Democratic Manifesto

On This Week with George Stephanopoulos,Senator Charles Schumer agreed that the Democrats need to have a platform, and that one is being prepared with input from Bernie Sanders and others. He stated that it will be released in August, and will be used for the 2018 mid-terms. I think they should hire the person or people that wrote the manifesto for Britain's Labour Party during the last elections. Check it out at The Guardian. What would you like to see on this new manifesto?

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Pricknick's picture

won't happen.
Replacement of minority leader of both the house and senate.
Barring that, everything else will be window dressing.
I'm done with the demonrat party.

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Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.

thanatokephaloides's picture

@Pricknick

What would you like to see on this new manifesto?

"Today, we reject, refute, rebuke, and eschew the entirety of the politics set forth by the likes of "New Democrats", "Third Way", "The Democratic Leadership Council", etc. As part of this realignment to the domestic policies of the great 20th Century Democratic Presidents Roosevelt, Kennedy, and Johnson, we are expelling every and all members of the Party's leadership who represent the so-called "New Democrats" from all positions of power within the Party, and recommending to all the same that they return to the Republican Party whence they came like the Nixonians that they are."

"The Party hereby states, deposes, and declares its commitment to a full restoration of stable, decent employment opportunities for all and every high school graduate in this country. We openly support strong, ubiquitous unions and union representation for every American worker. We demand immediate repeal of the Taft-Hartley Act while leaving the National Labor Relations Act in place."

"We demand that all levels of education in the Nation be free and available as the inherent right of every one in the Nation, as it is in all other civilized lands. The current system of student loan peonage must be abolished immediately."

"We categorically reject all identity politics schemes of whatsoever sort or kind as inherently divisive and counter-productive to the good of Nation and our Party alike, and instead demand full civil, political, and economic equality and justice for everyone in the Nation. We demand that any entity, group, corporation, or WEBSITE which has ever advocated divisive identity politics schemes as the nature of the Party to cease and desist all claim to membership in, alignment to, or friendship with the Party, forthwith, immediately, and publicly."

"We demand the immediate and permanent change in the foreign policy of the United States of America to a minimum-interventionist basis. We demand that our Nation's policy be changed so that by word and action alike, we are and remain out of the regime change business, leaving that to the Peoples of the Nations involved only."

"We demand a reduction in the size, scope, and COST of our military to reflect its new role in defending this nation and its reliable voluntary allies alone. We demand removal of our forces from everywhere the common People of those places do not want us, such as but not limited to Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, the Phillipines, Cuba, etc. In addition, we demand cessation of all military alliances with nations which do not share our commitments to our national publicly held values, such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, etc. We demand that we close our exorbitantly expensive network of military bases around the Planet."

"We demand restoration of full, complete, and harmonious diplomatic and trade relations with the Republic of Cuba at once, without preconditions. We demand immediate repeal of the unconstitutional Helms-Burton Act."

We demand the establishment of the same kind of National Health Service as exists in all other civilized nations, and the establishment of health care as a right. We demand the abolition of the current fee-for-service and health insurance systems."

"We demand an immediate, World War II-level effort to move the entirety of our Nation's energy system from fossil fuels and nuclear fission power to strictly non-polluting and renewable sources. In addition, we demand a minimum fifty trillion dollar program of reconstruction of all critical infrastructure in the Nation to include restorations of damaged natural environments such as forest burn scars. These will restore a badly needed state of affairs in this country, and one necessary for the restoration of equality of economic opportunity: a nationwide labor shortage in all skill categories, i.e., less than zero "U6" unemployment nationwide."

..... How's that for a start?

Don't hold your breath waiting to see it, though. Today's not-so-democratic "Democrats" would read my ideas and commence screaming "Anarchist! Communist! Terrorist!"

(well, two out of three isn't bad. I'm not a terrorist, but as for the others, click the link!)

Smile

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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

@thanatokephaloides Anarchy! Anarchy! Smile

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Yaldabaoth, Saklas I'm calling you. Samael. You're not alone. I said, you're not alone, in your darkness. You're not alone, baby. You're not alone. "Original Sinsuality" Tori Amos

@Pricknick

Too bad that the corporate Dems regard such things as Party platforms and Constitutions as non-binding pieces of paper. Pushing them to lie in pretending that they might potentially consider not draining the American people and country to enrich the pathologically greedy few quite as rapidly as they have been doesn't cut it.

A psychopath cannot change his/Her spots, although they certainly all should lose their spots in policy-making in a major change. At the least.

