Another bad poll for Democrats

"Look over there! Scary Trump!" has not worked like the Dem establishment thought it would.
The Inevitable Demographic Wave is looking further and further away.

Young white millennials stood out as the only subgroup to think the Democratic Party is not responsive to their concerns, according to an NBC News/GenForward survey released Wednesday. Fifty-five percent responded “no” when asked of the party “cares about people like you,” compared to 45 percent of young whites who answered “yes.”

No, it's not about racism, because 60 percent of white millennials thought Republicans did not care about them either.
Given those numbers, this shouldn't surprise anyone.

More Americans than ever—61 percent—say the Democratic and Republican parties are inadequate and the U.S. should have a third major political party, a new poll from Gallup shows. The desire among Americans for a competitive third party has been above 57 percent over the last five years, but Gallup’s latest poll marks a record high level of support.
Backing for a third major party also hit a record high among independents—77 percent—according to the new poll. Meanwhile, 52 percent of Democrats and 49 percent of Republicans say a competitive third party is needed.

This is just the latest of a series of bad polls for Democrats.
This was from July.

The poll asked 1,001 Americans, “Do you think the Democratic Party currently stands for something, or just stands against Trump?”
Only 37 percent of respondents believed that the Democratic Party “stands for something,” while 52 percent of respondents said the party “just stands against Trump.”

And this was from April.

Asked whether the Democratic Party is in touch with the concerns of the average person, just 28% of respondents said it is -- as opposed to 67% who said Democrats are out of touch. Those numbers are worse than the "in touch/out of touch" numbers for either the Republican Party or Trump in that same poll.
More amazing to me is that only 52% of self-identified Democrats said their party was in touch with peoples' concerns, while 44% said it was out of touch. (Also of concern for Democrats: Fewer than 1 in 5 independents -- 18% -- said the Democratic Party was in touch with the average person.)
Those numbers -- particularly among Democrats -- are striking.

Democratic Party favorability is still historically low.
favor.png
You would think that these polls, after the disastrous 2016 election, would shake the Dems' faith that all they need to do is oppose Trump.
But that doesn't appear to be the case. Instead, Sanders and the grassroots will have to force them to stand for something.

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dance you monster's picture

. . . of Democrats say they'd like a better alternative. Ouch.

Meanwhile, 52 percent of Democrats and 49 percent of Republicans say a competitive third party is needed.

Sounds like those "listening tours" by Dem leaders didn't result in much listening.

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@dance you monster Where someone noted they only listen to make their messaging better, not to make the policies better. (Apologies for forgetting the author of that comment.)

Democratic Party: Same shit, better branding!

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

dervish's picture

@Dr. John Carpenter to make us do what they want and accept them. The right slogan will surely make us fall in line.
Those days are over.

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

edg's picture

@dervish

Let's have a contest to come up with a new slogan for the Democratic Party. Here's my entry:

Democrats. Blaming Russia since November 8, 2016.

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@edg

You just won the internetz!

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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.

Hillbilly Dem's picture

@edg

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"Just call me Hillbilly Dem(exit)."
-H/T to Wavey Davey

SparkyGump's picture

@dance you monster
Then it becomes time to shout.

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

Hillbilly Dem's picture

@SparkyGump

"A riot is the language of the unheard."
-Martin Luther King

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"Just call me Hillbilly Dem(exit)."
-H/T to Wavey Davey

@dance you monster IMO that's critical wording. Not "would be helpful" or "would like to see", but "needed"

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gulfgal98's picture

The Democrats must stand FOR something. It is very difficult for the addicts to big donor bucks to understand, but the people will not support a group that stands FOR nothing.

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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

WaterLily's picture

@gulfgal98 This article tickled me yesterday. Vermonters are pulling their support from state Dems, too.

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snoopydawg's picture

@WaterLily

This is what we have been asking:

"People do not accept just calling and saying, 'Give money to the party,'" Gill said. "The party has to do something. I've made phone calls, and people say the same thing: 'What is the party doing?'"

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

Hillbilly Dem's picture

@snoopydawg from Elizabeth Warren, she who is better than most on the Hill. But I didn't even open it because the back side of the envelope screamed... "Help Elizabeth Warren Defeat Donald Trump!!" Gawd.

