Democratic (Party) Direction

(not meant as a criticism, really)

In the video, Ojeda also gave out the number to his cellphone. A few weeks ago, I called it.

After I introduced myself, Ojeda uncorked a nearly unbroken, 13-minute tirade in which he called lobbyists “the absolute scum of the earth,” said they should have to wear body cameras in the Capitol, said they shouldn’t even be allowed “in the damn Capitol,” and told me one of the first things he did as a state legislator was give energy industry lobbyists a tongue-lashing. “I threw Big Energy out of my office!” he said. “They said, ‘Well, is there anything we can do to change your mind?’ I said, ‘You can get yo’ ass out of my office.’” He continued by scorching lawmakers for making decisions based on corporate campaign contributions instead of the interests of their constituents.

“Bootlickers!” he screamed into the phone.

“Bootlickers!”

I asked when I could come visit him.

he seems insane in a great way

“I fight like a daggone wild man for labor unions.” And anybody who doesn’t? “I will make their life a living hell.”

tbh though I am a little concerned that the pro union rhetoric is just timely pandering. Dems have a history of talking big on this stuff and then not following up.

He was talking up a teacher strike well before the strike, though.

yeah i don't think it's pandering with ojeda, but fair point institutionally.

yeah I just like to fret

Interesting line slipped into that Politico piece:

‘In hard red, Donald Trump-loving West Virginia’

They referring to the state? The county? The local area? Less than half the state voted for him, but you always always always have to push that idea to reinforce popular belief that everybody subscribes to one belief and one belief only

They're referring to the state of West Virginia, whose electorate voted for Trump by more than 2 to 1, giving him more a higher percentage of the vote than any other state and more votes than any candidate in the same state since LBJ.

more

Lamb outraises Saccone by nearly five-to-one margin in Pennsylvania special election

Democrat Conor Lamb outraised his GOP opponent in this month’s special congressional election in Western Pennsylvania by a nearly five-to-one margin over the first seven weeks of the year, according to new campaign finance filings Thursday night.

Republican state Rep. Rick Saccone’s poor fundraising — he raised just $703,000 from January 1 through February 21, compared to Lamb’s $3.3 million haul — has forced Republican outside groups to spend valuable dollars to drag Saccone across the finish line in a district President Donald Trump carried by nearly 20 percentage points.

Saccone spent $600,000 in the fundraising period and had only $303,000 in cash on hand as of February 21.

Saccone’s fundraising and spending paled in comparison to Lamb’s. Over the first seven weeks of 2018, Lamb’s campaign raised more than $3.3 million and spent over $2.9 million. The Democrat’s campaign had $837,000 in the bank as of February 21.

That’s not a good sign for the gop, but there is no shortage of gop money in that race, donations to the candidate notwithstanding

I knew I liked this guy.

“People should be rewarded for their work.”

Thats an argument for redistribution, not against.

Billionaires get richer off their money without lifting a finger.

Workers, meanwhile, are producing more and keeping less.

The 1% scooped 82% of new wealth generated in 2017.

— Kaniela Ing (@KanielaIng) March 3, 2018

More on the war over banking regulations mentioned elsewhere

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/03/05/democrats-warren-bank-regulations-383779

Yes, this is the bipartisan unity for which we've all been clamoring. Loosening bank regulations.

Democrats who support the legislation are proud they were able to convince colleagues to get over the stigma around reopening Dodd-Frank, a signature achievement of Obama's.

They won’t be shy about attending a signing ceremony with Trump, whom their constituents helped send to the White House.

"I would not understate the influence of Elizabeth Warren, but in this particular case, on this particular bill, what's prevailing is the pretty strong belief of this group of moderate Democrats and also their political survival," Capital Alpha Partners Director Ian Katz said. "If you're running for reelection in states like Indiana, North Dakota and Montana, which Trump won very decisively, agreeing with Elizabeth Warren isn't necessarily helpful."

this wall sure has a lot of blood and hair on it

capital alpha partners

surprised the reporter didn't add "the well-named Mike Crapo."

Damn am I sick of seeing my senator, Amy Klobuchar, voting alongside Heitkamp, Nelson, and the rest of the DINOs. She didn't run as a center-right tool, and I have no idea what she thinks she's accomplishing--urban voters obviously aren't on board with this bullshit, and out-state barely-Democrats vote solely on identity politics, not platform, anyway (i.e. as long as the Dem is an old white guy they can grit their teeth and put aside their reactionary side just long enough to pull the lever him).

"for him"

Can we change the common usage of "moderate Democrats" to "sacks of shit who will hasten all our deaths"?

news stories should just do "(D-WV; soon to be primaried)"

yes please let's shoo people out of the coalition and then the sweet, sweet winning will happen

Just saying, those guys in ND, WV, OK, etc might have to do their own electoral calculus, and that's fine, but MN (though purple) is decidedly NOT like those places. Klobuchar ran with a reasonably progressive platform, and these votes don't reflect at all the representation that we were promised. It's a bait and switch.

eh, okay, so after reviewing the Wayback copy of her 2008 website, maybe "reasonably progressive" is pushing it, but I'd be surprised if anybody expected her to be quite as Manchin-y as she's turned out to be.

ah the coalition has achieved so fucking much, starting with Clinton abolishing AFDC

MN is a state where people win major office like Senator or governor by slim margin votes. Like, in the hundreds. It is not a sure thing for Democrats there.

The rationale I can't wrap my head around is the notion that bank regulation would be a dealbreaker for Montana/Indiana/North Dakota voters. is there any evidence to actually support that

Josh, she won in 2006 by 20 percentage points, and in 2012 by 35 percentage points.

She got almost a million more votes than her Republican opponent in 2012.

Franken also won by 11 percentage points (hundreds of thousands of votes) in 2014

she probably wishes she could be vice president someday

in a Jeb Bush administration

a coalition between labor and the boss is not a coalition whose death I'd mourn. these layabout bankers should get off their asses and elect their own politicians (we usually call them republicans) and it's not on everybody else to keep giving them a handout by voting for all their wildest dreams.

xpost I guess I was thinking of the first Franken run (something like 300 votes?) and the current GOP gov (something like 1000 votes). Unless I am misremembering?

Current governor is DFL.

Dayton (DFL) barely won in 2010 but it was more comfortable in 2014 (~6pp, 100k+ votes)

Clinton barely won the state's EV in 2016, but... that's fucking Clinton everywhere.

emails

how many among the "trump or bust" crowd will turn out to vote in the midterms, when he's not running for anything?

i'm sure a few 'we need more republicans!' tweets come october 29 will do the trick

Clinton squeaked it in MN, yes, but voter turnout of 74 per cent was unusually low for the state (it usually runs above 80 per cent). We all know the left wins if voter turnouts are high.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/05/opinion/democrats-memes-social-media.html

I have heard many Democrats comment that they will not stoop to Mr. Trump’s level by trying to use memes for political gain.

: o

Two Views of Conor Lamb

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/is-there-a-problem
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/03/how-a-democrat-could-win-in-trump-country/554543/

Democrats, however, have been slow to see the potential of memes as a political weapon. Many seem to regard the form as amateurish, vulgar or low-brow.

Motherfucker, get you an agit-prop department

lmao I'm liking the meme candidate more and more every day

Paul Ryan’s opponent, @ironstache, just got arrested protesting in front of Ryan’s office demanding they pass a fair DREAM Act pic.twitter.com/FpLWgC465q

— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) March 6, 2018

dope

attastache