Democrats Excel at Hippie Punching

Former Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman Howard Dean gave his opinion of the Democrat's progressive base the other day, and it seemed very familiar.

“There has always been a section of the left, which I call the whiny party — the party that doesn’t really wanna win, they just wanna be pure, and if they go down swinging purely, then that’s fine," Dean, who ran for president in 2004, told MSNBC's Joy Reid on "AM Joy."
"Well, the problem with that is it leaves behind the people who really need their help," he continued. "If we’re gonna have a single-payer or Medicare for all or whatever, we’re gonna have healthcare that covers every American, as every other industrialized country has, then we all have to pull together."
..."So I don’t have a lot of patience with this wing of the progressive party.”

There's a lot of unpack here, including a) his laughable insinuation that it's progressives that are holding us back from universal health care, and b) that it's progressives that are keeping Democrats from winning, instead of a party establishment that doesn't even show up.
What I would rather address is the "whiny party".
How did the Democratic Party establishment get to the point where they can show absolutely zero respect for their voting base and get away with it? It isn't just an important question for those interested in economic justice. Feminists are in the process of getting kicked under the bus by the Dems. What progressive group will be next?

"The Democratic party is where progressive politics go to die."
- Rosa Clemente

To understand how a political party can disrespect its base so much, you have to look at what its base does when it is disrespected.

Last week, a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll found a third of Bernie Sanders’s supporters saying they wouldn’t vote for Hillary Clinton in November if she’s the Democratic nominee, and nearly 60,000 people have signed the “Bernie or Bust” pledge. This is causing plenty of hand-wringing, with one Salon writer warning that “Bernie supporters could blow this election,” and a Huffington Post columnist calling it “the Democrats’ worst nightmare.”
But if history is any guide, a mass defection of Democrats and Dem-leaning independents is the last thing anyone should worry about. We’ve seen this before and we know how it will play out...
Those self-described “PUMAs”—“party unity my ass”—may have stayed home by the dozens that November, but at the end of the day nine out of 10 Democrats supported Obama in an election that featured the highest turnout in 40 years. A similar dynamic played out with Howard Dean supporters in 2004.

It turns out that in 2016 a lot of progressives stayed home, which cost Hillary the election.
Oops! Didn't see that one coming.
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However, 2016 was the exception, not the rule.
What normally happens is that Democrats Punch Hippies for fun, and then progressives turn around and vote for the bastards.

President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden had some harsh words for the liberal base this week, telling them to "buck up" and "stop whining" about what the administration has yet to accomplish. It's as if the administration has been trying to give liberal voters a guilt trip as a way to get them out to the polls.
...Yet even as liberal activists and bloggers warn the White House that its attitude is only discouraging the Democrats' strongest supporters, the administration has not shied away from taking digs at its critics on the left.
...This isn't the first time Mr. Obama has jostled with the partisan left, however. In 2005, then-Sen. Obama wrote an open letter on the liberal blog Daily Kos. Much as the president is now beseeching liberals to "buck up," he urged liberals in 2005 to stop attacking Democrats who voted to confirm Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts...Portions of the president's letter sounded as if they could have been written this week: "When we lash out at those who share our fundamental values because they have not met the criteria of every single item on our progressive 'checklist,' then we are essentially preventing them from thinking in new ways about problems. We are tying them up in a straightjacket and forcing them into a conversation only with the converted."

It turns out that we don't share our fundamental values, and progressives are gradually coming to realize it.

"You want us to help you, the first thing I would suggest is enough of the hippie punching. We're the girl you'll take under the bleachers but you won't be seen with in the light of day."
- Susan Madrak

Even after progressives were so discouraged that they didn't show up in 2016, the Dems decided that the solution was to Punch Left even harder.

