Progressives are starting to become a real problem for Democratic establishment

“Hey, shut the f... up or go outside!”
- California state party Chairman John Burton to impudent peasants

The corrupt Democratic Party establishment is playing wack-a-mole with it's progressive insurgency, and it's discovering that it doesn't have enough mallets.
For instance, this past Thursday, while it's attention was elsewhere, progressives took over the Philadelphia municipal election.

Black Lives Matter mattered in this week’s Democratic primary.
Insurgent civil-rights attorney Larry Krasner walked away with the prize in the seven-way race to succeed incumbent District Attorney Seth Williams...
What happened? With no incumbent or Democratic Party endorsement, an enthusiastic and motivated progressive minority turned out in good numbers to outpace the scattered support for the other candidates, all of whom had decent establishment credentials.

However, if you want some entertainment and local color, nothing beats yesterday's California Democratic Party Convention.

The California Democratic Party convention started with a bang Friday night, with protesters disrupting speeches at the official kickoff and state party Chairman John Burton unleashing a series of F-bombs aimed at the demonstrators.
The chanting began when Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg and Burton stepped up to the podium in a cavernous hall at the state capital's convention center, with protesters shouting demands that the party reject corporate donations and work to implement a single-payer healthcare system...
“Hey, shut the ... up or go outside,” Burton said.
“Parade all you want, but unless we put it on the ballot or elect new Democrats you can walk up and down the street and people still aren’t going to have decent healthcare. So let’s get with it.”
Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez headlined the kickoff event and, seemingly accustomed to such a reception, delivered his speech in almost a thunderous shout — loud enough to drown out the chants.

That last sentence if flat-out hilarious!
Those dirty peasants are revolting.

Back in January, Berniecrats literally took over a majority of the Democratic state party.
Progressives outside of the Democratic Party are starting to win local elections as well.

A big test of this insurgency is the upcoming Virginia Democratic Primary for Governor.
On one side you have establishment candidate Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam, endorsements by Gov. McAuliffe and “nearly all Virginia Democrats in Congress and the state legislature”.
On the other side is Berniecrat Tom Perriello, endorsed by Sanders and a few others. The progressive is winning.

With less than one month before the June 13 primary, 40 percent of likely Democratic voters support Perriello, while 38 percent support Northam, a difference that is well within the survey’s range of sampling error.
Among the broader group of Democratic-leaning registered voters, Perriello holds a slight edge over Northam, with 35 percent support to Northam’s 29 percent.
Perriello’s upstart candidacy has attracted national money and national media as he bashes President Trump at every opportunity, while Northam has patiently built support within the state and has campaigned on his ability to work with the Republican-controlled legislature.

It's the WashPo, so you can see the biased framing here. Nevertheless, the numbers speak for themselves.
This Tuesday another Berniecrat Rob Quist is up for election, this one in Montana. I've been watching this one close. It's going to be tight.

The populist Democrat running for Montana’s open seat in the House of Representatives has hit a major fundraising milestone, as a race ignored until last month by party officials heats up in its final week...
Gianforte had a 6-point lead over Quist in a poll released earlier this month by a Democratic political action committee. But internal GOP polling shifted against Gianforte last weekend amid proliferating scandals coming from the White House, according to the conservative blogger and radio host Erick Erickson.

The DCCC has essentially ignored progressive Quist until a few weeks ago, and have instead dumped enormous resources into establishment candidate Jon Ossoff's bid for the Georgia's 6th District House seat.

For now the Democratic establishment's agenda is to Weather the Storm, and hope the progressives simply get tired and go home.
It's a strategy that usually works. We shall see if it works this time.

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Comments

in the establishment when populist legislation starts passing, bill after bill, even if the wealthy don't want it to pass. I hope that day comes soon.

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@HenryAWallace
But it's a marathon, not a sprint.
It would take a minimum of four years of activism.

It can happen. Will it happen...?

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@gjohnsit

we all know all too well from experience. However, I am not sure it can happen, I am not saying it can't happen, but I am saying I have doubts. Especially as to its happening from within the Democratic Party. I know you feel otherwise; and that is fine. I respect you greatly, whether or not we agree on every particular.

