Democratic (Party) Direction

beto: hey look at me I'm not old

i'm eyeing the contenders to see whose stances on the issues are as good as Bernie's

still looking

look over here!

Alfred's running

Stay hydrated!

brb gonna make a list of ten reasons why I should run

brb gonna make a list of ten reasons why I should run

8 to go

keep it in the primary [sic] thread

Progressives shut out key candidate recruitment committee to run Democratic elections. Centrists totally dominant in all key centers of party power. https://t.co/fNqjQEfpcB

— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) January 10, 2019

There is only one place for centrists and that is facebook neighborhood groups.

you misspelled "racists"

This isn't just Pelosi, she has a caucus full of centrists. Progressives got crushed in nearly every primary (except @aoc) in 2018. People may think 'the left' is ascendant, and perhaps it is, but not among Democratic primary voters.

— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) January 10, 2019

b-but her retweets

it's more complicated than that tho cause you also have to account for establishment centrists adopting progressive stances like m4a etc., as well as the gradual retirement of blue-dogs which makes this the most progressive dem congress in quite some time. progressives winning any primaries for seats previously occupied by centrists is significantly different from them losing all of those races. people in AOC-esque districts with complacent old leadership will be looking at her playbook for 2020, and some will win. stacey-abrams-esque candidates will win some statewide races. sanders-y DSA candidates will win some others. and so on.

Progressives got crushed in nearly every primary

Randy Bryce beat a more centrist candidate, Cathy Myers by 20 points, in one of the most high-profile 2018 primaries!

I mean, he said "nearly every."

I feel like we've had this debate more than once before -- if you're measuring the mood of the party by progressive primary victories rather than the adoption of more progressive policy positions driven by progressive primary challenges then you're measuring wrong.

otm

more weak ass centrism from Fred, what a surprise

honestly i'm more disappointed in stoller who was once an advisor to grayson, a fellow insufferable but at least a reliable left vote; stoller's remade himself into a socially lefty libertarian and it leaves a bad taste in my mouth

The Beto dental cleaning...please stop.

Rick Perlstein about AOC

I think psychologically there’s a lot of, shall we say, neurosis. Again, going back to this trauma of the Reagan victory, the Gingrich victory, the Bush victories—it’s people who built their political identities around a neurotic response to trauma. It’s, We gotta build a protective shell around ourselves because, if we show our egos, our egos will be destroyed, to put it in psychoanalytic terms.

To have this young person who hasn’t experienced this trauma . . and one of the things that’s fascinating about this—I’ll call it an often-used word—authenticity that she has is that you see her, in very interesting ways, going back to modes of rhetoric and modes of political communication that you associate with lots of pre-Reagan figures. Although I’ll also say figures like Reagan. It’s like Harry Truman.

AOC sparks joy.

that's v interesting, i'm unfamiliar with perlstein -- is he somebody to appreciate

yes

yeah I liked that interview

Chotiner comes off like a real asshole in that interview, displaying the exact pathologies Perlstein is talking about, and I'm glad he pushes back and calls him out on it ("You sound like one of these super-analytic Democrats—you’re immediately negotiating with yourself, you’re immediately apologizing.").

If you haven't read Perlstein's late twentieth century trilogy on the history of conservativism (Goldwater, Nixon, Reagan), I envy you -- I'd love to read them again afresh.

yeah HOOS, read Nixonland

honestly I couldn't tell if Hoos was being sarcastic or not

The next clip in Beto's Insta-story is him interviewing his Mexican-American dental hygienist -- Diana from El Paso -- about her experiences on the border & how her neighbors helped her mom pass her citizenship test.

Can we please chill w/ the cynicism?https://t.co/D1bvDrdp6J pic.twitter.com/bgXi4GB8rr

— Dan Lavoie (@djlavoie) January 10, 2019

One of the great mysteries to me is why Tammy Baldwin has such a low profile as a model for progressive electoral success in not-overwhelmingly-progressive states. Still feel like she's not well-known outside the Midwest.

xp Nixonland and The Invisible Bridge are both great. Perlstein's take on AOC's strengths is really interesting.

I was wondering about that. We're pretty divided among Republican and Democrat but Tammy just steamrolls everyone. People really like her here.

it's a little surreal, still again, to see my tiny hometown of mcallen blow up in the news

more weak ass centrism from Fred, what a surprise

― sleeve, 10. januar 2019 20:24 (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lmao. I literally posted from the same twitter-thread as Simon. You're a joke.

Perlstein is great but depressing as hell.

i've said this before but i found nixonland weirdly uplifting in a Nothing New Under The Sun sense

yeah I don't find it depressing. bracing, maybe.

this country has always been fucking insane

i found nixonland weirdly uplifting in a Nothing New Under The Sun sense

ha yep

Can you believe that our country was once very polarized? (Um yeah I live in Virginia.)

the Ojeda response vid to Beto is not bad, the guy still weirds me out but it should be fun to see him share a stage w/ the other candidates

But Ojeda ignored that the point about Beto’s video was interviewing the Mexican American dental hygienist, part of his series of talking to more people who live on the border. Just like you’re doing. Hmmm. That’s fucked up and bad dude.

The reactions to a still from the Beto vid and the “Gillibrabd called a couple bankers” CNBC story reaffirms that we’re going to going to gleefully embrace “Dean scream” shit in an amplified way. We. Are. Fucked.

Not saying this to be a dick bc it’s something I have to keep in mind too, but Twitter is a pretty poor proxy for America.

No I get that. That’s not being a dick. I think it’s interesting I hesistate to dismiss what it represent yet think its effect is likely overstated but no way to really gauge. I think it was Osita Nwanevu or somebody like that had a post recently about how when the regular non-extremely online Dem voters pay attention to the primary when it’s in full swing they are going to just really like all the new faces and the more progressive policies on display across the board. There might be truth to that.

New party, who dis? https://t.co/2cznisv8tB

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 11, 2019

mad she didn't get the Connecticut for Lieberman Party nomination obv

from Joe-mentum to Joe-demsplain

Agreed that reading the first 2/3 of the Perlstein trilogy during this particular historical shitstorm had a weirdly depressurizing effect (because, yes, the manifestation of the country's insanity hasn't varied significantly for at least the past half century) but I feel like I still need to properly brace myself before tackling Reagan.