Democrats Excel at Hippie Punching
Former Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman Howard Dean gave his opinion of the Democrat's progressive base the other day, and it seemed very familiar.
“There has always been a section of the left, which I call the whiny party — the party that doesn’t really wanna win, they just wanna be pure, and if they go down swinging purely, then that’s fine," Dean, who ran for president in 2004, told MSNBC's Joy Reid on "AM Joy."
"Well, the problem with that is it leaves behind the people who really need their help," he continued. "If we’re gonna have a single-payer or Medicare for all or whatever, we’re gonna have healthcare that covers every American, as every other industrialized country has, then we all have to pull together."
..."So I don’t have a lot of patience with this wing of the progressive party.”
There's a lot of unpack here, including a) his laughable insinuation that it's progressives that are holding us back from universal health care, and b) that it's progressives that are keeping Democrats from winning, instead of a party establishment that doesn't even show up.
What I would rather address is the "whiny party".
How did the Democratic Party establishment get to the point where they can show absolutely zero respect for their voting base and get away with it? It isn't just an important question for those interested in economic justice. Feminists are in the process of getting kicked under the bus by the Dems. What progressive group will be next?
"The Democratic party is where progressive politics go to die."
- Rosa Clemente
To understand how a political party can disrespect its base so much, you have to look at what its base does when it is disrespected.
Last week, a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll found a third of Bernie Sanders’s supporters saying they wouldn’t vote for Hillary Clinton in November if she’s the Democratic nominee, and nearly 60,000 people have signed the “Bernie or Bust” pledge. This is causing plenty of hand-wringing, with one Salon writer warning that “Bernie supporters could blow this election,” and a Huffington Post columnist calling it “the Democrats’ worst nightmare.”
But if history is any guide, a mass defection of Democrats and Dem-leaning independents is the last thing anyone should worry about. We’ve seen this before and we know how it will play out...
Those self-described “PUMAs”—“party unity my ass”—may have stayed home by the dozens that November, but at the end of the day nine out of 10 Democrats supported Obama in an election that featured the highest turnout in 40 years. A similar dynamic played out with Howard Dean supporters in 2004.
It turns out that in 2016 a lot of progressives stayed home, which cost Hillary the election.
Oops! Didn't see that one coming.
However, 2016 was the exception, not the rule.
What normally happens is that Democrats Punch Hippies for fun, and then progressives turn around and vote for the bastards.
President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden had some harsh words for the liberal base this week, telling them to "buck up" and "stop whining" about what the administration has yet to accomplish. It's as if the administration has been trying to give liberal voters a guilt trip as a way to get them out to the polls.
...Yet even as liberal activists and bloggers warn the White House that its attitude is only discouraging the Democrats' strongest supporters, the administration has not shied away from taking digs at its critics on the left.
...This isn't the first time Mr. Obama has jostled with the partisan left, however. In 2005, then-Sen. Obama wrote an open letter on the liberal blog Daily Kos. Much as the president is now beseeching liberals to "buck up," he urged liberals in 2005 to stop attacking Democrats who voted to confirm Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts...Portions of the president's letter sounded as if they could have been written this week: "When we lash out at those who share our fundamental values because they have not met the criteria of every single item on our progressive 'checklist,' then we are essentially preventing them from thinking in new ways about problems. We are tying them up in a straightjacket and forcing them into a conversation only with the converted."
It turns out that we don't share our fundamental values, and progressives are gradually coming to realize it.
"You want us to help you, the first thing I would suggest is enough of the hippie punching. We're the girl you'll take under the bleachers but you won't be seen with in the light of day."
- Susan Madrak
Even after progressives were so discouraged that they didn't show up in 2016, the Dems decided that the solution was to Punch Left even harder.
Since losing the presidency to a Cheeto-hued reality TV host, the Democratic party’s leadership has made it clear that it would rather keep losing than entertain even the slightest whiff of New Deal style social democracy.