Since losing the presidency to a Cheeto-hued reality TV host, the Democratic party’s leadership has made it clear that it would rather keep losing than entertain even the slightest whiff of New Deal style social democracy.
Even a symbolic victory cedes too much to those youthful, unwashed hordes who believe healthcare and education are human rights and not extravagant luxuries, as we saw when the Democratic establishment recruited Tom Perez to defeat the electorate-backed progressive Keith Ellison for DNC chair.

Recall that it was the Obama White House that coined the derogatory phrase "professional left".
Speaking of language, it was right-wing conservatives that coined the term "Alt-Left", yet establishment Dems have adopted the term to bash progressives anyway.

So what do we do?
Either you challenge the Democrats from the left, something Dems will always tell you is the wrong time, or you undermine the corrupt Dems from within, which is what Berniecrats are trying to do.

Our Revolution has already endorsed 16 victorious candidates for a variety of elections at the local level in 2017. Other groups that have formed since the Sanders campaign include Brand New Congress (BNC) and Justice Democrats, which are allied in their efforts "to recruit and run dozens of outstanding candidates in a single, national campaign for Congress in 2018." Another organization, #WeWillReplaceYou, is specifically targeting corporate Democrats.
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WoodsDweller's picture

"... we all have to pull together ... I don’t have a lot of patience with this wing of the progressive party..."

Pulling together starts with patience, understanding and empathy. You aren't pulling together if you see a "wing" as the "other".

Two years ago I was still of the opinion that no matter how hard it would be to take over the Democratic party from within it would be still be easier than to create a viable new party. I no longer believe that. How much worse can it be to get ballot access than to fight a loaded party apparatus in a primary?

So chill out, Howard, you'll have a pure party soon enough. Once we establish a viable socialist party maybe we'll let you pull together with us.

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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

say things like this really believe the premise:

When we lash out at those who share our fundamental values because they have not met the criteria of every single item on our progressive 'checklist,'

My progressive checklist has about 20 items of which the average Democratic candidate for Governor or Senator or President might "meet the criteria" even rhetorically for about 3.

Weirdly, it reminds me of the story of the captured WWII British fighter pilot Douglas Bader (who wasn't someone I would much have gotten along with, but whatever) being entertained/interviewed by a convivial Luftwaffe colonel or some such, who is trying to invoke the gentlemanly sort of chivalric conflict between airmen. "Yes, of course, we call you 'Tommies' and you call us 'Jerries', but ..." whereupon Bader interrupted him and said, "No we don't, we call you 'Huns'."

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The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

Azazello's picture

I wonder, has he no sense of irony ? What was the Clinton campaign if not a substance-free personality cult ? It was all about Her, Her, Her and nothing about why we should support her candidacy, nothing about, you know, actual policy.

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

@Azazello
and this is at the top of the page: Putin apparently trying to incite American Civil War #2 (not kidding)

Well, at least they weren't blaming Bernie.

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@gjohnsit

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

@gjohnsit I looked at the website cited by the article. They will not reveal what websites they track. Although the ones I saw listed tended to be right wing pro-Trump. Looks like a good money making opportunity for ex-spooks and neocon think tankers. Same old Cold War theme that the commies are behind dissent which goes against neocon pro-war world view. They look to be a version of the website pushed by WaPo which had their beading eyes on various American political sites pushing Kremlin propaganda. The website apparently learned a lesson from the other site, and will not publish the list of these nefarious pro-Russian sites to avoid charges of McCarthyism. They have some graphics which indicate or point at nothing revealing from what I can tell.

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@gjohnsit But the comments take it even further and a lot of them are flat out rabid rants. One goof asks if Moscow is unaware that nuclear weapons are pointed at it. Can that person really wonder that considering the past history of US/Soviet Union relations? I remember the Cuban 'missile crisis' quite well and along with that memory comes the awareness that the goof is either unaware of or just ignoring, and that is the fact that nuclear weapons are pointed at the US as well.
The whole comment stream is like a rabid mob with pitchforks, each trying to feed the flames of hatred louder than anyone else. Lol one bozo is so worked up she/he wants to "punch Putin in the face", the rest are assuring one another they are all correct and many equate any disagreement as working on the side of Putin to bring about the collapse of this wonderful Democracy.
What a stirred up nest of nuts.

