Mueller Indictments Won’t Get Democrats Elected

The partisan Democratic echo chambers may be dancing the jig right now, but I remember how the Iran-Contra Scandal didn't help with Dems win the White House in 1988. Nor did the Clinton impeachment help the Repubs win the 1998 mid-term elections.
Senator Bernie Sanders explained just last night why this won't be swinging any elections.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS: We have got to focus on the bread and butter issues that mean so much to ordinary Americans.
Americans are not staying up every day worrying about Russia’s interference in our election. They’re wondering how they’re going to send their kids to college. They’re wondering how they’re going to be able to pay the rent. They are worried about whether they can afford health care. They’re worried about the income they make-- if it is enough to put food on the table.

It seems like a logical and obvious statement. However, the Democratic Party simply doesn't get it. Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard of Hawai’i explains further.

“We must put people over profits and progress over special interests,” she said. “We can’t do this if you have just a few power brokers making deals in a back room. We can’t do this with a closed process or with superdelegates who can swing an election.”

Getting rid of the superdelegate system is a good first step, but doesn't come anywhere close to being enough. Proof that so much more is needed comes in the fact that the Democratic Party flatly refuses to do a 2016 autopsy, even though it costs them donations.
Fortunately, another group did the autopsy.

“The Democrats are mistaken if they think that revelations of Trump corruption will drive voters to their party in droves. Experience shows us that corruption charges generally breed cynicism, not citizen involvement. That’s especially so in this case, where Republicans will undoubtedly bring up Tony Podesta as well Bill Clinton’s $500,000 speaking fee from a Russian bank.
“The best way to fight cynicism is: Voters need to believe that their vote will actually change things for the better.”

The report concludes:

* “Aggregated data and analysis show that policies, operations and campaign priorities of the national Democratic Party undermined support and turnout from its base in the 2016 general election.”

* “After suffering from a falloff of turnout among people of color in the 2016 general election, the party appears to be losing ground with its most reliable voting bloc, African-American women.”

* One of the large groups with a voter-turnout issue is young people, “who encounter a toxic combination of a depressed economic reality, GOP efforts at voter suppression, and anemic messaging on the part of Democrats.”

* “Emerging sectors of the electorate are compelling the Democratic Party to come to terms with adamant grassroots rejection of economic injustice, institutionalized racism, gender inequality, environmental destruction and corporate domination. Siding with the people who constitute the base isn’t truly possible when party leaders seem to be afraid of them.”

I wouldn't say the Democrats fear their base.
I would assert that the Democratic establishment despises their base. They hold nothing but contempt for progressives, leftists, and the working class in general.
Democrats think of their base as a bunch of chumps that deserve to be used, lied to, and then discarded.

“The Democratic Party’s claims of fighting for ‘working families’ have been undermined by its refusal to directly challenge corporate power, enabling Trump to masquerade as a champion of the people. Democrats will not win if they continue to bring a wonk knife to a populist gunfight. Nor can Democratic leaders and operatives be seen as real allies of the working class if they’re afraid to alienate big funders or to harm future job or consulting prospects.”

The autopsy has lots of needed reform suggestions that are easy to support, but it doesn't appear that those reforms will do much if the current corrupt culture of the Democratic party, and its open and transparent contempt for the working class, isn't changed as well.
The most obvious split between the Democratic elites and the Democratic base involves the issue of health care.

These examples of disunity among Democrats on health care are alarming, even after their loss of more than 1,000 seats nationwide last year and Trump winning the White House:

• In 2016, the Democratic Platform Drafting Committee voted down inclusion of Medicare for All on the Party’s platform by 7 to 6, with all the no votes coming from delegates chosen by Hillary Clinton.

• The current bipartisan Alexander-Murray bill in the Senate, if passed, would trade off a two-year continuation of cost sharing reduction (CSR) payments for loosening of the ACA’s restrictions on insurers that would bring back skinny policies of little actuarial value, thereby splintering the market further to the advantage of insurers, not patients. These catastrophic policies, such as copper plans with actuarial value of just 50 percent, have low premiums but high annual deductibles ($7,150 in 2017).

• Talk among centrist Democrats of lowering the eligibility age for Medicare to 55 and bringing back the public option are surrender-in-advance approaches that, even if successful, would leave us far short of universal coverage, further fragment our wasteful financing system, and increase profits to an unaccountable insurance industry that leads the S & P 500 in profits.

• The weak approach by Democrats, trying to appease both ends of their party, goes against the will of almost 80 percent of Democratic voters and 60 percent of voters in both parties that support Medicare for All. It also ignores the fact that Rep. John Conyers House Bill 676 (Expanded and Improved Medicare for All) has 125 co-sponsors and Sen. Bernie Sanders Medicare for All Senate Bill already has 18 co-sponsors.

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detroitmechworks's picture

Reagan died quietly in his bed. Clinton is still grabbing asses and we won't find about it until it's safely behind the statute of limitations. Bush gets praised.

And a few people you've never heard of until this week go to jail. Yay.