However, my earlier post says how I will know it has happened, if it does happen. And I stated it that way precisely because I know you and I are not of one mind on this particular.

Wink

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@HenryAWallace
Just making like difficult for those corrupt fucks is a reward in itself.

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@gjohnsit

However, there are more ways to make it difficult for them than to work from within their party. Just ask Her.

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dervish's picture

@HenryAWallace Everybody is well prepared to fight in the known ways, but few anticipate innovation. We've got to flabbergast them.

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

@dervish

The drummer to whom I march always seems to be at least 1/8 of a beat different than the drummers to whom others march. So, I've done my share of flabbergasting. Also nonplussing.

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@HenryAWallace

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dfarrah

SnappleBC's picture

@gjohnsit

Is that more and more it seems to be true that every time we push, we force them to push back. In doing so, they have no choice but to reveal their hand. In this story the Democratic party said flat out, "We don't want to hear you whine about money or health care. Shut up."

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A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard

@gjohnsit

Until the party establishment waits it out or co-opts it.

Then it's nothing and the Democrats get worse.

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“If there is no justice for the people, may there be no peace for the government.”

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@HenryAWallace Also when progressives are not throwing someone out of office who recently pissed off the Clintonocracy by opposing TPP. Mr. Khanna, I'm looking at you.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

ggersh's picture

....................../´¯/)
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.................../..../
............./´¯/'...'/´¯¯`·¸
........../'/.../..../......./¨¯..
.........\.................'...../
..........''...\.......... _.·´
............\..............(
..............\.............\

EDIT: from 2 handed to single, for better quality.

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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

Not Henry Kissinger's picture

where it's electorally better NOT to have the DC Dem's endorsement than to have it.

In fact, we may already be there.

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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?

@Not Henry Kissinger
Quist

ob Quist, the folk music star-turned-Democratic House candidate in Montana’s special election, declined an offer for the Democratic National Committee chair Tom Perez to campaign for him in the state, an inside source says.

The Quist campaign did not respond to a request for comment. The DNC declined to do so.

The national Democratic Party has endured criticism from progressive activists for failing to provide support to Quist and other long-shot special election candidates. But some Democratic operatives argue that their involvement can nationalize a race in a way that is sometimes unhelpful to candidates running in Republican-leaning districts.

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@Not Henry Kissinger

that the lesser of two evils monster is still alive and well, but I HOPE I am wrong and you are correct.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@HenryAWallace Nah, both are true: lesser of two evils monster is alive and well AND the people despise the DC Democrats; actually, I think they despise DC everything.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal

Going with the lesser of two evils is, by its own terms, going with you think is evil, whether it's accepting their recommendation or voting for them. I don't think we are yet at the point where, if even all D.C. Democrats endorsed a Democrat, as they did with Hillary, that alone would cause most voters to change their minds about voting for the endorsed candidate. But, as I said, I hope I'm wrong.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Not Henry Kissinger We are there.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Azazello's picture

I've been bombarded with emails ever since, 5 in my inbox this a.m., but I'm glad I did it and wish millions more would.

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

@Azazello
Meteor Blades has a FP diary about Quist.
What is interesting is the slant: the GOP opponent is a Trump-lover.
In MB's diary is this:

Quist is a supporter of Bernie Sanders, and the senator arrived Saturday for two days of joint appearances with the candidate.

That's it. Just one sentence.
I guess even with MB, anything Sanders is verbotten.

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@gjohnsit

I guess even with MB, anything Sanders is verbotten.

Running Liberal/Progressive Blogs for Dummies: If MB is censored or restricted in any way you're doing something wrong.

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dervish's picture

in 2000 and 2016, we cost them the election. We've got power, but just need to figure out how to flex it in an offensive rather than defensive stance. I have no illusions that we can control the party, but we can certainly bypass it, and make it irrelevant.

