Democratic (Party) Direction

maybe they're biased toward the party in power?

Josh Marshall's 2009 blog entry about DC being "wired for Republicans" remains true a decade later.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/07/wisconsin-used-to-be-progressive-dan-kaufman-on-what-happened.html

I thought that part was interesting and otm

What do you think progressives need to do to be more successful? Is it just, in your mind, a more economically progressive message?
One thing, I think, is a long-term plan. I talk about in the book, and Jane Mayer talks about this incredibly well in Dark Money: This is a 40-year, 50-year war of attrition going back to Paul Weyrich and Lewis Powell, a galvanizing, building up of this conservative infrastructure. Conservatives are willing to accept short-term losses or piecemeal gains, but they have a very clear long-term vision. There is not equivalent infrastructure on the progressive left side at all. I don’t think there’s anything close to it. That is one thing where they are different. I honestly think sometimes Republicans are willing to lose on principle for a longer-term gain, whereas somebody like Bill Clinton was willing to triangulate and appropriate certain Republican messages that then undermined the party long-term.

― Van Horn Street, Friday, July 20, 2018 10:23 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah, this is really important. But it's also important to understand the structural differences that bring this about. They're not just more disciplined, they have a lot more money. And the big money Democrats are able to counter with (Hedge Funds, Hollywood etc.) also tends to come with major drawbacks that pull the party more in the Clinton triangulation direction that ultimately serves the long-term goals of the right. Which is why you need class politics and working class organization, because the only advantage the left can ever have over money is numbers and enthusiasm.

It’s almost like “money” is inherently conservative and “justice” and “equality” are inherently liberal

lol

solid theory as to why Lieberman botheres to weigh in on AOC:

So, a big theme in @Ocasio2018’s campaign has been her criticism of the financial industry for trying to fleece Puerto Rico. @JoeLieberman is now publicly deriding her. Left unsaid: Lieberman has represented financial firms in their Puerto Rico litigation. https://t.co/KuwIS9UAQ5 pic.twitter.com/jHH5FxPAFd

— David Sirota (@davidsirota) July 20, 2018

Al Gore sure could pick 'em

whoa, didn't even realize he was at Kasowitz

Depressing: https://edition.cnn.com/2018/07/21/politics/nixon-black-voter-problem/index.html

Depressing that Nixon hasn't connected with black voters?

Well, yeah, and the disappointing poll numbers. Basically everything about that story?

This might be good.

NEW PODCAST: The labor movement has for years been backing Democrats who then refuse to explicitly support unions once they get elected -- a top labor leader tells me unions are now taking steps to halt the bait & switch & force Dems to deliver https://t.co/a1gw031q6e #copolitics pic.twitter.com/3kgTf28AuI

— David Sirota (@davidsirota) July 11, 2018

i was reading yesterday about the democratic revolution of 1954 in hawaii. i think there's a lot to learn from it. i don't think "getting rid of" pelosi is any better an idea than getting rid of john h. wilson would have been.

lol

Democrats, please, please don’t lose your minds and rush to the socialist left. This president and his Republican Party are counting on you to do exactly that. America’s great middle wants sensible, balanced, ethical leadership.

— James Comey (@Comey) July 22, 2018

Narrator: America's great middle kept voting for racists anyway

the fact that this big goofy bitch is a hero of "the resistance" tells me all i need to know about "sensible, balanced" democrats

imagine listening to and taking seriously the cop who kneecapped your candidate over some ginned up email controversy

it is still incredible to me that anyone respects him in any way

Y’all murdered Fred Hampton. You’ve got some nerve to call your victims extremists. https://t.co/QIO3LYKrN3

— MK (@some_qualia) July 22, 2018

This week in Kamala Harris is running for president, tax credits for rent-burdened households:

https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/07/19/federal-tax-credits-for-renters-sen-kamala-harris-proposes-breaks-for-the-rent-burdened/

I dont know anyone on the left who thinks comey is anything but a foolish asshole

This week in Kamala Harris is running for president, tax credits for rent-burdened households:

https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/07/19/federal-tax-credits-for-renters-sen-kamala-harris-proposes-breaks-for-the-rent-burdened/

― devops mom (silby), Sunday, July 22, 2018 8:22 PM (eight minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Sorry Kamala, the era of means testing is over

America's great middle = the butthole

also tax credits are not the ideal way to provide assistance for a monthly expense. Any family that truly struggles to pay its rent is not going to be in a position to wait until tax refund time.

