The Democratic Party just ain't into you

Are you a wealthy, suburbanite professional? Then today's Democratic Party wants you!

The problem is even the recent official strategy of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee acknowledges those aren't the voters they'll be targeting. Their main focus will be targeting the 23 seats held by House Republicans in districts that Hillary Clinton won, plus an additional 10 seats in districts that Clinton narrowly lost.
And what we know about those districts that swung toward Clinton is that they're full of rich people who voted for Romney in 2012. The five Republican-held House districts with the biggest swings toward Democrats in the presidential race in 2016 are in Texas and Georgia. All have average household incomes over $100,000 per year. Three of those five districts are on the DCCC list.

Today's Democratic Party wants Romney voters, and they've been getting them.
You know, people like George W. Bush.

This didn't just happen yesterday. The Democrats have been soliciting high-income Republican voters for decades, and it has been paying off.

In the 2016 election, the economic elite was essentially half Democratic, according to exit polls: Those in the top 10 percent of the income distribution voted 47 percent for Clinton and 46 percent for Trump. Half the voters Sanders would hit hardest are members of the party from which he sought the nomination.

The problem for the Democratic Party is that “them” has become “us.”

In the past, Democrats could support progressive, redistributive policies knowing that the costs would fall largely on Republicans. That is no longer the case.

This switch of voter base is why the Dems will never willingly embrace a progressive economic agenda. Or even radical change on the social agenda.

Pitching one's campaign at anxious white suburbanites with catastrophically mistaken notions about government financing rules out actually fixing most of the crises facing the country. It means running on fiddly little tax credits and pointlessly means-tested small-bore programs, just like Hillary Clinton did.

That's not to say that Dems don't have a Big tent. They pander to both the upper-middle-class and the very wealthy.

The executive director of the Democratic Governor’s Association told Politico in December 2016, “There seems to be a feeling that we need to look beyond the normal folks we always look to, the normal types.” In other words, Democrats will cut out the middle man and elect wealthy donors themselves.

Are you a poor member of the white working-class? Then you likely don't care about things like issues, since you vote strictly by emotions alone like a dim-witted child.
While the Dems don't actually care about economic issues that would improve your life (and why should they, since you are too stupid to care about then either), and Democrats honestly would prefer that you all just died, you are likely a racist and misogynist “deplorable” if you don't vote for the Democratic Party.

This new putative ruling class, notes author Michael Lind, sees its rise, and the decline of the rest, not as a reflection of social inequity, but rather their meritocratic virtue. Only racism, homophobia or misogyny — in other words, the sins of the “deplorables” — matter.

It's hard to ignore the fact that the Dems have been losing a lot of elections with this strategy. So after the devastating 2016 election loss the Dems took a hard look and decided that they haven't rejected the working class enough.

One Georgia-Montana comparison is instructive: The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has invested $5 million in Ossoff’s run; the DCCC kicked in about $500,000 to aid Quist.
Those figures raise this question: Which is more valuable, a seat in Congress that represents suburban “elites,” or a seat that represents the newly prized flyover voter, in this case gun-owning nurses and tractor-driving PhDs., city refugees and fifth-generation ranchers, the third-largest landmass in the Lower 48, a sprawling energy and agriculture state with a deep tradition of support for what Democrats once were leaders in: big-hearted, pragmatic populism suited to the rural and urban enclaves of the New West (and maybe even the New South)?
I think the appropriate answer in a democracy should be neither, but the national Democratic Party made a clear choice.

The Dems currently are facing a troublesome progressive insurgency that wants to force the party to reform. The insurgents are emboldened by the undeniable failure of party leadership.
However, even the facts that post-election polls showing the current leadership is driving the party even deeper into the ditch, the elites of the party have doubled down on a strategy that obviously isn't working.

Many of the 2006 class of Democrats now are corporate lobbyists. Stoller added that Rahm Emanuel’s 2006 strategy is being duplicated now by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, whose sole purpose is to prevent any other Democratic leader from tipping the scales of power within the party.

If Ossoff manages to pull of a victory, it will be hailed as the second coming of the Democratic establishment. “An Ossoff win, just a week after Northam’s convincing primary victory, would signal that the Democratic establishment is still alive and kicking,” reported The Washington Post on June 17. The party establishment has dedicated over $23 million to Ossoff’s campaign, making it the most expensive congressional race in history. The Democratic party is going all in on using his candidacy to prove that centrism will enable Democrats to recoup their losses in elected offices across the country. “It is being used as the case study for the Democratic establishment’s 2018 focus,” The Washington Post added—without mentioning that other campaigns will not have access to that amount of money.

