Democratic (Party) Direction

The trick is to move further left on issues that are broadly popular and not emphasize the issues that only appeal to a tiny niche. You can deal with the niche issues once you are in office and no one in the broad public will notice or care, while those in the tiny niche will be made happy and remember the favor.

That is way too sensible

outside of finance, there is no profession where people who have never won anything get to scold others on how to win more than dem political "strategist"

— Adam H. Johnson (@adamjohnsonNYC) November 11, 2017

Related to that Molly Ball article I think we linked to upthread about the Third Way group going on safari, she was interviewed about this on Daniel Denvir’s show last week:

https://www.blubrry.com/thedig/28772955/the-hollow-center-with-molly-ball-and-eric-levitz/

Democratic Party's elevator pitch to millennials?

"Capitalism 2.0." - @MarkWarner
"We look like you." - @amyklobuchar#WSJCEOCouncil

— Josh Jamerson (@joshjame) November 14, 2017

lmao I came here to post that

"Means-testing on fleek."
"Endless drone warfare, but gender fluid."
"Airbnb for the prison-industrial complex."
"Swipe right-to-work."

— Andrew Moreturkey (@andrewmochulsky) November 14, 2017

The idea of a an "elevator pitch" containing anything of genuine political value is absurd to begin with. It's just "I like Ike" brought into the 21st century.

otoh, that goddamn "Contract with America" that Newt cooked up in 1996 probably did reach a lot of people who liked what it said and voted republican as a result. I sometimes wonder why that concept got booted to the curb in later elections. It had promise as a way to define the party political agenda and its identity, all in ten or so simple bullet points. Probably its because Newt bullied the entire House republican caucus to sign the thing and that feat has been impossible to replicate.

that joke sucks kingfish

The idea of a an "elevator pitch" containing anything of genuine political value is absurd to begin with. It's just "I like Ike" brought into the 21st century.

Oh I dunno, I think elevator pitches(or slogans in this case) containing inherent, inspirational values are useful.

“Change you can believe in” and “For the many, not the few” both work.

that joke sucks kingfish

Possibly, but I liked “Swipe right-to-work”

"Hope & Change" and "Make America Great Again" worked pretty well

If by working pretty well, you mean they created an emotional attraction on the art of some voters toward the candidate, I guess that could be seen as having 'political value'. But the sort of value I had in mind was more in terms of indicating the policies the candidate or party would pursue.

As far as setting policy direction, Hope & Change could just as easily apply to Trump starting a war with North Korea. It's a change. And we'd all be hoping like mad once it started. Making America Great Again could as easily promote returning to the income tax rates of 1960.

The manifesto thingy worked pretty well for Labour across the pond, but I guess over here nobody gives a shit about party platforms

How Education Reform Ate the Democratic Party

"So now, as America ponders the mounting economic disequlibriums that gave rise to the Trump insurgency, concerned plutocrats can all agree on one key article of faith: what is holding back the poor and minority children who figure so prominently in the glossy brochures of charter school advocates is not the legacy of racist housing policy or mass incarceration or a tax system that hoovers up an ever growing share of income into the pockets of the wealthy, but schoolteachers and their unions....

"The Clintons were early adopters; tough talk against Arkansas’ teachers, then among the poorest paid in the country, was a centerpiece of Bill’s second stint as Governor of Arkansas. As Hillary biographer Carl Bernstein recounts, the Arkansas State Teachers Association became the villain that cemented the couple’s hold on the Governor’s mansion—the center of their Dick Morris-inspired “permanent campaign.” The civil rights language in which the Democratic anti-union brigade cloaks itself today was then nowhere to be heard, however. And little wonder: Civil rights groups fiercely opposed the most controversial feature of the Clintons’ reform agenda—competency tests for teachers—on the grounds that Black teachers, many of whom had attended financially starved Black colleges, would disproportionately bear their brunt."

https://thebaffler.com/latest/ed-reform-ate-the-democrats-berkshire

thanks, Ted!

The manifesto thingy worked pretty well for Labour across the pond, but I guess over here nobody gives a shit about party platforms

Democrats in Congress aren't expected to live up to the party platform so potential Democratic voters don't give a shit about it.

Scaling back superdelegates... somewhere, gabbneb weeps.

https://theintercept.com/2017/12/09/dnc-unity-reform-commission-takes-a-whack-at-superdelegates/

i'll take it

having the remaining ones vote according to the results in their state

this does amount to effective abolition which i am p satisfied about tbh

ie no superdelegates for Andy Cuomo, who will draw about 8 voters in 5 primaries

This tweet tonight boils things down nicely

It is interesting going back to 2008 that the party out of power gets its 💩 together while the governing party foolishly thinks they’ve won the country for eternity.

— Andrew Snell (@jAndrewSnell) December 13, 2017

It's not so much either party getting its shit together as a lot of the people on the bottom who keep jumping around, looking for politicians who'll deliver them some tangible benefits, but they keep getting played.

They really *haven't* gotten their shit together, though. They got lucky. xp

Lucky counts

Of course it does, but don't bank on every opponent turning out to be a pedophile.

The party dragging its feet is only half the story, though. From a Tuscaloosa volunteer earlier today:

yeah the grassroots effort for jones has been... very grassroots. tuscaloosa is one of the biggest efforts in alabama and we only had one paid campaign operative running a group that ranged from a couple of people to over 100 from night to night. a lot of people have had to create their own volunteering opportunities and many people have been taking time off work to make this happen. no matter what happens tonight, we're looking at this as a huge occasion where we built infrastructure and established networks of communication for future elections. we weren't supposed to even be a blip on the radar, but it's election day and polls are effectively at a dead heat.

Informal movement/volunteer infrastructure that'll makes itself available for party efforts are worth their weight in gold

Who was running those efforts?

Seems like a mix of Indivisible chapters & other little orgs making do with what they could get

That rules, well played all involved.

They really *haven't* gotten their shit together, though. They got lucky. xp

this also applies to the last presidential election but thanks for the input

Of course it does, but don't bank on every opponent turning out to be a pedophile.

― Simon H., Tuesday, December 12, 2017 11:33 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the 2018 battlegrounds won't be as deep red as Alabama

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/12/grandparents-raiding-grandchildren/548117/

Our entitlement system was designed to fund current generations out of the taxes of younger and future generations (while pretending not to). This intergenerational compact not only made sense, but also worked, when working Americans were largely in far better financial shape than senior citizens, and population growth and economic progress went more or less hand-in-hand in steady progression. But not only is the elderly poverty rate no longer 50 percent but, rather, now 10 percent: The wealthiest, highest-income age cohort also is now those Boomers nearing retirement. The second wealthiest? Those already in retirement.

Who’s not doing well in the current economy? Younger Americans.

Reverse Social Security via 100% estate tax over $2mn.

Remove the income ceiling on Social Security, maybe?

er......... the elderly poverty rate is no longer 50 percent BECAUSE of social security.... right?

That’s not how Social Security works

the way it should work is every american gets it, birth to the earth, and generational dynasties are taxed to cover it

McElwee's piece here last week was good:

https://theoutline.com/post/2568/the-democratic-party-is-fine

The future of the party belongs to these candidates — ones who understand that justice is about paychecks and clean water and can mobilize youth without pandering. But the core questions at the heart of the party have been answered. No credible pundit would argue that the future of the party is bloodless centrism, and the primaries across the country reflect that. The Democrats have work to do, and have scars left over from the 2016 primary. But the party is increasingly united on the values of racial justice, immigration, gender equity, non-discrimination, universal health care and antitrust policy. It is the most united American party in modern political history.

are dems in agreement about immigration? what's the agreement?

100% estate tax over $2mn

The gov wouldn't see much of that money. Under current tax law most of those estates would instead be funneled into charitable foundations with extremely vague and broad remits and the heirs would sit on the board of directors, where they'd be seething over the loss of their inheritances. They'd get vengeance by funding socially regressive institutions touting the benefits of monarchy, and their kids would be hired by those same institutions at big salaries for doing nothing.

he's arguing not about leadership coalescing on policy but on the stated beliefs of the grassroots base which appear, despite the rancor & headlines about party division, to be moving in a uniform direction xp

from that lens its pretty clear from poll after poll that Dems support DACA & a means to extend it

Under current tax law

I'm going out on a limb to say that current tax law is irrelevant to the fantasy of a regime that can impose a 100% estate tax.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_AaTM-IKxM

hoos what do you make of these folks?

https://www.everydistrict.us/about/
https://medium.com/@EveryDistrict/the-road-to-160-7b0b062ce9cf

There's a great piece in Harper's last month ("Star Search: The Race to Rebuild the Democratic Party") that looks at Run for Something and Knock Every Door and the whole kinda ecosystem that's sprung up this year that I'd argue these folks fit neatly into. Let a thousand flowers bloom imo. In some states the state parties are coming to these orgs saying like "hey......we don't really have a bench of who to run. Do you have names?" I think that's very significant, and if the people being put up to run are well trained in effective campaigning (which many of these orgs seem prepared for), efforts like these could be a significant contributor to the wave I'm expecting this November.

I wonder about the overall viability of RFS's strategy of running a glut of hyper-locally-focused campaigns (a thousand Danica Roems demanding fixes to local highways) without demanding any particular strong commitments from candidates--but then I think Our Rev can go too far, demanding all their candidates sign onto a high-bar Bernie-leaning vision of the future of the party. So it's good we've got variety.

Max Sawicky:

https://thebaffler.com/latest/alabama-shaken-sawicky