This is the McResistance
Establishment favorite Joe Biden was in Indiana the other day, campaigning for Senator Joe Donnelly.
Biden peppered his speech here Friday night with red-meat applause lines for the hundreds of enthusiastic Democrats in the crowd: he talked of protecting health care and coverage for pre-existing conditions, gave shout-outs to union and middle-class households and criticized the current administration, saying that “basic American values are under assault” and President Donald Trump is “cratering” America’s reputation abroad.
Ah yes, that nasty Donald Trump, with his racism and such. Democrats resist that.
Barak Obama also stumped for Donnelly.
So what sort of Democrat is Donnelly?
In Donnelly’s new ad, he denounces the “radical left” and rejects calls by some Democrats to “abolish” ICE. “I support ICE [and] funding President Trump’s border wall,” Donnelly says.
...
Donnelly also distances himself in the ad from the idea of universal health care, which is popular with progressive Democrats, calling it “socialized medicine.” That’s a derogatory term used by conservatives for the last half century to criticize calls for a greater government role in paying for health care coverage.
For f*ck sake. Why not just run as a right-wing Libertarian?
Oh wait.
This is the prized candidate of the Democratic establishment.
This is your McResistance in action.
Personally I'm focused on Kara Eastman in Kansas.
Leading progressive organizations have joined together for a final-week, six-figure ad buy for the heavily outspent progressive Kara Eastman in Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District, even as a corporate Democratic group begins an early victory lap, forecasting her defeat.The ad features a Trump voter touting Eastman’s support for “Medicare for All,” a rare rebuttal to the enduring conservative ad barrage against the idea.
Two groups that had declined to back her during the primary — EMILY’s List and House Majority PAC, the main independent expenditure arm for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which is in charge of electing House Democrats — are also helping fund the ad. EMILY’s List controversially declined to endorse Eastman in her contest against a male Democrat, former Rep. Brad Ashford, with an anti-abortion record. Ashford had the backing of the DCCC.
Just two weeks ago, House Majority PAC pulled planned ads for Eastman’s bid against incumbent Republican Don Bacon, in an Omaha-area swing district that Trump won in 2016 by only 2 points. The withdrawal of support had officials from Third Way, a corporate-backed group that pushes Democrats in a conservative direction, crowing.
The race has become a flashpoint for a meta-argument between D.C.-based liberal and centrist groups over how to best win elections in the age of Trump. Eastman, a public health nonprofit executive, was one of only two insurgent candidates to defeat a DCCC-backed challenger in a primary this year. (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ayanna Pressley both beat incumbents.)
If Eastman wins the general election, a blow would be dealt to the well-worn argument that Democrats must trim their sails in swing-seat races. Yet left out of the conversation is the role of money, as Eastman is being outspent by 2-1 when Republican outside money is factored in.
While FiveThirtyEight forecasts the race as a toss-up, several polls have shown Eastman trailing in the mid- to high single digits.
The DCCC has made no meaningful contribution to Eastman's campaign.
Instead the establishment likes Donnelly, and his support of Trump's policies.
Comments
Been watching Dirty Money on Netflix....
Talk about useless, what a mess they made out of this country. Wet nurse for the .001%.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
This is a real headline
Hillary Clinton remains the Democrats best chance to defeat Trump in 2020
Or maybe Biden.
four more years
Four more years! Four more years!
Given a choice between a Republican running as a Democrat, and an actual Republican, Americans will elect the genuine Republican every time. (Paraphrase of President Harry S. Truman)
If Clinton or Biden are the nominees, "The Donald" won't even need to campaign -- or prepare to move out of the White House -- as he'll be President in 2019, count on it.
[shudder]
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
yep. n/t
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.
LOLOLOL
God if it wasn't so damaging it'd be hard not to laugh... both at the sock puppets and the audience lapping it up as if the entire play was real.
Go Hill! I'm with (the) Her(d)
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
I'm watching neighboring GA
...and heard this interesting story -
Progressive candidate for Congress Jess King who is gaining ground in a conservative district in Pennsylvania says the liberal versus conservative narrative ignores the real concerns of voters, healthcare and corporate control of congress (4 min video - no text)
https://therealnews.com/stories/its-not-left-versus-right-both-parties-h...