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"Just call me Hillbilly Dem(exit)."
-H/T to Wavey Davey

@Hillbilly Dem

They really do believe that the possession of large sums of money per se can enable anyone to buy anything and never look beyond that belief because those having such wealth buy them for influence over the people's delegated powers to their public offices (not given to holders personally while holding that position) to set public policy. They live by that warped maxim, while people die as a result.

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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.

@WaterLily

I got a real kick out of this quote from the Dems at your link:

... Still, the financial crunch is real. Is excessive spending to blame? The party's money experts say no.

"This is a revenue problem," said Pearce. "Cutting expenditures is not the way to go." ...

Begging for donations from the wealthy - which buys them influence over the less wealthy - is never a problem for either of the corporate parties, but taxing them proportionately to that degree of wealth for essential basics benefiting all (like infrastructure maintenance and a sane and sustainable public health care system) is not an option...

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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.

dervish's picture

@gulfgal98 they need some tough love, and they need to hit bottom, or else they'll never kick this corporate cash habit.

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

@dervish

The corporate parties are loaded with hand-picked corporate selections; of course The Psychopaths That Be will select other psychopaths because who else would would willingly accept a part in their destructive agenda as enablers?

It's not merely that (apparently most) US politicians are 'out of touch' because of insulation from the most-destructive effects of the appalling policies promoted by their paymasters to be too-often enacted/supported by themselves, but that a good many lack the capacity for humanity and forward-thinking while one of many possibilities includes the fact that others may 'go along to get along', perhaps because they know they 'can't fight the system' and may seek to benefit from it before the whole mess collapses - along with society (the Golden Goose they strangle), the economy (that makes symbolic wealth worth anything at all) and the oxygen-producing, life-sustaining ecosystem formed of ('expediently' industrially/militarily poisoned/exterminated) life.

Fighting/replacing this usurped system's something that can only be achieved with active and wide-spread public support and participation, if a large enough portion of it can overcome the divide-and-conquer conditions imposed on them for so long to come together in a myriad of pacific ways, from peaceful mass protests, boycotts and strikes to attempting to replace the psychopaths in government by replacement both of corporate party 'choices' with sane, responsible real people and by creating parties actually representing the public interest. But always by refusing to ever again actually vote for yet more evil to be visited upon them and therefore helping it grow and worsen as it has for far too long.

If/when they cheat the voters yet again, it must not be permitted to let it appear plausible enough to 'pass', or fall yet again for the endlessly repeated lie that 'it will be fixed next time' by these successful cheaters now in public office to steal what remains of the power and wealth of the people under a false patina of 'legality'. A country-wide strategic vote against corporate candidates could be organized now, even while censorship spreads and before the internet is made entirely useless by Google interference with search programs, by the privatization of control over Domain Names and all of the rest.

The Two-corporate/billionaire-Party Trade-Off scam has to go, along with the unelected paymasters and ruthless manipulators who own/run them from behind the tattered facade of 'democratic government'. Before the worsening censorship/repression situation hits bottom and while there's still anything remaining to salvage.

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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.

jwa13's picture

@gulfgal98 , the demonrats DO stand for something --

... every few years they stand for re-election --

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When Cicero had finished speaking, the people said “How well he spoke”.
When Demosthenes had finished speaking, the people said “Let us march”.

Lily O Lady's picture

@jwa13

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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"

@gulfgal98

Standing up to do their jobs in serving the public interest and protecting the country from the sort of ruthless, predatory monsters they serve and are will never be done by the corporate Dems or Repubs. If that massive-enough replacement by actual progressives could be achieved, at least for the Dems...

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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.

The Aspie Corner's picture

So as far as I'm concerned, they have no right to bitch. Nor do Billary's divisive, idiot supporters among the electorate.

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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.

They like Facebook, so they must have been brainwashed by Russia.

/s

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

snoopydawg's picture

@Dr. John Carpenter

Russia is responsible for the NFL spat. Yep. I read this on YKW this morning. And it seems that everyone agrees with this.
Sigh Scratch one-s head

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

gulfgal98's picture

@snoopydawg is what is happening to the United States government. Bad

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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

@gulfgal98

Good! Flush harder!

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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 In a way, that’s kind of interesting for them to make that claim. Wasn’t one of the reasons people were so upset with Communists/Russia during Cold War One was that they were openly supporting civil rights for African-Americans? I know TBTP spent time trying to paint MLK and other civil rights leaders as dirty Commies. For those of us who haven’t forgotten this brouhaha has civil rights at its core, it kind of makes you go hmm...

