How low can the Democrats go? Pretty Low. Just look at Florida.

Yesterday's loss in Georgia's special election may have begun a process that should have happened back in November.

Representative Seth Moulton, Democrat of Massachusetts, said the defeat was “frustrating” and urged a shake-up at the top of the party.
“Our leadership owes us an explanation,” said Mr. Moulton, who voted against Ms. Pelosi in the last leadership election. “Personally, I think it’s time for new leadership in the party.”

Yes. Extreme incompetence should lead to people losing their jobs, not "Unity".
This shouldn't even be a controversial position, except on Wall Street.
For some reason, only progressives were not taken by surprise.

"Well, seems we spent $30 million to get 48% in Georgia ... and next to nothing to get 48% in South Carolina. One has to wonder what impact $30 million would have if it was directed to state Democratic parties instead of a gazillion TV ads," he wrote. "Maybe try standing for something and investing in grassroots instead would be the lesson?"

"It's time for them to stop ratf-----g even the hint of a left in their party and activate those voters who usually don't vote."
- Felix Biederman

This might be the low-water mark of the Democratic Party. It certainly seems like a 90-year low in national party representation should be it.
On the other hand, it is still possible for the Dems to fall even further. Proof that lower-lows are possible can be witnessed in the state of Florida.

Where the Florida Republican Party is hell-bent on making life worse for every poor person in the state and turning the Everglades into the Rick Scott Memorial River of Oil, the Florida Democratic Party is simply an incompetent group of corporate boot-lickers that has no idea how to win elections. Despite the fact that registered Democratic voters outnumber Republicans in Florida, Democratic candidates are routinely trounced in local and federal elections and can barely win seats in extremely blue cities such as Miami.
Florida has been saddled with a Republican governor since the 1990s: Democrats were unable to topple Jeb Bush, Charlie Crist, and even Rick Scott, a thief who is the anthropomorphic version of that smog-spewing factory from the Pink Floyd album cover Pigs.

Democrats outnumber registered Republicans by more than 330,000 voters in Florida. Not to mention 3.5 million unaffiliated voters.
Yet Donald Trump won in 58 of Florida’s 67 counties last November.
In the state Senate there is a 25-15 Republican majority. In the House, Republicans have 77 seats, Democrats have 38.

That's bad. Really, really bad.
And yet, it can get worse. Just witness what happened this week at a large party fundraiser. Chairman of the Florida Democratic Party, Stephen Bittel, decided that there was no need to recognize House and Senate members onstage.

Braynon’s counterpart in the House, Rep. Janet Cruz of Tampa, was angry at the disrespect but Bittel responded with a quip about how much money was being raised...
But Bittel then went the extra step and said “the black caucus members were acting like three-year-olds and childish,” Braynon told POLITICO, adding that Bittel singled him out for being “like a child.”
Braynon was so angry that Democratic staffers almost forced him out of the room, which he left upon their advice.
“The leader would have killed the chair,” said a Democrat who witnessed the incident said. “Why did he have to blame the black caucus? It was Cruz who was the first one really upset about it. It had nothing to do with race … Bittel isn’t a racist. But he’s a rich white man who doesn’t know that the things that come out of his mouth can be really offensive.”

It appears that Bittel will keep his job, despite not uniting the party or raising the $30 million for the party like he promised to do.
How is that even possible? Consider who he is and how he got the job.

Billionaire Democratic donor Stephen Bittel isn’t waiting until 2018 to claim a top position within the party, but is currently using the influence his donations have provided to give himself the position of Florida Democratic Party chair. Bittel’s Machiavellian ascent to top ranks of the Florida Democratic Party incited outrage among Bernie Sanders supporters, who are pushing to remove the corrupt influence wealthy and corporate donors have on the party.
In 2015, Bittel was appointed as co-finance chair of the DNC by Wasserman Schultz....
In May 2016, Politico reported that Bittel and other donors used a secretive Democratic group, Florida Alliance, to circumvent the state Democratic Party, and to push for the efforts and causes they prefer, operating in the dark through a network of nonprofit organizations.