Even a symbolic victory cedes too much to those youthful, unwashed hordes who believe healthcare and education are human rights and not extravagant luxuries, as we saw when the Democratic establishment recruited Tom Perez to defeat the electorate-backed progressive Keith Ellison for DNC chair.
Recall that it was the Obama White House that coined the derogatory phrase "professional left".
Speaking of language, it was right-wing conservatives that coined the term "Alt-Left", yet establishment Dems have adopted the term to bash progressives anyway.
The alt-left is no longer the Bernie wing. These people are uncompromising extremists with a cult of personality. https://t.co/wrjIglpQl6
— Markos Moulitsas (@markos) August 1, 2017
So what do we do?
Either you challenge the Democrats from the left, something Dems will always tell you is the wrong time, or you undermine the corrupt Dems from within, which is what Berniecrats are trying to do.
Our Revolution has already endorsed 16 victorious candidates for a variety of elections at the local level in 2017. Other groups that have formed since the Sanders campaign include Brand New Congress (BNC) and Justice Democrats, which are allied in their efforts "to recruit and run dozens of outstanding candidates in a single, national campaign for Congress in 2018." Another organization, #WeWillReplaceYou, is specifically targeting corporate Democrats.
Comments
All you need to know
"... we all have to pull together ... I don’t have a lot of patience with this wing of the progressive party..."
Pulling together starts with patience, understanding and empathy. You aren't pulling together if you see a "wing" as the "other".
Two years ago I was still of the opinion that no matter how hard it would be to take over the Democratic party from within it would be still be easier than to create a viable new party. I no longer believe that. How much worse can it be to get ballot access than to fight a loaded party apparatus in a primary?
So chill out, Howard, you'll have a pure party soon enough. Once we establish a viable socialist party maybe we'll let you pull together with us.
"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone
I am never sure of the extent to which people who
say things like this really believe the premise:
My progressive checklist has about 20 items of which the average Democratic candidate for Governor or Senator or President might "meet the criteria" even rhetorically for about 3.
Weirdly, it reminds me of the story of the captured WWII British fighter pilot Douglas Bader (who wasn't someone I would much have gotten along with, but whatever) being entertained/interviewed by a convivial Luftwaffe colonel or some such, who is trying to invoke the gentlemanly sort of chivalric conflict between airmen. "Yes, of course, we call you 'Tommies' and you call us 'Jerries', but ..." whereupon Bader interrupted him and said, "No we don't, we call you 'Huns'."
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
Every time I see that idiotic tweet from Markos
I wonder, has he no sense of irony ? What was the Clinton campaign if not a substance-free personality cult ? It was all about Her, Her, Her and nothing about why we should support her candidacy, nothing about, you know, actual policy.
We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.
Just took a look at TOP
and this is at the top of the page: Putin apparently trying to incite American Civil War #2 (not kidding)
Well, at least they weren't blaming Bernie.
Give it time...
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
Spooks, self proclaimed experts, and think tank complex money.
That is National Inquirer territory
The whole comment stream is like a rabid mob with pitchforks, each trying to feed the flames of hatred louder than anyone else. Lol one bozo is so worked up she/he wants to "punch Putin in the face", the rest are assuring one another they are all correct and many equate any disagreement as working on the side of Putin to bring about the collapse of this wonderful Democracy.
What a stirred up nest of nuts.
beef
Or, as Guru once asked: "Where's the beef?"
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
Lol, thanat
There is no such thing as TMI. It can always be held in reserve for extortion.
Bernie Bros, Purists & Whiners
Alt left extremist as well. Oh yeah. I'm also racist and sexist!
Keep calling me names and insulting me Howie. That's a sure fire way to get me on your side.
"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn
The punk has no credibility since his shilling gig. What, have
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
Howard & Bernie Are Not Pals
Howard Dean is a party hack, pure and simple:
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/05/the-democratic-wing...
Howie is also a
lobbyistcorporate shill for healthcare racketeers:https://theintercept.com/2016/01/14/howard-dean-lobbyist/
"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn
I can only hope
I won't be declared a deplorable. Please Dr.Dean, say it ain't so!
native
Howard who ? Heh. People over party....