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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.

snoopydawg's picture

@Ellen North
This writer has a great sense of humor.
He starts off with saying that the democrat's commitment to neoliberal economics, their addictions to wars and their hostility toward the working class which used to vote for them. He then talks about Osfoff's campaign and

Democrats in the Dead Zone

The latest political zombie offered up as a vessel to freight the electoral asperations of the Democrats was a pious former congressional staffer called Jon Ossoff, whose name sounds like one of those creepy Svengali-like characters from a Tod Browning horror film of the 1930s. But the candidate wasn’t as scary as all that. In fact, Ossoff scared no one, which was both his campaign theme and his problem. One of his problems, anyway. Ossoff presented himself as an anodyne candidate, a nowhere man, a quiescent emissary for a return to civility in politics. He was the white Rodney King, who plaintively asked why we couldn’t all just get along. Of course, who really wants civility in politics, when you’re working two jobs, can’t pay the power bill, have a kid with asthma and just had your Ford Focus repossessed.

~~~~snip~~~~

He pledged his loyalty to Israel, decried nasty dictators from Putin to Assad and vowed to eradicate the scourge of Islamic terrorism from the face of the earth

~~~~snip~~~~
You need to read this whole article. I will leave you with this quote

But these are precisely the kinds of districts that the Clinton Democrats (who have yet to melt into a steaming pile of ectoplasm like most vanquished zombies) see as fertile terrain.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

@snoopydawg

Lol, thanks! Although I suspect that the Zombie corporate Dems have failed to pass only because so many Clinton supporters have sacrificed their brains that they may eat of them, and so continue to exist... and which theory also explains so much more!

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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.

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Pricknick Not just them. Everyone with more than ten years' seniority, or don't bother talking to me.
Retire them.

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"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

Bollox Ref's picture

Just another load of 'message marketing' cobblers.

Someone's being used alright... Joe/Jane voter.

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Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.

@Bollox Ref

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gulfgal98's picture

to the Labour Party manifesto?

Personally, having a manifesto for the Democratic Party will not work. They do not care about keeping their promises to the people. Witness the speaker of the house in Calif. shelving single payer. It could not be more obvious than that.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

snoopydawg's picture

@gulfgal98
Schumer: new Democratic 'agenda' will 'resonate with the middle class'

Within a month, the Democratic party will present a “strong, bold, sharp-edged and common-sense economic agenda” to underpin its efforts against Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said on Sunday.

Trump wants 'heart' as Republicans seek to deliver Senate healthcare bill

“Here’s the No1 lesson from Georgia 6,” the New York senator said on ABC’s This Week, referring to the sixth congressional district in which Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff this week lost the most expensive special election in history.

Oh good lord! He's going to talk to Bernie and Manchin.

Anyone remember how often he votes with the republicans? Yeah chuckles, working with Manchin is a great idea.

Schumer said: “I’m talking to Bernie Sanders, I’m talking to [moderate West Virginia senator] Joe Manchin. This is going to be really something that Democrats can be proud of and I’m excited about it.”

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Bollox Ref's picture

@snoopydawg

'The Working Class be Damned to Hell!'

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Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.

thanatokephaloides's picture

@Bollox Ref

We're already in the Hell of their creation....

Bad

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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

snoopydawg's picture

@Bollox Ref
and noticed how hollow that sounded. Bernie said "working class" when he was on Meet the Press this morning.
This needs to have an answer for why this happened under Obama's watch.

“For the last nine years, Democrats have lost the White House, we’ve lost now the Senate, we’ve lost the US House, two-thirds of governors’ chairs are controlled by Republicans, a thousand seats have been lost to Republicans in state legislatures all over this country.”

Heh, someone should get this message to a few people on ToP. There is a diary there that basically says it has proof that Russia interfered with election and one person is saying that there has been no definitive proof that shows that is true. He makes a good argument about how people are now believing what the intelligence agencies are saying.
I would like to see him wander over to here.

IMG_0829.JPG

Actually, I know why this happened in the 2014 elections. DWS was in charge of the DNC and she often had a horrible candidate run against the republicans or she let them run unopposed in many states. This happened again with the special elections that happened after Trump was elected. The Bernie type democrats didn't receive any help from the DCCC or any other organization, but when a person with credentials like Osfoff ran, that person got all kinds of help from the democrats. He could have been a republican because of what his platform was.
$30 million is a lot of money for an election
On top of that, why did the democrats change the filibuster rule in 2013? Seriously, the republicans used it all the time when they were the minority party, so why would the democrats take away their power to stop republicans from passing their legislation?

And is this a dig at Hillary? I think so Smile

“But you lose an election, you don’t blame other people, you blame yourself.”

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@snoopydawg

Repubs want 'heart', Dems want 'brains' - so both wings of the corporate Party mindlessly continue to rip whatever they/their funders want out of voters - who want 'courage'.

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0 users have voted.

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.

thanatokephaloides's picture

@gulfgal98

Personally, having a manifesto for the Democratic Party will not work. They do not care about keeping their promises to the people. Witness the speaker of the house in Calif. shelving single payer. It could not be more obvious than that.

You will please notice when I answered the Essay's question above, I mentioned numerous items that today's "Democrats" wouldn't even have the cojones to promise, much less attempt to deliver.

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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

@gulfgal98 @gulfgal98 I believe he is taking orders from the national party. The leadership of the Democratic Party does not want single payer, it's not about what the electorate want, it's about where they get their money from. New York State Assembly also passed a bill, but it went no where in the Senate, where people with [D] after their names outnumber those with [R]. The [Rs] run the place with tacit approval of the [D] governor.