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Almost everything in US politics anymore ignores most economic
concerns of most voters. That's why each of the Democrats and the Republicans flog the wedge issues to death. Sure, it's an economic concern if a gay person cannot get a job. However, the Supreme Court decided that gays have equal rights under the Constitution. Not bubba, who send DADT to Congress and signed DOMA; and not Obama who campaigned in 2008 that gays could have contractual rights like every other American (gee, thanks! Obama, said the HRC) but, when it came to marriage, "God was in the mix."
Sure, he backpedaled on that as he was gearing up to run for reelection. Democrats could not afford to alienate the LGBTQ community any further and the community had made it clear that they were not going to go through another Democratic election while Democrats treated them like, what is that word? Anathema? Abomination? Before Senator Jack Kennedy called Coretta King when he was running for President, advisors had told him he could not win the Presidential without the "black vote," which had been pretty much "Lincoln Republican."
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
I live in Omaha. Will vote for Eastman. I just
just want to point out that Ashford is a ‘former’ Republican. So was Ben Nelson. Eastman is an anomaly in that she’s never been a once-registered rightie in now running in leftie clothing
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
I really hope she wins
She seems authentic. She seems to care.
I'm glad you could vote for her.
I would vote for any knuckle-dragging trogolodyte against
Donnelly. "Better the Devil you know" than the Devil in sheep's clothing.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
See my comment right below yours.
I agree totally.
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
Donnelly is literally a Republican.
My SO is so frightened by Trump that she still felt compelled to vote for Donnelly because he’s a Dem. It’s sad and ironic as she is an immigrant so I get where her fear comes from but as your quote shows, Donnelly is literally the same. I left that vote blank, as I did most of my ballot truthfully. What the point of voting for Donnelly when he’s on Trump’s side?
I didn’t feel like arguing the point with my love though. She was afraid I wasn’t going to vote at all as my views have become so negative. Truthfully I almost didn’t.
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
your love
Better to keep your love (where you do have control and relevance over outcomes) than damage your relationship over voting (where mere relevance, much less any real say in the outcomes, is debatable at best!).......
You know that because you're smart enough to be a Doctor.....
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
I’m not a doctor, I just play on on the Internet.
Heh. But you are 100% correct. I see a lot of people who talk of ruined relationships over this kind of stuff and it’s just not worth it. We’re all on the same side as far as what we believe and want. I think dividing us is exactly what “they” want.
Now my Fox addicted parents are another story...but really I just bite my tongue anymore. It’s taken a long time to repair our relationship for non-political reasons. There is just no point to that agreement.
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
Also the ads running against Donelly are hilarious.
They accuse him of being part of the “radical left” while scary images of Pelosi and Schumer float by. Donnelly isn’t even part of the center left, let alone anything truly left. (Neither are Nancy or Chuck, for that matter.)
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
That's why Dems should run as progressives
Republicans are going to accuse anyone with a 'D' as being "radical leftist" even when they are more conservative than Reagan on policies. And Republican voters will believe it.
But the Dem establishment will never do that.
Just imagine a Republican running as a progressive.
It's never happened, and never will happen.
Republicans never pander to the left, and rarely do they bother with the center.
At best they try to not look crazy before the general.
But the Dems are always supposed to turn right.
Because they always have an excuse.
it’s bullshit, but it’s always the “they are in a red disctict so they have to vote that way”. See also Joe Manchin. I know I’ve always heard that about Indiana Dems. “It’s a red state, they have to be right wing.” Bull!
You’re absolutely right though. You never hear “well the Republican has to turn left because it’s a blue state.” It’s like it’s all part of the plan. Hmmmmm?
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
Progressive Republicans
False.
He only ran for President as a Republican Progressive once, in 1904. (His Presidency in the 1900 term was due to the assassination of President McKinley.)
It was also he who first brought the term "Progressive" into American politics, using it to mean (generally) what we do.
