Progressive Democrats Are The Key To Taking Back The Senate From The Reactionaries And Shutting Down Nihilists

Ted Cruz and his fascist-oriented wing of the Republican Party are still determined to shut down the government again, despite the overwhelming majority of Americans opposing it. The Americans who support the idea are in the backward, mostly Confederate districts represented by these ass-clowns. They haven't done it yet, and McConnell is ignoring their bellowing, so it's something that may be put off... till right before Christmas time!

Fortunately, Democrats are pretty united against the crackpot scheme and Cruz's infantile blackmail strategy. The video above was released yesterday by Donna Edwards' Senate campaign. "[R]ight now in Washington," she told Marylanders, "the insiders are playing politics around a government shutdown. The Tea Party Republicans are trying to defund Planned Parenthood. The political insiders are gaming out the partisan advantage. And no is one paying attention to those who'd get hurt."

Although she didn't mention his name, one of those insiders is her Democratic primary opponent, former DCCC chair Chris Van Hollen, who has a long, grotesque history of always making things worse. Progressives are overjoyed that Donna, who will be the first African-American senator from Maryland if she wins, and the most progressive senator from Maryland in living memory, is a more-than-viable candidate against Van Hollen's establishment campaign.

Like the Maryland veterans who count on clinics like this. Or women who count on Planned Parenthood for health care and cancer screenings. Or seniors who count on getting their Social Security checks on time. Or the hundred-forty five thousand federal employees who live in Maryland and count on earning their paychecks to provide for their families. Or Maryland’s economy, which counts on them shopping for groceries and paying their bills.

It’s average Marylanders who get hurt when Washington politicians don’t fight for the right things.

I know. I’ve been that single mom, working hard, not always sure I was going to make ends meet. I know the importance of Planned Parenthood preventative screenings for women, of VA clinics for veterans.

And I know what can happen when something you count on is taken away for no good reason.

That’s why this Senate race is so important. We have a real choice to make.This campaign is not about currying favor with the Washington insiders or piling up mountains of corporate special interest money or playing political games with people’s lives.

It’s about giving the moms and dads who work hard every day, the veterans who stood in harm’s way, the seniors who earned a decent retirement, the women whose health shouldn’t be used as a political pawn, a voice at the table.

It’s time to put people first.

As you probably know, Blue America endorsed Donna's campaign the day she announced. Yesterday Jim Dean of Democracy for America (DFA) explained why they have decided to endorse her as well (as did PCCC). "John Boehner is on his way out-- but the threat of more government shutdowns has only increased," explained Dean. "Boehner quit because he couldn't take the constant Tea Party demands to shut down the government until Democrats cave and defund Planned Parenthood. With him out of the way, it's likely that Republican tactics in Congress will become even more extreme. That means Senate Democrats will come under intense pressure to cave to right-wing demands in order keep the government open"

It's more important than ever that we send strong progressive Democrats to the Senate. Who do you want to be negotiating with Boehner's GOP successors in Congress? Democrats who think everything is up for discussion and everything is on the table, including devastating cuts to people's basic food, shelter, and health care?

Or would you rather have someone like Donna Edwards, who holds her ground and won't give in to right-wing extremism? In moments like these, we need Democrats who have a proven track record of fighting back against Republicans on our behalf. That's why we're backing Donna Edwards for Senate.

... Donna Edwards is already showing leadership. She's standing up to the far-right extremists who are targeting women, including fighting back against their efforts to defund Planned Parenthood.

She won't stop there. Donna Edwards has vowed to close the huge gap in pay that has left many women earning much less than their male counterparts. Republicans have no interest in fighting for working women. Donna Edwards will make it a top priority.

Rep. Edwards was one of the earliest supporters of expanding Social Security and Medicare benefits. Wall Street and the Republicans don't like that. But if we send her to the Senate, she'll fight hard to make sure every American can look forward to a secure retirement. And she's not "willing to consider" devastating Social Security and Medicare cuts in order to make a deal with Republicans.

Blue America has also endorsed Alan Grayson for very similar reasons. Take a look at this video he released yesterday, also about GOP crackpot government shutdowns:



"With a federal budget deadline looming, we are still facing the threat of another destructive government shutdown," he explained.

