Democratic (Party) Direction

wait i thought the 2020 dem ticket was Oprah Clooney.

I should run

At least Oprah's never declared bankruptcy.

You'll be 35 by then, treesh?

No I guess not. Close.

I would really prefer we nominate a Gen X person if at all possible. Late Boomers, even the exceptional ones, need to stop hogging the spotlight imho.

Also can we talk about something other than Presidential nominees for a few hours? There's other battles that need to be fought as well. Oprah & Clooney can run for Senate seats.

The Amal Clooney twins will be eligible in 2052!

Imagine having twins on the ticket. Can't really figure out how the secret service would feel about it though.

http://www.theonion.com/article/fuck-you-obama-says-in-hilarious-correspondents-di-32245

He's never going to show up at one.

I liked Trump's but at the Al Smith dinner. Nice pathos, incurring the ire of the crowd through grandiose self-pity, and then regaining their sympathy by mocking his wife. Classic.

looking at the actions of the "vanguard left" i'm not sure that a leftist makeover of the democratic party is ever going to be truly possible. i don't want to draw facile equivalencies between the left and right, but a large part of radicalism seems to be to demonize (or at least deprecate) the "other". this works somewhat less well when your party is the party of the "other".

i'm not sure that a leftist makeover of the democratic party is ever going to be truly possible

STOP DA PRESSES!

it's assumed among most American leftists I interact with that the Dems are beyond saving in the long run

bernie is not really divisive among dems. he's disliked by very plugged-in hillary stans on twitter

This is very true. If your image of the Democratic party was "people who spend a ton of time freaking out on twitter" you would think the party was in a deathmatch with itself. Out in the world, I think most Democrats think very highly of Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Joe Biden, and would be super-stoked for any of these people to be President.

well that'd be sad, but then Tom Hanks and Tom Cruise are among the most beloved movie stars of the last 30 years

yeah iirc something like 92% of dems take a favorable view of Bernie xp

STOP DA PRESSES!

― Supercreditor (Dr Morbius)

yeah i know you were defeatist before defeatism was cool

but no, this whole "indivisible" thing about re-reclaiming the tactics of the tea party to wield outsize political influence, i'm not saying there's nothing to it but a whole, whole lot of it was just finding the most openly racist guy in the room and running him for office, which isn't a tactic which can be successfully imitated by anybody but right-wingers.

i do think that in the long run memes, which were probably more decisive in bernie's support than policy considerations, can probably be an equal or superior political force to cash, but any remaking of the party is dependent on rebuilding from the ground up, and memes just aren't very effective on a strictly local level.

the question is, if all this is true, why give a shit about politics at all? why set oneself up for failure again and again? particularly if politics is culture, why even paying attention to, much less denounce, the ineffective compromises of a party destined to be nothing more than an incoherent stay-the-course muddle?

it has nothing to do with "defeatism." American institutions do not do leftism, not in the last 50 years.

why give a shit about politics at all? why set oneself up for failure again and again?

people complaining about politics is not a bug but a feature

it's assumed among most American leftists I interact with that the Dems are beyond saving in the long run

This is why American leftists are so influential

it has nothing to do with "defeatism." American institutions do not do leftism, not in the last 50 years.

Then what do you do? The way for your expressed political views to be anything other than defeatism is if you're basically a nihilist or possibly the most cantankerous and unhappy stoic I've ever met.

Why this constant need to single out Morbius? Politics makes people unhappy those threads are wall to wall w people doomsaying and complaining about being mad unable to sleep fearful etc. Why always pick on the good Dr?

yeah it seems to me he was simply stating a fact just there

Because he is by far the worst?

Other people complain because things go wrong, then something good happens, then they get a bit happy again. Morbs is just shouting, shouting, shouting, shouting.

I absolutely agree that the US is a lost cause. I call that realism.

I support kicking until we go, though. Rage against the dying of the light etc.

Just out of curiosity, any country that isn't a lost cause?

Monaco

Currently the administrative party, Horizon Monaco, (right-wing) holds 20 seats. The opposition party, Union Monégasque, (center) holds 3 seats. Renaissance represents the principality's largest employer SBM, and currently holds 1 seat.

you should see the polling for the next election tho

i thought this was good and kinda inspiring

https://www.thenation.com/article/women-are-leading-the-charge-in-georgias-sixth-congressional-district/

they're baaaaaaaaaack

@DougHenwood
DLC vets Rahm Emanuel & Bruce Reed: to win Dems must be centrist, disappoint base, and make it all about Trump.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/06/riding-the-2018-wave/530952/

clowns

to win Dems must be centrist, disappoint base, and make it all about Trump.

The problem with Democrats is that everybody thinks they're the base.

Who's the base? Suburban liberal moms? Black people? Immigrants and their kids? Teachers? Chapo Trap House listeners? Gay people? Grad students? Unionized factory workers? College students?

PUMAs? Democratic socialists? Martin O'Malley stans?

Old hippies? Wind entrepreneurs? Yoga instructors? Federal and state employees? Tech bros?

Harold Ford, Jr., one of the few incumbent Democrats to lose a seat in 2006 because he was too obtuse to change his mind about gay marriage, still yammered about supporting the Iraq War, and wanted intervention in the Terri Schiavo case -- this man a few hours was on Morning Joe lamenting Democratic fealty to the abortion lobby.

Suburban liberal moms? Black people? Immigrants and their kids? Teachers? Chapo Trap House listeners? Gay people? Grad students? Unionized factory workers? College students?

All these groups want the same policies in place, don't they?

really think they only have two options: either move legitimately Left (Warren should be the baseline), or just start murking white ppl over the age of 60.

except basket-weaving hippies

who is the base?

people who need the government and know it.

All these groups want the same policies in place, don't they?

I would say no, though of course there's substantial overlap.

I'd love to see the venn diagrams or the basic explanations of where they don't overlap.

Racism?

For example.

'College students' covers a pretty large spectrum of ideologies (and levels of privilege), 'suburban liberal moms' is a niche that's pretty heavily slanted (expand to 'suburban moms' and you've got the basic ideological split that led to a majority of white women voting Trump), etc..

I guess I'm saying I legitimately have no idea who people are talking about when they talk about "the Democratic base," and I kind of think different people mean different things, and furthermore I kind of think most people are thinking "people like me."

people who think the govt should help ensure their income and health