Sunday, August 14, 2016

Yes, There Actually ARE Some Democrats Worse Than Republicans-- Faux Dems From The Republican Wing Of The Democratic Party

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How do you know if a Democrat is a real Democrat or some crook from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party. If the candidate in question is an incumbent, it's easy; they all have voting records you can find at ProgressivePunch. That link shows how House members were scored by the ProgressivePunch algorithm. Best lifetime score belongs to Mark Pocan of Madison, Wisconsin and the worst Democrat is former Republican-turned-Blue Dog, Brad Ashford, who votes against progressive legislation almost 70% of the time. The 20 most unredeemable Democrats in the House from bad to worst (all with very solid "F" scores:
Bill Foster (New Dem-IL)
Kurt Schrader (Blue Dog-OR)
Sanford Bishop (Blue Dog-GA)
Dan Lipinski (Blue Dog-IL)
Jim Cooper (Blue Dog-TN)
Patrick Murphy (New Dem-FL), recruited by the DSCC to run for the Senate
Pete Aguilar (New Dem-CA)
Filemon Vela (Blue Dog-TX)
Ami Bera (New Dem-CA)
• Ann Kirkpatrick (New Dem-AZ), recruited by the DSCC to run for the Senate
Scott Peters (New Dem-CA)
Raul Ruiz (CA)
Cheri Bustos (Blue Dog-IL)
Sean Patrick Maloney (New Dem-NY)
Jim Costa (New Dem- CA)
Collin Peterson (Blue Dog-MN)
Henry Cuellar (Blue Dog-TX)
Kyrsten Sinema (Blue Dog-AZ)
Gwen Graham (Blue Dog-FL)
Brad Ashford (Blue Dog-NE)
None of these is what I'd call even lesser of two evils. Because lesser doesn't fit. By worming their way into the Democratic Party House conference they have helped destroy the party from within, making it more right-wing, more corrupt and less in touch with the legitimate aspirations of working families. I would rather see a Republican in place of any one of them any day of the week. When Obama endorses one of them-- which he is prone to do-- it means he;'s eating shit or one of them has wealthy parents willing to fork over some money for his presidential library (not a joke).

So that's the worst incumbents. It's somewhat more difficult to know who the worst non-incumbent candidates are because some have no records. In fact, the DCCC loves recruiting mystery meat candidates with no records and no issue positions on their websites. One way is to see who the Blue Dogs and New Dems endorse. They only endorse candidates who are part of the Republican wing of the Democratic Party and who will be open to big money bribery from corporate America. These are the garbage candidates the Blue Dogs have endorsed so far this cycle:
Lon Johnson (MI)
Doug Owens (UT)
Pete Gallego (TX)- recycled trash, defeated in 2014
Lou Correa (CA)
Tom O'Halleran (AZ)
Gretchen Driskell (MI)
Brad Schneider (IL)- recycled trash, defeated in 2014
Shelli Yoder (IN)
Josh Gottheimer (NJ)
Gail Schwartz (CO)
Kim Myers (NY)
Just as bad in terms of corruption and bread and butter issues but sometimes less reactionary on social issues are the New Dems. Their awful list of candidates so far this cycle in also puke-worthy:

Matt Heinz (AZ)
Salud Carabajal (CA)
Isadore Hall (CA)
Lou Correa (CA)
Darren Soto (FL)
Val Demings (FL)
Joe Garcia (FL), recycled trash, defeated in 2014
Monica Vernon (IA)
Brad Schneider (IL)
Emily Cain (ME)
Josh Gottheimer (NJ)
Pete Gallego (TX)
LuAnn Bennett (VA)
Under Blue Dog Steve Israel, being backed by the New Dems or Blue Dogs almost guarantees a candidate a place on the DCCC's Red to Blue list and most of this shit list of candidates are being pushed by the DCCC. The party and the country would be better off if they all lost in November. Unless you want more Debbie Wasserman Schultzes. If you do, just use these lists as your guide.

Some of these monsters still have primaries and in several cases, Blue America is backing their progressive opponents. In Florida we're hoping that Bob Poe will stop Val Demings, Dena Grayson can stop Darren Soto and Annette Taddeo can stop Joe Garcia. And in California, there's still a chance that Bao Nguyen and Nanette Barragán can beat two classically corrupt political hacks, Lou Correa and Isadore Hall, the 4 of them in Dem vs Dem-- actually progressive vs conservative-- general election runoffs, all having won the jungle primary.

This guy knows what he's talking about-- which is why the Democratic establishment is so eager to smear him and end his career:



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6 Comments:

At 6:35 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Alan Grayson is a courageous and true Democrat who is being smeared. If only there were more like him. If only the Dems had a real Democrat heading the party, unlike Schultz, Israel, etc.

 
At 9:52 AM, Anonymous LibraryGuy said...

So these people are so bad that you would rather any of them were replaced by a Republican? Brad Ashford, the worst D by this standard, votes progressively 32% of the time. 204 Republicans already in Congress vote progressively less than 10% of the time. Any of the later would be better than the D's we have? Can you explain to me how we are supposed to get a progressive D elected in the districts of the people you consider worst? The electorates in these (frequently gerrymandered) House districts are the reality we have to deal with in getting a D rep recruited, financed, and elected. More and better Dems in Congress is a goal, but throwing away more D representatives because they are not progressive enough is insane.

 
At 10:00 AM, Anonymous LibraryGuy said...

And I just read the description on ProgressivePunch about how they calculate the A-F ratings for Representatives. Its says that someone in a Strongly Republican district will get a C- rating if they vote Progressively 70% of the time. So a D somehow elected here should be given a bad grade if they don't ignore their electorate and vote strongly progressive? How, having managed to get this D into office, would you expect them to be able to stay more than one term? When this poor D gets bounced out of office after one term, will we be happy we didn't support him when the R that beat them votes progressively 15% of the time, or 10% or .68% of the time?

 
At 1:34 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Maybe not this term, but I hope Bernie's continued program, will find a true progressive to run against Kurt Shrader in the future. That would permit all be Southern Oregon to be truly BLUE!

 
At 5:35 AM, Blogger KnaveRupe said...

@LibraryGuy - There is only one (D) on the list in a Strong Rep district: Gwen Graham in FL-2, and only one (Colin Peterson, MN-7) in a Leaning Rep district.

I believe the point of the article is to identify people with "F" ratings in Democratic Districts - there are 31 in Strong Dem districts, and another 23 in Leaning Dem districts.

These people need to be gone. And if that means losing their incumbent status so that an actual progressive can run for the seat against a Republican, then so be it. As you said, how can you expect a Repub to hold a seat if he ignores his electorate and votes strongly conservative? That poor R will get bounced after one term.

Sometimes, things have to get worse before they can get better.

 
At 5:46 AM, Blogger KnaveRupe said...

@LibraryGuy - and the worst scorer for 2015-2016 on CRUCIAL votes? The person who voted against the Progressive position over 70% of the time this session on votes that mattered?

Henry Cuellar, in TX-28 - a district with a Cook PVI of D+7. There's no reason why this guy should still be in Congress with a (D) after his name. Let him switch and run as a Republican.

 

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