogs, doesn't mean they aren't Blue Dogs in fact. The fact that a particular neoliberal label isn't worn with pride anymore doesn't mean that somehow, magically, practices in Congress have changed in some great transformative way.
The disappearance of Obama and Clinton simply means that the donors whose political interests they represented now get to look for some other great neoliberal hope.
Show, don't tell.
The ruling classes need an extra party to make the rest of us feel as if we participate in democracy. That's what the Democrats are for. They make the US more durable than the Soviet Union was.
Time for Shrillary to leave the stage.
Still can't stand to hear Shrillary screaming. She has accomplished nothing.
Was anyone else surprised when she arrived at the Inauguration, with her TWO DOCTORS by her Side: the man who always followed her with what appeared to be some kind of an Epi Pen in his left hand, and the woman who kept taking her pulse, when she fainted at the 9/11 day, with her being unable to stand up without support, and then being literally hauled into her car.
Only to appear, a little while later, from her daughter's apartment - with a young girl, given a person greeting - what a surprise - the girl & her parents live in the apartment next to Chelsea. Is there anything, literally anything, Shrillary won't do to try to "win."
Makes me sick to hear her voice, and the conniving Bill & Chelsea do. Sick. Sick. Sick.
Now Podesta & his cronies are at it too.
That's how I read it also
Easy enough for them to turn all progressive-like now that they have no power. I anticipated that from the moment the election was over. What is much more compelling to me is what the Democrats did when they held power -- Obamacare.
I agree completely with this quote:
That's why I favor an internal/external attack. I'm working the external angle... making the oligarchy position an unwinnable one. I appreciate the efforts of Sanders and other groups to reform the party from within. I have hopes those two attacks will converge in change. If they do not, then the external strategy is still viable... it's just a longer road to building a whole new party. If the internal reform folks win then Hallelujah!
A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard
Fortunately you read it wrong
The Progressive Caucus has been proposing Medicare-For-All in every Congress since 2003.
That was when they were out of power. When they were in power. And when they were out of power again.
2016 was a seachange year with the Dems.
The cynicism on c99p sometimes gets a bit carried away.
@gjohnsit Do as you like, of
Do as you like, of course.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Perhaps carried away, perhaps not
It's my general sense that they decide who's going to be the bad guy in any given vote. After all, they don't ALL need to vote against something. Just a few here and there to side with the Republicans is all it takes. So sure, the progressive caucus may have been voting for it. But my assumption is that they did so safely in the full knowledge that it would not pass.
I saw how progressive the "progressive caucus" is during the primaries when, if I'm not mistaken, every single one of them went for Hillary.
It's also hard to forget that the Democrats actually could have put it through and chose not to. That gives me credible reasons to assume they won't again. Nothing that I've read anywhere suggests the DLC wing has any intention of stepping down. Power never does.
A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard
This point exactly.
people can call me a cynic (I've been called worse) but it's cynicism born from expirence. I watch what they do, not what they say.
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
Thanks for the essay, gj.
National Nurses United, Physicians for a National Health Plan and others are working to put real pressure on Congress including primary threats.
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
These polls should alarm Dem insiders
Holding hands with Tom Perez is not an insurrection.
They don't care what we think.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
They care about their jobs
That's why primary'ing the incumbents is so important. Look what the Tea Party did to the GOP.
Or consider history. The trust busting of the Progressive Era happened only after the establishment was forced to reform. Same goes for the New Deal.
They care about their perks.
And most of those come along after they've left office. So a loss is just a change to better furniture and fewer ethics rules. While in office, the paltry efforts made for the people show they don't really care about their jobs.
The Progressive Era took place when there still was some societal agreement on morals. That's long past. Remember that in our lifetimes "Greed is good" became a goal, not a cautionary utterance as Stone intended.
They care more about keeping the public away --
from their jobs than they care about their current jobs. That way they can always get work as lobbyists for the interests they currently represent in public office.
Dude, this is Government 101. Seriously.
The ruling classes need an extra party to make the rest of us feel as if we participate in democracy. That's what the Democrats are for. They make the US more durable than the Soviet Union was.
Holding hands with Tom Perez is not an insurrection.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
When the People Lead, Leaders Will Follow
Forget Sanders. Insurrections happen on local levels, not by national politicians.
Sanders, like Trump, is just smart enough to listen to what is happening outside the bubble.
Unlike Trump, he also happens to believe in what he says.
The real leader of the Democratic insurgency hasn't emerged yet.
Don't forget Tulsi
DCCC, DNC, DSCC and all that crap
Jumped in on a potentially winnable seat (Pompeo's) in Kansas where a Bernie-like progressive overcame a 53 point lead by his opponent, to lose by only 7 points. Yeah, the alphabet conspiracy jumped in ONE day before the election. Wow! That was brave of them.
Now there is a vulnerable Republican seat in VA coming up in a special election. Although supported by Our Revolution (perhaps good), he is also supported by DKos (most likely bad). So what Ossoff turns out to be should he win is very much in doubt.
That's Georgia.
Ossoff is a centrist Dem. There's no sign of a seachange in his getting the backing of the party or dK. While I like the idea of turning a red seat to some other color, I just as dearly wish we'd never elect another neoliberal. That's a political flavor that needs to end without any replenishment.
@Alligator Ed
Considering their documented behaviour regarding the Dem Nom-nom-nom cheating and chomping down on Everything Bernie, I'm wondering what side they came down on.
Bernie won that Dem nomination, but they cheated their way into him 'losing' long before votes were cast, never mind counted - and now Homeland Security has Top Secret control (just them and private interests welcome) over all electoral infrastructure... this just sounds so familiar...