The Democratic Party can sink lower because the Democratic Party is corrupt.
The GOP is at least as corrupt, but it is more competent.
Any hope of the Dems ever winning again has to start with a real, transparent, anti-corruption reform campaign. Anything less would leave the Dems with the same corrupt infrastructure, and whatever progressive agenda items that make it through would always be subject to being undermined.

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catchy

After some embarrassing losses in the midterm elections, the Florida Democratic Party is full of some finger pointing and infighting at the moment, but the party's State Chairwoman Allison Tant is sick of it.
She told the News Service of Florida that "the bed-wetters need to shut up, and we need to move on."
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@gjohnsit

Bittel isn’t a racist. But he’s a rich white man who doesn’t know that the things that come out of his mouth can be really offensive.

The modern Democratic Party: sorry if you got offended, but rich people get a pass because they know not what they do (and they're better than you.)

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Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.

@Dr. John Carpenter affluenza as a legitimate excuse it's time to vote 3rd party.

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Solidarity forever

thanatokephaloides's picture

@gjohnsit

State Chairwoman Allison Tant is sick of it. She told the News Service of Florida that "the bed-wetters need to shut up, and we need to move on."

emphasis in original

The question being: who is she calling "bed-wetters"??

If it's the DLC types who are making her job flatly impossible, I agree wholeheartedly.

If it's progressives....

[video:https://youtu.be/7gqFZjfFGuM]

(ah, classic Lily Allen!)

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

SparkyGump's picture

@gjohnsit

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The real SparkyGump has passed. It was an honor being your human.

JekyllnHyde's picture

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A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma

EdMass's picture

Never, ever go to a Mass Democrat for a comment on anything.

The State is so Gerrymanderd that they even elected Markey to the Senate. His sole real world experience? He had an Ice Cream truck when he was in his early 20's. His "residence" in Malden has been empty for decades. He lives in Virginia.

You have Markey to thank for your high cable bill, when he was in the Congress (yeah he was there for 20+ years) trying to save us from the savagery of dedicated remote controls. Ooops.

Second, I won't say there is a serious inbreeding situation with Mass Congressional Dems (*cough Kennedys *cough), but, ummm, whatever.

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Prof: Nancy! I’m going to Greece!
Nancy: And swim the English Channel?
Prof: No. No. To ancient Greece where burning Sapho stood beside the wine dark sea. Wa de do da! Nancy, I’ve invented a time machine!

Firesign Theater

Stop the War!

@EdMass Ah, MA, the home state of Elbridge Gerry, the rich Dem-Repub, who is known best for being the namesake of gerrymandering, a process by which electoral districts are drawn with the aim of aiding the party in power, according to Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elbridge_Gerry

The famous contemporary (1812) cartoon showed a MA senatorial district looking like a salamander, hence "gerrymander" is a combination of Gerry and salamander.

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Bollox Ref's picture

all those 'progressive' NGO's takes its time... and toll. 'Identifying' is thirsty business, and adds to the waistline. You can barely move forward.

And then you've got all those corporate donors, Hollywood, etc., etc.

Hard work, man.

Voters!? Who needs them? No nutritional value in a vote.

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Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.

There was an interesting diary on TOP about a fired up democrat who decided to go to a local FL county democratic party meeting. Others had the same idea and fairly big crowd attended. The reaction of the dem party officials was anger at the crowd for disturbing the peace. One third of the comments attacked the poster for being a bad democrat and fucking with the peace. About 1/3 said what bunch shit democrat party members. And about other 1/3 hyad advice on how to kiss the ass of the local officials and please please can we participate.

The FL democratic party officials had all these people willing and ready to work and they did nothing. Absolutely nothing to channel, direct, or even from what I could tell any follow up meetings, etc.. Just went on with their closed social club.

I looked for the diary and cannot find it.

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snoopydawg's picture

This country hasn't had actual representation for decades. People thought they did, but since at least Reagan, the two parties have been moving closer and closer together. The only difference between the two parties are on social issues that have no bearing on their master's pocketbooks.
We live in an oligarchy and congress doesn't have to answer to us. If we vote them out, it's no biggie, they can get a job as lobbyists or some other job that pays much more money.

We know that congress doesn't listen to what people want them to do. The protests against the Iraq war showed that even if millions of people took to the streets to protest against it, congress just ignored us. During the health care reform millions emailed, signed petitions and made phone calls saying that we wanted single payer and they did what they wanted.

