F*ck Unity

The mouthpiece of the Democratic Party establishment, the Washington Post, is back to slandering "Bernie Bros".

But here come the Bernie Bros and sisters to the Republicans’ rescue: They’re sowing division in the Democratic Party and attempting to enact a purge of the ideologically impure — just the sort of thing that made the Republican Party the ungovernable mess it is today.

Wait, what?
That "ungovernable mess" that just happens to have knocked the Democrats into the political wilderness by winning every level of government. Democrats surely don't want to win elections like that, right?
Are you insane?
The Clinton News Network (CNN) repeated this line, with a little less condescension.

But even as Sanders and party leadership increasingly make ties on Capitol Hill, infighting with roots in the ideologically loaded and often deeply personal 2016 primary are threatening to blow up the détente.
This new series of emotional and racially tinged arguments could shatter a fragile peace, forged in opposition to President Donald Trump, and undermine Democratic efforts to claw back control from Republicans in Congress during next year's midterm election season.

It's become painfully obvious that "unity" means nothing more than "STFU Progressives!"
The people preaching "unity" are the ones most married to the status quo (that voters decisively rejected), and were also the ones universally wrong about last year's elections.
It shouldn't surprise people that even Republicans have chimed in with support for the Democratic establishment's position.

one can’t escape news of the Democratic Party’s supposed massive circular firing squad, also known as the “Left’s War of Mutually Assured Destruction.” Senator Bernie Sanders, according to some, is “sabotaging the Democratic Party,” and has started a “foolish family feud.” And it’s not just folks on the left hand-wringing over this internecine warfare—opportunistic conservatives are leaning heavily into this narrative. In The Wall Street Journal, Karl Rove, once known as “Bush’s brain,” warned Democrats that “progressive intolerance” poses a “life threatening” challenge to the party’s future.
Most of that is nonsense.

If you are a Democrat and you are in agreement with Karl Rove, then you should start questioning your life choices.

The New York Times reported on the party fight in an article entitled: “Democratic Split Screen: The Base Wants it All; the Party Wants to Win.” The basic theme was the activist “base” of the party—which the authors mistakenly equated with the Sanders movement—wanted a revolution, while the party pros just wanted to use this moment to win elections.
But, given the track record, clearly the party pros don’t have much of a clue on how to win elections, much less forge a lasting majority coalition. There is no show worth applause.

What's going on is that the establishment Dems have gone back to Hippie Punching, which has worked in the past. However, it's not working this time, and the Dems simply don't have a back-up plan to slandering, shaming, and offending their progressive base.
It's their only play.

That got me thinking: How come you never hear Republicans slandering and disrespecting their own base, like the Democrats?
So I looked into what happened during the Tea Party revolt.

The Tea Party delivered fresh shocks to the Republican establishment in a series of primary elections that highlighted the apparent civil war being waged among US conservatives.
The grassroots movement backed by Sarah Palin pulled off a dramatic coup in Delaware and New York and ran a close second in another bitterly fought election in New Hampshire. The upheaval could damage Republican hopes of taking the US Senate from the Democrats in November's mid-term elections.
Tim Kaine, the Democratic party chairman, in an NBC interview, said the victories were a sign of the battle raging in the Republican party. "That creates opportunities for us," he said.

Ah, yes. All that infighting in the GOP sure did "create opportunities" for Democrats in 2010.
If by "opportunities" you mean "getting your ass kicked".
The Republican civil war translated directly into an electoral tidal wave. So don't tell me that lack of unity will hold the Dems back.

The biggest of the surprises was Christine O'Donnell, the Tea Party-backed candidate in Delaware, who beat the Republican establishment candidate, Mike Castle, a party veteran and former governor....
Her win comes on top of a series of Tea Party scalps dating back to Republican Scott Brown's win in January to take the late Ted Kennedy's former Massachusetts seat. Since then, they have won primaries across the country, including Kentucky, Florida, South Carolina, Utah and Alaska, shifting the Republicans to the right.

Did all those primary wins turn into election wins for the GOP? No. But they did do one thing - they made the party respect its base. Which is something the Dems obviously don't do.

Candidates bearing the Tea Party mantle defeated “establishment” politicians in open primaries across the country for House, Senate, and governor, championed by talk radio and blogs like RedState. To survive, sitting Republican officeholders scrambled to prove their Tea Party bona fides.

There's a lesson to be learned here - power respects power.