Edit: and we must recall that even before Bernie, there was that history of DWS preferring that Republicans win over Dems, presumably as donors prefer.
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
Politicians are reactive
Years ago I thought I'd pick the brain of a co-worker who had a Ph.D in political science. I asked him why politicians at the national level weren't doing more for the little guy. He responded that politicians are reactive, not proactive. I try not to forget those words. We have to make our voices heard.
@karl pearson They only hear "ka ching"
They only hear "ka ching".
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
@on the cusp
And The People individually cannot speak with seriously Big Enough Money and lucrative hedgefund/lobbying employment to matter.
Besides, politicians are like boyfriends - if you can't trust them, who needs them to painfully screw you over? There's always better out there who can do it right.
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
Will....not....
watch....anything....with.... her....in....it.
Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.
I'll watch, but "mute" has to be on.
The plastic smile is barf-inducing but the screeching voice is the worst.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Then why watch?
Are you on a diet?
Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.
I am spending more time on Twitter nowadays,
I ran across a tweet from Resist - telling lefties not to be so negative - it will spoil the Dems image with the voters. I fell on the floor laughing. My point is that unrest in the base is smacking all of them in the teeth. People who want the Dems to step and become a real opposition party are not letting them get away with the Bernie and Tom hand-holding trip. They want proof in the pudding, and they aren't going to shut up until they get it. One thing I know for sure about politicians and government is that the squeaky wheel gets the oil. The squeakier it is, the more oil it gets.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
And they call themselves "Resist"?
that's ironic.
Resist is bullshit
Resist what? And what do they actually stand FOR? It is just another variation on Not Trump or
We're not as Bad.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Resist for Profit
I asked a question once: Is stupidity endless?
Resist is playing their games. End stupid now.
Fighting for democratic principles,... well, since forever
@fight2bfree
Wasn't 'resist' a Republican game, perhaps one of the Repub precedents that Hillary considers justification for Her own and worse actions, whether illegal or merely disgusting?
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
The words "resist" and "resistance"
are favorites of academic-types who want their papers to look "leftist." The problem, of course, is that most resistance is of no consequence, and the trick is to make one's resistance consequential.
The ruling classes need an extra party to make the rest of us feel as if we participate in democracy. That's what the Democrats are for. They make the US more durable than the Soviet Union was.
Resist... knowingly or unknowingly
... was coopted before it even began.
A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard
The Bernie and Tom hand-holding tour
I just read an article about Bernie's role in the dem party, with the hilarious headline Democrats welcome Bernie takeover.
Talking about the Bernie/Perez unity tour:
I think that last quote says it all. There's not going to be any sea changes in the dem party, not any time soon. The Clintons still own the party, and Bernie's being a tool.
@CS in AZ
A tool, or a contrast which would otherwise not be provided, comparisons of what could and should be done being then limited to what Trump is doing now and the Mad Bomber?
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
Personally I don't think the slowly moving stance on
medicare for all is any different than the slowly moving stance on marijuana legalization. It's going to happen, it only makes sense so that's why there a slow move with democratic politicians getting behind it. I don't think it indicates a shift from neoliberalism. Neoliberalism, as I understand it, is basically free market capitalism. Deregulated (Glass Steagall, Commodities Modernization Act of 2000)and tied directly to globalism and imperialism. I don't see democrats coming down on those, in fact democrats have become the biggest cheerleaders for U.S. imperialism and thus globalism.
Even Republicans admit single payer is inevitable
@gjohnsit And yet the Clintonite Gentricrats do everything they can to fight against it just so they can continue collecting bribes from the Insurance, Pharma and Hospital cartels.
Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.
Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.
Democratic party base "radicalizing" around health care.
Well, Adam Schiff's democratic party establishment nightmare looks to be happening. Resistance to Trump has "radicalized" the base (and thus uncontrollable) around health care. Interesting video of Linda Sanchez recently tap-dancing around people at town hall demanding some sort of single payer. Gave same sort of bullshit answer like Pelosi and Clinton. She was simply too busy fighting for ACA, which by the way survived because of disunity among the gop and popular pressure, and not from useless democrats in the House.
The corporate neo-liberal democrats were successful yesterday in solidifying their base (and they do have one) through the march to get Trump to reveal his tax returns. Tightly organized and every body on the message so no spurious progressive issues got through such as tax and income inequities. In addition, the neoliberal power brokers let the Kansas democrat got to defeat, so electorally this was a direct attack against progressives in the party and it worked--again, rather lose an election than have it won by a progressive.
The revolt Schiff was afraid is now in the early stages, but where it goes, hard to tell.
I am amused and humbled by public forgiveness
The voting public is generous in deed.
The hammering required is awe inspiring. When you filter the noise, follow the profits who or what benefited. Newton's Law: F=ma. Each one of u is m. Any politician that does not respond well to public ridicule, should resign. Politicians happen. Is the roll of toilet paper for stupidity boundless?
Does humanity ever recognize stupidity? It is like cancer, it can spread.
Fighting for democratic principles,... well, since forever
I'm confused.....
I have followed and read Conyer's HR 676 bill for a long time. Bills are introduced in the House i.e. Conyer's bill.
Is Bernie writing a bill to match in the Senate, so that when they conference (optomist) the words to match will be similar/the same? Not sure I understand the process Bernie is following here.
You may choose to look the other way, but you can never say again you did not know. ~ William Wiberforce
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@gjohnsit:
The cynicism on c99p sometimes gets a bit carried away.
--------------------------------------------------
AMEN. Rec'd!!
Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.
5 more cosponsors yesterday
that's 50% of the Dems
This is a good thing. But too much cynicism will keep you from seeing the start of a trend.