Democratic (Party) Direction

qualmsley taking a stand against shithole countries

really don't think that's true for texas. Alabama though, maybe.

https://splinternews.com/so-you-want-to-overthrow-a-party-establishment-1826225125

While the base of the Democratic Party has moved to the left in their preferences, the left has nothing even remotely equivalent to the right’s network of powerful, ideological organizations to translate that shift into primary wins. The right has billionaires like the Koch Brothers, Sheldon Adelson, and Robert Mercer who will financially benefit from their ideological investments. They each plow tens of millions into conservative challengers and an ideological ecosystem that ensures the GOP complies with conservative orthodoxy. The left has no friendly billionaires that fund progressive challengers to the party establishment. Even the major donors most potentially sympathetic to progressive causes, like George Soros, would materially be quite hurt if the left were to take power, so they tend to focus on non-economic policy priorities, and generally support the Party establishment, not left-populist challengers or organizations.

The right also has a unifying ideology, while the left does not. The right can use white nationalism as the glue that binds imperialism, Christian conservatism, and corporate greed into a coherent ideology, but the left is made up of an extremely diverse range of peoples with very different interests. The left has yet to fuse together racial justice, economic justice, gender and sexual justice, and environment justice into a shared political project with a common political identity.

qualmsley is a brilliant satirical performance of a resistance liberal by a Trump republican

not clear on why imperialism/christianity/corporate greed make a more coherent ideology than racial/economic/gender/social justice tbqh, seems the opposite.

The left has no friendly billionaires

So job 1 needs to be creating more socialist billionaires.

not clear on why imperialism/christianity/corporate greed make a more coherent ideology than racial/economic/gender/social justice tbqh, seems the opposite

broadly, no scruples vs. lots and lots of frequently competing scruples, though "multi tendency" orgs like DSA are arguably gaining some ground in fixing this

So job 1 needs to be creating more socialist billionaires.

― kilohertz so good (Ye Mad Puffin), Wednesday, May 23, 2018 8:24 PM (three minutes ago)

i could totally imagine this article appearing in slate

The article suggests that unions can somehow fill the role of billionaires in funding the left

lovely to see the socialist billionaire fantasy advanced alongside complaints that republicans "vote against their own interests." consciousness of class struggle maybe not at an all-time low but there's a lot o work to do.

p sure YMP's suggestion was a joke.

With curmudgeons link mentioning Our Revolution, it's worth it to post this: https://www.politico.com/story/2018/05/21/bernie-sanders-democrats-2018-599331

Bernie as campaigner for local left candidates >>>>> Bernie 2020

>>>>>>>>> Our Revolution as campaigner for local left candidates, it seems

I need to give that OR piece a closer read later, but it seemed like a hit job to me. Blaming OR for races they don't get involved in is quite silly. They're a new organization focusing on lower level races and building a bench of left candidates, not sure the significance of their lack of involvement in the Alabama senate race. That said, I like DSA's model better than OR's model.

Here's what OR sent me today:

Stacey Abrams won the gubernatorial primary in Georgia and is on track to be the first black female Governor in US history.
Sheikh Rahman defeated a 14-year incumbent to become the first immigrant elected to the Georgia State Senate.
Lisa Ring, chairwoman of the Bryan County Democratic Committee and Co-Chair of the Georgia Sanders Delegation to the DNC, is taking on an incumbent Member of Congress.
Shelly Hutchinson is a mental health worker who won her primary for State Representative in Georgia and is poised to turn a red district Bernie Blue.
Paul Walker is running an uphill race openly supporting the DREAM Act against a very anti-immigrant incumbent Republican Member of Congress in Kentucky.
Adrian Wallace, a progressive minister who ran on pro-voting rights, pro-higher education access, and pro-sustainable environment campaign, is headed to a runoff in the Lexington-Fayette County Council At-Large seat in Kentucky.
Maureen Skinner, a first-time candidate and child-rights advocate, won her primary for State Senate in Arkansas.

