Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Democrats In Name Only

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It was pretty awesome that Democratic primary voters in PA-07 (the suburbs south and southwest of Philly) so thoroughly rejected the DCCC-recruited candidate Tuesday and voted massively for Elizabeth Warren-wing local progressive Mary Ellen Balchunis. Local Delaware County Democrats were as pissed off about DCCC heavy-handed interference as Democrats are all over the country. And in PA-07 they expressed that by voting 51,525 (73.8%) for Balchunis to 18,276 (26.2%) for the DCCC's wealthy handpicked outsider, Bill Golderer. The DCCC helped Golderer raise $375,402 and he was able to spend $136,011 against Mary Ellen as of the April 6 FEC filing deadline. (She spent just $17,337 in grassroots donations to her campaign.) Nancy Pelosi and the DCCC are now likely to abandon the district entirely, preferring a Republican to a progressive Democrat. (Yes, Nancy Pelosi today isn't related to the Nancy Pelosi who was once in the Progressive Caucus; she's just all about Democratic Party, Inc now and should take Hoyer and retire ASAP before hse further muddlies her legacy.)

Other than that race in southeast Pennsylvania and Jamie Raskin's big Maryland win against David Trone's $12 million self-funded campaign and Chris Matthews' attempt to get his lobbyist wife into Congress, yesterday was pretty dismal, especially in regard to the two big Senate primaries, where Schumercrats Katie McGinty and Chris Van Hollen won nominations for the corrupt establishment wing of the Democrats. I noticed a hopeful e-mail Grayson sent out to his supporters as the Schumer forces were crushing Joe Sestak, John Fetterman and Donna Edwards. "At one time," he wrote, "Ronald Reagan was a Democrat (and, believe it or not, a union man). After he switched parties, he used to say that he didn’t leave the Democratic Party; the Democratic Party left him. Now, it seems, the Democratic Party may be leaving all of us. Party bosses and DINOs (Democrats in name only) are trying to morph it from a political party into a vending machine for special interests. Put the coins in the slot, and get your tax break, your “deregulation,” your no-bid contract, your bailout." I keep forgetting to tell Grayson to pick up a copy of Thomas Frank's new book, Listen, Liberal: What Ever Happened To The Party of The People, although he has a pretty intuitive grasp of the subject without the book.
It’s common knowledge that the Republican Party has continued to shift more and more to the extreme right wing. But they aren’t the only ones-- our own party has been moving to the right too, if “the right” means kissing corporate you-know-what.

More Democrats than ever are relying on Wall Street to fund their campaigns, and write their bills. More recently, our corrupt, incompetent and dishonest self-appointed party “leadership” has wasted donor money to try to defeat good Democrats in their own primaries, instead of husbanding our cash to defeat Republicans in the general election, and trying to win back the House and the Senate.

I’m not ready to give up on my party. And I hope you won’t either-- because we can make the party right again. Or to put it another way, we can make it left again... I once said this on national TV: "You’ve got only three friends in life: God, your Momma and the Democratic Party." I used to add, "And don’t be too sure about your Momma." It would break my heart to have to add, "And don’t be too sure about the Democratic Party."
Who will stand up to Schumer and McConnell in the Senate next year? Elizabeth Warren and Jeff Merkley... probably Bernie... that's about it. We've got to elect Grayson, for the sake of the Democratic Party and for the sake of a democratic country. Please, if you can, contribute at the thermometer:
Goal Thermometer

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