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RuralLiberal's picture

@gjohnsit This quote immediately made me think of the TV series VEEP. The Veep and her staff are always referring to people in photo ops, etc., as "Normals". Art imitates life.

The executive director of the Democratic Governor’s Association told Politico in December 2016, “There seems to be a feeling that we need to look beyond the normal folks we always look to, the normal types.” In other words, Democrats will cut out the middle man and elect wealthy donors themselves.

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"Stand Up! Keep Fighting!" - Paul Wellstone

Pricknick's picture

The reason them lost was because them were out of touch with the common human.
A billion dollars couldn't buy enough votes for her so shoot for 2 billion.
It's as good of a strategy as playing Russian roulette with a fully loaded gun and going first.
Thanks gjohn.

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

detroitmechworks's picture

@Pricknick maybe if they just directly gave the money to the poor, the poor would vote for them.

At this point they think social programs are bribery. If that's the case, it'd be nice if they cut out the corporate shortstop.

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

thanatokephaloides's picture

@detroitmechworks

Here''s a thought... maybe if they just directly gave the money to the poor, the poor would vote for them.

That worked pretty OK in the 19th and early 20th Centuries! You were working-class, your local ward heeler knew you and what your needs were. And he and his politician bosses would pull all necessary strings to make sure you got it. Then you were expected to use your vote to keep your ward heeler's boss in office.

When I was a child, my grandfather spelled the term "ward healer" and viewed this arrangement (especially as operated by mid-20th Century Northern Democrats) as a useful form of constituent service.

Better that way than the way it is today, where your NON-Representative feels he owes you bupkus, but you still owe him your vote on Election Day!!

Smile

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

lotlizard's picture

@thanatokephaloides  
the ward heeler would send voter #1 to a polling place with a specimen ballot — a ballot used for educational purposes that looks just like the real ballot except for being overprinted with the word “SPECIMEN”.

Precinct workers give voter #1 a real, blank ballot which, out of sight in the voting booth, he then pockets, substituting the folded, void specimen, which he deposits in the ballot box on his way out.

In order to collect your payment from the ward heeler, you have to hand over a blank ballot. So the ward heeler takes voter #1’s ballot, paying him, and marks it the way the party machine ordered. He then hands it to voter #2.

When voter #2 goes to vote, he gets a real, blank ballot which he pockets, depositing voter #1’s ballot — marked the way the machine ordered — in the box on his way out. And so on.

So, rather than something to shrug off as the result of an innocent mistake, finding a specimen ballot in one or more ballot boxes was, and very possibly still is, a telltale sign of party machine election rigging using paid voters.

Mail-in balloting, of course, makes it trivial to pay people to let you mark their ballots for them and spares the party machine even the trouble of running the above routine.

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thanatokephaloides's picture

@lotlizard @lotlizard

The way this was said to work was, the ward heeler would send voter #1 to a polling place with a specimen ballot — a ballot used for educational purposes that looks just like the real ballot except for being overprinted with the word “SPECIMEN”. [etc]

The story I heard from my elders was somewhat less nefarious, although there was certainly an element of "quid pro quo" in it.

The process you describe is the "straight skulduggery" method; the process my elders described was the kinder and gentler method of endearing the working-class and poor folks to oneself that was more commonly used. It cost more time and effort, but harnessed the fact that the working-class and poor people have many more votes than the yupper classes do, and at a cash-cheaper cost than outright buying them.

Please don't forget that there was once a time when we, and our concerns, actually mattered in this country. Not now, of course.

Bad

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

@lotlizard You imply that vote by mail is more likely to be co-opted or bought than other systems. There is no evidence that that happens. Oregon's vote by mail seems pretty legit.
And, these days, I doubt the party machines would go for individual bribery of paper ballots.
Wholesale corruption of electronic voting is cheaper, easier, and doesn't require bribery.
I don't know the answer, but paper ballots are key IMHO. And, vote by mail actually works great in my experience.

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Pluto's Republic's picture

@detroitmechworks

maybe if they just directly gave the money to the poor, the poor would vote for them.