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

Hillbilly Dem's picture

Because "Look how bad those other guys are" has worked so well over the years. People want to vote 'for' something/someone, not 'against'.

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

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jobu's picture

@gjohnsit

Progressive Day at the pool from 1-1:15pm.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpJTHBEsId0]

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@jobu

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jobu's picture

The surge in populism (which can be broadly defined as a dislike of “the establishment”), brought on by widening inequality and economic stagnation, will be filled by some political force or other -- either the cruel and demagogic forces of the far right and it billionaire backers, or a racially diverse and morally robust progressive vision that offers people a clear alternative to the ideological rot of Trumpism. The mainstream Democratic storyline of victims without victimizers lacks both plausibility and passion.

The idea that the Democrats can somehow convince Wall Street to work on behalf of Main Street through mild chiding, rather than acting as Main Street’s champion against the wealthy, no longer resonates. We live in a time of unrest and justified cynicism towards those in power; Democrats will not win if they continue to bring a wonk knife to a populist gunfight. Nor can Democratic leaders and operatives be seen as real allies of the working class if they’re afraid to alienate big funders or to harm future job or consulting prospects.

Something tells me this will not be discussed on TRMS or any other 'Progressive' show on MSNBC (Mock Sanders Nothing But Clinton)

What we are increasingly becoming aware of is that has been the job of our Institutional Clinton/Obama Dems to keep the sword of economic populism in its sheath.

Worse, President Obama bait and switched with it only to hand it to Wall Street funded Tea-Partiers who used it to hack Dems in Congress to pieces in 2010 and 2014.

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Not Henry Kissinger's picture

just might win Trump another term.

I think it's just beginning to dawn on TPTB that giving twin indictment authority to dueling political power centers may not have been such a great idea.

Trump was as litigious in his private life as any President we've ever had, and it would completely out of character for him to let Mueller's opening salvo remain unanswered -especially when he runs the biggest, baddest law firm in the world (DoJ),

I suspect the only reason he hasn't yet pulled the trigger on a Podesta indictment (Tony first) is that AG Sessions (who hired Mueller in the first place) is trying to slow walk it.

But that won't last. Trump and the Trey Gowdy types in Congress are itching for a fight, and if Sessions won't let them rumble, Trump will surely find someone who will.

And all that's not good for Hillary. As you say, she'll get very little political mileage out of the indictment, but now that's Mueller's gone nuclear, she's opened herself up to a massive retaliation.

It's now just a matter of how bigly Trump wants to make the counterstrike. I imagine he'll start with a fairly proportional response at first, but if Mueller keeps launching indictments, I can see Trump eventually retaliating with a full barrage of legal boomers to wipe Her out once and for all - not just to end the threat, but also to appease his disgruntled base.

Personally, I'm loving every minute of this Elite Civil War. The more both sides fight, the worse both of them look, the more they expose the slimy underbelly of corruption at the heart of it all, and the less harm they do to the rest of us.

Mutually Assured Destruction can't come soon enough.

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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?

The Aspie Corner's picture

@Not Henry Kissinger He's just as corrupt as she is and he's brazen about it. Hell, if any of us even tried to do even a tiny fraction of the things Dipshit has done in his lifetime, we'd be locked away for life.

It's a big club and we ain't in it.

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Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.

Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.

Meteor Man's picture

Grab your popcorn and find a comfy seat!

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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

Pelosi has said a number of times that it will eventually be the democrats turn to govern. And Russiagate will be a big part of that of the message as it was with Clinton. And polls from about 2-3 months ago indicate alot of people think the Russia probe is hurting the country. And the latest indictments actually don't help as the charges are about shit most people will never see in their lives.

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@MrWebster

And Russiagate will be a big part of that of the message as it was with Clinton.

If you keep using it, maybe eventually it'll work.

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Jimmy Carter won the nomination in '76, to the Dem establishment's surprise.

In a way, Carter's nomination was a slap in the face to Dems for Watergate. Jimmy Carter was the Dem voter's way of expressing their Watergate fatigue.

Even if we succeed in indicting Trump and his wholr family and barber, too, there will be a similar backlash, and the winners on the left in the aftermath might not be easily predictable.

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"Bi-polar? I'm Bi-winning!!!" -- Charlie Sheen

Thanks for this essay. I didn't realize how phony Tulsi Gabbard D-Hawaii sounds, that was awful. What does signing a petition do, besides populate meta in a database for future sale. Nothing, but go on tool raise moar money.

About Mueller and the Ds, as far as I can tell around me nobody cares. I don't sit in on the Indivisible meetings, I guess they might be excited. Most people just love watching Trump lose his mind on twitter, it is very entertaining apparently. Doesn't matter much whether a D or an R is driving him nuts, it's all good.

DNC is a private corporation, not a government. Petitioning them does diddly, provides fodder for ngp-van or whoever, that's all. Don't feed it, starve it. Give the DNC what they give the world why not, starvation and death a la Clinton.

good luck

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Everything I've been seeing pertaining to this has gone to further solidify my suspicions-become-theory that the Dems have been and are strategically losing seats to allow the Repubs to gain the majority required to enact that Constitutional Convention, to be achieved in this next non-Presidential election, after which Hillary, I suspect, will get Her Turn at long last.