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

snoopydawg's picture

@Dr. John Carpenter

If you don't like the weather, just wait for 5 minutes and it will change.
The Russian scare worked well enough in the 50's so let's drag it out, play it again and see if people will fall for it the second time.
Doh! Good

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Pluto's Republic's picture

@snoopydawg

Remember in the good old days when Russia hacked the US elections? Way back nine or ten months ago? A person who wants to be taken seriously doesn't talk about that anymore. Mostly because there's no there, there. That was after they hacked the DNC. Which had already been hacked with a thumbdrive, it turns out. (Plus, the intelligence agencies don't want to talk about it anymore.)

Now the Russians are hacking the NFL with the National Anthem. But that was after they hacked the social networks with trolls, but before they hacked the media with fake news. The other day, they hacked the election results of 31 states on Election Day. Whoa. Everybody thought the Russians hacked the French and German elections, too. Except for the French and the Germans, that is.

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
dervish's picture

@Pluto's Republic with fluoride too, and I think that they're using it as a communications medium through which to hack everything, even our bodies, or anything else that contains water or water vapor. They're doing this to betray us to the space aliens, who intend to come and harvest us as food. Fluoride is their favorite spice/seasoning.

I'm off to go boot some laetrile.

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

for a Third Party to arise, now is it.
I'm still waiting for Jesse Ventura to declare his candidacy.

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native

"Trump is bad. Democrats are the solution."

People already know the first one. But have rejected the second one.

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gulfgal98's picture

@MrWebster

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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

who are the 45% who think the party cares about people like them?? Have they not been paying attention?

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@Iogrey (Best I can guess anyway.)

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

Dhyerwolf's picture

@Iogrey are likely the morons buying into identity politics. I know far too many like this.

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Arrow's picture

@Dhyerwolf @Dhyerwolf These about Twitter itself but just as applicable identity politics and Hillbots

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I want a Pony!

@Iogrey
Comfortable, or "privileged" you might say. I've noticed a strongly analogous correlation between how academic their brand of feminism is with how fervent their support for Her is (still).

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Worse for democracy. Basically neither party is seen to represent our interests. And that's because, except for the barest of minimums (if even that much) they really don't. Would love a poll on if both parties should be banned.

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Orwell: Where's the omelette?

Pluto's Republic's picture

…off this trend for a very long time. When the demand is loud and clear but the Board still thinks a kabuki confab and a new slogan will bamboozle the customers once more — you've got a fatal crack in the foundation. The Party is frozen stiff.

Much of the problem is addiction to the legal money pump. They can't give up corporatism, why should they? It was working fine before…. They can multitask both people and corporations, they say. Political life has no meaning without big money donors. What's the point, they ask?

I think it is senility. It creeps up on you. You just don't feel like changing. And, why should you? You know what works, you built this Party for godsake. People are being stupid, they say. They've been brainwashed by Russia to sabotage the Party so that Moscow can win the Cold War. Or something. That's calcified brain tissue talking.

The truth is, the people aren't really 100 percent into the work of rebuilding a political Party. Plus they don't know what they want and what they deserve. They rush from one emergency to another, and witness the overwhelming failure of the system. They forgot what the purpose of society is, what the goal of government is. Government exists to make it possible for people live a happy and secure life; to help them pursue their personal ambitions and achieve their dreams. Really. That's the entire purpose of government. That was always the purpose. Furthermore, when government is great, it is completely invisible. The people believe that they are the ones making the magic happen. That's what Lao Tzu said 2,500 years ago in his analysis of good government and he is still right. We've always known this. It's encoded in our DNA.

The Democratic Party is desperately trying to make FDR seem old fashioned and irrelevant, but he's the closest that the US has ever come to good government. It's not designed to make anyone fabulously rich. But it will give everyone a good life. And if someone has an excellent idea or an inspiring dream, there will be ample money to make it happen through private capitalism or government endowments. Good government is going to happen no matter what the Parties do. It's closer than you can possibly imagine. The millennials are ushering in Universal Basic Income right now, and it is so good for the economy, that it is irresistible. Universal Basic Income is being tested all over the world. From India to Canada, and in California and Hawaii, people are receiving a basic income whether they need it or not. The world is in a race to get UBI established before automation and artificial intelligence fully arrive. That leaves us little more than a decade. Universal Basic Income will solve the majority of problems plaguing humans. In the US, the people will finally achieve basic human rights (freedom from hunger, adequate shelter, health care, and the education necessary to be at one's best). It will rapidly evolve the species into a new age.

