Democrats: "The message is being worked on"

It appears that “I mean, have you seen the other guys?” wasn't the final product.
It's been eight months since that catastrophic election defeat and the Dems, just like the Hillary campaign, still don't stand for something.
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The public isn't stupid, or guilty of not paying attention. Even the Dems in Congress don't have a core message to give.

House Democratic Caucus Chairman Joe Crowley hesitated when asked about his party's core message to voters.
"That message is being worked on," the New York congressman said in an interview this past week. "We're doing everything we can to simplify it, but at the same time provide the meat behind it as well. So that's coming together now."
The admission from the No. 4 House Democrat - that his party lacks a clear, core message even amid Republican disarray - highlights the Democrats' dilemma eight months after President Donald Trump and the GOP dominated last fall's elections, in part, because Democrats lacked a consistent message.

The lack of a message (or just one message) is a reflection of the infighting within the Democratic Party.
It's understandable if you might think that the battle is progressive base vs. wealthy donors, but it isn't that simple. It's more about political establishment vs. everyone else.

“When people say Bernie is crazy, no. Bernie is talking about inequality. That is the burning issue in the United States.”
...Mic recently caught up with Steyer, a California hedge fund billionaire who spent a whopping $87 million on Democratic candidates and causes in 2016 and endorsed Clinton after the primaries, to discuss the state of play for Democrats in the Trump era — the good, bad and yes, the ugly. Today, Steyer is an unabashed supporter of Sanders’ progressive vision.
“There is an absolute, unspoken war between corporate interests and the American people,” he said. “That’s the underlying subtext for all of the public discussions within the Democratic party.”

Steyer is the Democrat's largest donor, so you would think he would have the ear of everyone in the political establishment.

Steyer is also throwing his weight behind some of the once-fringe issues that Sanders championed on the campaign trail, such as single-payer health care.
“One of the things people get mad at Bernie about is single-payer,” Steyer said. “You know who is also calling for that? Warren Buffett. We have got to start looking at things with a fresh eye.”
“The idea that we’re not going to cover people is over,” Steyer explained. “Health care is a right. The question is how do we deliver it in the most efficient manner possible.”
Steyer admitted that getting to a single-payer system in the U.S. would be “really difficult,” but he believes that other countries’ systems are hurting American competitiveness. “Single-payer is a system [elsewhere] that is kicking our ass,” he said.

So the grassroots want it, and the Dems largest donors want it. You might believe that the establishment Dems might come around to it as well, right? Nope.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and party leaders are coordinating candidate recruiting and mentoring with the Blue Dogs. Both sides say there is a shared understanding that winning as many seats as possible in 2018 is more important than any Democratic purity test for potential candidates.
“The DCCC has seen the light,” said Representative Kurt Schrader of Oregon, a Blue Dog coalition member.

It's back to the future for the DCCC.

"The days of the Blue Dogs are over," said Adam Green, the co-chairman of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, a political action committee that works to elect liberal candidates. "The threat to progressives is a Democratic Party that rallies around people generally going in the right direction, but who think very small-bore and who are themselves milquetoast candidates who don’t inspire voters."
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Ken in MN's picture

...was the poll-tested catchphrase that beat out "Pay no attention to those Neocons behind the curtain!" for the 2016 Campaign...

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I want my two dollars!

detroitmechworks's picture

And knowing the Democrats, they won't even have to change their actions after the fact!

"No More Wars."

That's EASY to walk back, after all, since it depends on your definition of what "No" "More" aaaaand "War" is.

/snark

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

This was just published a while ago

With New D.C. Policy Group, Dems Continue to Rehabilitate and Unify With Bush-Era Neocons

Is it incredible? Or do I still have some vestige that the dems stand for something?

One way to go is to go directly to the new policy group

Alliance for securing democracy

Which is strongly connected to the George Marshall Fund -- which I have never heard of.

Click on the tab TEAM and start with the staff. One dem, one rep. The dem Laura

Before she joined GMF, she was foreign policy advisor for Hillary for America, where she coordinated development of the campaign’s national security policies, messaging, and strategy.

and worked in Obama admin

Then under the tab TEAM go to Advisory Council

Starts off with Chertoff, then a past president of Estonia who worked for Radio Free Europe for years along with other gigs, Bill Kristol, Mike Rogers, and

JAKE SULLIVAN

Jake Sullivan served in the Obama administration as national security advisor to Vice President Joe Biden and director of Policy Planning at the U.S. Department of State, as well as deputy chief of staff to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. He was the senior policy advisor on Secretary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. He is now a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and Martin R. Flug visiting lecturer in law at Yale Law School.

