Democratic (Party) Direction

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

This seems bad to me.

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

xpost Pfft, I would never vote a criminal into office, except for president.

Here’s another take on that bill weakening Dodd-Frank that 12 Dems are misleadingly selling as moderate

https://theintercept.com/2018/03/02/crapo-instead-of-taking-on-gun-control-democrats-are-teaming-with-republicans-for-a-stealth-attack-on-wall-street-reform/

Misleading Intercept headline but article by David Dayen is worth reading

The idea that using bipartisanship to ram through banking deregulation is going to be popular is such a dumb-ass Dem idea.

That's the rationale/justification; I don't buy that it's the reason.

yep, the reason is sweet sweet donor cash.

Even a centrist goon like Yglesias can smell the bullshit

...though it’s very hard for Democrats to influence this sort of thing while the GOP holds a monopoly on power in Washington, the bank bill would be a golden opportunity to exert some influence. But they haven’t done it. The dozen moderates voting for the legislation aren’t striking a deal with the GOP to get something done. They’re giving away the store.

And while it’s nice that the party leadership is formally opposed to the legislation, it’s clear enough that you wouldn’t see defections on this scale — including critical ones from senators representing blue states — if leaders really wanted to block it. It’s an abdication of responsibility, and it’s appalling.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/3/6/17086452/democrats-dodd-frank

Coons is following in the fine foosteps of Joe Biden, I see.

https://www.texastribune.org/2018/02/21/senate-minority-leader-chuck-schumer-endorses-upstart-candidate-housto/

and then...

In TX-29 Dem primary, Sylvia Garcia running away with early vote, leading 63.43% to 21.79% for Tahir Javed. #txlege

— Michael Li (@mcpli) March 7, 2018

the only interesting race that i voted in is my state senate race between a progressive and a centrist (the dude literally had purple signs lol). the progressive candidate is holding on to a 52-48% lead.

both parties are going to a runoff in my US rep district (formerly lamar smith who, btw, shd eat shit and die). the berniecrat i voted for is in close 3rd, unlikely to catch up.

looking like the D runoff in TX-21 will be between a guy who bragged about voting for reagan and a progressive mathematician/minister who is also a lesbian. i think i might volunteer in this one.

Richard Wolf lost his primary. :(

Jason Westin finished a close third in TX-07 and is out, too bad, I liked that guy

https://www.vox.com/2018/3/7/17090012/texas-primary-women-latinas-winners

Is Emily's List the organization with the best outcome?

Moser was notably *not* backed by Emily's List

https://theintercept.com/2018/02/22/emilys-list-laura-moser-texas-congress/

The Senate wasn't the only body in Congress to vote to weaken Dodd-Frank yesterday. House Republicans passed another bill -- with these 38 Democrats joining them. https://t.co/rt3tzou4fS pic.twitter.com/rNrXyVzqgt

— Jonathan Cohn (@JonathanCohn) March 7, 2018

Moser was notably *not* backed by Emily's List

https://theintercept.com/2018/02/22/emilys-list-laura-moser-texas-congress/

― Simon H., 7. marts 2018 15:50 (six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

And Moser ended up behind the EL-endorsed candidate.

Yes.