The Tea Party had an easier road than progressives have.
The Tea Party had Fox News and the Koch brothers underwriting their cause. Progressives have no one on their side (see OWS). So a victory over the corrupt Dem establishment will require a Herculean effort, but it can be done.
Just look at how Jeremy Corbyn had to repeatedly defeat neoliberals in his own party.
On the other hand, a lack of establishment backers should mean that a progressive insurgency won't sell out its cause for cash and a seat at the adult's table, like what happened to the Tea Party.

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Song of the lark's picture

But exogenous events may overtake all of us regardless of persuasion.

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JekyllnHyde's picture

The term "Bernie Bros" was a bogus and fictitious creation that some Hillary supporters foisted upon the electorate to unfairly malign Bernie Sanders. Of course, as Matt Taibbi pointed out in this tweet last year, this isn't the first time they've displayed sore-loserism and accused political opponents of misogyny and sexism. How convenient!

How about having their flawed and lousy candidate take a good, long look in the mirror? A bit of self-reflection is in order.

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A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma

divineorder's picture

Anyway, here many of us have about decided the Democratic Party to be irreparable. But when will it die? Can we fight off the coming attack on social net in the name of more tax cuts for the rich?

Only bright spot for me is enjoying watching all the push back on the DP establishment, and the plans to primary the @ssholes all around. LOVING it!

You know some of those DLC toid way types ad industry fundraising from the superrich must be scared sh*tless because they don't want anyone to rock that incredible gravy train they have.

They were successful with Sanders, but what now? You know they'll be throwing megadollars cooking up character , meme creation, and dirty tricks.

Will they win, like they have for the last 30 years?

I know, I know, given the history, one can honestly be concerned about veal penning yada yada yada. But hey, what else do we have just now?

The youngs may fool us all, taking up Democratic Party causes of bygone days and maybe even winning.

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

divineorder's picture

there is still direct action.

Or there's the newly growing DSA

Sad news:

Glenn Greenwald and 1 other follow

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

@divineorder

They want to make damn sure Bernie doesn't run again. Problem is he can't be trusted anymore if he does. This is going to be a bloody fight.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

divineorder's picture

@dkmich

http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/12/politics/elizabeth-warren-netroots-nation/...

Warren pointed to a New York Times op-ed by Mark Penn, a Hillary Clinton 2008 campaign strategist, who called for the party to abandon "identity politics."
Warren noted that those calls, after previous election losses, had prevailed.
"This time, no one cared," she said. "Big yawn."
"In the wake of the last election, I've heard people say we need to decide whether we're the party of the white working class or the party of Black Lives Matter," Warren said.
"I say we can care about a dad who's worried that his kid will have to move away from their factory town to find good work -- and we can care about a mom who's worried that her kid will get shot during a traffic stop," she said. "The way I see it, those two parents have something deep down in common -- the system is rigged against both of them -- and against their kids."
Warren argued that many of the voters who abandoned Democrats and either fell into Trump's camp or stayed home in November because they see a "rigged" system and "don't feel like anyone in politics is doing anything to un-rig it, or it's too broken to un-rig at all."
"So spare me the argument about whether we ought to be trying to bring back folks who voted for Donald Trump or trying to turn out folks who just didn't vote," she said. "Because we can't do either of those things until we can show that things can change -- and that we will fight to change them."

Nothing about ending endless war though.

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

@divineorder

each of them blew their credibility. Sherrod Brown and Warren turned tail and endorsed Hillary. Bernie quit. It is too bad we didn't hold the whole bunch accountable when there was less to lose. Bill Clinton and Obama would have been the races to make them lose.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

@dkmich
The lesson of 2000 was that even when the Dem elite believe that they have lost because of a challenge from the left, they will not go left.

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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.

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@UntimelyRippd That was also the lesson of 2008.

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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

divineorder's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@divineorder If we're talking about action on debt, the Rolling Jubilee Occupy came up with was a top-notch idea.

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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

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal

Guess the rest of America's viewers did not.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@HenryAWallace For some reason, my fellow citizens don't like musicals (generally).

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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

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal

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@UntimelyRippd

If Dems present a united front, it's less likely they will lose donations from lobbyists or votes--at least until recently. And, if a conservadem does lose an election, no worries. There will be a job for him or her, if desired. Not so for a populist liberal.

Bread. Which. Buttered. Side.