So, the problems of the Democratic Party are simple. The Board invested in the status quo needs to die off quickly. The people who want change sooner need to step up the game. They need to organize to destroy the Democratic Party. They need to weaponize their commitment to a happy, secure life. Prepare to deliver defeat to the Democrats in 2018 — plan it and mean it. If the Party Bosses do not resign, deploy. If the Party Platform is not good government for all the people, deploy. Deliver defeat every two years until they move on or are shown the door. Straighten them the fuck out. This is the power available to humane people. They have nothing to lose and they could turn the country kind.

The Empire and the Dollar are still going down, but it won't hurt as much.

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato

@Pluto's Republic
to good government -- I agree, that is true. Neither of the current Parties can afford to give up the legalized corporate money pump -- that is also true.

But it is not necessary to "rebuild a political Party" in order to break the stranglehold that the current Duopoly maintains. We don't need a "Party" to do this thing, since the whole idea of USA "Political Parties" is becoming somewhat obsolete anyway. Bernie Sanders' primary campaign proved that Party infrastructure is not necessary to effectively champion radical political movement and re-orientation. Trump's campaign strongly indicated more or less the same thing. We can do without a Party, but what we do need is a Candidate.

The "system' as it stands today, is highly unstable, and is likely to collapse under its own momentum, regardless of what the two official Parties do or do not do. Msm and all their talking heads, long stalwart defenders of the status quo, are no longer able to maintain their standing as authoritative arbitors of public opinion, even though they continue to pretend that's what they are.

Sanders ran, and almost won, but no thanks to the Democratic Party. He ran in spite of the Party. The very same was true for Trump. His "Coalition of the Rednecks" beat the pants off the entire Republican Party machinery. What we've got here and now, is a Duopoly that looks to be on its very last legs. There is no point whatsoever in trying to revive either half of it.

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native

Pluto's Republic's picture

@native @native

But it is not necessary to "rebuild a political Party" in order to break the stranglehold that the current Duopoly maintains. We don't need a "Party" to do this thing, since the whole idea of USA "Political Parties" is becoming somewhat obsolete anyway.

It dawned on me that joining a party is surrendering a person's sovereignty for the Party to use as a power proxy to control the political climate. That is an obsolete and dangerous way to handle one's affairs in the 21st century. Chasing the Party as it moves to the Right is likely to get you devoured by the capitalist imperative, and thrown away. The Party should come to us.

There is a huge segment of voters who are fit to speak for the immediate interests of humanity over here on the Left. As you say, we saw what they can do when Bernie was campaigning. We will not surrender our sovereignty by joining a Party that is a cesspool of corruption, where the selfish and greedy hide behind the label of "Pragmatic." We are the human rights party. People will claw their way to the polls to stand with the righteous and stand up for humanity. We are being robbed of our natural inheritance from the civilization we are building. Corporations get their stability and power from the civilization we the People built, and then they turn around and asset-strip us of what is rightfully ours. We must reclaim that and protect it to pass it on to future generations. They should not be born into debt slavery created by the heinous greed of the corporations.

We've already won the advantage. Why have we not joined forces?

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato

@Pluto's Republic

YESSSSS!!!!! Thank you! You need a bigger megaphone, though...

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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.

k9disc's picture

They only need the "appearance" of legitimacy to do that. Actual legitimacy is not necessary.

And the greatest thing of all is the "Plan B". When the government fails and loses the veneer of legitimacy, then corporate can step right in as the only institution with the money and organization to make the trains run on time. Mission Accomplished.

Drumpf as President only speeds up the timetable, it doesn't change the calculus.

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“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu

@k9disc THEY DON'T CARE IF THEY LOSE! This is all about the illusion of democracy. All they care about is their cash cows.

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O.k. When is the next meeting for the revolution?
-FuturePassed on Sunday, November 25, 2018 10:22 p.m.

detroitmechworks's picture

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

snoopydawg's picture

that women owed Hillary their vote. She said that the women who voted for Trump was voting against their own voices. She is totally amazed that so many women voted for him instead of Her.

