Sales Ethics and the Democratic Campaign '20

Submitted by Cassiodorus on Thu, 04/09/2020 - 10:05pm

Folks, back in 2010 I wrote a diary titled "Sales Ethics and the Democratic Campaign '10." In that old diary, I suggested that the Democratic Party campaign for that year, perhaps the biggest-losing Democratic Party campaign in history, was based on the Elmer Fudd Theory of Electoral Victory. Here's the strategy, by the Strategic Master himself:

Yep, that's it. We are supposed to be vewwy vewwy quiet about who Joe Biden in fact is, because he's Better than Trump. Toward that noble cause, we need to shut down all conversations about who Joe Biden really is. I'm not even sure what messages are permitted anymore. No, wait! I know what's permitted. From Joe Biden's Twitter account:

https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1247540886885543936

What do Fig Newtons and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches have in common? Listen to this preview of this week's podcast to find out — and then check out the full episode at https://JoeBiden.com/Heres-The-Deal or wherever you get your podcasts.

Yeah, that's permitted! It's with messaging like that that Joe Biden is going to ride a wave of glory into the White House! Or maybe it will just be another record-setting defeat. They're gearing up the same strategy, after all, asking me to shut up all over Facebook. Should they not expect the same results? Who knows -- he's ahead in the polls or something.

On a more sober note, here's Ian Welsh's take on Joe Biden. I'm not going to copy and paste it, since I'm not sure what fair use law would permit. So you'll have to click on the link. Anyway, it has a good short summary about how Joe Biden has helped to shape the world we live in today. Okay, I'll copy and paste that part:

We live in Joe Biden’s world. Joe Biden was there every step of the way, creating a world in which young people live in poverty, poor black (and white) men are in prison, and in which the rich get richer and everyone else scrambles to even keep up.

This is the foundation upon which the Biden faithful are going to create the fantasy that Joe is going to do something good for us. Anyway, that's what the Sanders and Biden camps are going to be collaborating upon between now and August, creating that Big Sell.

Tags:

Joe Biden

Twitter

Elmer Fudd

Peanut Butter

Jelly

Fig Newtons

Vote

Comments

Submitted by Steven D on Thu, 04/09/2020 - 10:19pm

Says it all

The Dems will ride with Republicanism with a D by the name until they die.

—

"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott

Submitted by thanatokephaloides on Thu, 04/09/2020 - 11:37pm

slight correction

@Steven D

The Dems will ride with Republicanism with a D by the name until they die.

Slight correction:

"The Dems will ride with Republicanism with a D by the name until we all die."

—

"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

Submitted by Lily O Lady on Thu, 04/09/2020 - 10:59pm

I still think Cuomo is being groomed to step in

at the convention and save the day. An under the umbrella of “he’s not Trump” he would be greeted with joy.

—

"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

Submitted by Cassiodorus on Thu, 04/09/2020 - 11:00pm

Biden is ahead in the polls at this point.

@Lily O Lady So it may be awhile before they do something like that.

—

“The Democrats and Republicans want you to believe they are mortal enemies engaged in a desperate struggle when all the time, they are partners with a power-sharing agreement.” - Richard Moser

Submitted by Lily O Lady on Thu, 04/09/2020 - 11:05pm

No wonder! Who doesn’t like fig newtons and

@Cassiodorus

peanut butter and jelly sandwiches?

—

"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

Submitted by snoopydawg on Thu, 04/09/2020 - 11:23pm

He nailed it

He actively helped repeal Glass-Steagall, setting up the 2007/8 financial crisis that caused a ten-year long “recession” for ordinary people.
~
Biden’s policies do not do that. Period. So when you see upset Sanders supporters, understand that they’re angry that people who voted Biden don’t seem to care if they die or live in poverty.

Yep. I have been telling people everywhere how Biden's legacy has made our lives so miserable. What ticks me off is that they don't know it. Why not look into the person who you are voting for and see if they're are worth your vote?

Biden, even if Sanders likes him personally (a fact which should have had no effect on his strategy, and is one of Sanders ethical failings), is one of the top fifty or so people in the country responsible for how shitty the US is to so many people. That is Biden’s legacy. He’s a warmonger, and someone who has favored rich people over the middle class and poor all his life, and made sure that the poor and young were hurt–and hurt badly.

Bottom line is there is no lesser evil. There is just evil.

Trump may be worse, but this a case of Beelzebub vs. Satan.

Great article. Worth a read.

—

There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?

Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.

Submitted by gulfgal98 on Fri, 04/10/2020 - 5:07am

This!

@snoopydawg This is what I have been telling people I know who seem hell bent on getting rid of the orange Cheeto by voting for any blue will do (Biden or Cuomo or Hillary again).

Bottom line is there is no lesser evil. There is just evil.

—

Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

Submitted by Not Henry Kissinger on Fri, 04/10/2020 - 1:06am

Jeralyn Merrit at Talk Left

as stalwart a Dem party loyalist as your likely to find within the criminal defense set, can't vote for Biden.