oh yeah, def took YMP's suggestion as a joke, just extending the analysis of the dumb takes out there

"You have two roughly equal sides in terms of numbers who have completely different views on how to run the government of the country they share. There's no discussion to be had. We live in the real world and will not allow propaganda and paranoia to run our lives and they live in a fabricated delusion of fear, paranoia, and hatred within which our ideals aren't just bad ideas in their view; the whole concept of operating a government that helps and protects all of society is patently offensive to them. At this point it's just a matter of waiting out the clock until we get to to a point where the animosity and resentment peak, and everyone realizes that control of this country and steering it to one side or the other is purely a numbers game."

Sarbanes’ three-pillar platform sounds terrific

https://www.vox.com/2018/5/21/17376128/democrats-better-deal-democracy-midterm-2018

politico report seems like more than a hit-piece if things like this are the result
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/05/24/our-revolution-bernie-sanders-staff-changes-607330

All the stuff about Tezlyn Figaro was horrible.

The left has yet to fuse together racial justice, economic justice, gender and sexual justice, and environment justice into a shared political project with a common political identity.

Uh. I detect a strong common identity among all the principles denoted in that sentence. Funny the author didn't notice.

justice... or Just ICE?

it's confusing

The LGM post where I found the Sarbanes “three pillars” stuff had a good comment about that, Aimless:

For some reason NEED A MESSAGE is the in-group signal of The Savvy. The Savvy hear this shit from one another and repeat it to one another to affirm one another’s savvitudinousness. It’s grotesque.

hillary clinton was going to win the 2016 american presidential election -- everyone smart and talented was saying so -- and there's no way the democrats can lose the 2018 midterm congressional elections

Dems needs such a big popular vote win that it's never certain they will win either chamber.

There's a good and (so far) not too snarky Chapo interview with David Faris on hardball strategies Dems should adopt to tip the long-term scales in their favor (incl making new federal judgeships, granting DC and Puerto Rico statehood, and a new Voting Rights Act). Skip the first 9 mins or so if you want to avoid inside-baseball stuff.

https://soundcloud.com/chapo-trap-house/episode-214-6-weird-election-tricks-that-actually-work-feat-david-faris-52718

and uh obviously stop before they get to the book excerpt at the end lol

Warren teams up with Rubio to clamp down furter on sex workers. Greeeeat.

“Human trafficking generates $150 billion a year in illegal profits,” a representative for Warren told HuffPost. “Our bill would connect federal regulators, law enforcement, and the banking industry to help strengthen existing anti-money-laundering efforts that combat traffickers — Congress should pass it.”

But given the frequency with which sex trafficking and voluntary, consensual sex work are conflated, sex workers including webcam performers, adult film actors and business owners, strippers and escorts fear these efforts will hit them too.

“What a lot of organizers are worried about is how these broad anti-trafficking initiatives are often applied in a targeted manner that hurts more vulnerable people rather than helps them,” Liara Roux, a sex worker and producer of independent adult media, told HuffPost. “If this bill is passed in a climate where sex work is so stigmatized that no distinction is made between a trafficked individual and someone who is just trying to survive, you’re just as likely to see vulnerable people’s bank accounts closed as actual traffickers caught.”

https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/human-trafficking-banking-bill-sex-workers_us_5b045577e4b0740c25e5efd1

Schumer think the issue to highlight above all is... gas prices.

To understand why Minority Leader Schumer—who failed to get a deal for DACA recipients; who gave multiple Democrats his tacit blessing to endorse Trump’s efforts to install a torturer as the head of the CIA and deregulate the banks; who announced his public support for Trump’s decision to move the American embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, making any peaceful and democratic resolution to the occupation even more remote and unlikely—took The Resistance to the (gas) pumps, you have to understand that everything he does as a politician is aimed at appealing to a well-off white suburban Boomer couple that only exists in his imagination....