Michelle Obama: 'Any woman who voted against Hillary Clinton voted against their own voice'

"What does it mean for us as women that we look at those two candidates, as women, and many of us said, that guy, he's better for me, his voice is more true to me," Obama said. "Well, to me that just says you don't like your voice. You like the thing you're told to like."

Sorry Michelle. I didn't feel that Hillary was trustworthy in any way. She said that she was fighting for women and children, yet she helped welfare reform get passed, she never spoke out against the Iraqi sanctions that killed over 500,000 children and a total of 1 million people including women, she never spoke out against way they were treated in Saudi Arabia, and because of her warmongering ways, there are millions of women and children who were killed by our military.
During her entire political career, can anyone tell me what Hillary did that actually helped people? In this or any other country? One damn thing?

How many people does this make that think that Hillary didn't even need to bother with her campaign. That she should have just been selected as the democratic candidate who was running for president.
Too many people believe that if the democrats get back in power, they will pass legislation that will help them. Sorry. I played that game in 2006. Have they ever used the powder they were keeping dry?

I still believe that Obama bears the most responsiblilty for why Trump won. We watched as income inequality rose to the rate it was in 1928.
Look at how much it climbed in 2015.

'What a Rigged Economy Looks Like': Top 10% Now Own 77% of American Wealth

IMG_1253.PNG

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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 her own husbands policies? Sure, she planted a garden and did some fitness stuff, but when did she once speak out against our wars? When did SHE make the case that women and children suffer so egregiously in those? When has she spoken up about income inequality in any meaningful way? Not one word about Billary's ending of welfare or their role in the incarceration state.

I really resent like hell being told that because I actively voted against a war monger I "didn't know my own voice." I know the main implication is for women Trump voters and I wonder about that sometimes myself, but for her to use that tired old trope once again? Please. She thinks women will think highly of her and her party for that? Really?

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Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur

snoopydawg's picture

@lizzyh7

We knew what Hillary would do if she became president because we could look at her history and see what she did.
As opposed to what Trump might possibly do if he was elected instead. People took a chance on him because of the same reason they took a chance on Obama. Because of what they said they would do in office. As I have stated many times, if people had seen their lives improve during Obama's tenure, Hillary would be president instead of the gas bag. This Russian propaganda is tearing this country up and the people who are pushing this is giving their permission to go to war with Russia.

Anyone who protested against the Bush wars m but stayed silent when Obama did the same things are hypocrites. Obama used more drones to kill people during his first 3 months than Bush did during his whole presidency. Trump wouldn't be dropping bombs in so many countries in the Middle East if Obama hadn't done opened the door for him.
The genocide in Yemen is also part of Obama's legacy.

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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

Sounds like the Russia crap likely originated with Cheney and the rest of the Bush league crawling out of the wood-work.

Remember Hillary's adoration of Kissinger and Her rehabilitation of Bush - and Her eagerness to initiate a nuke war with Russia?

Followed by Cheney's move in to advise the new President Trump, push for Tillerson as Secretary of State and to mentor Pence, quoted as saying that he wished to model his Viceness on Cheneys - and apparently it's Old Home Week for a horde of the Bush Admin...

http://www.newsmax.com/Politics/dick-cheney-key-donald-trump-adviser/201...

Politico: Dick Cheney Emerging as Key Trump Adviser

Former Vice President Dick Cheney is emerging as an influential force as President-elect Donald Trump fills his Cabinet — particularly in pushing for the nomination of Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson as secretary of state. ...

... Cheney, 75, who served under President George W. Bush, was among several Republican hard-liners against Russia and President Vladimir Putin who endorsed Tillerson as secretary of state.

Others included former CIA Director and Defense Secretary Bob Gates, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and former Secretaries of State Condoleezza Rice and James A. Baker III.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush also backed Tillerson in the diplomatic post.

Cheney called Tillerson "an inspired choice."

Tillerson, 64, has headed Exxon Mobil since 2006. He has ties to Russia dating back nearly two decades.

Cheney, a longtime friend of Tillerson, also has been involved in the oil industry: He was chairman and CEO of Halliburton Co. from 1995 to 2000.

He also has been communicating closely with senior Trump aides, Politico reports, including Vice President-elect Gov. Mike Pence.

"Mike relishes the advice," a senior transition aide told Politico.

The aide said that Cheney was "willing to do what he’s asked" and "wants to be helpful to the incoming administration." ...