And it’s because a small faction of Republicans want to choke off federal funding for Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood received roughly half a billion dollars in federal grants to help pay for critical medical services that the organization provides to poor women across the country last year. The federal government spends approximately $3 trillion a year. So Republicans want to shut down the entire federal government over a concern regarding about one-sixtieth of 1% of federal spending.

If Republicans shut the government down, health and safety inspections will be halted. Federal loans and import/export licenses will be put on hold.

The National Institutes of Health will stop accepting patients. And more than 800,000 federal workers care likely to be sent home.

But this isn't the first time Republicans have shut down the federal government over partisan concerns.

So that’s why I've filed a bill that could make it the last time the government gets shutdown because of politics.

Two years ago, Congressional Republicans knew that all of their efforts to amend or repeal the Affordable Care Act by Constitutional means had failed, and Obamacare had been upheld by the Supreme Court.

The linchpin of that act, the “affordability credits” that have helped more than 10 million Americans obtain coverage, were about to go into effect. So Republicans forced a shutdown.

It was embarrassing, costly and pointless.

Standard & Poor’s estimated that the 16-day federal shutdown in 2013 cost us $24 billion, and reduced fourth quarter 2013 Gross National Product growth by about 0.6%. This from the self-proclaimed “fiscally responsible” party. The GOP

It was also political self-mutilation by the GOP; its support in the polls dropped by 10%.

In April, I proposed a simple solution. My bill, the Shut Down the Shutdowns Act, eliminates this danger entirely by applying existing budget levels to all federal agencies until a new law is passed creating new ones. My bill, H.R. 1776, is our declaration of independence from the tyranny of government shutdowns, both actual and threatened.

Existing law prohibits shutdowns regarding Social Security and Medicare benefits. Shouldn’t we be consistent? Why should the default for federal spending be no budget, instead of just the same budget? And why should we ever allow a fraction of a faction in the body politic to threaten the whole and hold all of us hostage?

I have served in Congress for almost five years. I am genuinely puzzled as to why we keep finding ourselves peering over a fiscal cliff every Sept. 30, wondering whether to jump. Just because we have done something every year for centuries doesn’t mean that we have to keep doing it-- just ask the swallows who used to come to San Juan Capistrano.

Let’s end this dangerous and self-destructive political ritual; let’s shut down the shutdowns. It’s common sense, and it’s what the American people deserve.

Grayson was the only member of Congress who raised most of his 2014 and 2012 campaign funds from small donors, those giving less than $200. Blue America contributors have been active in every race he's run-- and he's never let us down. We're supporting him again this year. "To put this into perspective," he wrote, "if we hit our donor goal this week, we’ll have more contributions than many of the candidates running for President! And you’ll be hard-pressed to find any other Senate campaign in the country (other than Russ Feingold’s) with as many small-dollar contributions."

The best part about all this isn’t the money, or the headlines we’ll get. It’s how terrified the millionaires and billionaires will be when they read about it next month, after we file our FEC report. I’d love to see the look on Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein’s face as he realizes that his chosen candidate is getting upstaged and outclassed by what Mr. Burns on the Simpsons would call an "anonymous clan of slack-jawed troglodytes."

More importantly, this is about showing all of them-- from the Wall Street cabal to the Washington elites to the Tea Party Express-- that we’ve got the momentum and the grassroots power to defeat them. We can’t let them buy another Senate seat-- and get one seat closer to handing over Ft. Knox to Wall Street, destroying Planned Parenthood, or gutting Social Security and Medicare.

Our opponents Patrick Murphy and Ron DeSantis are two Republicans, although only one of them is honest enough to admit it. Either of them will give Goldman Sachs and the rest of the banksters everything they want. By running a real Republican against a fake 'Democrat,' the Powers That Be have tried to rig the game up, down and sideways. The only way they lose is if our movement is powerful enough to take them down. We can win this race-- and we can reach our 15,000 online contribution goal.

Donna and Alan -- as well as Wisconsin's Russ Feingold and Ohio's P.G. Sittenfeld-- are all on the same page, this page. Add these four to progressive fighters like Elizabeth Warren, Jeff Merkley, Bernie (if he doesn't become president), Brian Schatz, Tammy Baldwin, Sherrod Brown (usually), Al Franken and Mazie Hirono, and both McConnell and Schumer, as well as their Wall Street financiers, will have something real to worry about.