Yeah, I guess it's nice that a major non-Bernie candidate is even addressing the rent being too damn high but this is a classic neoliberal technocrat solution

Comey doesn't want us "russian" to the left, get it?

also tax credits are not the ideal way to provide assistance for a monthly expense. Any family that truly struggles to pay its rent is not going to be in a position to wait until tax refund time.

There's a difference between spending more than 30 percent of your income on rent and being on the edge of eviction. The idea of "rent burdened" doesn't necessarily mean you're on the verge of homelessness, it means you're cutting or delaying other things -- dental visits, fixing a broken-down car, etc. So a tax credit would benefit a lot of rent-burdened people. And it would somewhat even the scales with the mortgage interest deduction. It's not a terrible idea on the surface. Housing economics is really complicated, it's hard to address through regulation without having all kinds of unintended effects.

The affordable housing issue gets a lot of things backward, imo. It's focusing too much attention on one side of the equation -- housing costs -- and not enough on the other side, which is wages. The cities with the worst affordable housing statistics in the country aren't New York and San Francisco, they're places like Flint and Detroit. If you can't get a job, or can't get paid a decent wage, no housing is affordable.

I agree it’s not a terrible idea, and at least it’s an attempt to address rent affordability at federal level.

is a tax "credit" in the US effectively the same thing as a deduction? i.e. it doesn't help if you don't have an income, and it helps you less than people who earn more if your income is smaller than the deduction.

A tax credit reduces your tax bill, a deduction reduces your taxable income.

ah, thank u. so they don't help if your tax bill/taxable income is zero.

Unless we introduce the negative income tax at the same time, yeah. Some people with no tax bill are already getting Section 8 housing assistance where rent is fixed to 30% of an adjusted gross income.

Not that section 8 is an ideal program by any means but there are many who are rent-burdened with household incomes way above what would qualify them for direct federal housing assistance.

Isn't there a category of tax credit that you can get even if your bill is 0? Is that what a refundable tax credit is?

Idk I just end up taking the standard deduction every year and owing the IRS like precisely $1

Comey is a jackass but I don't think he is wrong when he claims a fractured left is good news for the Republicans.

His tweet isn't about party unity afaict. I read it as saying that a more left-wing Democratic Party is good news for Republicans, even if it is united (because Democrats are "rushing to the socialist left").

Yeah you are right, really did misread and projected my present personal beef with the democratic party.

Could it just be that some counties will poll great with a more radical leftism and other places will poll great with someone like Tim Kaine? I still don't understand how we got into the idiotic Sanders/Clinton dichotomy, reading ilx, twitter, the news, I feel like very few democrats want a proper coalition.

comey is a lifelong republican who sabotaged the campaign of a democrat very, very far from the socialist left. his take on what dems should do is fundamentally concern trolling and not worth our time.

Comey is appalled by the modern Know-Nothing Republican Party under Trump and yearns for the Democrats to replicate the kinder gentler Republican Party of Nixon, Reagan, and George W. Bush, so he will feel at home voting for Democrats. Fuck him.

Nice bit:

https://www.gq.com/story/what-are-the-tea-cup-democrats-afraid-of/

Jesus Christ on pudding pop how many hours did you fucking dipshits spend arguing about an obvious troll and bikeshedding about the right way to make poor people less poor? And half the posts are by a Dane, a Canadian and a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid-80s. Mods, please lock this thread.

Well I don’t think anyone was furiously F5ing for an entire Sunday evening

Simon maybe.

A good article from Ed Burmila: http://www.ginandtacos.com/2018/07/22/own-goal/

Could it just be that some counties will poll great with a more radical leftism and other places will poll great with someone like Tim Kaine? I still don't understand how we got into the idiotic Sanders/Clinton dichotomy, reading ilx, twitter, the news, I feel like very few democrats want a proper coalition.

― Van Horn Street

a "coalition" is all well and good, but it seems like what centrists mean by a "coalition" is a party where the left votes for them and the centrists compromise with the republicans instead of compromising with the left. i don't see that working out too well.

Yeah, is even the DSA advocating to primary incumbents in every county and run socialist candidates across the board at this point? I feel like the 'coalition' VHS describes is exactly what the 'far left' is looking for.

thank yew

Sure, the centrists are mostly to blame because proportionaly they have been holding much of the power, but when I read the article Andrew posted a few posts back, I can’t help to think that the disgust exist on both side.

And no I don’t think this is accurate even in the slightest ‘and lo and behold all of the policy they push is virtually indistinguishable from anything the Republican Party has wanted since the 1970s’.

It's the Aaron Sorkin / West Wing deleted scenes version of political reality

i'm so tired of this as the no. 1 analogy