Democratic (Party) Direction

"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

Fair enough

very interesting hypothesis here, though I fear literally only Sanders and/or Warren would have the stones to actually do some of these things. even someone like Gillenbrand, who I feel relatively good about as a potential nominee, probably lacks the political courage.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/06/trump-is-paving-the-way-for-an-imperial-socialist-presidency.html

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)

― Johnny Fever, Monday, 4 June 2018 04:32 (nine hours ago) Permalink

Right, I mean what you have to understand is that Crowley is the chair of the Queens Democratic Party, he is like Mr Queens Politics, not to mention likely successor to Pelosi if he wins. However her campaign is kind hard to defend against -- attack her too directly and you look bad. She's a working class latinx woman who represents the new face of Queens, her district is half immigrant, she's incredibly charismatic and well-liked, she's kind of a force. He's an old white guy from the old machine at a time when Berniecrats are on the rise. Unlikely any of the usual players jump camps and get behind her but they are probably going to be wary of smearing her too.

Also like a month or two ago people didn't even think she would get on the ballot, so they're probably still not sure how to respond. I think he didn't have a challenger for like 14 or 16 years.

Speaking of progressive challengers to establishment dinosaurs, Kevin de Leon vs. Dianne Feinstein

De Leόn harshly criticized Feinstein’s career voting record during our conversation. “There are a lot of votes she took that I wouldn’t have,” he said. “I wouldn’t have voted for the war in Iraq, which has cost us trillions we could have been spending on a carbon-free economy, affordable college and single-payer healthcare. I wouldn’t have voted to prosecute thirteen years as adults. I wouldn’t have supported invoking Taft-Hartley to help George Bush end a strike. I wouldn’t have voted for the wall. You know, Feinstein supported the wall before Trump did,” he said, referencing 2006 Secure Fence Act that authorized a wall on the southern border.

De Leόn expressed deep concerns about surveillance and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act process, which Feinstein recently voted to reauthorize. “I worry about civil rights activists being targeted as black identity extremists,” he said. “I worry about the government saying ‘I don’t like this progressive blogger’ and subjecting them to scrutiny.” And indeed, between our conversation and the publication of this piece, his nightmare became reality: it was recently revealed a black activist had been detained for five months under suspicion of being a “black identity extremist.”

https://www.thenation.com/article/kevin-de-le%E1%BD%B9n-wants-lead-new-democratic-party/

I voted for him, he's great

granted legislation he sponsored basically gave me job security for 5 years, so I'm a little biased

I voted for him too. Feinstein needs a kick in the ass regardless.

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.

― Johnny Fever

how do democratic voters in the 14th feel about her? (that's a serious question)

she's great, and she's better than the alternative, but honestly fuck this policy

Because these developers don’t seem to support expanded municipal parking (like some of the ones found in Astoria), it causes the community to fight over scraps.

We can make moves that increase local parking while still having safe bike lanes. /4

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) June 5, 2018

to her credit she seems interested to engage in that thread

no parking should be built anywhere

No free public parking should be built anywhere. It can be private property or it can be a revenue source for the government that built the road but that’s it.

I understand the argument that reducing free public parking in areas that are gentrifying can make it difficult for people who already live in the neighborhood and drive everywhere. But giving those folks better transportation options and improved walkability has to be part of the trade off or else it’s just status quo forever and in 10-15 years the parking becomes a surplus, wasted pavement.

Meanwhile your giant office park parking garages can be used for sports

http://wjla.com//features/abc7-stories/radical-racers-four-stories-underground

Once there were parking lots
Now it's a peaceful oasis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=068AFYvd58E

That ad of hers I posted to the main politics

one of my school friends and her kids are in this!