Democratic (Party) Direction

That's old, though, right? Here's the new paper https://www.sanders.senate.gov/download/options-to-finance-medicare-for-all

In my view, there needs to be vigorous debate as to the best way to finance our Medicare for All legislation. Below are a number of options to begin that discussion.

wow yeah how disingenuous, how stupid. what a wasted opportunity. if only he'd never published this, america might really have a chance at improving its health care system. :-(

(should be an ellipsis between the two sentences of the italicized text, sorry)

honestly if your first reaction to single payer entering the national conversation in a meaningful way for the first time in decades is negativity and nit-picking about funding, you can fuck off

do not feed the dane

Marmadon't

folks, the Will McAvoy twitter account is ending. who will lead the Dems now?!

Jimmy Smits hasn't done much lately, Aaron Sorkin could probably go ahead and launch West Wing: The Obama Years picking up right where the old show ended.

https://newrepublic.com/article/144811/centrist-democrats-even-stand-for?utm_content=buffer6b179&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

A whole two elected Democrats quoted in the entire article!

Kessler, Marshall and Troiano can choke on their piles of Silicon Valley's pocket change.

"Centrists have a host of worries about the left’s new agenda, the first being that it’s politically risky."

the first? great set of priorities there, folks.

i don't think a centrist democratic party is long for this world. nothing they do is going to get manchin or heitkamp re-elected, and how "centrist" is the party going to be without manchin, heitkamp, and their ilk? who's going to be playing on Team Clinton/Pelosi in 2019?

as for marshall steinbaum, if he can't even tell the difference between south carolina and north carolina, he has no business prognosticating about regional differences between candidates.

i remember when the ACA was being put together and single payer was thrown out at the time because it was "too politically risky" and Obama needed that all-important political clout for working with the Republicans in the future. fat lot of good that did anybody. it was a completely useless concession.

its frustrating to see these idiots proved wrong time and time again and just continue shooting themselves (and us) in the foot and jumping at their own shadows. they are worried that some things aren't appealing outside of the base yet the solution is to stick to the base and don't try anything new.

also lol the thought that repairing airports will appeal to a wide range of people while free healthcare is a dangerous idea with limited appeal.

i remember when the ACA was being put together and single payer was thrown out at the time because it was "too politically risky" and Obama needed that all-important political clout for working with the Republicans in the future. fat lot of good that did anybody. it was a completely useless concession.

its frustrating to see these idiots proved wrong time and time again and just continue shooting themselves (and us) in the foot and jumping at their own shadows. they are worried that some things aren't appealing outside of the base yet the solution is to stick to the base and don't try anything new.

― AdamVania (Adam Bruneau)

to be fair, we're not seeing "these idiots" doing the same thing over and over. max baucus shot down the public option, and he's now in favor of single payer. the number of people who are supporting the centrist line is getting smaller and smaller... no shit they're circling the wagons!

yeah i suppose centrists are gonna dig in harder because people are starting to get the message

this country's going so far to the left you're not going to recognize it

all's well, Veep and The Handmaid's Tale won the top Emmys #BeverlyHillsResistance

this country's going so far to the left you're not going to recognize it

― difficult listening hour

i stopped recognizing this country last year

I'm confused by the shifting meaning if centrist. I'd consider Manchin to be fairly right of center. There's a significant swath of mainstream democrats that are neither leftists nor anywhere near as conservative.

i'm confused why democrats aren't advocating a 90% estate tax on fortunes over $10,000,000

http://robertreich.org/post/165403227390

I'm confused by the shifting meaning if centrist. I'd consider Manchin to be fairly right of center. There's a significant swath of mainstream democrats that are neither leftists nor anywhere near as conservative.