Of course, his one major flaw as a progressive (as Big Al is wont to remind us) was that he was a serious imperialist and warmonger. But in 1900, war and imperialism were viewed as an inevitable part of all statecraft; if a nation wasn't imperialistic, it was part of someone else's empire. Peaceful, non-expansionist foreign policy and the popular demand for it were largely effects of the World Wars in the USA, and that was after Theodore Roosevelt's time (he died in 1920).
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
You are right of course
I was thinking of post-Reagan gop
Truth!
Truth!
By today's standards, Ike Eisenhower would be a flamimg leftist socialist pinko like most folks here at c99!
If Ike were alive today, he'd be blogging here!
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
TR wasn't the only one
There was also "Fighting Bob" LaFollette, a progressive Republican from Wisconsin. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_M._La_Follette
One should also remember that the very Progressive "lifetime Mayor" of New York City, Fiorello LaGuardia, was abut as far left as any Republican ever got. Ever. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiorello_H._La_Guardia (You'll be surprised at some of the things he got up to! I was, and I thought I knew about him!)
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
I dispute one thing -
Substitute VietNam for World Wars. Kennedy beat Nixon by saying that Nixon and the Republicans weren't aggressive enough against communist expansion. Sound familiar? Fast Forward to 2008 and Barack Obama substituting "Mideast terrorists" for "Communist expansion"
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
In 1965, Republican John Lindsay was elected mayor of New York
with support from the Liberal Party.
In 1969 Lindsay
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_Party_of_New_York
Why aren't right wing democrats expected to show tribal loyalty?
Progressives in the democratic party are attacked for their purity voting and not living by the lesser-of-two evils voting. But when a progressive actually wins a party primary, right wing establishment dems will stab the progressive in the back as documented here and in Maryland. Tribal loyalty is invoked for progressives, but never for right wingers in the party.
tribal loyalty
Why?
Because those in unelected power in the Democratic Party are right wingers. And those right winger "leaders" call all the shots.
Right now, progressives -- those who called themselves "liberals" and "leftists" in the 1960s and 1970s -- suffer from a really bad case of taxation without representation. We can't get any of our "tribe" onto the ballot, much less elected; but we pay full taxes anyway.
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
True
The party loyalty is to the big donors.
On other blogs I have read about such candidates ...
with "at least he will vote for Nancy Pelosi". That's a reason for Pelosi to support him no matter what else he does, but a reason for me to vote against such a candidate.
It does explain why the party turns a blind eye to their policy votes. Because the (D) party is not about policy. It's about money and power.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Donnelly
Sounds as if he's the McAssistance. Do they have whips in the U.S. Senate? Regularly spouting Republican tropes, and voting likewise, would suggest that he should sit with his soulmates.
He reminds me of Collin Peterson here in Minnesota, who regularly votes with Republicans, but is a 'Democrat'. What's the point of these people?
(Edited)
Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.
Who are the good guys?
What happens if the good guys don't win?
Looks like all kinds of bad things are going to happen if they don't win, but I'm not sure who are the good guys. It's not the democrats who are going to bring back pay as you go and tinker around with climate change. It's definitely not the republicans who are going to try to gut everything that isn't nailed down.
edited for grammar
"good guys"
"I can't see one here!" -- MIT "Dungeon" (the original Zork)
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
That’s just it, isn’t it?
We were told all sorts of scary things would happen with Trump in office, some of which were real, some of which weren’t. But they Dems never have voiced any opposition policy. As many have noted, the Republicans fought the Obama administration on everything, regardless of if they were in the minority or majority. The Dems have no vision or direction aside from “we’re not Trump” and given the support for all his military and surveillance and Joe Manchin‘s vote for Kavanaugh, they can’t even do that right.
I am looking for real, concrete examples of how the “good guys” would be different but I keep coming up blank.
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
There are good guys
Here's how you can spot them:
They have to fight there own party.
The media attacks them.
They talk about things that matter.
They are easy to spot because there aren't many of them
Very true
I think that every one of the republicans' legislation has passed with democratic help except for the tax cuts and the ACA. But a few democrats were upset that they didn't get to vote for the tax bill.