Policy change in America moves at snail speed. I began writing TalkLeft in 2002 -- 18 years ago, urging changes every day in our criminal justice system and advocating for candidates I thought were most likely to be receptive to those changes. Not surprisingly, almost every one of the laws I opposed on TalkLeft was written or driven to passage by Joe Biden.

...

I don't believe Biden will bring out the numbers of voters needed to beat Donald Trump. If this country ends up with another four years of Donald Trump, Americans should hang their head in shame. Trump never have been granted a desk in the oval office. He's done nothing to earn it, he's not competent and he doesn't tell the truth. He's always been the carnival barker. In 2016, all he had to do to win was yell "Hillary's e-mail". In 2020, he'll be doing more of the same kind of tactics. He's already started, with approval from his party.

The Democrats had three years to prepare for this moment by figuring out how to effectively counter the reality TV show Trump runs from the White House. They had three years to craft an appeal to his underinformed, margainalized angry rural base. They had three years to convince America's uber-rich industry leaders that Trump was not reliable enough to pin their economic futures on him.

Unfortunately, Dems failed. We get the government we elect, and with an uninspiring, way-past retirement age crime warrior on the one hand and the carnival barker on the other, there's only the Dems to blame if the carnival barker prevails.

I'm not going to continue to vilify Joe Biden now that he has seems to have the nomination in hand. I want Trump to be gone just like everyone else. Once he actually is the nominee, I plan to only write about the consequences of re-electing Trump and the need for a Democrat-led Senate and House. But if you ask me if I will vote for Biden, the answer is a resolute "no." I will vote down-ticket only. I won't suggest anyone else follow my lead. I won't continue to make the case against Biden. But for me, voting for Biden after writing so many posts over the years about the awful crime bills he introduced or co-sponsopred and pushed through the Senate would make me a hypocrite. I don't feel the need to vote for the lesser of two bad choices when I oppose both candidates so intensely. If Biden doesn't topple Trump, I will feel sorry for America, but again, it's the Dems who will own the failure.

—

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?

Submitted by Snode on Fri, 04/10/2020 - 5:39am

This is Obama nostalgia

It's the same reason the Clintons never go away. Too many DNC leeches got fat and will do anything to bring back the good times. I am positive out of all the candidates that were in the running, no matter how it shook out, every low vote loyalist would drop out and endorse one candidate. Biden, Harris, Warren, it wouldn't matter as long as they stopped Sanders.

All I can see doing is write in votes for Sanders as a protest. At least they would be protest votes that would be counted. For a lot of us life under Biden won't be much different than under Trump. For the dems a loss brings the republicans closer to a permanent majority. Maybe that will wake them up, but I doubt it.

Submitted by The Voice In th... on Fri, 04/10/2020 - 8:16am

In Illinois write in's are NOT counted

@Snode
Unless they have filed a petition. They don't need ten's of thousands of signatures but they do need to file intent,
So unless Sanders files, any write-in votes for him will be considered "spoiled ballots". Just like if you drew a line through all the names.
A better strategy is to leave the ballot position blank. However, in (D) areas you run a big risk of a (D) operative filling it in for Biden and downstate an (R) operative filling it in for Trump. If, like most people, you use the voting machine, you have no idea at all who you voted for. The PROM decides. It prints a little paper receipt that you can only look at, not keep and sends whatever it's programmed to over the radio.
Best strategy is to vote Green or Libertarian that are already on the ballot.

Your state laws may be different. Check it out.

EDIT:
They passed this law a long time ago when the number of votes for "Mickey Mouse" got embarrassing.

—

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

Submitted by Snode on Fri, 04/10/2020 - 9:27am

Curses!

@The Voice In the Wilderness Foiled again!

Submitted by snoopydawg on Fri, 04/10/2020 - 1:29pm

More on Biden's horrible horrible history of screwing the

the working class. I can't think of one bill that Biden helped get passed that helped the 99%. Every damn bill went to help the power elite in this country.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGQnJidk_68&list=TLPQMTAwNDIwMjAT9gIbt9N...

Biden is just Hillary 2.0, but he just isn't as coherent. The sins of the Obama/Biden administration were a continuation of the Bush/Clinton/Bush/Reagan and others and Trump is another continuation of them.

First he got that massive tax cut passed that any good for us will sunset in the next few years while the corporation's cuts are permanent.

Now this absolutely HEINOUS corporate bailout will see massive suffering on so many people and congress does not give a good gawd damn about it. They know what is going to happen here in the future. Millions will be homeless and unemployed. How will they respond to the massive protests that will come from this? OWS was just a warm up and look at how the PTB responded to that. This is why each administration has been destroying the constitution and putting laws in place for the coming police state. Not coming... it is here. But it is going to be very bad for us. Hey are those FEMA camps built during Bush/Cheney still considered CT?

—

There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?

Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.

Submitted by Cassiodorus on Fri, 04/10/2020 - 5:00pm

That's a good Krystal and Saagar!

@snoopydawg I've posted it to my FB feed. Watch the world scream SHUT UP! at me.

—

“The Democrats and Republicans want you to believe they are mortal enemies engaged in a desperate struggle when all the time, they are partners with a power-sharing agreement.” - Richard Moser