I'm thinking — instead of contributing money to candidates or the Democratic Party, why not hold back the money until after the election — and then we can shop among the winners and buy our own congress-people to do what we say.

The parties are redundant and corrupt, like health insurers. They're middlemen and parasites and bullies. We can buy our government directly, just like the Plutocrats and corporations do.

That's how you get real representation.

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____________________

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

@Pluto's Republic

The only rub is that they own all the money already. We can't afford a straight-up bidding war. As long as our votes are for sale then we lose. We have to vote in populist politicians who actually care about the populace.

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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

Bollox Ref's picture

There are far more people at the bottom of the pyramid.

Versailles and Paris in 1787 had reactionaries and supporters of the Encyclopédistes having all sorts of erudite discussions in various intimate salons, noble and/or professional.

Didn't do them a lot of good. Even self-declared Philippe Égalité lost his head after condemning his cousin.

Ignoring Le Peuple is a recipe for disaster.

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Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.

@Bollox Ref
Both parties have now completely abandoned the lower 80-90% of the population, at least on non-cultural issues.

Without a party representing them, the working class will usually tune-out and stop voting. At least for a while. That's what TPTB want.
Just enough votes to keep up the charade of democracy, while millions of stupid minions play Go Team Red v. Go Team Blue.

It's not sustainable in the long run, but it works long enough to loot the nation.
Just ask Russia in the 90's.

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Bollox Ref's picture

@gjohnsit

But by 1787, the average French Jean/Jeanne had worked out that the system wasn't working for them. Poor harvests, lack of bread, etc.,..

Two years later, the Tennis Court Oath...

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Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.

dervish's picture

@Bollox Ref or rather, had they gained acceptance, they'd likely have a monarchy today.

If things get really bad, they'll throw potatoes at us until we shut up.

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

@dervish

Would these be French potatoes hurled at America - or Free-toes?

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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.

@gjohnsit

might be the answer, just like in old Constantinople. Forget the formalities that team sports and our politics aren't one in the same. That can go really bad too though, like in 532 when Justinian I, who was team blue, helped things get out of hand:

On January 13, 532, a tense and angry populace arrived at the Hippodrome for the races. The Hippodrome was next to the palace complex, and thus Justinian could watch from the safety of his box in the palace and preside over the races. From the start, the crowd had been hurling insults at Justinian. By the end of the day, at race 22, the partisan chants had changed from "Blue" or "Green" to a unified Nίκα ("Nika", meaning "Win!!" "Victory!" or "Conquer!"), and the crowds broke out and began to assault the palace. For the next five days, the palace was under siege. The fires that started during the tumult resulted in the destruction of much of the city, including the city's foremost church, the Hagia Sophia (which Justinian would later rebuild).

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Beware the bullshit factories.

dance you monster's picture

. . . who's got the pool on which constituency the DCCC will blame?

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snoopydawg's picture

@dance you monster

IMG_0950_0.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.

Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.

thanatokephaloides's picture

@snoopydawg

...... cuz you guys didn't vote..... the way we ordered you to!

Never Clintons. And to hell with the DLC, Turd Way, and all their ilk and all they stand for!

Diablo

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

snoopydawg's picture

@thanatokephaloides
As the saying goes, voting for the lesser evil is still voting for evil. I will not give my consent to anyone who is commenting murder under the guise of war.
He told us that the next fight for the war of terror was going to be Pakistan, but I was blinded by his bullshit. That's my bad.
Hillary ran on creating a no fly zone over Syria and I took her word for it.
I'm in Utah so my vote wouldn't have changed the outcome.
And why is this even an option anymore? To know that ones vote wouldn't matter is a crappy way to run an election!
SMDH

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

Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.

@dance you monster Seriously. Not snark. This will be a charge that will be repeated by CNN, et. al.

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Pricknick's picture

@dance you monster
between a non-progressive demonrat and a repug?

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

thanatokephaloides's picture

@Pricknick

Is there any difference between a non-progressive demonrat and a repug?

No.

I submit as Exhibit A: Perpetual Goldwater Girl Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Bad

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

@Pricknick The Democrat has one or two minority or LGBT friends that they can be seen in public with.

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

@dance you monster

Karen Handel leads by 5 percentage points over Jon Ossoff with 79 percent of precincts fully reporting

Not that I felt strongly any one way.