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divineorder's picture

@dkmich Another one to add to the three:

https://ballotpedia.org/Lloyd_Doggett

American response in Syria

See also: United States involvement in Syria

On August 29, 2013, more than 50 House Democrats signed a letter written by California Rep. Barbara Lee that called for a congressional resolution on strikes, and cautioned that the dire situation in Syria "should not draw us into an unwise war—especially without adhering to our constitutional requirements."[87][88] The letter also called on the Obama administration to work with the U.N. Security Council “to build international consensus” condemning the alleged use of chemical weapons. Doggett was one of the 50 Democrats in the House to sign the letter.[87][88]
Elections

But in the end he still votes for the military funding bills.

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

@divineorder

Kerry was for it before he was against it.

Either way, voting against funding wars has consequences. But not from loyal Democratic voters.

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@dkmich

or may not be an FDR Democrat, but I don't know. She said she was a Republican because she thought they were better for "the markets" and switched to Democratic because she changed her mind about that. She is a Senator from Massachusetts, so it behooves her to sound liberal. Is she? Who knows?

Bernie was never a Democrat until he ran for POTUS--and he hasn't been much of an independent since 1992, when he got to Congress--after endorsing Bill Clinton for POTUS on his way there. He has a deal with Senate Democrats who don't back, financially or otherwise, anyone who runs against him for the Senate.

Since it's been a while since Vermont sent a Republican to the Senate--and, even when it did--they were Northeastern liberal types--having no Democratic competition is at least part of the reason he gets such a large percentage of the vote. He mentions that large percentage often, but without mentioning that he has a deal with Senate Dems that facilitates his getting that large percentage. Wiki says his end of the deal is voting with the Caucus on "administrative" matters, whatever that means. Somehow, I don't that is the full extent of the deal. In any event, if he were to piss off Dems, he'd have a primary battle on his hands, including a need to raise money, stump, etc.

I like Bernie--I think--I have a lot of unresolved feelings--but facts are facts.

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dervish's picture

@divineorder One of ours was killed fighting against racism and injustice, yet they have the temerity to call us racists? We need to push back hard every time that shitty meme pops up.

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

divineorder's picture

@dervish @dervish

Heh.

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

@divineorder

"alternative facts" in the dictionary. Literally, alternative facts.

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divineorder's picture

@HenryAWallace

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

Not Henry Kissinger's picture

But here come the Bernie Bros and sisters to the Republicans’ rescue:

At least an establishment newspaper has finally decided to recognize the fact that a lot of Sanders supporters are, you know, not men.

Too bad, though, that the editors decided not to capitalize 'sisters'.

I'm sure Hillary is already writing a LTE demanding a correction.

Or not.

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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?

SSFPhoenix's picture

@Not Henry Kissinger when I saw the headline. I almost thought I had woken up in a alternate reality in which the white male bernie bro slander had never taken place.

Wasn't surprised about the continued effort to blame Bernie supporters for trump.

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Ever look up at the the stars and wonder "Is there intelligent life out there?"

@SSFPhoenix

voters who left the Party in disgust years ago did not re-register Democratic so they could vote for Bernie in the primaries. The Party should have sent Bernie a thank you note.

The Third Way trojan horse, funded by the Koch brothers and fronted by the Clintons destroyed the Party. Who ever decided Hillary should be coronated put the final nail in the coffin. Or, I hope it was the final nail. What's left of it should join their ideological mate, the Republican Party, and make way for something else.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHQLQ1Rc_Js]

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Deja's picture

@Not Henry Kissinger
. . . doncha know?

So says Ms. Steinem - the supposed face of feminism.

Ugh, I just threw up in my mouth a little bit.

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Not Henry Kissinger's picture

@Deja

We BernieBro sisters are only here bec it's where the boys are

of a sentence that manages to be sexist against both men AND women at the same time.

So Gloria and WaPo, in the immortal words of Zaphod Beeblebrox:

Ten out of ten for style, but minus several million for good thinking, huh?

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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?

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Deja Everybody sing!

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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

Strife Delivery's picture

The duopoly allows movement only in one direction: Right.

Yes, the Tea Party was an astro-turf movement that was founded by quite a lot of money. But in the end, it got more rabid right-wing folks.

In the end, it is ok to go to the right and never ok to go left.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Strife Delivery It's OK to go right until the right-winger needs help against a richer right-winger or a corporation. Like right-wing Texas ranchers having trouble with fracking.