If the Democratic Party ever manages to win back the U.S. Senate, it’ll be in spite of Chuck Schumer’s political instincts.

https://splinternews.com/chuck-schumer-is-not-cutting-it-1826336406

tbf, gas prices are one of those things that 80% of Americans are sensitive to and have definite opinions about, even when they are abysmally ignorant about foreign policy, tax policy, industrial policy, agricultural policy, energy policy, or the gutting of the EPA. They 'understand' gas prices because they see them going up or down, and know which way they prefer them to go. All that other stuff just confuses them.

I prefer them to go up tbh

lol yup. gasoline and ammo should both be prohibitively expensive

boy the Bernie Bros sure are endorsing a lot of WOCs these days

DSA is proud to announce national endorsements for 4 incredible candidates: @Ocasio2018 @SalazarSenate18 @JovankaBeckles @JonesWright4DA pic.twitter.com/347BFLMLxY

— DSA 🌹 (@DemSocialists) June 3, 2018

meanwhile

Earlier in May, Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams made history, becoming the first black woman ever to win a major party's nomination for governor of an American state. Abrams' Democratic primary win was a milestone for black women in politics but, weeks later, a new report from Axios reveals a feeling of discontent among her peers who are similarly seeking election in 2018. Black women running for office don't feel supported by the Democratic Party, the report says, and the numbers give a pretty good indication why.

Among the 43 black women running for seats in the House of Representatives, only one has been endorsed by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), the body that works to elect Democrats to Congress, the report says.

https://www.elitedaily.com/p/black-women-candidates-dont-feel-supported-by-the-democratic-party-report-says-9239274

boy the Bernie Bros sure are endorsing a lot of WOCs these days

DSA is proud to announce national endorsements for 4 incredible candidates: @Ocasio2018 @SalazarSenate18 @JovankaBeckles @JonesWright4DA pic.twitter.com/347BFLMLxY
— DSA 🌹 (@DemSocialists) June 3, 2018
― Simon H., Sunday, June 3, 2018 10:33 PM (thirty-eight minutes ago)

sure, but bernie bros are racist

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is amazing. I want her to be president one day.

That ad of hers I posted to the main politics thread was really something. I was amazed she had the gall to put the "not all Democrats are the same" line in there

I've been talking with a friend involved in another political campaign here about just how gutsy that ad and her campaign actually are, it really should not be underestimated the kind of political risk she is taking by opposing Crowley, a huge queens machine guy and a likely successor to Pelosi if he wins.

Wow, I'd thought Ocasio-Cortez had more oomph behind her campaign, but maybe that's just because I've been following her on fb for months and don't follow Crowley. But goddamn...Moms Demand Action, NARAL, Planned Parenthood, labor unions, etc are all in Crowley's camp. That's fucking disappointing.

https://ballotpedia.org/New_York%27s_14th_Congressional_District_election_(June_26,_2018_Democratic_primary)

I saw a lot different people on either side of divide of the party reacting positively to her ad on my twitter feed.

Her long thread about ICE last week was really good and succeeded at putting the Trump admin abuses in the larger historical context in a way a lot of people tried but hadn’t been as successful. Maybe The visibility will get her a role in national politics if she still doesn’t win the race.

That's the reason I followed her in the first place. She was the first candidate I saw to publicly use the words "abolish ICE."

From that ballotpedia link:

Both candidates expressed support for $15 minimum wage and Medicare for All policies; Ocasio-Cortez credited her campaign with pushing Crowley to the left on these issues

OLD DELAWARE WHITE GUY 2020 seems INESCAPABLE that’s for sure

If Biden is the only candidate Democrats can agree on, I'll vote for him, but his being the candidate would be otherwise inexcusable. The party needs to attract and keep young voters. Biden is not the candidate to bind those voters to the party for the future. He'd have to pick one helluva great veep to even get their attention.

has he heard of this fella tim kaine bc that guy riled up the millennials for sure

I'd vote for Tim Kaine's son.

I liked when people got so mad about Tim Kaine they pretended he wasn’t pro-choice.

no fights about weightless nonentity tim kaine in 2018