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thanatokephaloides's picture

@Azazello

What was the Clinton campaign if not a substance-free personality cult ? It was all about Her, Her, Her and nothing about why we should support her candidacy, nothing about, you know, actual policy.

Or, as Guru once asked: "Where's the beef?"

Wink

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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

@thanatokephaloides I thought that a good slogan for dems, too. That and it's what's for dinner.

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There is no such thing as TMI. It can always be held in reserve for extortion.

Meteor Man's picture

Alt left extremist as well. Oh yeah. I'm also racist and sexist!

Keep calling me names and insulting me Howie. That's a sure fire way to get me on your side.

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"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn

divineorder's picture

@Meteor Man the Dems promised his some buck for being the muscle in this?

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

Meteor Man's picture

@divineorder Here's an Atlantic article from 2016 that points out Howie's reaction to a healthcare plan Bernie pushed in 1993!

Dean went all in and compared Sanders to Ronald Reagan—perhaps the only person ever to do so. Dean said Sanders—just like the former Republican president—was building expectations for something that was “not going to happen.”

This year, during the battle for Iowa, Dean again bashed Sanders’s health-care plan: “Would his plan result in the kind of chaos that in fact would undo people’s health care? That is something to be concerned about.”

All of this confirms the sentiments several Democratic insiders expressed to me: Dean and Sanders are not pals.

Howard Dean is a party hack, pure and simple:

Dean—the ultimate party-organization man—may be more suspect of revolutions these days than he was 12 years ago during his own dynamic push for the presidency.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/05/the-democratic-wing...

Howie is also a lobbyist corporate shill for healthcare racketeers:

The Dentons Public Policy and Regulation practice lobbies on behalf of a variety of corporate health care interests, including the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, a powerful trade group for drugmakers like Pfizer and Merck.

https://theintercept.com/2016/01/14/howard-dean-lobbyist/

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"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn

@Meteor Man
I won't be declared a deplorable. Please Dr.Dean, say it ain't so!

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native

divineorder's picture

The young and the restless

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

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Meteor Man's picture

@gjohnsit American M$M & The Democratic Party aren't interested in Listen Liberal?

Here's the Harper's link that slams our media plutocracy:
https://harpers.org/archive/2016/11/swat-team-2/

From page 7:

It was during that era, too, that the old-school Post columnist David Broder gave a speech deploring the rise of journalistic insiders, who were too chummy with the politicians they were supposed to be covering. This was, he suggested, not only professionally questionable. It also bespoke a fundamental misunderstanding of the journalist’s role as gadfly and societal superego:

I can’t for the life of me fathom why any journalists would want to become insiders, when it’s so damn much fun to be outsiders—irreverent, inquisitive, impudent, incorrigibly independent outsiders—thumbing our nose at authority and going our own way.

Yes, it’s fun to be an outsider, but it’s not particularly remunerative. As the rising waters inundate the Fourth Estate, it is increasingly obvious that becoming an insider is the only way to hoist yourself above the deluge. Maybe that is one reason why the Washington Post attracted the fancy of megabillionaire Jeff Bezos, and why the Post seems to be thriving, with a fancy new office building on K Street and a swelling cohort of young bloggers ravening to be the next George Will, the next Sid Blumenthal. It remains, however precariously, the cradle of the punditocracy.

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"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn

Not Henry Kissinger's picture

Funny, he used to call them the Democratic wing of the Democratic party.

Governor Howard Dean, MD, Speech to California Democratic Party State Convention (Saturday, March 15, 2003)

What I want to know is what in the world so many Democrats are doing supporting the President’s unilateral intervention in Iraq?

What I want to know is what in the world so many Democrats are doing supporting tax cuts, which have bankrupted this country and given us the largest deficit in the history of the United States?

What I want to know is why the Congress is fighting over the patient’s bill of rights? The patient’s bill of rights is a good bill, but not one more person gets health insurance and it’s not 5 cents cheaper.

What I want to know is why the Democrats in Congress aren’t standing up for us joining every other industrialized country on the face of the Earth and having health insurance for every man, woman and child in America.

What I want to know is why so many folks in Congress are voting for the President’s Educations Bill “The No School Board Left Standing Bill” the largest un-funded mandate in the history of our educational system!

As Paul Wellstone said, as Sheila Kuehl said when she endorsed me…I am Howard Dean and I here to represent the democratic wing of the Democratic Party. I want a Democratic Party that will balance the budget. Bill Clinton balanced the budget and starting in 1993, without a single Republican vote, kicked off the greatest 10 years of economic growth in this nation’s history. No Republican President has balanced the budget in this country in 34 years. If you want to trust somebody with your taxpayer dollars you better elect a Democratic because the Republican’s can’t manage money. I want an economy in this country where we create jobs that don’t move offshore. I want an America that has health insurance for everybody. I want a government that stops passing un-funded mandates and starts funding the ones we’ve got, like special education. I want a government which will give us a foreign policy so when we walk down the streets of the capitals of our friends we don’t have to worry about watching our backs where ever we go as American’s.

We’ve had two fine people. United States Senators, Senator Edwards and Senator Kerry, who’ve done a lot for our country and they have served us honorably and if they win the nomination either one of them I am going to support them and do every thing I can to help them win the White House. But, I don’t think we can win The White House if we vote for the President’s unilateral attack on Iraq in Washington and then come to California and say we are against the war. And I don’t think we can win The White House if we support the President’s “No School Board Left Standing Bill” and then come to California and tell every body that we are going to do all kinds of things for education. And I don’t think we can win the White House if we skip the most important abortion vote in the last year and then come to California and talk about pro-choice.

I am not surprised that only 15% of people between the ages of 18 and 25 vote because we have not giving them a reason to vote and we are going to give them a reason to vote now. I was Governor for so long that I got to serve through not one but two Bush recessions and in Vermont I was very proud to balance the budget. We balanced the budget, we set aside money in a rainy day fund, and we paid down almost a quarter of our debt. The reason that is important is it is hard to fund social justice with out a balanced budget, which is why this President doesn’t have one. In our state our budget is still balanced and we are not cutting higher education, we are not cutting K-12 and we are not cutting health care for kids. That’s what we need in this country. I am Governor and I have done it. In our State everybody under the age
of 18 has health insurance. We have made Medicaid into a middle class entitlement. If you made $52,000 a year or less in Vermont everybody under 18 in your family is entitled to Medicaid. We charge if you are at the upper-end of that, we charge $50 a month that insures everybody in your family under the age of 18. Now, if we can do that in a small rural state which is 26th in income in the entire country, surely the most wealthy and powerful society on the face of the earth can grant all of its citizen’s healthcare. I am a governor and I am a doctor and I have done it.

In Vermont we have conserved 100s of thousands of acres that will never be developed, and I might add Mr. President, they’re never going to be drilled on either. If I get to be President I will protect California as well as Florida. Let me tell you something else, one of Bill Clinton’s greatest legacies to this country was the promise he kept to make his cabinet look like a America. I thought one of the lowest moments of this President’s presidency was about 5 weeks ago when he used the word quota 5 times on national television in the evening news. The University of Michigan does not now and never has had a quota system and the President knows it. We need affirmative action in this country and we ought to stand up and say so and be proud of it as a society. California is a precursor for the rest of this country you have 5 big minorities and lots of small minorities. In alphabetical order you have African American, Anglos, Asian American, Latinos, and Native American. Soon all of America is going to look like California, and when it does I want to make sure that every American is included in the very best institutions that we have in this country. Because as a nation we either admit that we are all-together or we will be divided as the Republican have divided us since 1968 under the Richard Nixon’s Southern Strategy. I don’t want to be divided anymore by race, I don’t want to be divided anymore by gender, and I don’t want to be divided anymore by sexual orientation.

Senator Kerry was reported to have said that he could win without the South. I do not want to win without the South. I want to go to the South and I’m going to say to white guys that drive pick up trucks with Confederate flag decals on the back of their car. We want your vote to, because your kids don’t have health insurance either. I want to end on a personal note. Three years ago next month I signed a bill into law called the Civil-Unions bill, which gives gay and lesbian Vermonters the same rights I have: visitations for their significant other in the hospital; inheritance rights; and insurance rights. Vermont clearly is a place where every American is equal in the eyes of the law. I want the President of the United States to explain to all American’s why he doesn’t believe all Americans should be equal under the law. I signed that bill 6 months before an election when it was at 35% in the polls. I never had a conversation with myself about whether or not I would sign the bill or not, because I knew if I was willing to sell out the hope and dreams of a significant portion of our people that I had wasted my life in public service. Because, I have never lost an election but my career has never been about winning elections. My career and this campaign is about changing the Democratic Party. Its about changing America. And this campaign is about taking back the White House so we can have health insurance, so we can have a balanced budget, so we can have an inclusive society where everybody believes in each other and believes in America. I want the opportunity to work with extraordinary people in California. I will work with California instead of against you. I will work with Nancy Pelosi. I will work with Diane Feinstein. I will work with Gray Davis. I will work Herb Wesson. I will work with Jon Burton. And I’ll sure work with another Democratic from the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party, Barbara Boxer. We are not going to beat George Bush by voting with the President 85% of the time. The only way that we’re going to beat George Bush is to say what we mean, to stand up for who we are, to lift up a Democratic agenda against the Republican agenda because if you do that the Democratic agenda wins every time.

I want my country back. We want our country back. I am tired of being divided. I don’t want to listen to the fundamentalist preachers anymore. I want America to look like America. Where we are all included, hand in hand, walking down. We have dream. We can only reach the dream if we are all together – black and white, gay and straight, man and woman. America. The Democratic Party. We are going to
win in 2004. Thank you very, very much. Thank you very, very much. Stand up for America, Stand up for America, Stand up for America.

You didn't change the party Howard; the party changed you.

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The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?

k9disc's picture

party.

Or the corporate wing. I prefer the corporate wing. Professional Democrats.

Assholes.

@Not Henry Kissinger

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

divineorder's picture

@k9disc would have proved hollow? Obama's did.

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

@divineorder I notice he says "insurance" not "health care".

Interesting too that both Dean and Bernie are from Vermont.

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Wink's picture

@Not Henry Kissinger

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the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

snoopydawg's picture

@Not Henry Kissinger
or was that his version of Hope and Change? If this was what he actually believed in, how could he have changed so much? Money? Power? Both?

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

thanatokephaloides's picture

@snoopydawg

if this was what he actually believed in, how could he have changed so much? Money? Power? Both?

Howard Dean is an honest politician.

He stays bought.

Sad

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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

@thanatokephaloides and humiliated?

Remember how badly he was treated by the party (and Obama) after his success leading the DNC with the 50 state strategy?

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k9disc's picture

The alt-left is no longer the Bernie wing. These people are uncompromising extremists with a cult of personality. https://twitter.com/mic/status/892120280247795716

Who are our personalities?

Bernie? Not me, and certainly not the Leftier peeps...Jimmy Dore? Susan Sarandon? Tulsi?

Seriously? We're not the ones idolizing Obama, calling the ACA Obamacare, and abandoning all sense of reason and going full blown authoritarian for Hillary.

The projection coming from the Democrats is the same as that coming from the social and econ-o-cons for that last 60 years.