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

@dervish

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@dervish @dervish 2016, yes; 2000, absolutely not.
I can't tell you how much it distresses me, as a Floridian, to see the 2000 "election" rewritten as "lefties didn't turn out for Gore, and a lot of 'em voted for Nader, so he lost."

Bush's fucking brother rigged the damned thing: threw voters off the lists, threw votes into the Atlantic ocean, and stopped vote counts. With some imported help from that piece of shit Tom DeLay.

I agree with your overall point, but I wish we could hold that piece of history in our memories. It's important.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

dervish's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal not to mention that Gore actually won Florida, in an honest count. Speaking as a former I-4 corridor Green though, I can say that a lot of us held fast and voted for Nader. Had the Dem candidate been more to the left, or had Gore even spoken to us, thrown us a bone or something, we might have flipped the other way, and made it that much harder for the Bushs to steal the election.

We still get blamed for it though, and I'm happy to take credit.

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

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@dervish I just hate those bastards so much.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

dervish's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal not to mention that Gore actually won Florida, in an honest count. Speaking as a former I-4 corridor Green though, I can say that a lot of us held fast and voted for Nader. Had the Dem candidate been more to the left, or had Gore even spoken to us, thrown us a bone or something, we might have flipped the other way, and made it that much harder for the Bushs to steal the election.

We still get blamed for it though, and I'm happy to take credit.

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

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal

Kinda sounds a lot like the one half of the Two-Faced corporate party covering for the other half...

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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.

snoopydawg's picture

@dervish
it has Greenwald, Cenk and the person whose show it is. They are talking about the huge losses that the DP had during the 2010 elections. They pretty much say that the reason why they lost so many seats was because Obama went back on his campaign promises and had given the republicans everything they wanted.
I still think that if he had just looked like he was trying to get his legislation passed, so many people wouldn't have stayed home or voted for Trump. They were basically saying F'ck You to Hillary because she would have been 3rd or Bush's 5th term. And they were telling Obama the same thing.
The video is about 12 minutes..

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

Alligator Ed's picture

@dervish

I have no illusions that we can control the party, but we can certainly bypass it, and make it irrelevant.

When Patton's mechanized divisions encountered German strong points, they went around them, cutting them off from the rear. Only a third party can do this.

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Arrow's picture

Lord: Why Yes! Yes they are!
nice essay gjhonsit...

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I want a Pony!

Citizen Of Earth's picture

When Maher said (paraphrased) "Trump sux, Hillary would have been good...", West lambasted Helley as the Wall St Whore that she is. That sent Maher into his Screaming Idiot act. More blaming the progressives for not settling for the Lesser Of Two Assholes.

I know. I know. Why am I watching Maher anyway. Well, because there is noting else on at 10pm on Friday.

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Donnie The #ShitHole Douchebag. Fake Friend to the Working Class. Real Asshole.

@Citizen Of Earth GOS is now "Kingmaker"

Meet the Democratic Party’s new kingmaker – a liberal blog

It was late January, and a small group of liberal bloggers were about to lift an obscure U.S. House candidate in Georgia to political stardom.

At a time of unprecedented energy from the Democratic Party’s liberal base, an endorsement from Daily Kos Elections can make you famous – and raise a small fortune.

The website’s online fundraising pitch collected $400,000 for Jon Ossoff in a single week, more than some candidates for the House of Representatives raise in a year. Eventually, donations totaled about $1.6 million.

“We knew right away that the amount of money coming in was just enormous, far, far beyond our wildest dreams,” said David Nir, Daily Kos’ longtime political director, who authored the site’s endorsement.

Meet the Democratic Party’s new kingmakers.

[shudder]

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Citizen Of Earth's picture

@gjohnsit
I wake up the day after election day and assholes are still in charge -- doesn't matter if the assholes are wearing red or blue shirts. Smile

And the fact that DKos is still 'a thing', speaks more to the stupidity of the people that support it than anything else.