It looks like republican neo cons are better known than dems

Glenn has some other linkages in his article.

They have a donate tab if that is your cup of tea.

The rep used scandal and Bill Clinton wrecked the country. I didn't know how bad it was until Hillary won and "Listen Liberal" etc. Now the establishment is hanging on ...

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Wink's picture

@DonMidwest
fingernails. The DCCC huddling with Blue Dogs? The rank & file slowly woke, catching on. The game soon over for the Ubers and Filthys (rich /1% / Oligarchs).

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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.

that will fool ordinary people, but not scare our banker, corporate and war machine partners."

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Orwell: Where's the omelette?

@jim p How to scam democrats while winking sideways as the banksters and corporate interests.

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There is now a built-in resistance to voting for Democrats among Progressives. In order to get our votes they will need to give us a reason. Ironically we have a host of issues that should be Democrat issues: stop futile deadly wars, Single Payer, the Climate, protecting minority rights, improving relations with Russia, helping the transition to a democratic, multi-polar world, breaking up TBTF banks, reinstating Glass-Steagall, increasing taxation on the rich, making sure that Trump succeeds when he is on the right side of an issue, etc. Hard to believe, but the Dems are on the wrong side on most of these! What a useless, pitiful excuse for a liberal political party.

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Capitalism has always been the rule of the people by the oligarchs. You only have two choices, eliminate them or restrict their power.

Pluto's Republic's picture

…that suggested that the Dems have come around that it was the wrong candidate. They can live with that. The can live with the fact that the campaign strategy was all wrong, as well. What they cannot abide, however, is that there was something wrong with the message.

That's a bridge too far. They don't want a big tent and they don't think they need it. They don't want social investment because it eats in to the defense spending. They don't want to empower the people, they want to herd them.

They would rather lose than change, because that brings them closer to their zionist goals.

Reading about big donor Steyer's new push for Bernie's values, was a strange thing. He gives all that money and doesn't seem to know what the Democratic Party is about. He doesn't know who he is talking to. How is that even possible?

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____________________

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

@Pluto's Republic ...that $87 million (plus millions of activists) still can't change the direction of the party?
It's like the Catholic Church denouncing Galileo for proving the sun doesn't go around the Earth.

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Pluto's Republic's picture

@gjohnsit

…into local elections to mine for diamonds and rebuild the party with new talent. They are told, this is where it's at. This is what matters. This is what will change everything and put the Party back in power. Even Mr. Moneybags is encouraged to work his magic here.

They seem to forget that is what Steyer did in 2016, with mediocre results. He had a stable of very good candidates and a coma-inducing platform of incrementalism. It was the year of big populism; the year of the outsider. And Democratic activists were selling more of the same into that headwind. This is why Steyer is demanding a new and transformative message.

Did the DNC know they were going to lose? They must have known because they concocted RussiaGate and had it in place. They just didn't tell their big donors and their party loyalists. They didn't tell Hillary. That's why they're still running the scam — and still dangling Hillary like a carrot on a stick. They are absolutely certain they are going to get away with it.

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____________________

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

@Pluto's Republic

…into local elections to mine for diamonds and rebuild the party with new talent.

[.....]

They seem to forget that is what Steyer did in 2016, with mediocre results. He had a stable of very good candidates and a coma-inducing platform of incrementalism. It was the year of big populism; the year of the outsider. And Democratic activists were selling more of the same into that headwind. This is why Steyer is demanding a new and transformative message.

In other words, Steyer got the memo. But the folks whose hands are directly on the Democratic Party's levers of power still refuse to budge, even when the "whale" donors defect in droves.

Bomb

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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

GreatLakeSailor's picture

@Pluto's Republic

Did the DNC know they were going to lose? They must have known because they concocted RussiaGate and had it in place.

She looses - it was Russia's fault/delegitimize Trump.
She wins - the ground work is there for her to get more aggressive yet for Cold War 2.0 and the MIC spending that her owners paid her to push.

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Compensated Spokes Model for Big Poor.

@Pluto's Republic

. . .but we ain't in it.

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@FuturePassed

getting a booty call.

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Problem is, this will hurt us more than it will hurt them.

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

ggersh's picture

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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

Mark from Queens's picture

@ggersh
turned out to be way too much of a duped Trump fan, with a fervency for the Orange Buffoon that I find disconcerting. From what I understand he's your classic, run of the mill, Libertarian.

They had a bit of a presence at OWS, but of course their view of things is almost totally narrow (i.e. End the Fed) and never imposes on their fealty to the fundamentally fraudulent "Free Market" Capitalism, which seems at the core of their overwhelmingly smug, older, white male worldview that obsesses on personal property.

Occasionally he has a moment of clarity, such as here:

The MArch To Tyrannyjpg.jpg

But for me, he's gone into the tank way too much for Drumpf.

It's too bad he's been so duped (Nast had his shortcomings, with racism and such, too). Because political cartoons are powerful at conveying messages in ways that reading can't, and could be using his enormous talents more for the 99% as he did above.

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"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:

THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"

- Kurt Vonnegut

ggersh's picture

@Mark from Queens I'll give him a break on this one also
had her heinous been where she belonged maybe
the great orange one wouldn't be where he is
today.

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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

Pluto's Republic's picture

@Mark from Queens

…who is way too "wrong" for comfort, too. It's a real shame.

party-girls.jpg
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____________________

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

"We're doing everything we can to simplify it, but at the same time provide the meat behind it as well. So that's coming together now."

Go simple.

Go stupid.

What's wrong with these people?

Barbecue. That's what we need to reclaim the heartland.

Guess what. You can get great bbq in Texas for about $12. NYC? About $150.

Ergo.

Crap.

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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!

I'd believe it more if he would invest in progressive talk radio. And Warren Buffet talks a good game while profiting off predatory mobile home loans. But how do Dems get their message out with corporate control of broadcasting? (Thanks, Bill Clinton.)

You can't get voters excited by telling them to go to your website. Nor can you convince them to vote for you by spamming them with WE'RE DOOMED emails begging for money. You know campaign season has arrived when these show up, as predictable as Bill O'Reilly and his stupid War on Christmas. Dump the consultants; power to the people!

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Mark from Queens's picture

@SancheLlewellyn
Exactly right.

That would be putting your money where your mouth is. But of course these folks (and especially a hedge fund guy, to boot) have no interest at all in erecting a foundation upon which to there could be real media opposition to all the propaganda. They don't want a truly people-powered avenue of discussion, analysis and arbiters who would talk bread and butter issues with everyday people instead of highly-paid operatives masquerading as pundits, because that would send out the pitchforks for the hedge fund criminals and all their abettors.

None of these guys, including Soros, Gates and whoever else, want an informed populace capable of understanding how badly they've been fucked over. They'll just keep sinking their money into "Messaging," developed by little psychology and business majors who cram into their cubicles all day to market-test all manner of dumb slogans, who adhere to the contemporary school of "branding" (or whatever the latest corporate jargon is).

Empty, pernicious, evil people running this charade to keep the duopoly game in place, who have absolutely no interest in anything but ruffling as few feathers while in office so that they can come greased right through the Revolving Door of DC back for "consulting" or lobbying jobs.

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"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:

THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"

- Kurt Vonnegut

Strife Delivery's picture

@Mark from Queens

None of these guys, including Soros, Gates and whoever else, want an informed populace capable of understanding how badly they've been fucked over. They'll just keep sinking their money into "Messaging," developed by little psychology and business majors who cram into their cubicles all day to market-test all manner of dumb slogans, who adhere to the contemporary school of "branding" (or whatever the latest corporate jargon is).

Empty, pernicious, evil people running this charade to keep the duopoly game in place, who have absolutely no interest in anything but ruffling as few feathers while in office so that they can come greased right through the Revolving Door of DC back for "consulting" or lobbying jobs.

God I'm so sick of "messaging" or "framing the ideas". Just useless, meandering bullshit. My God, anyone seen Tom Perez or Nancy Pelosi. Bumbling, useless, with a true ability to speak for 5 minutes and not say a damn thing.

I've said it here before, messaging is exactly how you put it. Go into some boardroom, pay some faceless blobs $8 million to then think real, real hard on some pathetic slogan. That's it. What a day's work.

I'm tired of these psychopathic, sociopathic, bloodthirsty, greedy, monstrous politicians and our system.

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Wink's picture

@SancheLlewellyn
still waiting for our first check from Soros or one of the other Lib Billionaires. Not holding our hand on our ass.

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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.

Wikileaks did reveal many Hillary and establishment positions. However, Hillary and the party establishment can't say they support, for example, deregulating Wall Street. Or that Hillary massive;y supports fracking.

So the end result is a message that is watered down and which means and says nothing. The democratic establishment does in fact stand for certain things, but can't say so because of the electoral backlash and exposure as supporting right wing positions.

So like the gop after losses, the democrats focus on message rather than policy.

And to get an idea of what the establishment stands for, we have to watch their actions. Like the mayor of Baltimore vetoes $15/min wage. CA dem establishment kills single payer. Democrats supported firing cruise missiles at Syrian forces. DCCC funds corporate lackey "centrists" and refuses to fund progressive candidates. This all adds up to a message.

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travelerxxx's picture

Actually, I suspect that the Democrats may well "change the message." How about this message: "Hope and Change." Catchy, eh? They can change the message to anything they like, but it will do about as much good as changing socks or wearing a "Make America Great Again" hat. Changing the message to something Americans want to hear will simply cause Americans to have even more disgust with them. What? Lie even more? Act even more like hypocrites? These fools think Americans won't see straight through some new platitudes?

The Democrats can change the message, change their ads, change their speeches. Nothing is going to change until THEY CHANGE. Suddenly the same people who race to the phone when Wall Street is calling, who cannot resist any bribe from the multinational corporations, who are busy destroying the New Deal piece-by-piece, who are willing to risk nuclear war to cover the nation's rejection of Hillary Clinton -- suddenly they are okay because they spout some new lies? They think people are so absolutely stupid that they won't see through a new "message?" ... especially when the very same sell-outs are the ones spewing the new words?

People will see through it, and will do so easily. We know what they are. Hell, practically everyone knows what they are now. This is easily seen when one observes the shrinking number of Americans who voluntarily call themselves Democrats. It is seen by the massive loss of elected positions throughout the nation since the last guy tried a new message -- but then moved diametrically opposite his words.

If you're going to talk the talk, you'd better walk the walk. The only walk I see today's Democrats taking is to the deposit window of the bank. And that isn't a walk, it's a sprint.

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snoopydawg's picture

@travelerxxx when the democrats ran on the Bush policies that they told us that they would change if we put them in power and they told us that they were only kidding us.
Then Obama with his charm and message of Hope and Change knew that people would latch on to any hope that he would stop the bleeding of jobs, home foreclosure and most of all, stop the wars and offer us universal health care finally.

Crash! The betrayal was devastating and people stayed home in the 2010 election and the democrats lost the house. Nothing had changed when they held all 3 houses of government, especially the message. "We don't have the votes to pass anything and besides, the republicans are blocking us from doing so."

Bernie showed us that there was a better way and we watched as the democrats attacked him because he shined a light on their sniveling cowardice.

Want to win us back? Show us you are serious and do everything in your power to stop the wars, the heinous health care bill, the tax cuts that are coming and quit lying to us about Russia interfering with the election and admit that Her lost because she was a shitty neoliberal warmonger who had the backing from every neocon from the Bush administration who wrote the Project for a new American Century.
Then and only then can we talk about supporting you 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.

@snoopydawg
Amen!

quit lying to us about Russia interfering with the election and admit that Her lost because she was a shitty neoliberal warmonger who had the backing from every neocon from the Bush administration who wrote the Project for a new American Century.

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@travelerxxx

is the real message, that they are people who are,

busy destroying the New Deal piece-by-piece, who are willing to risk nuclear war to cover the nation's rejection of Hillary Clinton...

So well said!

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and the Democratic Party has become a horrible Party. It's gone beyond the point of them being "less bad" than the Republicans. It has become so bad, that these high-ranking Democrats are now actively participating in the malevolent schemes of some of the most dangerously evil people on the planet. And nary a word of protest from the "liberal" wing of the Party. Or whatever remains of it, which isn't much.

Liberal Democracy and endless imperial warfare are incompatible as policies of State. Like oil and water, they do not mix well -- the one always seeking to undermine the efficacy and purpose of the other. America desperately needs to choose which direction it intends to take, and the choice is stark -- toward war, or toward peace. But with the current D+R duopoly firmly in place and acting in unison, backed by the massive influence of the MIC, it is able to control nearly all the levers of federal power regarding US foreign policy. We the People are being given no say whatsoever in these matters. This is not democracy. It has nothing to do with democracy. And it's fairly clear by now, which direction the Democratic Party as an Institution prefers to take: The path of global domination and aggressive military adventurism.

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native

snoopydawg's picture

@native IMG_1105.JPG

He wasn't perfect, but imagine where we could be if they hadn't killed him. Or Bobby.
We went to the moon during his administration for gawd's sake. The things he wanted to do, especially break up the CIA which is responsible for so much violence and death that they are continuing to do in countless countries.
Their evil knows no bounds.

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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

officially recognized as a coup d'etat, but that's essentially what it was. A very well-disguised coup, but a coup just the same. America has never been the same since they murdered the Kennedys, and neither have I. Some things are just impossible to forget.

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native

@snoopydawg Johnson gave the MIC their coveted Vietnam war before JFK was even buried. When people asked who would want to kill Kennedy, I tell them most of TPTB wanted him dead. He was rocking too many wealthy boats.

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@native

And it's fairly clear by now, which direction the Democratic Party as an Institution prefers to take: The path of global domination and aggressive military adventurism.

It's where the money is. It's where the money is going.

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k9disc's picture

Making sure you are not using or addicted to failed conservative policies is not a purity test, it's a political piss test. It's the least we can do to ensure that our elected Democrats govern differently than Republicans.

If we can't make support dependent upon stances on political issues, WTF are we doing here?

"Purity" defense coming from the monochromatic, borg-like Establishment is offensive.

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

snoopydawg's picture

where he wrote about bank bail-ins and cashless societies and found this blast from the past where Hillary is criticizing Bernie for his economic message.

Hillary told people that fixing economic problems won't help people who are concerned with the 'isms' that are keeping people down.

If you can stand the sound of her voice, watch this video.
Good lord, why people bought into her bullshit is dumbfounding.

But watch the Black lady and the Hispanic male. I don't think they really bought her bullshit.

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Strife Delivery's picture

@snoopydawg That was something that utterly confused me about people supporting her campaign.

She campaigned on ending the "isms". Dear God, let me laugh until my sides ache. It is impossible, sorry. You want to talk about pie-in-the-sky unicorn plans, there is one.

Various "isms" have been with us throughout all of human history. Various tribes fighting against one another here in North America, slaves for the Romans, patriarchal societies throughout Asia. The sense of "other" is an ingrained notion in man.

Read one wealthy woman (her husband was the mega bucks here) who said that single payer won't stop a black family from getting a side eye at a public park. Truly stop and think about that message. Single payer can actually get people health care, actually save people's lives; however, this wealthy woman, without a care in the world doesn't seem to care. To her, somehow, Clinton's presidency would stop that black family from getting the side eye at a public park. Just frustrating.

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snoopydawg's picture

@Strife Delivery
And she really is arrogant, isn't she? When did she accomplish the crap that she's shouting about? She has a record of breaking the barriers that people have been subjected to? Really? I wonder if she can point to the legislation she passed that broke up gerrymandering and the rest of the isms she was talking about? There isn't any because this country is still full of racism, sexism , and people still discriminates against LGBT persons and the rest of the isms she was talking about.

Did you catch the part when she asked that "if we broke up the banks tomorrow and I will if they deserve it and they pose a systematic risk, I will, would that end racism?"

This isn't the point that Bernie was making. And she knew that. It's just another way to change the subject from income inequality.

The best part of this video is her saying "let's go out and win this tomorrow and then win the next state, the primary and then the presidency"

Infamous words that didn't come true. This part of the video should be added on to this video she made about why she lost the election to Trump Smile

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Bollox Ref's picture

@snoopydawg

Yeesh! That voice. That attitude. She makes Margaret Thatcher seem pleasant and empathetic.

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Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.

Bollox Ref's picture

I thought that had a good ring to it.

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Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.

"We're doing everything we can to simplify it, but at the same time provide the meat behind it as well."

How about:

Your Democratic leaders: The other other white meat.

It's simple, its got meat behind it, and doggone it, it's accurate.

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lotlizard's picture

@peachcreek  
Chicken except for voting their state more pork.

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