60 fucking years of attacks on the New Deal and social policy.

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

@k9disc HRC's entire campaign easily boils down to her slogan: I'm with Her. And after the blow out, they tried to get the "she persisted" thing rolling. During the campaign, I can't seriously recall Her saying much of anything of substance. At least Trump could tweet out some promises that, even if they were flat out lies, implied the 99% has real concerns. She couldn't even do that.

So tell me again how we're the ones with the cult of personality.

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

SpamNunn's picture

@Dr. John Carpenter It should have been "I'm with us"

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It's just my opinion. It can't hurt you

Lookout's picture

15 min clip from the humanist report

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82xjeCB8oDg]

If only that was their better deal.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

For too many years, I've felt the Democrats have taken my vote for granted. Before 2016, they at least had the courtisey to pretend to understand and care, even if their promises were horseshit.

2016, they stopped pretending. Her couldn't even fake caring and seemed to relish ignoring or shitting on pregressive concerns mostly out of spite. The Democrats tried the worst bunch of shaming I've ever seen. Then they straight up said they didn't need our votes.

So I'm done. They need to earn my vote with actions, not words. I refuse to be shamed or frightened into voting for lesser evil. I also refuse responsibility for their incompetence and uninspiring candidates. If they want my vote, they earn it, simple as that. Because of the choice is between a Republican and Republican in Democratic clothing, I choose neither.

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

snoopydawg's picture

@Dr. John Carpenter
Obama from passing the legislation he wanted to pass, but what blows this shit out of the water is what he accomplished during the two years that the democrats held all 3 houses of congress. And the way they explained why they couldn't pass decent legislation was because of the blue dogs.
This too was blown out of the water when Obama would pre-cave to the republicans and give them more than they were asking for.

Remember the years of the 11th dimensional chess excuse people gave Obama for not doing what he promised to do? Or that he "had them right where he wanted them"?

Has any president not fought for his Supreme Court nominee? Obama didn't do jackshit when the republicans blocked Garland from having a hearing even though he was more republican than democrat.

There were so many issues that the democrats wouldn't fight for and people were shouting at them" to grow a spine" or say that if they wanted to win again, they should do.......... !

People have been writing articles about what the democrats need to do if they want to win again.
Geebus? If so many people know what they need to do, I would think that they already know what to do. The fact that they aren't should be enough evidence that they just don't want to change anything. Besides, Pelosi has already told us this.

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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 twice this weekend, in spite of my better judgment, I got drug into an argument about Obama. It was that stuff exactly, all about how he tried but the mean old Republicans kept him from doing all those great things.

Of course I didn't get anywhere but it's amazing to me how many people have no clue that he absolutely had the ability to do great things during that time. Most people I know have no clue that the Democrats had both houses and the presidency for two years and Obama had no reason to fart around like he did except that was his true intention. People just won't accept that this is what happened, even though it is.

Same people keep insisting to me Her would have been "better" than Trump, but they can never provide me a specific way, just vague assumptions about what Her would do for women, minorities and LGBT people. Again, Her record just doesn't support the faith my friends have. No, she's not out there using offensive language, but I think we here all know the kind of stuff I'm taking about. Again, actions, not words.

I think left leaning people just can't accept that the Democratic Party is indistinguishable from the Republicans except for their language on social issues. And, when you really look at what they've done on that front, they've mover right there too.

Sigh. I'm still irritated. I'm going to have to learn to keep my mouth shut to survive the Trump years.

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

snoopydawg's picture

@Dr. John Carpenter
this way: the democrats are the Washington Generals and the republicans are the Harlem Globetrotters. This game was played for over a century before I caught on that the script had planned been played
When the democrats are in control of congress, the republicans can block the democrat's legislation by placing holds, use the filibuster and all the other ways they can use. But when the republicans are in control of congress, the democrats won't can't do the same things.