The young and the restless
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
Thomas Frank on Jimmy Dore
The Harper's Article
Here's the Harper's link that slams our media plutocracy:
https://harpers.org/archive/2016/11/swat-team-2/
From page 7:
"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn
Damn Whiners...
Funny, he used to call them the Democratic wing of the Democratic party.
You didn't change the party Howard; the party changed you.
The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?
He is Now Part of the Republican Wing of the Democratic
party.
Or the corporate wing. I prefer the corporate wing. Professional Democrats.
Assholes.
“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu
Had he been elected those words
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
You nailed it DO.
Interesting too that both Dean and Bernie are from Vermont.
Great find. n/t
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
Was he actually believing what he was saying
or was that his version of Hope and Change? If this was what he actually believed in, how could he have changed so much? Money? Power? Both?
Putin isn’t going to make you homeless or kill you or deny you health care.
Your government will allow it to happen though.
honest politician
Howard Dean is an honest politician.
He stays bought.
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
Is he both bought
Remember how badly he was treated by the party (and Obama) after his success leading the DNC with the 50 state strategy?
GAWD This is MADDENING:
Who are our personalities?
Bernie? Not me, and certainly not the Leftier peeps...Jimmy Dore? Susan Sarandon? Tulsi?
Seriously? We're not the ones idolizing Obama, calling the ACA Obamacare, and abandoning all sense of reason and going full blown authoritarian for Hillary.
The projection coming from the Democrats is the same as that coming from the social and econ-o-cons for that last 60 years.
60 fucking years of attacks on the New Deal and social policy.
“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu
"I'm with Her"
So tell me again how we're the ones with the cult of personality.
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
The slogan said it all
It's just my opinion. It can't hurt you
I found this YES man prank on the DNC entertaining
15 min clip from the humanist report
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82xjeCB8oDg]
If only that was their better deal.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Done with lesser evilism
For too many years, I've felt the Democrats have taken my vote for granted. Before 2016, they at least had the courtisey to pretend to understand and care, even if their promises were horseshit.
2016, they stopped pretending. Her couldn't even fake caring and seemed to relish ignoring or shitting on pregressive concerns mostly out of spite. The Democrats tried the worst bunch of shaming I've ever seen. Then they straight up said they didn't need our votes.
So I'm done. They need to earn my vote with actions, not words. I refuse to be shamed or frightened into voting for lesser evil. I also refuse responsibility for their incompetence and uninspiring candidates. If they want my vote, they earn it, simple as that. Because of the choice is between a Republican and Republican in Democratic clothing, I choose neither.
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
Many people believe that the republicans actually kept
Obama from passing the legislation he wanted to pass, but what blows this shit out of the water is what he accomplished during the two years that the democrats held all 3 houses of congress. And the way they explained why they couldn't pass decent legislation was because of the blue dogs.
This too was blown out of the water when Obama would pre-cave to the republicans and give them more than they were asking for.
Remember the years of the 11th dimensional chess excuse people gave Obama for not doing what he promised to do? Or that he "had them right where he wanted them"?
Has any president not fought for his Supreme Court nominee? Obama didn't do jackshit when the republicans blocked Garland from having a hearing even though he was more republican than democrat.
There were so many issues that the democrats wouldn't fight for and people were shouting at them" to grow a spine" or say that if they wanted to win again, they should do.......... !
People have been writing articles about what the democrats need to do if they want to win again.
Geebus? If so many people know what they need to do, I would think that they already know what to do. The fact that they aren't should be enough evidence that they just don't want to change anything. Besides, Pelosi has already told us this.
Putin isn’t going to make you homeless or kill you or deny you health care.
Your government will allow it to happen though.
Funny you'd mention that
Of course I didn't get anywhere but it's amazing to me how many people have no clue that he absolutely had the ability to do great things during that time. Most people I know have no clue that the Democrats had both houses and the presidency for two years and Obama had no reason to fart around like he did except that was his true intention. People just won't accept that this is what happened, even though it is.