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thanatokephaloides's picture

It's not sustainable in the long run, but it works long enough to loot the nation.
Just ask Russia in the 90's.

Maybe we need Vladimir Putin to run this country directly! /s

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

dervish's picture

another very important part of it will be identity politics. They aren't capable of learning, apparently, so they'll double down on the same mistakes.

They'll cobble together a coalition of women and minorities of all types, as well as single issue advocates. They'll recruit community organizers and leaders like pastors, activists, bloggers, and others and then expect those people to deliver the votes of their respective communities.

Brilliant minds, like Podesta and Mook, will add up the total number of people represented by those "leaders", and count on 100% delivery. Soon, they'll announce that they have a massive majority in their coalition, and that the Repubs will never win an election, ever again.

Then people will vote their consciences, and they'll lose again. Wash, rinse, repeat.

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

@dervish will know that in the '70s the rise of identity politics killed momentum, because it devolved into infighting. Which was a delight to the organs of state security as they did what they could to exacerbate things. Black feminists and elite white; the repulsion of church-goers at abortion and gayness....

History, fail to learn, then repeat. The strategists are divorced from reality; Partybots just say their lines and stay the course. The course is ever more division, and more losing for the general populace as well as the party.

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Orwell: Where's the omelette?

dervish's picture

@jim p it's the oldest trick in the book.

What's the counter-measure?

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

thanatokephaloides's picture

@dervish @dervish

Divide and Conquer it's the oldest trick in the book.

What's the counter-measure?

Solidarity. The genuine article, not the ersatz crap pushed by Turd Way Demon Rats like kos, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, et al.

We have to get back to the day of an injury to one is an injury to all.

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

@dervish Her had union leaders and Planned Parenthood and African American clergy and so on in Her handbag. Only problem was, the people these leaders supposedly represented didn't agree.

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

snoopydawg's picture

after all Hillary got the people who wrote up PNAC to switch to backing her instead of Trump.
This includes the creepy Kagan family. Robert Kagan was the chief architect of PNAC. His wife, Victoria Nuland was Hillary's choice for the Ukraine coup.
Kagan's brother and his wife are very involved in right wing think tanks.
This was a prelude for Hillary working with both sides of congress.
Woohoo! Smile

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

Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.

dervish's picture

@snoopydawg would likely be the SoS now, if Her had won.

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

CB's picture

What the fuck can we do? That man is in full control of our democracy. I'm worried about our missile systems. What if they've also been hacked so when we fire our missiles at Russia they turn around in mid flight and come down on our heads?

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dervish's picture

@CB that I have to fix. I am certain that Putin's people had something to do with it.

They're everywhere.

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

Have you looked at the Dow lately?

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On to Biden since 1973

snoopydawg's picture

@doh1304
he has a yearly meeting with prominent republicans at his home in Park City, Utah and Biden went to it this year.
Biden was encouraging Romney to run for Hatch's seat if Hatch decides not to run for re-election again.

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

Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.

@snoopydawg I was wondering, though not shocked, why this little tidbit kind of came and went without so much as a ripple. I doubt most people have my level of jadedness (my first reaction was, well of course he did). I know the MSM doesn't like to cover things that don't fit the narrative, but I did see this headlined in some of the usual suspects. You'd think that some of the more alert and free thinking mainstream Dems might have noticed and at least said, huh, what's up with that?

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

Amanda Matthews's picture

Hell went wrong with their master plan tonight. This is what happens when you play by Moosetits rules.

If you let a huge bunch of your base know you hate them and don't care if they live or die, you only want their money and their votes, you're already in trouble. But Warch what happens if the disenfranchised get pissed and go away after being told to fuck off they're not needed (or wanted. The Dims lose and then they have the nerve to try to pin it on everyone and everything but themselves. Now they're all crying and losing their shit again!

Me, all I got to say is...

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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

k9disc's picture

have been crowing about while losing for 20 years?

They're not white. They're not rich. How are they being served by this "strategy".

These are tactics, and this is no different from anything since 1992.

See my sig.

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

SparkyGump's picture

but maybe that's the point. If they can't have a corplicrat, they'll settle for "moral victories".

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

@SparkyGump
have much better pension plans than representing working people.

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thanatokephaloides's picture

@FuturePassed

..... means you actually have to work! We can't allow for that!

Moral victories . . .have much better pension plans than representing working people.

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides