Establishment Democrats seem determined to blow it in 2018
The Republican's reverse-Robin Hood policies, plus Trump's ability to insult everyone, have given the Democrats a historic opportunity according to polls.
A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll released on Sunday found that 50% of people said they want Democrats to lead Congress after the 2018 midterm elections, compared to 39% who said they hoped Republicans would retain congressional control.
...A Monmouth University survey released on Wednesday — conducted by telephone, and with a plus-or-minus 3.5% margin of error— found that 51% of registered voters said they would vote for or lean toward a Democratic candidate if the 2018 elections were held today, compared to just 36% who said they would vote or lean Republican.
So with the wind at their backs, what are the Democrats doing to bring this baby home?
For a good example, take a look at Virginia, where the establishment managed to push centrist Ralph Northam to victory.
Gov. Northam gave a truly surreal interview that sounded like a Democratic stump speech from maybe 2002. At a time when the Republican Party is as strident as ever and getting cozy with white nationalists, Northam claimed he's going to emphasize bipartisanship. Huh?
Is that what the Democratic base is clambering for? Bipartisanship?
I don't think so. And it gets even worse.
The biggest issue for voters by far was health care, as 77% of those voting for Northam did so because of this intractable issue... Many Virginians were no doubt encouraged by promises like this from Northam.It's time to put politics aside and do what's right and expand Medicaid for up to 400,000 hardworking Virginians. https://t.co/0f5M0coP53
— Ralph Northam (@RalphNortham) April 3, 2017
...Per The Washington Post:
Similarly, Northam said he has no plans to try to force Republicans to accept a broad expansion of Medicaid. Instead, he has begun talks with lawmakers in both parties about overhauling the state's Medicaid system to expand access to health care while better defining eligibility to control costs.
Northam campaigned on expanding Medicaid, was elected by an army who supported his cause, and now that he's in power, he's already signaling that he will capitulate to Republican scare-tactics on the issue most responsible for putting him in office. He's even talking about “overhauling” instead of “expanding” Medicaid. That's Paul Ryan talk.
This is SOP for the Democratic Party: campaign to the left, legislate to the right.
To be fair, at least Hillary was honest about having no intention of giving Democratic voters what they wanted.
Meanwhile, the NY Times is giving the Democrats advice that looks suspiciously like the establishment strategy of the disastrous election a year ago.
If Democrats are to claim the House majority next year, their path back to power will go through places like the Huntingdon, a 34-floor high-rise in the River Oaks section of Houston that was once home to Enron’s Kenneth L. Lay, has no fewer than five valets on a busy night and sits in the district of Representative John Culberson, a veteran Republican who may be in for the race of his life.
The mounting backlash to President Trump that is threatening his party’s control of Congress is no longer confined just to swing districts on either coast. Officials in both parties believe that Republican control of the House is now in grave jeopardy because a group of districts that are historically Republican or had been trending that way before the 2016 election are slipping away.
So the path to Democratic victory is to appeal to moderate Republicans, not by energizing the Democratic, working-class base. Where have I heard that before?
This "Let's keep doing the same thing and expect different results" advice isn't limited to just one NY Times article. The neoliberals at NYT are deathly afraid of the Democratic Party actually being Democratic.
Last Monday, the New York Times carried what has to be one of the most ludicrous, Orwellian pieces of propaganda in recent memory. The title sums it up: “Is the Democratic Party Becoming too Democratic?”
...the authors acknowledge that transparency and democratization helps create legitimacy and voter buy-in, then they note that there is a crisis of faith in the two party system. Their solution for Democrats? Reverse the trends that would increase faith in the system, apparently.
Reversing transparency and democratization attempts appears to be exactly what the Democratic establishment intends.
The corporate Dems seem incapable of learning any lessons from the catastrophic defeats of 2010, 2014, and 2016. They continue to think that running as "Not Trump" is all that is required, forgetting that this was exactly the strategy they used in 2016.
Democrats have been in a state of denial for a long time – actually before the 2016 election – feeling stuck, rudderless, and adrift...
It’s been an easy and obvious position to be “Not-Trump.” But that’s not enough for sustained electoral success. In fact, it is the complacent formula for myriad defeats in local, state and federal elections in 2018 – a formula that we Democrats have perfected.A quick look at recent results: In the five special elections for the House, the scorecard is now Republicans four and Democrats five. And in the Alabama special election for the Senate, the Democratic won, which is to celebrated. But we hope that none of our fellow Democrats see this as a strategic or tactical formula for winning House or Senate races in 2018.
The Democrats, even with the overwhelmingly unpopular Republicans in charge, have still only managed a 6-4 record in special elections this year.
That's nothing to write home about, and "Not Trump" isn't going to get more popular in the coming months.
Comments
I think we know where this will end up...
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ll3iyvbsRDM]
But hey, I'm sure the Dems will blame it on Russia.
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
Political shuffle
I’ll laugh just as soon as I’m done crying.
"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"
Heh
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
Futurama ftw
“Those who make Bernie Sanders impossible will make Luigi Mangione inevitable." - Dan Berger
So expected
wasn't it?
The Dems are like that carnie promising you the most wonderful experience of your life, takes your money and then you walk inside the tent and there nothing there. By that time though it's too late. After having seen this act for so many years do they really think anyone will still buy a ticket?
"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott
Subir is taking Northam to task on TOP
I wasn't the only one to notice
I find it a shame that Subir
who I generally admire continues to think that TOP or the Dems really care about us. They don't. TOP is a cog in a larger machine to generate support for the Blue team by any means necessary including lying about the Blue Team's real agenda.
"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott
Twitter is on fire with anger
Heh "Another politician who runs as a seawall and rules as a weather vane,"
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
Twitter may be on fire, but you couldn’t toast a marshmallow
over that flame. All that furor generates neither heat nor light. Virginia is still stuck with an apologist for TPTB. Expect more of the same.
"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"
So say ye, however that heat
is forging alliances that could make him quite miserable and expose his wicked ways.
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
I hope you are right!
"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"
Me, too ! :)
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
That's not what he thinks
He knows the politics of DKos as well as anyone. He's just trying to be a voice in that wilderness... somebody's got to be.
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
@gjohnsit Subir posts a lot of
Subir posts a lot of his stuff on TPW. We appreciate his work. Rec'd!!
Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.
Step right up, and don’t be shy
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQ_k_VG6Syc]
In which a young voter is bedazzled by Democrat hoochy-coochy all his life and in the end discovers he is now an old man and has nothing to show for his devotion.
@Steven D Some will. Many won't.
Some will. Many won't.
"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
Fake left, swerve right. That's DLC Triangulation for you.
And the Republicans with rainbow flags and vagina hats have been doing this shit for decades.
Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.
Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.
I laughed when Jimmy said that Obama's drones
had a rainbow flag on them in the video you posted in another essay. This sure sums up the democrats. If they were the ones passing the tax bill it would be draped in a rainbow flag too.
Tom P commented on not just more democrats, but better ones and what happened to that? I'm sure that you wouldn't be surprised on how that was received there. This was in Subir's diary. Quite a few people talked about how Obama folded for the republicans every damn time he negotiated with them. I got some popcorn before I read the comments on those.if nothing else, I've been entertained by the site especially since the Russian propaganda began
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
I miss TomP.
I wish he would post here. 'Cause there's no way in hell I'm going over there to read him.
Putin can never, I say, force us to accept Medicaid for all.
Democrats will stop Putin!!!
Go ahead and laugh
Just you watch. Some Corporate Democrat will portray his opposition to universal health care as a "courageous stand", and the media will eat it up.
So brave.
Didn't
Hillary already do that?
Why yes, she did. And there’s video proof.
But from what I read about her stand against universal healthcare coverage is that she ‘evolved’ on the issue.
Right after she saw that she was on the losing side.
I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks
Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa
Gotta love how Americans
are still fighting for things that the rest of the West had pretty much figured out from 1900-1950... pensions, health care, workers' rights, industrial/corporate regulation, etc., etc.
The United States. Museum of the Western World of 1899, but bombing someone near you, right now.
(Edited)
I meant to add, that the situation is just fine with the 'Democrats'. After all, didn't Pelosi say 'we're all capitalists', or some such?
Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.
I really hate Pelosi
I wouldn't say I hate her
She's just an antique of little value, that needs to be put in storage, or sold.
The community at large can't afford the insurance cover when she's on display.
Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.
I don't think it's a matter of selling her.
We need to start thinking about how much we'd have to pay someone to take her off our hands.
She knows exactly what she's doing,
and which masters she serves, and how.
She is a huge part of the problem.
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
@gjohnsit
I'm guessing that the Dem message failed because now too many people know what FU stands for?
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.
Nancy, you ignorant #%$& !
Democrats may have values that unify us, but you aren't delivering them to us. Working families want decent wages and a stop to the country's global march to hegemony.
Gay marriage, stopping deportation of Dreamers and the other issues that comes with identity politics is fine, but that isn't where you should stop. We want you to BE the party of FDR, not just reminding us that you once were.
Obama's messaging wasn't the problem, it was his follow though on it. Hillary told us all kinds of nice things that she would do as president, but we knew her history and we knew that she was lying to us.
Trump said the same things and many people believed he would do those things. This is why he's the president and not Hillary and if you can't see that, then it's time for you to retire. Actually, it's long past time since you are the problem. Go and enjoy the millions that you made during your time in congress. Life is short enough. Oops silly me, so is the time you even have to work.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
What I find fascinating
Is that in 1800..., Denmark-Norway and then Sweden-Norway were monarchial states, but by 1905 with Norway's independence, Denmark, Norway and Sweden moved forward, at different rates, with social democracy, allowing profit-making businesses to work, and for the workers they employed, to live also.
(Edited)
Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.
I would like to know how those countries accomplished
giving people those benefits. There is no reason why ours can't give them to us except for our government has been captured by the corporations. And we have been too compliant and not demanding them.
Even when there was a candidate running on those issues, democrats went with the status quo.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
They kept the forms of monarchy, but changed the power structure
http://realscandinavia.com/constitutional-monarchs-the-royal-families-of...
The U.S. dumped monarchy but never shook off “money-archy” — the power structure in which money rules.
Sweden in particular was quite poor in those days
yet they seemed to keep doing the right things consistently, and now look how far they've come.
One difference between us and the nordics is that they don't tolerate corruption, whereas we practically insist on it.
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
Love Jane Curtin
thanks for that walk down memory lane.
Weekend Update: Jane, You Ignorant Slut - SNL
Lee Marvin - Wandering Star
hell is in hello
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palimony#Marvin_v._Marvin
OMG! Flashback to 1970 and the
Billiken Drive-In in Anchorage, AK. They used to show a porn flick before the main feature. I believe I saw Censorship USA ( I think that was the title) before Paint Your Wagon. That was my first porn flick.
I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks
Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa
She's rich and semi-senile, not ignorant. She
definitely needs to retire.
Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.
I’d rather see her locked up somewhere
so she can’t keep screwing the people of this country over. She is foul foul foul.
Here she is throwing a hissy because buying the DNC pre-primary didn’t do het any good. She’s actually IRATE that her crooked scheme failed and she’s blaming the schmucks who enabled her to hijack the ‘Democratic’ primary. THAT there is some out-of-control arrogance:
I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks
Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa
This was always inevitable
The corporate Democrats have always been willing to ride the sinking ship down into the waves in an effort to extract every last penny before the jig is up and they need to find life boats. They have not and will not change their strategy because they can't.
A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard
Can I laugh now?
Because this, gjohn, was a knee slapper.
The calls are already out. Bernie is the messiah. Only he and Warren can save us. Only by rebuilding the demonratic party can this nation survive.
We are truly fornicated.
Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.
I think that things have progressed beyond that,
we're going to need to operate outside of the two-party cage that we've been locked into. The enemy is the capitalist class, the squabble between the parties is just a scripted drama, and distraction, like pro-wrestling.
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
I read the last two articles on the list, earlier.
First, the NYTimes story on the well-off Republican voters who are shocked in the suburbs by the Thing they put in the White House. And then the Common Dreams sad tale about the meeting of the Unity Reform Commission to determine why the Democratic Party loses even when they win.
Both sets of Party bosses are annoyed with their constituients. Both believe that everything would be much better if they could just get rid of democracy when it comes to the Primaries.
The articles both tell a pathetic story of disappointment. On one hand, you have people voting for a man who is clearly out of his depth but still able to deliver a poisonous bait and switch with his campaign promises. On the other hand, you have people who just won't go to the polls to vote for a woman who will say anything to get elected and who was also prepared to deliver a bait and switch to the voters.
I can let the International stuff alone. The Neocons have captured both candidates, so no surprises there. As for the domestic issues, the voters have been betrayed and disregarded for thirty years worth of voting. The People in both Parties are distressed and the duopoly has played them shamelessly. But they do keep voting. The party leaders seem simultaneously defensive and tone deaf. They talk the talk and go through the motions, but they are little more than the rich donor's bagmen at this point.
I read the comments attached to both articles, and I was surprised by the innocence and accidental clarity they reveal. Especially coming from the suburbs. The Democrats are more jaded. There is good information there, and I plan to go back.
But I was thinking, if Americans have to go through another political cycle with these bastards, what is the best way to play it? How can People vote to protect themselves? I'm thinking, the People should make a strategic decision about which Party can most easily be pushed to a majority in both Houses, and vote accordingly. Then vote the opposite party into the Presidency. Turn a bug into a feature. What do you think?
I don't expect it to come to that, though.
Does Raid work?
Because I'd rather kill the bug.
Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.
Jesse Ventura confounded and beat the duopoly in Minnesota
I’d settle for a duopoly-confounding Jesse Ventura type independent at the presidential level.
If only Ross Perot had stayed in the race and won. Hard to tell what would have happened, but when you look at the actual trajectory of the country since 1992 . . .
Who is likely to have been more qualified, a billionaire businessman along the lines of Ross Perot, or one along the lines of Donald Trump?
Perot used financial charts with his speeches.
So, he basically had me at "hello." They were simple-minded charts, but at least the right hemisphere of his brain was engaged. You know, that's also a very good strategy you suggest. I wonder what ever happened to Mike Gravel.
Figures:
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jan/2/mike-gravel-ex-alaska-se...
Can you imagine the number the Deep State would have done on him, if he had come within striking distance?
They don't want to win. Or
They don't want to win. Or more accurately, their masters are pretty happy the way things are.
Addiction
Addictions are hard to break even when you want to break them. The Democratic party is addicted to big corporate money and they do not even want to break that addiction.
The end result? More of the same losses as in 2010 and the blood bath of 2014. Addicts delude themselves more than anyone else.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Nice concept.
Just how do we break the forethought that there can be only two parties?
I'm ready for the "Pirate Party" or any other afterbirth of democracy.
Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.
I'm wondering how much of their campaign money
actually goes to getting themselves re-elected? Everyone of them gets hundreds of thousands from countless people and corporations and they can't have to spend all of it every election, can they?
Then there's all the trips they get paid to take or lavish parties, etc.
Bernie proved that he could do okay with small donations from the little people, but I don't know if he gets campaign money for his seat. If we'd go to the public financed elections, this would be one way to take back control of government. Maybe I'm being too naive?
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
I don't know, Snoopy, but
what I am aware of is that both Steve Pearce(R) and Michelle Lujan-Grisham(D) who are reps from my state are running for governor next year and are both using their "war chests" (what an appropriate moniker), which are bursting with money, on their campaigns. The money doesn't seem to ever stop coming in. This is why Mr/s. Citizen cannot run for public office unless they are financed to the hilt or already part of the 1% club. Disgusting.
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
Public financing of campaigns
I have not read enough about public financing of campaigns to know if there is a major downside to it. But, my gut reaction is that even if there is a downside, public financing still has to be a better option, along with a strict limit on both the dollar amounts allocated and the amount of time that candidates are allowed to campaign.
It appears that a parliamentary system might be a more representative and efficient system of us getting more equitable representation in our government. The parliamentary system also allows for more parties to have a say in our governing, thus hopefully breaking the stranglehold that the duopoly has upon the American system of governing. If I am wrong, I would love for someone to explain to us why.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Oregon
I'm not sure I'm correct on the details, but I think Oregon has this figured out. Maybe someone from there can straighten me out.
You get a (state) tax credit, not deduction, for political contributions up to $200 in total. If you don't donate, you don't get your credit. If you do donate, candidate or party, all in one place or spread it around, it's free to you (of course, taxes go up by up to $200 per person).
That unleashes a huge amount of small dollar donations, more than any candidate or party needs. It's inexcusable to take larger donations at that point. Donations are determined by tax payers, not the government.
I don't know if it works as well in practice as it does in theory, but I really love this idea.
"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
All I can see coming
is lots of one-term wonders. They roll over even before they're sworn in, then will honestly be astonished when nobody turns out to vote for them again. The question is whether they will lose the primary to a socialist, or whether they lose the general to a Republican. But lose they must, and lose they will. "We are woke." Indeed.
"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
Congratulations on your glorious defeat, comrade!
BOHICA California, it worked so well in Vermont ...
http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article189665404.html
LOL
LOL again. "Not this governor" indeed! But I doubt Jerry Brown or any D in the world would say that he has less political clout end of term. He'll select the next governor by endorsement, that's that.
Nobody 2018
housing first
---
Already felt the Bern in 2016, no one survives "the transition", why bother?
Trump Transition Team Emails: Here’s Why Washington Insiders Are Freaking Out
Nobody 2020
dump plutocracy
Shumlin
Shumlin "lost a lot of political clout" because he's a neoliberal tool. All anyone needs to know about him is that he was a superdelegate who voted HRC, despite Vermont's overwhelming choice of Bernie.
Good riddance.
"Bipartisan" is an abused word
I think what it means is that the Democrats will occasionaly represent the interests of the 99% instead of the interests of rich people.
Beware the bullshit factories.
The NYT is working those gaslights harder than ever
"Democrats" aren't in denial, or rudderless. Progressive policies are more popular than ever, and the average voter knows what's wrong. It's the donor class and the elected criminals and party hacks that keep us stuck, and they are doing so willfully, with full knowledge of what they are doing.
The Democratic party is a firewall for the wealthy, and it keeps us from affecting them.
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
So perfectly stated:
People around me are up on we really need the Democrats running things, especially with the tax bill, but they don’t get it that the Dems don’t care, especially about the tax bill. It’s all show. It’s just enough to separate them from the pitchforks and torches, as Obama told them.
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.