― Moodles

guys like manchin are who the centrists are fighting for. they're terrified of the democratic party not being "big tent" anymore. they may not agree with what he says, but they'll give his re-election campaign all the money in their coffers...

what other democrat is gonna win a senate seat in WV tho

Manchin sucks, but he will always vote against ACA repeal and that's supremely important

A progressive national turn isn't really a threat to a big tent including Manchins - because WV is WV. What are they going to do, primary him?

"Centrists" are afraid of threats to their links to the donor class, nothing more.

Yeah exactly. Their focus group is fortune 50 board members

A progressive national turn isn't really a threat to a big tent including Manchins - because WV is WV. What are they going to do, primary him?

"Centrists" are afraid of threats to their links to the donor class, nothing more.

― louise ck (milo z)

best i can tell the way they see it is that when manchin loses - and if he runs again, he will lose - they will think it was because of those darn single-payer radicals and not because the democratic party is dead in west virginia. they're pre-prepping the blame game. it's unlikely to avail them much, but the people who need to believe that story will believe it.

I thought Manchin led in all polls?

bernie is so fucking stupid it's unbelievable. chait otm

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/09/sanderss-bill-gets-u-s-zero-percent-closer-to-single-payer.html

― sleepingbag, Wednesday, September 13, 2017 6:23 PM

pareene:

"Something that is well-known to people who’ve read Chait for years, but may not be apparent to those who just think of him as a standard-issue center-left pundit who is sort of clueless about race, is that he is engaged in a pretty specific political project: Ensuring that you and people like you don’t gain control of his party.

"I say “you” because his conception of the left almost certainly includes you. He is not merely against Jill Stein voters and unreconstructed Trotskyites and Quaker pacifists. He means basically anyone to the left of Bill Clinton in 1996. If you support a less militaristic foreign policy, if you believe the Democratic Party should do more to dismantle structural racism and create a more equitable distribution of wealth, if you think Steve fucking King is a white supremacist, Chait is opposed to you nearly as staunchly as he is opposed to Paul Ryan.

"It’s not merely that he thinks your ideas or politics are wrong. He has been battling for years to keep you from having any ability to influence the politics or strategy or direction of the Democratic Party. This is the actual message of much of his work: Don’t let the left win. I don’t even think he’d dispute that, really. But everyone should be clear on how expansive his definition of “the left” is, because you’re probably in it."

http://splinternews.com/you-are-jonathan-chaits-enemy-1818814301

are you sharing that because you think people here don't know that already?

well apparently sleepingbag doesn't

you know what, the twitter echo chamber is really effective at making above-average people write some fucking obvious shit and believe they've discovered something

+ xp, sleepingbag is a troll

i'm trying to reach out to the trolls

I like Pareene but wish he'd used more recent examles of Chaitery.

Actually I think that's a pretty useful article, if only to have handy to post whenever someone posts a Chait article on facebook.

if the democrats had half a brain between them would not participate in the GOP 'tax reform' shame until 2scoops releases his tax returns

it's not clear to me that the GOP even needs Dem votes on this? Hard to keep track of what goes through reconciliation and what doesn't.

just going through my Instagram today and was delighted to see some friends are posting selfies with Sanders as Bernie's in town speaking at a local restaurant drumming up support for mayoral candidate Vincent Fort. Fort is awesome. some of my pals have volunteered for him and regularly post updates and stuff. pretty exciting to see people being pro active at the grass roots level!

Vincent Fort
https://vincentfort.com/

Massive piece on the history of Dems, race, and class in Jacobin

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/09/democratic-party-2016-election-working-class

https://cmgajcpolitics.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/vincent.jpg?w=640&h=505
http://politics.blog.ajc.com/2017/09/27/why-bernie-sanders-is-plunging-into-atlantas-mayoral-race/

http://www.myajc.com/rf/image_medium/Pub/p8/MyAJC/2017/09/30/Images/newsEngin.20001366_100117-bernie104.jpg
http://www.myajc.com/news/local-govt--politics/bernie-sanders-stumped-for-vincent-fort-mayoral-campaign-saturday/9uiIPwE0j3cMmxZ7QTaLdI/

I guess I should pay attention to this race even though I don't live in Atlanta proper anymore (East Point has its own mayor, who isn't running for a second term, and that's a shame because she's been amazing and everyone running to replace leaves much to be desired).