Same people keep insisting to me Her would have been "better" than Trump, but they can never provide me a specific way, just vague assumptions about what Her would do for women, minorities and LGBT people. Again, Her record just doesn't support the faith my friends have. No, she's not out there using offensive language, but I think we here all know the kind of stuff I'm taking about. Again, actions, not words.
I think left leaning people just can't accept that the Democratic Party is indistinguishable from the Republicans except for their language on social issues. And, when you really look at what they've done on that front, they've mover right there too.
Sigh. I'm still irritated. I'm going to have to learn to keep my mouth shut to survive the Trump years.
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
Try explaining the actions of Obama and the democrats
this way: the democrats are the Washington Generals and the republicans are the Harlem Globetrotters. This game was played for over a century before I caught on that the script had planned been played
When the democrats are in control of congress, the republicans can block the democrat's legislation by placing holds, use the filibuster and all the other ways they can use. But when the republicans are in control of congress, the democrats
won'tcan't do the same things.Putin isn’t going to make you homeless or kill you or deny you health care.
Your government will allow it to happen though.
I think the key might be
Income inequality is the issue I believe can bring left and right together. Maybe it can also pierce the left/left divide, but I noticed during the election that the Hillbots tended to be less affected by the income schism than the rest of us.
Presidential candidate Obama never mentioned the following
" President-elect Barack Obama pledged yesterday to shape a new Social Security and Medicare "bargain" with the American people, saying that the nation's long-term economic recovery cannot be attained unless the government finally gets control over its most costly entitlement programs.
That discussion will begin next month, Obama said, when he convenes a "fiscal responsibility summit" before delivering his first budget to Congress. He said his administration will begin confronting the issues of entitlement reform and long-term budget deficits soon after it jump-starts job growth and the stock market. "
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/15/AR200901...
shit cereal and crap cereal
..... shit cereal ......
..... crap cereal ......
...... I'm not buying cereal!
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
the hive/DLC?DNC, thrive in only in their bubble
when the clintons/DLC greed became more important
than every/thing/one else.
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
Progress in America...
has always come from the 'left'.
Look back to the IWW Eugene Debs and the fear of a rise of the CPUSA. FDR had to move with the new deal. His goal was to "save capitalism". The civil rights movement was in spite of major political parties. Dr. King forced JFK and Robert Kennedy to act. Nixon the same thing with Vietnam. Kissinger admitted they signed a peace and pulled out from fear of domestic instability and unrest.
The major political parties should be immaterial. What matters is the force of progressive ideas and values.
$.02 tossed into the pot....
I want a Pony!
Howard Dean...
Supporting the cause that reviles all rebels.
Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.
I saw this earlier
When I did, I wanted to barf. My initial tendency was to write a rebuttal to the guy on facebook that posted it. But then I thought about. The DNC is focused on attacking us. They can't ignore us anymore, so they attack us. And every time they do, they attack universal health care. Wages. Pensions. Social Security. Those things us 'purists' demand. And it pushes them further into the realm of obscurity.
Yes. #StandUp4Medicare
Dem Senators ? Need to be replaced.
Needle them from beneath
I like the irritation factor of it.
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
Thanks for posting these Tweets, etc., DO! I have
a bit of disagreement with the JD 'pledge.'
If they are serious, they would do as Repubs have done for decades, and actually challenge Dems lawmakers to sign an official written pledge to vote for, and implement MFA--with the promise of primarying any and every lawmaker who refuses to do so.
What they heck does 'stand up' for MFA even mean?
I also posted about Senator Daines copying and pasting Conyers' amendment, after I heard McConnell calling Dems out for their votes--or, nonvotes.
The end result - the Dem Party vote on Enhanced & Expanded MFA was: '5' Nay and '43' Present.
Mollie
“I believe in the redemptive powers of a dog’s love. It is in recognition of each dog’s potential to lift the human spirit--and therefore, to change society for the better--that I fight to make sure every street dog has its day.”