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Donnie The #ShitHole Douchebag. Fake Friend to the Working Class. Real Asshole.

dance you monster's picture

@gjohnsit

. . . is only a "kingmaker" in its capacity to raise money. And it speaks volumes that that's all the McClatchy article (and other commentators recently who've been propelling the same point, almost as if there was a press release or sumthin') cites. Nothing about the ideological discussions over there. Just money. And that is something that the GOS membership understands and appreciates: gobs and gobs of money, . . . as well as the argument that the less well off are the privileged ones.

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@gjohnsit Seems that in the elections since Trump took office, democrats are winning existing democratic controlled seats and republicans are winning republican controlled seats. How will Jon Ossoff the big winner of the TOP money raising do in the general election with united gop front?

It seems right now the greatest danger to the party status quo are the progressive insurgents and not republicans winning traditional democratic seats.

As for the anti-Trump minions, will it just translate into bigger margins of victory in current democrat party controlled seats? When I watched reports of the last dem front marches demanding Trump's taxes, the largest crowds were in cities controlled by democrats. Hillary's popular vote margin came from three states: CA, NY, and MA.

As for TOP, my description of the site is "sell liberal, vote neoliberal". some very liberal and progressive articles published there, but when comes time to vote, it is basically DLC.

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Alligator Ed's picture

@MrWebster

As for TOP, my description of the site is "sell liberal, vote neoliberal". some very liberal and progressive articles published there, but when comes time to vote, it is basically DLC.

Well played, sir, well played.

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Not Henry Kissinger's picture

@gjohnsit

"Hey Jonny boy, why don't you come work for me? I can get you some REAL grassroots action babay! I'll peddle your fine white male ass all over the net. Now just so you know, I get a 50% vig on the take, but I got CONTACTS man! Just tell 'em your pro choice and feel bad about being so entitled. Then watch all that dark money come rooollllling in!

"Course, I don't want to hear you backsliding on me with the Bernie Bros. 'Cause if you do that I'll fucking cut 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?

dervish's picture

@gjohnsit No worries, they have no influence.

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

dervish's picture

@gjohnsit No worries, they have no influence.

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

Daenerys's picture

@gjohnsit n/t

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This shit is bananas.

snoopydawg's picture

@gjohnsit

“They’re super smart people,” said a DCCC official. “They may be working for a left-leaning outfit, but they have a really accurate, smart sense of where the most competitive races are and what it takes to win them.”

Heh, left-leaning outfit as opposed to center-right ?
That's a weird statement coming from the DCCC, don't ya think?

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

Alligator Ed's picture

@snoopydawg Compared to the DCCC, Democratic in name only, referring to GOS as "left-leaning" is like calling a rat "a large mouse".

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@snoopydawg

Both as regards them regarding DKos as 'left-leaning' and in the contempt held for the intelligence and other capacities of lefties, it seems absolutely typical of the Republicans forming the DCCC. They all know that money's what's required to win elections and to purchase policy/legislation for those who can afford 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.

@gjohnsit

Well, they're promoting the corporate candidates, aren't they? Attracting the rabid supporters of corporate candidates, aren't they? And isn't that where the money sucked, via those corporate candidates, out of the workers and non-wealthy people in general, their public taxes/funding and their poisoned-for-industrial-cost-cutting environment goes?

They follow the money in an entirely different sense than we do.

Two different economies, two different languages, two different outlooks, two different life expectancies - yet all is essentially the same within the two purportedly different political parties between which the two different groups are expected to choose their corporate representatives.

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Fleas

Great fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite 'em,
And little fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum.
And the great fleas themselves, in turn, have greater fleas to go on;
While these again have greater still, and greater still, and so on.

I wonder where DKos fits in the Parasite Class food chain...

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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.

snoopydawg's picture

@Citizen Of Earth
Hey Bill, what did your buddy Obama do while the cops were killing unarmed Blacks you POS!
And how many countries had Trump invaded before the election and how many wars has Hillary been in favor of or responsible for? Good lord, how can rational people become so irrational?
As for the number of people who might lose their health care under Hillary, how many people aren't using it now because they can barely pay their premiums and don't have enough money left to see their doctors because of the obscenely high premiums?

