Democratic (Party) Direction

https://cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/150722124111-seventies-sexist-baby-soft-ad-exlarge-169.jpg

I take no issue with the idea that representatives are going to have to reflect their districts to win. I just think there's a lot of conflation of an imagined "center" with the agenda that would actually represent certain purple districts, just this sort of fuzzy thinking that "most people" are "in the middle," with the "middle" being basically an upper middle class moderate/technocratic agenda.

Like Staten Island is a place where you might not win on "Abolish ICE," but you could probably turn a lot of people out on an extremely pro-labor platform.

i'd like to use the sock o' manure on Bruni

how did a gay man like Bruni get by in life by appealing to moderation?

from Chapo thread:

In other news, that window keeps a movin'

https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/albany/story/2018/07/10/cynthia-nixon-im-a-democratic-socialist-503279

― Simon H., Tuesday, July 10, 2018 10:29 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I eyerolled at this yesterday and Jacobin did an extremely embarassing Lenin tweet about it; you've got your DSA sponsored candidate forum in 8 hours and you're seeking an endorsement and you take that opportunity to tell a reporter you're a democratic socialist for the very first time? Come on.

AND YET as brother Duhalde wisely says here:

I remember when the Hillary Clinton's campaign tweeted a "socialist feminist" case for her.
I was shocked that she, of all people, might be okay with the need to appeal to "socialist voters" or whatever was the rationale behind it. Some people, instead, chose to use it as an opportunity to further remind people she was not a socialist.

Neither of us were asking the important question: what pushed her staff to do it in the first place?

As materialists, we need to remember the important question not if a politician genuinely adopts our beliefs (ultimately, only they know the sincerity) but what social forces push them to and why.
The fact that a major candidate for one of the largest state's governorship wants to identify with the democratic socialist project in itself is victory for @DemSocialists regardless of the outcome.

. . .and then on top of that I was just reminded that Nixon's new-ish policy director is actually a socialist organizer that I've known for a couple of years, and he and I have always aligned really quite well on the strategic uses of elected officials for social movements, and he posted this today:

It’s been quite fun getting to discuss democratic socialism on our campaign these past few weeks. Housing, health care, education, a livable planet, and justice for all. Cynthia is in it to win it.

. . .and I find myself feeling quite a bit less cynical about it.

I mean there's no question that at least optically it reeks of opportunism (if only due to the timing), but if it means that she's going to have policy planks that meet the DSA threshold for endorsement, great. That said, there's going to be a whole other set of trials to endure if and (inevitably) when leaders fail to match their platforms when they're in office.

But I don't think it's necessarily true that it's a success regardless of the outcome.

Idk dude I consider the opportunistic co-option by cynics of policies I support a kind of success.

It’s an iterative process of getting those with power to do the things you want, if you aren’t going to get the reins of power yourself you have to make it inevitable for those who have it to move in your direction, I sort of feel like

My concern would be that if people in power get in on a platform you signed off on, then renege on it, that's when the real tests of how effective your mobilizations can be in response, and if it goes badly I think it can be even more demoralizing than a simple defeat

Idk maybe I'm being unduly pessimistic

if people in power get in on a platform you signed off on, then renege on it, that's when the real tests of how effective your mobilizations can be in response

i for sure think that this is right, and that this is part of what makes it imperative to be building a mass social movement with meaningful non-cooperation leverage right alongside the victories (which i count them as!) of getting politicians publicly on board with the agenda. this is a big part of why i put so much of my thought & energy into the mechanics/techniques of good organizing--i think without a real movement that's at least capable of putting the fear of defeat into our allies when necessary, optical victories can go the way of mirages.

DSA people say Nixon was courting them before the AOC win. I think everyone should be viewed skeptically, but I also think an injection of socialism isn't going to make politics not be politics anymore. I mean that's the point of organizing to begin with -- you create something that can't be ignored, that has to be catered to and have at least some of its demands met. Politics will never flow from pure goodness. AOC talks all the time about how much her campaign was about building trust with organizations and then being accountable to them. She willingly places herself in that position and I think that's the ideal, but many politicians will do it only of necessity, because it takes a special kind of person to be an AOC.

Be loyal to the party! Well, except...