And as you, me and everyone else who has paid attention whenever the republicans are the minority party they still find ways to block the democrat's legislation. But the democrats can't/won't do the same thing when they're the minority.
The only time I saw the democrats being vocal about Trump is when he was locking up children and separating them from their parents. Other than that they seem to be very quiet about the other things he says and does. Manchin voted for Kavanaugh not because he had to in order to win reelection, but because he thought that he would be a great jurists. At least that's what he said when he did.
Here's the difference between the two parties.
There are good guys
But they are individuals. Not any one party
h/t to Lookout, Jimmy Dore Show interviews with
with Dr. Jill Stein. She has been out campaigning for Green candidates all over the country, and she says many of those who never voted are now ready to get back involved.
..
They have an alternative to ActBlue and other candidate support tools.
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
Sure wish people would get over the last election
On the Stein tweet people are still saying that she is a Russian agent and it's her fault that Trump is president.
Found this article from your second tweet.
Incumbents Must Shed Political Party Status After Serving Two Terms
I heard that if the democrats win the house then Pelosi wants to see Trump's taxes. Great. This will help people who are living on the edge now won't it? SMDH!
and she deals with it and tells others how and why to as well.
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
Ironic, eh?
“I heard that if the democrats win the house then Pelosi wants to see Trump's taxes. Great. This will help people who are living on the edge now won't it? SMDH!”
I seem to recall one of the Dems favorite points against Bernie was asking how economic equallity was supposed to stop racism or some such. That one always made me slap my forehead. If you are so blind you can’t understand how the two are linked, turn in your Democrat badge now.
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
The more I read and see about the election
the stronger the case for not voting because it is such a waste a time. None of the options, vote for, vote against, vote values, vote revenge, will change a thing. We are simply participants at their circus. One of the suckers born every minute. Yet for some reason, I feel this need to put my hands up to protect my face while I stand in wait for the firing line to shoot.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
Sometimes there is a lesser evil.
IL-6 Roskam vs Casten. I don't like how Casten won his primary, with the establishment pushing against the more populist woman, but Roskam, former aide to Henry Hyde and described by a conservative newspaper as "to the right of Henry Hyde" is a clear case of holding your nose and voting for the establishment Dem. Here in my district, the candidates are Tweedledee and Tweedledum, so I'm skipping that race. At the top of the ticket, JB Pritzker is the archetype plutocrat Dem, but incumbent Rauner (former Wall Street hedge fund manager) has wrecked the state, destroyed nursing homes by failing to pay the state's bills, left state workers waiting for years for unpaid wages and a relentless opponent of unions. That IS a choice, although I would rather see a Green running with preference voting.
EDIT: forgot that although Illinois can't pay it's bills, Rauner actually is campaigning on raising revenue by reducing income taxes ala Kansas and Trump.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Washington has mail in only
And one of the interesting things about it is that it can take a lot less time. No lines, no figuring it all out in the booth, etc. This year we even added free mailing. There needs to be spot checking of the optical scanners, but at least we have a paper backup.
Sorry if that sounds braggy, but the point is it can be done. Now we just need to start running Greens in liberal districts so we can hack the open primary system...
We can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed.
- Greta Thunberg
The Louisville area considers itself part of "Kentuckiana".
Therefore we are treated to all the politcal campaign junk on TV from Indiana. I can tell you that Joe Donnelly might as well be a Republican. Some politicians can get away with trying to point to the virtues of being "independent" in their thinking and voting by straddling the line between two parties. Believe me, with Donnelly, it's not about reaching across the aisle, it's about playing head games with the voters and trying to appeal to everyone. He's a fraud and a thug. That Obama and Biden are even comfortable with campaigning with him disgusts me, but doesn't surprise me.
But then there's Bernie, who is working hard to chip away at my admiration for him... he made the comment that he couldn't endorse Donnelly, but hopes he wins because we need to keep a D on that seat. What the hell good does that do Dems if he keeps voting against them????
"Without the right to offend, freedom of speech does not exist." Taslima Nasrin