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

Big Al's picture

Didn't think so.
Democrats fighting amongst themselves is so funny, particularly when they think they're all "progressive".
I wouldn't call this a revolt, I would call it revolting.

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As the Graveyard Of Social Movements, I don't understand what makes this progressive push any more likely to succeed than all the past ones. It's absurd to me, glaring political malpractice, that all this energy is being put into exactly the kind of movement that has repeatedly proved itself a failure against the Dem establishment. Even success for the candidates mentioned above means nothing if they are compromised by the establishment once they are surrounded by its enticements.

This is a story as old as politics, and it still leaves capital in place. The Berniecrat/"progressive" challenge to capital is merely a call to return to something akin to post-WW2 liberalism, only further to the right. That is about the weakest tea I've been asked to drink in a long time.

I cannot see what is different or special about this "movement" or why, given the history of every similar challenge to the Democratic party, I'm supposed to care enough to change my focus from creating alternatives to the Democratic party, an entity best left gut shot and dry gulched.

The Democratic party must be destroyed.

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“If there is no justice for the people, may there be no peace for the government.”

Alligator Ed's picture

@MrJayTee The DemonRATic party is the graveyard of social movements. There is now a logical reason to banish all of the establishment douches to Afghanistan, the graveyard of empires.

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@Alligator Ed

I agree, apart from pointing out that Afghanistan's already suffered more than enough from the establishment douches. Aren't there rather a lot of heavily DUI-poisoned areas of Iraq which the Iraqi really shouldn't be going anywhere near, where these could be retired?

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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.

As a goper once said, republican leaders fear their base, while democratic leaders hate their base. Put the fear into Perez and company. This requires the rejection of "lesser of two evils" argument used to herd progressives. Some people want to emulate the Tea Party movement. And from what I can tell, they don't fall for the lesser of two evils script.

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cowards telling me all about LOTE Hillary - well - except for the ones who actually LIKED Hillary and had barely concealable contempt for those Democratic deplorables dragging their knuckles on waving HIllary-The-Savior Flags.

BTW - I live in north Seattle, single family home world. My precinct caucus of March 2016 had 9 for Hillary and 45 for Bernie and ...400?? 600? who stayed home.

In MY world, I still wear my Bernie button on my hat - it keeps away the diaper pissing "progressives" who are spending their time whispering to each other, blaming the russians, the fbi, me & all my bernie bros ...

I remember when that 'progressive' thing came around cuz the Noblererer-Than-Thou messaging incompetents of Liberal world had allowed Liberal to be destroyed. We need some new labels ...

rmm

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But then I sigh; and, with a piece of scripture,
Tell them that God bids us do good for evil:
And thus I clothe my naked villany
With old odd ends stolen out of holy writ;

enhydra lutris's picture

@seabos84
Just for the record, btw, I'd really be interested in your opinion of when it was "when that "progressive" thing came around". I suspect you weren't alive the first time, and weren't politically aware the second time.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

@enhydra lutris I agree "liberal" became a perjorative some time around Bill Clinton's tenure, and that "progressive" sort of popped up to distinguish from "Conservative".
Most people calling themselves progressives do not think of Teddy Roosevelt necessarily.
I am a lefty.

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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

enhydra lutris's picture

@on the cusp @on the cusp
for the first time aroundthe turn of the 20th century, both the philosophical/ideological "progressivism" and the first "progressive party". We also had a significant progressive party in 1948 (Bob La Folette). The term popped up again in the sixties when all of the "checkbook liberals" and "white liberals" turned on the left, many of whom adopted the name progressive, while many of the rest went, mockingly, with "radical" since that's what the liberals joined the right in calling us. For conversatinal expediency, in later years, many of said radicals began to more commonly use progressive as well, since those unaware of the whole "sixties radical" bit didn't get it.

Long before Clinton and the rest of the neo-liberal/DLC/New Democrats beschmirched the name liberal, large numbers of "cocktail party liberals" had already made it into a borderline insult on the left:

Mario Savio's famous "gears and levers" speech, in full, makes somewhat sneering reference to the "well meaning Liberal" administrator(s) on the wrong side of the issue.