A @DemSocialists-backed candidate beat a self-funder in Montgomery County, so a centrist Dem is running as an independent, potentially spoiling the race for her party. https://t.co/EwTB6tNfi8

— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) July 11, 2018

initiate censure motions on mitch mcmachievelli for disrespecting the constitution. impeach all trump judicial appointees. hanks / strzok 2020. let the healing begin

now looks like Crowley is doing the same, running Ind vs. AOC

that's some fucking bullshit

opinions differ in the politics thread xp

he's not

Alexandria, the race is over and Democrats need to come together. I’ve made my support for you clear and the fact that I’m not running. We’ve scheduled phone calls and your team has not followed through. I’d like to connect but I’m not willing to air grievances on Twitter. https://t.co/hxEeWEpI2O

— Joe Crowley (@JoeCrowleyNY) July 12, 2018

ah. maybe a good thing to agree upon is that a candidate needs not air every grievance over the twitter machine

his claim

Lots questions about WFP line. Was honored to have their support. I’m not running. For record you can only be removed from the ballot if 1) you move out of NY; 2) die; 3) be convicted of a crime; 4) accept a nomination for another office (in a place I don’t live).

— Joe Crowley (@JoeCrowleyNY) July 12, 2018

think we should just let this one go

yeah that seems like something you'd wanna straighten out prior to going full blast on twitter

one needs to make allowances for rookie errors, if that's what this is

(or at least, expect them)

I assume she's pissed about the missed calls more than anything?

not sure why she (or anyone else) would take that at face value - according to the WFP people they reached out to find a way to remove Crowley from that ballot line and he refused

lofgren / streep 2020

from Gothamist:

UPDATE: The Working Families Party is now calling on Crowley to register to vote in Virginia in order to take himself off the ballot line, but a spokesperson for Crowley says the congressman finds that suggestion "unacceptable," NBC News reports.

"It is disappointing that Crowley has refused to vacate the Working Families Party ballot line," Bill Lipton, state director of the Working Families Party, said in a statement. "The only remaining way for Crowley to do the right thing is to switch his residency to Virginia, where his family resides and his children already go to school. It would fix the problem he created in an instant."

http://gothamist.com/2018/07/12/joe_crowley_ocasio_cortez.php

cummings / colbert 2020: you have texts; we have guilty pleas

donald j. trump is a russian asset

donald j. trump is a russian asset

This movement was basically started by Sean McElwee on Twitter in the early part of the year. I and others chipped in where we could, highlighting American ethnic cleansing on Twitter and in our writing. And by July, we have 43% of Democrats supporting the abolition of an evil agency of American ethnic cleansing. That’s amazing! Despite the 24-hour news cycle, social movements aren’t built overnight. Tiger Beat on the Potomac has no way to compute this because social movements don’t fit its model. So it seems unpopular. But it’s not. It is just being introduced to voters and a full plurality of Democrats want to eliminate this evil agency. Really, we should be very proud of this and continue to move forward demanding its complete abolition and a totally different immigration system as part of the 2020 Democratic platform. Anyone who wants to win the Democratic nomination needs to embrace this. Kirsten Gillibrand, being better at her job than her competitors, understands this and has gotten ahead of them all.

The lying tweet about Crowley running wasn't a 'mistake', it was to raise funds:

So much for “Born to Run.”

If you want to see me in Congress, we need your help now more than ever. We cannot underestimate the power of dark money.

Support us now: https://t.co/piU7pXr9CU

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) July 12, 2018

I don't really get why she needs to do that, isn't it an extremely blue seat?

evil lie is part of a former waitresses's dastardly plan to publicly raise money for her grassroots political campaign

fred, you're a weirdo

handwringing about that is imo like being mad that your plumber is not descending into large green pipes with sound effects to defeat king koopa

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Tuesday, July 10, 2018 3:44 PM (three days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

but how else will we defeat king koopa?????

Fred go volunteer for some re-education camps

The lying tweet about Crowley running wasn't a 'mistake', it was to raise funds:

Is the Working Families Party also lying?

dnftDane

With the exception of #6, I found this list of the features that characterize the crop of new Democratic candidates profoundly depressing. Just more of the same. How anyone could see in this crew anything other than (bad) branding escapes me. https://t.co/woCrQfxvTl

— corey robin (@CoreyRobin) July 13, 2018

if you actually read the list it's not actually terrible or "more of the same" at all

Nor is it branding. It’s just like…facts about some people?

Also it is kind of impossible for millennials to represent “more of the same”, the oldest Millennials have only been eligible to run for the house for maybe eight years.

Didn't realize Corey Robin was such a big Pelosi fan

making your choice of leader a primary "plank" is dubious; win first

"Why is being a millennial terrible?"

Unless it's tied to a new politics and set of ideas about economics and the state, it's just a branding exercise.

— corey robin (@CoreyRobin) July 13, 2018

but that article doesn't say it's a plank, it just quotes their response to a direct question xp

wow, people under 40, who lived through the George W. Bush era? just terrible. what a disaster for the DNC.

some of them won't even support Nancy Pelosi! no wonder Morbs is pissed.

this person's tweets make no sense, this blog post is not about campaign strategy or branding it's just "what do these people who happen to be running in GOP-held seats happen to be like"

younger Chuck Schumers, that's all ya need