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

@Dr. John Carpenter take the argument that it isn't left vs right, but up vs down.

Income inequality is the issue I believe can bring left and right together. Maybe it can also pierce the left/left divide, but I noticed during the election that the Hillbots tended to be less affected by the income schism than the rest of us.

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@snoopydawg on the campaign trail but he did say this after being elected and before he was sworn in as President. Keep in mind none of these are the very first things of importance he talked about in the interview, jobs, bloated military budget, or climate change,or income inequality etc. but the following. (Notice the harbinger of the Cat Food Commissions plural, Obama didn't give up easy).
" President-elect Barack Obama pledged yesterday to shape a new Social Security and Medicare "bargain" with the American people, saying that the nation's long-term economic recovery cannot be attained unless the government finally gets control over its most costly entitlement programs.

That discussion will begin next month, Obama said, when he convenes a "fiscal responsibility summit" before delivering his first budget to Congress. He said his administration will begin confronting the issues of entitlement reform and long-term budget deficits soon after it jump-starts job growth and the stock market. "
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/15/AR200901...

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thanatokephaloides's picture

@Dr. John Carpenter

Because of the choice is between a Republican

..... shit cereal ......

and Republican in Democratic clothing,

..... crap cereal ......

I choose neither.

...... I'm not buying cereal!

Wink

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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

ggersh's picture

How did the Democratic Party establishment get to the point where they can show absolutely zero respect for their voting base and get away with it?

when the clintons/DLC greed became more important
than every/thing/one else.

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I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

Arrow's picture

has always come from the 'left'.
Look back to the IWW Eugene Debs and the fear of a rise of the CPUSA. FDR had to move with the new deal. His goal was to "save capitalism". The civil rights movement was in spite of major political parties. Dr. King forced JFK and Robert Kennedy to act. Nixon the same thing with Vietnam. Kissinger admitted they signed a peace and pulled out from fear of domestic instability and unrest.
The major political parties should be immaterial. What matters is the force of progressive ideas and values.

$.02 tossed into the pot....

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I want a Pony!

Bollox Ref's picture

Supporting the cause that reviles all rebels.

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Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.

When I did, I wanted to barf. My initial tendency was to write a rebuttal to the guy on facebook that posted it. But then I thought about. The DNC is focused on attacking us. They can't ignore us anymore, so they attack us. And every time they do, they attack universal health care. Wages. Pensions. Social Security. Those things us 'purists' demand. And it pushes them further into the realm of obscurity.

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divineorder's picture

@Mickt

Dem Senators ? Need to be replaced.

Needle them from beneath

I like the irritation factor of it.

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

Unabashed Liberal's picture

@divineorder

a bit of disagreement with the JD 'pledge.'

If they are serious, they would do as Repubs have done for decades, and actually challenge Dems lawmakers to sign an official written pledge to vote for, and implement MFA--with the promise of primarying any and every lawmaker who refuses to do so.

What they heck does 'stand up' for MFA even mean?

I also posted about Senator Daines copying and pasting Conyers' amendment, after I heard McConnell calling Dems out for their votes--or, nonvotes.

The end result - the Dem Party vote on Enhanced & Expanded MFA was: '5' Nay and '43' Present.

A handful of red-state Democrats--North Dakota Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, Indiana Sen. Joe Donnelly and Montana Sen. Jon Tester--as well as Maine independent Sen. Angus King, voted "no." No one voted in favor of the measure, which failed on a 0-to-57 vote with 43 votes of "present" (by Democrats).

Mollie


“I believe in the redemptive powers of a dog’s love. It is in recognition of each dog’s potential to lift the human spirit--and therefore, to change society for the better--that I fight to make sure every street dog has its day.”
--Stasha Wong, Secretary, Save Our Street Dogs (SOSD)

The SOSD Fantastic Four

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Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

divineorder's picture

@Unabashed Liberal

Appears to me that is clearly targeted at recruting the youngs, stirup and activate them, make it seem sexy and easy to get involved. Rather than actually get a pledge out of the worthless. I welcome it. Many of them were rightly devasted after Bernie bailed on them at the convention.