It sounds rather as though the Bush Admin - possibly less Bush 2 himself - is getting cheated in again, only not officially. And that this would have happened either way, with either corporate-party candidate enacting the next steps of the same policies, with the aid of such as Cheney. And his daughter.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/01/liz-cheney-congress-donald-t...

Liz Cheney Wants to Make Torture Great Again
She’s back in Washington, and she’s eager to pick up where her dad left off.

Tim MurphyJan/Feb 2017 issue

...In November, bolstered by a few mended fences and backed by family friends such as Karl Rove and Donald Rumsfeld, Cheney easily won her race to succeed retiring Republican Rep. Cynthia Lummis for Wyoming’s lone House seat, which was once held by her dad. After eight long years in exile, the Cheneys are back in government, and it might be a while before they go away again.

Cheney, a veteran of the Bush administration who has inherited her father’s hawkish views, is returning to a Washington, DC, far different from the one the former vice president left eight years ago. After the missing weapons of mass destruction, the Iraqi insurgency, Abu Ghraib, and the other foreign policy and national security fiascoes of the 2000s, neoconservatives lost their grip on the Republican Party. ...

...Yet the Cheneys’ politics are poised to make at least a partial comeback under Trump. After the election, old hawks and Bushies such as former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former CIA head James Woolsey, and former UN Ambassador John Bolton were floated for roles in the new administration. And Liz Cheney is not likely to sit on the sidelines. Even as her father’s dark shadow receded after 2008, she emerged as one of Obama’s most relentless national security critics. With a fervor that felt personal, she pilloried the president for changing course on torture and Iraq. But unlike many members of the Bush administration, Cheney was also an unabashed supporter of Trump, embracing some of his more heretical views on trade and immigration and warning that Clinton was little more than a “felon.” In her first week on Capitol Hill, she has emerged as one of the most vocal defenders of President Trump’s plan to bring back torture. She may just be a bridge by which the neocon establishment returns from exile. ...

...Her senior political science thesis, “Evolution of Presidential War Powers,” argued that Congress had only limited authority to restrain the executive branch on matters of military intervention. “The president’s duty to protect national security sometimes comes before his responsibility to keep Congress informed,” she wrote. A decade and a half later, the Bush-Cheney administration would take much the same position.

After college, Cheney entered the family business, taking a job at the US Agency for International Development during the first Bush administration and working under the direction of Richard Armitage, a future architect of the invasion of Iraq. When Dick Cheney chose himself as George W. Bush’s running mate in 2000, Liz left her job in international finance to join the campaign. And in 2002, as the second Bush administration was gearing up for its dramatic attempt to remake the Middle East, Liz joined the State Department as a deputy assistant secretary focusing on the Near East. ...

...Her first splash came three months after the inauguration, when the Justice Department released new information on the Bush administration’s use of torture. Cheney took the move, along with Obama’s efforts to shut down the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, as a personal insult to her family’s legacy. On cable news programs and at conservative conferences, Cheney became her father’s defender in chief. “When you see the current administration making decisions that really do have the potential to make us less safe, in those circumstances, I would say the vice president doesn’t think that there’s an obligation to be silent,” she said in her fiery debut as a conservative talking head on MSNBC. “There are important reasons why we put policies in place. They clearly kept us safe for seven years.” She co-authored her dad’s memoir, a spirited defense of his tenure as one of America’s least popular vice presidents, and even half-seriously floated him as a possible presidential candidate.

But some of Dick Cheney’s biggest fans, like Rove, were speculating about Liz’s political prospects. Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol suggested that she run for president. “I was excited about Palin; I’m more excited about Liz,” the neoconservative Michael Goldfarb told New York magazine.

With Kristol, a former McCain staffer, and the sister of a man who was killed on 9/11, Cheney formed a dark-money outfit called Keep America Safe, which sought to paint Obama as weak on security. One of the group’s first ads bashed Attorney General Eric Holder for hiring attorneys who had once defended Guantanamo detainees. The spot referred to the lawyers as the “Al Qaeda 7” and asked, “Whose values do they share?” as b-roll of someone who looked like Osama bin Laden played in the background. It was like 2004 all over again. ...