That being, in part, why I personally think that Her's so eager to convince everyone that it wasn't Her fault Her lost, as Her'd like the next Presidential Selection to look plausible enough to avoid riots and international questioning of Her legitimacy. And a lot of censorship is required toward that end.

So, my best guess (albeit speaking as One Who Knows Nothing) would be that the Dem leadership has no actual interest in winning this next election, and cannot be appealed to or leveraged by voters on any grounds.

And the following article from 2015 which I came across tonight when looking for something else explained the details needed for that theory to stand up and say 'Aaaaaaha!'.

Going to repeat part of a post I made earlier tonight, with all emphasis mine:

I'm just going to quote, below, one section from the article regarding that Constitutional Convention for which a great push erupted some time back and where the Dems have been, seemingly deliberately, losing enough seats to allow the 'bad cop' Republicans the majority they need to pass one:

https://www.alternet.org/economy/alecs-scary-corporate-agenda-7-their-mo...

ALEC's Scary Corporate Agenda: 7 of Its Most Anti-Democratic and Science-Denying Ideas
ALEC's annual gathering revealed how right-wingers will push dangerous legislation across the country.
By Brendan Fischer / PR Watch
July 22, 2015

...5. Amend the Constitution

In recent years, one of ALEC's top priorities has been to add a balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution. And it will be a major focus of this month's meeting.

A balanced budget amendment is an idea that has been bouncing around for decades--even though it would cripple the federal government's ability to spend on earned benefit programs like Social Security, and block Congress from responding to economic downturns or natural disasters--but what is unique about ALEC's push is that they are trying to do it via an Article V Constitutional Convention.

Article V of the U.S. Constitution provides that thirty-four states (two-thirds) can trigger a convention to propose an amendment, which must then be ratified by 38 states (three-fourths). Although this seems like a tall order, in the past year over a dozen states have passed resolutions calling for an Article V convention, adding to at least twelve other states that enacted resolutions years ago. The proposal has been supported by Koch-backed groups like Americans for Prosperity and the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB).

Key to the Article V push has been the "Jeffersonian Project," the 501(c)(4) group that ALEC formed in 2013 amidst complaints from Common Cause and CMD that ALEC was violating its 501(c)(3) charitable status by engaging in excessive lobbying. In order to deflect allegations of lobbying, the "Jeffersonian Project" is now used to urge legislators to pass ALEC model legislation, an activity that ALEC used to do directly.

This year, the Article V strategy dominates the agenda of ALEC's Task Force on Federalism and International Relations, with five presentations and two pieces of draft legislation. The task force's private sector chair is a representative of Americans for Tax Reform, the anti-tax group founded by Grover Norquist. And, there will be two separate ALEC-wide policy workshops on the Article V effort, as well as a reception and dinner titled "States Constitutionally Saving “The American Dream” Summit Via Balanced Budget Amendment Convention."

Throughout U.S. history, the Constitution has only been amended through a two-thirds majority vote in both houses of Congress on a specific amendment, which is then ratified by two-thirds of state legislatures. In contrast, the Article V strategy triggers a full constitutional convention, and it is unclear whether the delegates could be confined to only passing one amendment. This fear of a "runaway convention" has led critics on both the right and left to oppose the Article V strategy.

ALEC has tried to quell these fears through a companion bill declaring that delegates to a convention may not vote on other issues besides a balanced budget amendment. Yet, at least some amendment supporters want to open up the Article V process and amendment the constitution to address an array of issues, like limiting the Commerce Clause, banning international law in the U.S., and placing term limits on the Supreme Court, among other items from a right-wing wishlist.

The key driver of the broader Article V amendment effort is Citizens for Self-Governance (CSG), a group led by Tea Party Patriots co-founder Mark Meckler, and whose board includes Wisconsinite Eric O'Keefe. CSG, which receives most of its funding through foundations such as DonorsTrust that cloak their donors' identities, has also backed multiple lawsuits related to the "John Doe" investigation into coordination between Governor Walker's campaign and Wisconsin Club for Growth, where O'Keefe is a director.

CSG's Convention of States effort has been endorsed by Mike Huckabee (who will be addressing the ALEC conference) and also attracted support from the likes of Glenn Beck. CSG's "Compact for America" appears on the ALEC agenda with both a presentation and a model bill, and Meckler will also address the conference on July 24.

Another group pushing an Article V amendment is Compact for America, a Texas-based group advised by Nick Dranias, formerly of the Goldwater Institute, and chaired by former Goldwater chair Thomas C. Patterson. This group also is promoting a model bill at the ALEC meeting, and will hold a full breakout session on July 23.

Wisconsin State Rep. Chris Taylor attended a session on ALEC's Article V plans at the group's 2013 conference. When she expressed hesitation that the public would support the effort, she was told, "You really don’t need people to do this. You just need control over the legislature and you need money, and we have both." ...

... To paraphrase Carlin: "It's a big club, and they'll beat your head in with it."

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.