So, seabos84 if you don't know the history, maybe learn it, before indulging in invective.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

@enhydra lutris @enhydra lutris

I'm 57 - everyone who was around for Teddy R is dead - aren't you smart for pointing out that "progressive" predates today's usage! LOMG!!! Do you glow in darkness!?

You remind me of the turkeys who told me 5 and 15 years ago we weren't heading towards fascism cuz they had some magic perfect list, and, lots of the boxes on their magic list weren't checked off.

I said I lived in N. Seattle & maybe MY frame of reference for "progressive" is off. YOU came out with your dweebie ass grad school definitions with years and labels, pretending like your list of labels is ... like the periodic table??? ha ha

Of the money I've sent off in the last 10+ years, much of it has been to "progressives" who turned out to be fucking cowards, fucking sell outs, or, a mix of each. If YOU want to pretend like definitions are precise, like you're counting electrons and atomic weight, AND, people are stupid enough to pay for it, GOOD FOR YOU!!

no wonder we lose.

rmm.

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But then I sigh; and, with a piece of scripture,
Tell them that God bids us do good for evil:
And thus I clothe my naked villany
With old odd ends stolen out of holy writ;

enhydra lutris's picture

@seabos84
no wonder you know so much about progressives, and know they didn't exist until some much later time.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

@enhydra lutris

I believe that's referring to the co-opting of labels by such as the Clinton faction, to whom 'optics' are everything.

Hell, they've been calling themselves The Democratic Party when they totally detest and destroy democracy both at home and abroad - why not confuse and ruin terms like liberal and progressive so that the concepts of government of, by and for the people and working for the public interest cannot even be accurately identified by name?

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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.

enhydra lutris's picture

@Ellen North
(Out of curiosity about the origins of the strange favorite locution "diaper pissing", I did a search on it, it's a form of porn, but that's all beside the point.)

This bit, however, was obviously ahistoric and wrong leading to uncertainty as to what random date or period he was freaking out about let alone who the hell he was blaming it on. Usually this type of revisionist rhetoric points to Reagan, but clearly not so this time.

I remember when that 'progressive' thing came around cuz the Noblererer-Than-Thou messaging incompetents of Liberal world had allowed Liberal to be destroyed.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

@enhydra lutris

I do see your point; it seemed to be more of a vent than anything else, from someone who was, perhaps, too accustomed to... errrr... less progressive atmospheres? and failed to understand the post s/he was answering or realize that insulting personal statements are not considered conducive to constructive discussion here.

People do tend to cut incomers slack when they first arrive, but his/her choice of tone and response to you was somewhat... surprising. Still, it's not surprising that many people have come feel defensive and may initially be expecting, and therefore perceiving, Third Ways and meaness everywhere and therefore react in an offensive manner. And it may not have been meant as it came off, either. We'll see, I guess.

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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.

PriceRip's picture

@seabos84

          Just for the record: I have never really cared for the neoliberal democrats.

          Stop by sometime.

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@seabos84
Even if only to insult.
I'd hate to think everyone here thought alike.

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@gjohnsit complicated to figure out what I wrote.

IN MY WORLD IN THE STATE OF WASHINGTON IN SEATTLE most claiming and wearing the "progressive" label are a fucking joke. Claiming and wearing the label says you'll be selling me out.

In MY world, I'd like a new name.

Clearly, for some in this Caucus 99 world, 'sniff sniff boo hoo you're a mean meanie' is ... the fainting couch approach ??

too bad gjohnsit - I like your diaries, despite the nitwit who has to plague me with his graduate poli sci baloney.

rmm.

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But then I sigh; and, with a piece of scripture,
Tell them that God bids us do good for evil:
And thus I clothe my naked villany
With old odd ends stolen out of holy writ;

@seabos84
many Dems have called themselves progressive when they obviously aren't.
But that doesn't ruin the word.
Sort of like a liar calling themselves "honest".

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@gjohnsit

Lol, perfect analogy in all sorts of ways! Interchangeable, really.

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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.