...The chaos of the Trump campaign shattered some of the party’s long-held tenets, but neocon dead-enders who see the president as a blank slate sense an opportunity to return to influence. Cheney has already begun assembling a coalition of the willing. In the final days of the election, she started writing personal checks to Republican candidates in swing districts, future colleagues who just might remember the favor sometime in the near future. Even a Cheney can dabble in soft power now and then.

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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.

Late Again's picture

@snoopydawg

"Well, to me that just says you don't like your voice. You like the thing you're told to like."

Really? Because I was told I had to like Her Royal Highness.

I'm sure the irony is lost on her.

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"When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained." - Mark Twain

snoopydawg's picture

"We want the sitting President to be successful because we live in this country. He is our commander in chief, he was voted in," she said, adding that she knows from experience that "it is very difficult to lead when you have a peanut gallery of people who don't know what they're talking about second-guessing what you do."
"When you've been in that position, you see that most formers do take a step back, they do let the current holder of the office lead. You do step up when you're asked, and you do try to make sure what you say is constructive," she continued. "Now, like I said, there was a whole party that didn't do that for my husband, a whole political party that did not, but what we've learned is part of our legacy is leading with grace."

We weren't asking for you to lead with grace. We were asking for Barry to uphold his campaign promises not to hide behind the republicans being mean to him and not letting him pass his legislation.
There were numerous ways to get around them. He just didn't try.

IMG_1254.JPG

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

detroitmechworks's picture

@snoopydawg that are trotted out every single time this issue is raised.

You know, funny thing. Arguing with a Hillary voter these days reminds me of trying to be reasonable with the RKBA crowd. They won't listen and redefine the terms until the entire point of the conversation was lost.

So, in the spirit of how I used to just tell them to fuck off on TOP: (It was a reference to how they liked to show up in my diaries QUITE late...)
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LR7D_FMrBOk]

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

Azazello's picture

What about our values ?
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HjXFh0qBCw&t=95s width:400 height:240]

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We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

EdMass's picture

@Azazello "we stand, er sit, er kneel with Colon Pumpernickel!"

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

Firesign Theater

Stop the War!

WoodsDweller's picture

I've been thinking about him the last couple of days.
He's not a Republican, he's a straight up theocrat. I don't think the theocrats have a political party as such, but he isn't a Republican.
In a parlimentary democracy the ruling coalition is formed after the election, with the plurality party shopping around among the minor parties to get a majority that they can work with.
In our two party system we have two persistent, named coalitions - Democratic and Republican. Of course, there are parties associated with them as well.
The minor factions gain power during primaries, and this has been more obvious among Republicans. Tea Party, Libertarians, theocrats, neo-cons, and the Establishment (call them centrists). They don't hide their positions, they rely on the voters to say "yes, I want a theocrat", and announce during the primary which coalition they will caucus with if they win.
Bernie is an Independent Democratic Socialist who ran as a Democrat. "But he's not a real Democrat!!!" True, he's a DSoc who ran in the primary, stating that as the Democratic candidate he would be part of the Democratic coalition.
And the party stole the primary.
I've looked at the changes on the Republican side and thought that is the model we need to adopt. Run progressives/socialists/greens/what have you in primaries, make sure every corporate Democrat is scared of a primary from his/her left, and then caucus with the Democrats.
But if they are going to steal the primaries, aren't we better off just starting a third party? Then forming a coalition once they make it to Congress?
I'm starting to think the only workable solution is "all of the above".
This requires recruiting two candidates for each office (hard to do) and adequately funding them (also hard to do).
Give primary voters a choice between a socialist and a corporatist. If the socialist wins, the third party candidate drops out, then endorses and campaigns for the socialist on the Democratic ticket.
If the corporatist wins the primary (legitimately or otherwise), the socialist endorses and campaigns for the third party candidate. General election voters still have a choice. It will split the vote and hand the general to the Republican, but it keeps the corporate Democrat from winning.
If a corporatist Democrat can't win, the corporate money will dry up. Voters will have to pick a side - would they rather have a socialist or a Republican?
It's hard, but it's all hard. Maybe this would have a chance to work.

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"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

@WoodsDweller

I couldn't agree more! All reasonable options have to be tried. Remembering that this corrupt and ruthless mob group has everything (not just the electoral system) rigged to at least a large extent and that such rigging has never been adequately protested, even where documented/proven well enough for a court case in a more reasonable system. (Which reasonable system would have dealt with such rigging attempts itself at the time, anyway.)

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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.