Democratic (Party) Direction

Crooked Hillary!

POLL

thanks for reminding me of all these terrible nicknames, except for "lyin' ted," i'll give him that one

He tried Crazy Bernie but it didn’t take.

lol there is an actual wikipedia page that lists all of them

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nicknames_used_by_Donald_Trump

POLL

I miss the days of GWB, Fart Blossom, etc.

Turd Blossom!

xpost LOL that list is like the new Garbage Pail Kids America deserves.

OK but my actual original point was, he stopped being able to make these up a while ago. he is no longer even good for that one thing he was almost never even any good at.

I know he is the president and by definition newsworthy, but I will buy that the day I manage to go a week without hearing about any of his stupid tweets.

I guess the counterpoint is that the one thing he is good at is being an asshole, and Twitter is merely his vector.

"the 'hood" ?

none of his post-election taunts have caught on in any way. his tweets do numbers because he is a celebrity and the president. at this rate ppl who imitate him are better at taunts than he is

Bernie Sanders doesn’t need to worry about Beto, Trump’s gonna call him “Beta O’Dork” and it’ll all be over.

— Goy Division/Jew Order (@ben_geier) December 7, 2018

beta o'rourke

Climate change won't be solved by solar rooftops in the 'hood.

― Sanpaku, Thursday, December 6, 2018 9:29 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

of course it won't. the GND is about shifting the horizon of american climate politics to put something like carbon pricing firmly in the realm of political possibility.

Rob Meyer in that Atlantic piece pithily calls it 'politics by slogan,' but in the organizing tradition I come from we talked about it as campaigning on 'symbolic instrumental demands,' a way of framing demand targets that's all about calling for singular material changes while also serving to demonstrate the present limits of politics and activate the general public around something that feels bigger than the singular material change being called for. Stop KXL. Mini Wiconi. Medicare for All. Green New Deal. What the wonk puts in the bill matters, obviously, but no matter what winds up in eventual legislation GND is one move among others in a strategy, not a silver bullet.

*mni lol

"politics by slogan" is good, ppl like it and it works

like where would "medicare for all" be right now if ppl hadn't started memeing "medicare for all"

yeah i think that is my/rob's point even if the phrase carries a whiff of dislike

we need a better slogan for it

"Policy memes"

yeah, the thing I like about "green new deal" as a policy meme/slogan/whatever is that it implies a sweeping, generation-defining level legislation, and any formal proposals down the line that fall short of that can very simply be accused of falling short of the obvious demand.

scribo en posternum xp

there are a bunch of good points in the first section of this (i.e. up to "turnout watch")

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/paloma/the-trailer/2018/12/06/the-trailer-how-the-left-is-already-writing-the-platform-for-2020-democrats/5c07ff011b326b60d1280128/?utm_term=.54a96bf260c1

'Politics by Slogan' is great if its:

Medicare for All, Legalize Weed, Free College etc. These aren't slogans, these are tangible things easily labelled and conceptually understood

and bad if its:

I'm With Her, Yes We Can, I'm on Your Side, Lets Get To Work, Keep Calm and Carry On. vague shite that doesnt mean anything at all

Yes We Can was successful iirc

Feel the Bern was pretty succesful as well. In fact, those are two different kinds of slogans, and whoever wins the nomination will probably use both...

Yes We Can was successful iirc

Indeed it was! for the electorate of 2008 it was more than sufficient, but for 2020 we need something tangible

someone save my life today, fancy bear, cozy bear?

Feel the Bern was terrible

The originator of Feel The Bern still has "Momma of #FeelTheBern" in her bio and I wish she did not

the boss emails to say he's in with the congressional progressive caucus this morning and there's a lot happening to put GND folks in dialogue with CPCers that've focused on infrastructure, which feels smart and good

yes, that is the way to go

perhaps related
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/12/07/democrats-climate-change-infrastructure-schumer-1049704

Never believe a sentence that contains the words "Schumer" and "insist."

I will vote for any democratic presidential nominee who says “clean coal is bullshit”

well a) it's highly unlikely that the GOP will actually put forward any infrastructure package at all afaict, and b) I dunno that Schumer has such control over his caucus that he could deny the GOP the necessary 60 votes if climate change measures are not included

BUT

it is good that Schumer is (accurately) reading the temperature of the broader Democratic party on this issue

i lol'd

pic.twitter.com/nrms5m2d08

— Ron DOV (@rez512) December 7, 2018

she's not a rapper

twitter the creator

Ryan Cooper invites the slugfest.

This doesn't need to be some gentlemanly parlor discussion, where everyone agrees to disagree and shake hands afterwards. The politics of health care, financial regulation, foreign policy, and so on have enormous moral stakes. Liberals and leftists generally disagree on Medicare-for-all versus ObamaCare, whether big banks should be broken up, whether America's imperial machinery should be drastically scaled back, and much more. It will likely get pretty heated and personal, and that is simply to be expected.

It also can't just be policy details alone — there is probably no way of keeping various personal stories and dirt out of it. But those should also be a topic of discussion, if for no other reason that they will certainly be raised by Trump and his Republican toadies, and whoever faces him should be ready for it. All-out personal feuding is poor strategy, as it may depress turnout on the left, but neither should people's foibles be considered out of bounds.

At any rate, it's going to be a rough 18 months or so before someone comes out on top. But there is no way out but through. Let's lace up and slug it out.

looking forward to centrist democrats in safe seats getting primaried from the left in 2020

👀👀 https://t.co/haCrzfam0c

— we're going to abolish ICE (@SeanMcElwee) December 16, 2018

that’s what happened in my district...

i'm excited to see indivisible taking this tack, i have to admit that i'd been assuming post-18 they'd be sliding comfortably into being mass mobilization shock troops for the center left

(which i'd guess is what sean's getting at with the 👀)

Yeah that was my read too

When you lose them it’s happening

i interviewed there back in early 17 and again in mid 17 (they were pretty disorganized at the start, but that's the game), and back they were very wary about even approaching the midterms as a subject to new hires, as opposed to strictly being a resistance machine -- impressive to see them be able to shift back and forth between protest mobilization & vote-getting, can say from experience it's real hard for an org to move between those functions & carry a membership along the way