I was under the impression that Mary Norwood was the favorite to win in Atlanta, but I haven't tracked it for a couple months now. Anything changed on the ground?

btw just wanted to say I WAS RIGHT:

(...) The only development that would actually seriously shock me is if, in 2018, Bernie is not all over the fucking place making speeches with Candidate X in cities where Bernie did well this year, working the crowd, doing some of his 'greatest hits' and speaking about how excited he is that Young People like Candidate X here are the real future of the Political Revolution In This Country. I mean, that shit writes itself. (...)

― never ending bath infusion (Doctor Casino), Monday, April 4, 2016 6:45 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah this isn't going to happen. setting this aside for future reference fwiw

― Οὖτις, Monday, April 4, 2016 6:54 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

no idea really. Fort seems like the more progressive choice

Fort was the first author of Georgia's predatory lending law, which, until replaced by a measure written by Congressman Tom Price, was the strongest law in the country. Senator Fort’s legislation to fight predatory lending has been recognized by the national media as a model that could have helped reduce the severity of the 2008 financial crisis, had Georgia Republicans not repealed it and if it had been adopted by more states. He has appeared on or been quoted in numerous local, national and international media outlets about the topic, including CNN, Fox News, the New York Times, MSNBC, the Washington Post, Newsweek, The Nation Magazine, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, HDNet with Dan Rather and Financial Times.

He has also sponsored and co-sponsored bills against prostitution, hate crimes, drug-related nuisances, discrimination against citizens with disabilities, racial profiling, disabled access to housing, and collective bargaining for law enforcement officers. His hate crimes legislation made him the first Georgia legislator to sponsor a bill to create a state hate crimes law. Fort has been described as a supporter of Grady Memorial Hospital.

Fighting for minority business access in the city and the state has been a top priority for Senator Fort. In 2015 he led the effort to push for a board-adopted Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) program after passage of the Transportation Bill (H.B. 170). The bill called for an increase in gasoline tax and other fees to make available $900,000,000 per year in transportation improvements statewide. The Department of Transportation DBE program aims to enable African-Americans, women and other minority businesses to compete on a level playing field.

In February 2010, Fort opposed a bill that would prevent Georgians from being forced to receive a microchip implant against their will, calling it "a solution in search of a problem. "On October 26, 2011, Senator Fort was arrested along with 52 other members of Occupy Atlanta, in support of the protesters. Senator Fort was also arrested in a protest for Medicaid expansion in Georgia at the office of Governor Nathan Deal. In the aftermath of the 2014 shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, Fort criticized police militarization in Georgia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_Fort

he did criticize Hillary tho which may be a dealbreaker for book fans

btw just wanted to say I WAS RIGHT:

(...) The only development that would actually seriously shock me is if, in 2018

ah, but it's not 2018 yet

this is good

We must replace the money bail system with a risk assessment system. We need to reform our broken bail system.

— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) October 1, 2017

nevermind, I was wrong and it just sounded good lol

https://theamericanscholar.org/weapons-of-math-destruction/#.WdI489VSyUl

That is an excellent book btw.

I had a hunch the former prosecutor wasn’t making that statement on behalf of the accused

I hate to "politicize a tragedy" but the thought crossed my mind that it would be pretty sweet justice if a million or so Puerto Ricans resettle in states like Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania and register to vote there.

Holy shit, I was saying the same thing yesterday to my neighbor (whose PR neighbor on the other side was greeting her just-arrived parents fleeing Puerto Rico).

Good news! The Sanders-backed mayoral candidate in Birmingham won the race.

Nice!

And a socialist won in Jackson, Mississippi.