At any rate Green candidate Dr. Margaret Flowers is also using this to point to Dems' worthlessness. Others have said that this was clearly designed to make them look bad so they could not vote for it.

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

divineorder's picture

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

It turns out that we don't share our fundamental values, and progressives are gradually coming to realize it.

Wikileaks of course revealed the corruption of the party, but it did more. It revealed Clinton, the standard, the power, the candidate of the democratic party was totally a DINO. I don't like term as it doesn't reveal that she was in fact of policy a right winger. Not centrist democrat. Not center left. Not even a moderate. She was a right winger--actually I should say she is a right winger.

It was obvious with Bernie in the primary she moved "left" as a political ploy, and as revealed by Wikileaks again, her public and but real private positions.

The email exchange with Neera Tanden over $15/min wage was revelatory about the policies of the democrats. Neera opposed it. Podesta supported it and was mocked as a "red" (as in commie red). Those mf'ers reduced one of the critical ways to help people as a fucking joke, a way to rib Podesta.

Single payer at town hall's is the speartip revealing that democrats are not in anyway liberal much less progressive. I like the quote so much, I will repeat it.

It turns out that we don't share our fundamental values, and progressives are gradually coming to realize it.

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Racist, sexist, whiner, a cult member, and purist.
All in all, I am deplorable.
Republicans would stop the insults at calling me a loser. That is kinder.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

SparkyGump's picture

back when Dean ran. I loved the guy. He was telling me everything I wanted to hear. Thanks to the internet, it's much easier today to educate yourself than it was back then. What he, and the rest of the corporate wing, doesn't get is that people are just sick and tired of incrementalism. We have the worst income inequality since the Gilded Age. The American Dream our parents lived has faded away into Socialism for the rich and Capitalism for the rest of us. No, you're not going to change Washington overnight. It's going to take a fight of our lives and we need leaders with convictions. Leaders with vision. That's not you, Mr. Dean.

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

snoopydawg's picture

How did the Democratic Party establishment get to the point where they can show absolutely zero respect for their voting base and get away with it?

is why have so many people continue to support them after their 20 years of attacking them?
In 2008, progressives were against the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the Bush tax cuts and everything else that republicans were doing for their base and against us, but in 2012 and 2016, those same progressives voted to more of all those things. Obama extended both wars, added two new ones, fooled people into believing that Russia attacked Ukraine and Crimea and were killing civilians in Syria. He also made the Bush tax cuts permanent and I'm sure I don't need to recall his history of his tenure.

Herheinous lost to Obama because of her Iraq war vote, but in 2016 when she was running on extending the Syrian war and possibly putting our country in a direct path for war with Russia, the people who chose Obama in 2008, were voting for Herheinous now.
This just doesn't make sense.

I admit that I was snookered by Obama in 2008, but that was the last time I voted for a democrat. I didn't vote last year during the primary because this state has gone to the republicans for as long as I remember. I also didn't vote for Bernie because of his foreign policies.
Yep. I'm a PUMA and proud of it.

Another outstanding essay, gjohnsit!

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

Interesting choice to feature a quote from Crooks and Liars Susie Madrak(?): she was a rabid Hillary supporter that have that blog a very gos-like feel (they stopped sort of banning folks selling instead for ad hominem attacks). The staff at c+l hasn't fully recovered from its embrace of the Dem establishment dark side. For instance they were heavy into bashing Tulsi Gabbard for going to Syria---some might call it hippie punching.

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@MinuteMan
I only know that her quote above is spot on.

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@MinuteMan It is sometimes a bit amazing how Hillary Clinton's campaign left a landscape of sites and people who lost intellectual integrity.

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Democratic Party. he seems to have joined the DWS wing.

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.