Then whatever the right-wing principle (wrongheaded or not) the Texas rancher has, or thought his party had, will be thrown on the same shitpile where all the left-wing principles went, because ultimately it's all about entrenched aristocrats maximizing their power and profit. Regardless of consequences.

It's kind of like Ripley discovering Special Order 937.

The important part of Special Order 937 is "All other considerations secondary." Although "Crew expendable" is more blunt, like a poker to the gut, "all other considerations secondary" gets at the heart of what is wrong with this kind of capitalism and its multinational set of coordinated police states.

I believe Milton Friedman was the original author of that special order.

This is the real reason that there's no point in working within the system.

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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

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

1) "For every blue-collar Democrat we lose in western Pennsylvania, we will pick up two moderate Republicans in the suburbs of Philadelphia"

2)https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/06/30/heres-the-grow...

I've always wanted to vote for a candidate supported by John Negroponte.

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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

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

The New York Times reported on the party fight in an article entitled: “Democratic Split Screen: The Base Wants it All; the Party Wants to Win.”

The Party wants to win?

You could have fooled me:

President Barack Obama often cites numbers like these while boasting about his tenure in the White House: 15 million new jobs, a 4.9 per cent unemployment rate and 74 months of consecutive job growth.

But one number almost always goes unheard: more than 1,030 seats.

That's the number of spots in state legislatures, governor's mansions and Congress lost by Democrats during Obama's presidency.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4063898/As-Obama-accomplished-po...
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

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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

Grass roots? Sarah Palin? Good grief.

The Koch brothers conceived of a Tea Party-like organization back in the 1980s. You can discern that from a comment in this 2010 article. I grokked that in 2010, when I read the article in my dentist's waiting, which is as lovely as it should be for a dental practice that overcharges by that much.

The article is long, so forgive me if I don't find the page and the exact quote. http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/08/30/covert-operations

Eventually, the Koch brothers astroturfed their brain child, using Dick Armey as a front man. He later quit. I wonder who's ass-kissing them now.

However, I guess that, in the 1980s, the Koch bros thought that astroturfing an organization that would finish the job of gelding the Democratic Party was a higher priority. http://americablog.com/2010/08/koch-industries-gave-funding-to-the-dlc-a... I can't say that, from their perspective, they were wrong. I can't think of a shorter cut to all Republican politicians, local, state and federal.

Palin was only a Sarah come lately who only jumped on the bandwagon when she wanted the votes of the Tea Party. Whereupon, she promptly mistook Concord, NH as one of the towns in which the Battle of Lexington and Concord were fought, proving she had no idea what had led up to the Revolution or where and why the Tea Party occurred. Indeed, as best I cold figure, her takeaway was that the Revolution had been fought over the Brits taking the guns of the colonists. (There was something about an armory, but, obviously, that was not the casus belli. Which surprised no one, since she also thought that the Constitution said that marriage is only between a man and woman and a prankster was the President of France.

Well, I guess being creative enough to care little about facts and just make up crap is why the CNN folks get paid the big bucks while we mundane fact-based folk post as a hobby.

On the bright side, at least CNN did acknowledge that Bernie's supporters included women. So did--believe it or not--a relatively recent Harvard study. The day the study went public, millions of female Bernie supporters around the world said "I exist," much like like Santa Claus in that holiday M&M commercial (or it is Coke?). http://resistancereport.com/politics/harvard-poll-bernie-supporters/

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@HenryAWallace Lovely reference!

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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

a part of their Party. Never registered with them, never will.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

if you also echo his talking points. Or quote them to add credibility to your position (the most ridiculous thing of all). But then we're in a world where Democrats bring ethics lawyers from the George W. Bush administration to lend support to their Ain't Trump terrible master narrative.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/341223-ex-bush-ethics-lawyer-...

Start watching at 10:52 for the Bush ethics lawyer and Dore et al's reaction to him.

You know, the George W. Bush administration would never have tolerated ethical lapses like Trump's.

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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

That got me thinking: How come you never hear Republicans slandering and disrespecting their own base, like the Democrats?

Because the TP and Establishment Repugs have many of the same goals. They both want taxes cut, the social safety network chopped up, and everything deregulated.

(Unlike Progressives and Establishment Dems, whose goals are generally opposed. Establishment Dems have more in common with the Tea Party than they do with progressives.)

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