This video shows exactly this. No matter how many people want congress to do something, they will never do it if it gets in the way of profits.

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“When out of fear you twist the lesser evil into the lie that it is something good, you eventually rob people of the capacity to distinguish between good and evil.”
~ Hannah Arendt

SparkyGump's picture

to the corplicrats is badly needed. The party is closed, their minds are closed, they're not worth the effort. We're never going to get a seat at that billionaires boys club. Organize them out of existence.

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The real SparkyGump has passed. It was an honor being your human.

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@gjohnsit

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the few that remain

Blue Dog Democrats huddled with the leading members of President Trump’s economic team on Tuesday in the Capitol, where the lawmakers pressed the administration to seek bipartisan reforms to the nation’s tax code.

Just 18 members strong, the centrist Blue Dogs compose a tiny voice in the House, vastly outnumbered by even the liberals in their own caucus. But with GOP leaders struggling to rally their divided conference around big-ticket legislation, the Blue Dogs see themselves potentially stepping into the mix to broker a bipartisan deal for the sake of getting tax reform to Trump’s desk this year.

“If it’s constructive, if they’re genuinely interested in ideas and making it a bipartisan effort, then the Blue Dogs are certainly willing to participate,” said Rep. Sanford Bishop (D-Ga.), a member of the group.

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when Gephardt left the Dem House Leadership (2002? 04?) Marcy Kaptur challenged Pelosi. Her point was that the custom in the Dem caucus, who got the right to speak to the assembly, was ENTIRELY based on funds raised -- the most profitable spoke first, the next spoke second and in the end almost no one had their voice heard by the caucus. Good ideas and real insights... Couldn't happen.
Kaptur wasn't someone I agreed with on every point, but she spoke plainly in human-talk, not talking points.
She was highlighting the corruption and stupidity of leadership. The Dems didn't listen and, if not for the brief Bush rejection/Obama marketing period, they've been steadily losing. But with lots of money; lots of breaks getting wet in the process.
(Kaptur might have challenged after Pelosi's first turn, but over a decade ago)

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Orwell: Where's the omelette?

The party leadership hand-picked the candidates who ran against in Scott in 2010 and 2014 and against Rubio in 2016. They all lost. In 2010, Alex Sink ran as a fiscal conservative. I was in the audience at a debate where she pledged her support for the Bush tax cuts and opposed a constitutional amendment on housing the GOP hated. It narrowly failed, but go more support than her campaign did. She was a horrible candidate and she blamed Obama for her defeat. In 2014, the Democratic Party elite ignored an actual Democrat and annointed Charlie Crist, a Republican turned Independent turned Democrat. This is the thing about Crist. HE DOESN'T FUCKING BELIEVE IN ANYTHING BUT HIMSELF. He has flip-flopped on everything possible. He just wants political fame. He lost. So who do Democrats turn to for the 2016 Senate race, yet another ex-Republican, spoiled rich fratboy Patrick Murphy, whose wealthy father spent millions in donations pushing his son to the front of the line for Democratic races. I was delighted when he lost on election day.

The Democratic Party of Florida is a fucking joke. The only success Democrats have experienced in Florida in the last decade has been due to Obama's coattails.

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Unabashed Liberal's picture

bill moving forward.

I've been hearing for almost two months that fiscal conservative 'No Labelers' having been meeting with Mnuchin regarding both an infrastructure, and a tax reform bill.

There will be 'offsets'--probably cuts to Social Security. Both fiscal conservative Dems and Paul Ryan agree on that point. I'm definitely keeping my eyes peeled, in case they change the Social Security formula, which is the deepest cut.

Thanks for posting the excerpt, gj.

Happy Summer Solstice, All!

Mollie


"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage."--Lao Tzu
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Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

orlbucfan's picture

for decades. Still, good things are getting passed IN SPITE of them. Example: Stephanie Murphy's US House win here against a well-funded Repuke who had been in the seat for years. Medical pot passed by 71% of the voters last year. Solar energy won a big one when we defeated FPL, Duke and the rest of the energy dinosaurs. They wanted to make solar powered homes pay a penalty. Didn't happen--yuck, yuck, yuck!! Rec'd!!

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Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.