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It's simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves that we've been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back. Carl Sagan

zett's picture

I thought the Dem Party all ready had a platform?! Wasn't developing one the point of all the meeting pre-Convention? Wasn't said platform the weak tea Bernie kept mentioning to try not to look like a capitulating loser? I love Bernie, but that "most progressive platform in history" started grating quick.

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@zett n/t

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

movie buff's picture

They could even include single-payer healthcare (they won't) but even if they did, if it ever actually came up for a vote, they would kill it, like they just did in California.

For the Democratic party to release a manifesto is just a publicity stunt to convince their restless base that they "get it" and that they "feel our pain." But it would amount to little more than their Clintonesque public position, and I think we all know what their private position is.

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"The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum." --Noam Chomsky

@movie buff Publicity stunt was my first thought too. They know what they need to do but they have no intention of doing it. Ever. This will be like HRC 2.0 that they rolled out last year. Same old shit in a new container. As long as the same power structure and power players are in place, anything they say is empty words.

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

snoopydawg's picture

It says that "if you put us back in charge of congress, we will roll back the Bush abuses and hold him responsible for his actions in Iraq"

So we did that and we know how they kept their promises.
Something about a table and dry powder for use on another day. The day it should have been used was when they were confirming Trump's cabinet members. The only person they didn't confirm was DeVos.
After the republicans in the house passed their version of health care, the democrats should have said that they will under no circumstances work with them to get it passed. What did Schumer say when he was asked about it? He said that he was willing to work with them.

If I recall correctly, the democrats already have a platform to work with. This included trying to get the TPP passed and continue with fracking and other issues that will benefit their masters.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

@snoopydawg Now, how about a game of 11th dimensional chess where you can allegedly win by losing?

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

Lily O Lady's picture

@Dr. John Carpenter

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"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

snoopydawg's picture

anything, they wouldn't have sabotaged Bernie and made sure that Hillary won the primary. This is just more kabuki BS and people should see it for what it is.

One more thing. They had the media focus fully on Trump before Hillary won the primary. That was Hillary's pied piper plan and it back fired against them.
He received $2 billion in free advertising and every 'left' website was pushing for him to win.

As the saying goes, "actions have consequences". Oops

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lotlizard's picture

@snoopydawg
out of exile back to Russia in a sealed railway car.

It worked — in the short term. “Lenin” (Trump) led a “revolution” that took “Russia” (the normal, run-of-the-mill Republican candidates and party hacks) out of the “war.”

Ultimately, of course, in both cases the clever little ploy backfired — big-time.

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dervish's picture

@lotlizard Yeah, that boxcar ultimately led to Stalingrad, and worse.

Couldn't they have left him in Switzerland? Maybe gotten him interested in fishing, or card games or something?

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"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."

coloradoblue's picture

yeah Chuckie, I caught those particular weasel words. I'm guessing anything that would really help the 99% will fail the "common sense" test.

And by August? Fuck, I came up with 40 in a couple of days.

Can't imagine how many of those on my list will find their way onto yours. I'm guessing none.

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Dear Dems: You lost the WH, Senate, House, dozens of governors, state level SOS and AG and about 1,000 state legislative seats. Maybe...you're doing something wrong.

ggersh's picture

https://theintercept.com/2017/06/25/ralph-nader-the-democrats-are-unable...

The Democrats began the process of message preceding policy. No — policy precedes message. That means they kept saying how bad the Republicans are. They campaigned not by saying, look how good we are, we’re going to bring you full Medicare [for all], we’re going to crack down on corporate crime against workers and consumers and the environment, stealing, lying, cheating you. We’re going to get you a living wage. We’re going to get a lean defense, a better defense, and get some of this money and start rebuilding your schools and bridges and water and sewage systems and libraries and clinics.

Instead of saying that, they campaign by saying “Can you believe how bad the Republicans are?” Now once they say that, they trap their progressive wing, because their progressive wing is the only segment that’s going to change the party to be a more formidable opponent. Because they say to their progressive wing, “You’ve got nowhere to go, get off our back.”

And this went right into the scapegoating of the last twenty years. “Oh, it’s Nader, oh, it’s the Koch Brothers, oh, it’s the electoral college, oh, it’s misogyny, oh, it’s redneck deplorables.” They never look at themselves in the mirror.

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I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

lotlizard's picture

1. Promote and prioritize pacifism and peace

2. International law. Abide by it, uphold it. Anyone who doesn’t can’t be an ally either

3. Human rights, civil rights, and civil liberties

4. Democracy. When people vote for X, they get X — not some Y imposed by the elites

5. Pluralism. Diversity of, not just identities or interest groups, but actual views. Equal time for real dissent

6. Anti-racism. No special status for any group or category, whether minority or majority

7. Ethics and morality. Goodness, truth, honor, values, principles. Right over wrong. Healthy and natural over twisted and pathological

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