--Stasha Wong, Secretary, Save Our Street Dogs (SOSD)
The SOSD Fantastic Four
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
Hi! You mean you don't get 'stand up'? :0
Appears to me that is clearly targeted at recruting the youngs, stirup and activate them, make it seem sexy and easy to get involved. Rather than actually get a pledge out of the worthless. I welcome it. Many of them were rightly devasted after Bernie bailed on them at the convention.
At any rate Green candidate Dr. Margaret Flowers is also using this to point to Dems' worthlessness. Others have said that this was clearly designed to make them look bad so they could not vote for it.
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
Comment deleted (repeated in error)
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
What Wikileaks really, really, really revealed.
Wikileaks of course revealed the corruption of the party, but it did more. It revealed Clinton, the standard, the power, the candidate of the democratic party was totally a DINO. I don't like term as it doesn't reveal that she was in fact of policy a right winger. Not centrist democrat. Not center left. Not even a moderate. She was a right winger--actually I should say she is a right winger.
It was obvious with Bernie in the primary she moved "left" as a political ploy, and as revealed by Wikileaks again, her public and but real private positions.
The email exchange with Neera Tanden over $15/min wage was revelatory about the policies of the democrats. Neera opposed it. Podesta supported it and was mocked as a "red" (as in commie red). Those mf'ers reduced one of the critical ways to help people as a fucking joke, a way to rib Podesta.
Single payer at town hall's is the speartip revealing that democrats are not in anyway liberal much less progressive. I like the quote so much, I will repeat it.
I have never fit into so many categories in my life.
Racist, sexist, whiner, a cult member, and purist.
All in all, I am deplorable.
Republicans would stop the insults at calling me a loser. That is kinder.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
I'll admit I was quite politically naive
back when Dean ran. I loved the guy. He was telling me everything I wanted to hear. Thanks to the internet, it's much easier today to educate yourself than it was back then. What he, and the rest of the corporate wing, doesn't get is that people are just sick and tired of incrementalism. We have the worst income inequality since the Gilded Age. The American Dream our parents lived has faded away into Socialism for the rich and Capitalism for the rest of us. No, you're not going to change Washington overnight. It's going to take a fight of our lives and we need leaders with convictions. Leaders with vision. That's not you, Mr. Dean.
The real SparkyGump has passed. It was an honor being your human.
The other question that needs to be asked after this one
is why have so many people continue to support them after their 20 years of attacking them?
In 2008, progressives were against the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the Bush tax cuts and everything else that republicans were doing for their base and against us, but in 2012 and 2016, those same progressives voted to more of all those things. Obama extended both wars, added two new ones, fooled people into believing that Russia attacked Ukraine and Crimea and were killing civilians in Syria. He also made the Bush tax cuts permanent and I'm sure I don't need to recall his history of his tenure.
Herheinous lost to Obama because of her Iraq war vote, but in 2016 when she was running on extending the Syrian war and possibly putting our country in a direct path for war with Russia, the people who chose Obama in 2008, were voting for Herheinous now.
This just doesn't make sense.
I admit that I was snookered by Obama in 2008, but that was the last time I voted for a democrat. I didn't vote last year during the primary because this state has gone to the republicans for as long as I remember. I also didn't vote for Bernie because of his foreign policies.
Yep. I'm a PUMA and proud of it.
Another outstanding essay, gjohnsit!
Putin isn’t going to make you homeless or kill you or deny you health care.
Your government will allow it to happen though.
Who let the mad dog out? Who?
Interesting choice to feature a quote from Crooks and Liars Susie Madrak(?): she was a rabid Hillary supporter that have that blog a very gos-like feel (they stopped sort of banning folks selling instead for ad hominem attacks). The staff at c+l hasn't fully recovered from its embrace of the Dem establishment dark side. For instance they were heavy into bashing Tulsi Gabbard for going to Syria---some might call it hippie punching.
I didn't know anything about her
I only know that her quote above is spot on.
Crooks and Liars really changed over Hillary
I guess he no longer belongs to the Democratic wing of the
Democratic Party. he seems to have joined the DWS wing.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.