The Corrupted Democratic Party Follows The Republican Party Further And Further To The Right

This morning, we quoted GOP billionaire Mike Fernandez, from his OpEd endorsing Hillary Clinton, that party loyalty should never come before cores values and principles: "No longer can we hide behind the excuse that party loyalty is paramount, and that a bad candidate of our own is always better than any candidate of theirs. Blind loyalty in this case is the ultimate definition of disloyalty to our beliefs." Gauis mentioned to me that any #BernieOrBust true believer could have written the same thing. Yesterday Thom Hartmann had Mike Papantonio on his show to talk about how it was possible for the Republican wing of the Democratic Party sweep the Florida Democratic primaries Tuesday, picking anti-working family reactionaries like Patrick Murphy, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Joe Garcia, Randy Perkins, Val Demings, Darren Soto, and Scott Fuhrman over progressive candidates. (ConservaDem Al Lawson's win over a liberal but criminally indicted Corrine Brown was a separate kind of case.) Ironically, the one congressional primary where a progressive beat a conservative, in the next-to-impossible 2nd district, it now looks like the margin has narrowed to 136 votes and progressive Walter Cartland may actually lose out to Steve Crapps, a crap Democrat every bit as bad as Murphy or any of the other garbage that won Tuesday. It'll be up to provisional ballots to determine which Democrat wins the nomination in this deep red district.

Papantonio's explanation is important to for progressives to hear and important to try to deal with-- because it isn't only about Florida. Bernie's movement, despite Bernie's pleas, turned in the direction of a cult-of-personality. It should never have been allowed to move in that direction because it made it too easy for supporters to ignore the issues that have animated Bernie's entire career. "The corporatist wing of the Democratic Party won the day; progressive candidates were sent packing, Papantonio told Hartmann. He blamed lazy progressive voters for not showing up for being willing to talk the talk but not walk the walk. "These are Republicans that won. Twenty years ago these characters would never have shown up in the Democratic Party. They are elitist, insider, Wall Street Democrats-- certainly they are insider, elitist DC Democrats. Reid and Pelosi have done everything they can to purge the party of anybody who looks different from that Wall Street Democrat, that Third Way Democrat. Think bout how active Reid was in going after Grayson. Thank about how active Pelosi has been in trying to say we have to stay with the establishment, which is the Wall Street Democrats. Progressives lost all over the country... this was the wish of the Democratic Party... Tim Caona, Alan Grayson, even Bernie Sanders were labeled the fringe candidates and they represent the real beliefs of what the Democratic Party used to stand for all the way back to FDR. But that party is no more. This Democratic Party is something I don't even recognize anymore."

I call that one compelling cri-de-coeur! I hope Papantonio isn't planning on buckling under to that blind party loyalty Fernandez was writing about above. Is he going to vote for Hillary and the boatload of shit Democrats corrupt insiders like Chuck Schumer, Harry Reid, Steve Israel, Wasserman Schultz, Steny Hoyer and Nancy Pelosi are trying to use to turn the Democratic Party into it's Republican wing. Speaking of which... Here's a current list of the House candidates-- not incumbents-- who are running as Republican wing Democrats, Each one of these worthless candidates has gone to the Blue Dogs and/or New Dems for an endorsement and each one was examined and deemed worthy of being allowed into the Republican wing. If you vote for them, Social Security and Medicare won't last beyond 2030. First the Blue Dogs:

• Lou Correa (CA)
• Gretchen Driskell (MI)
• Brad Schneider (IL)
• Shelli Yoder (IN)
• Josh Gottheimer (NJ)
• Gail Schwartz (CO)
• Kim Myers (NY)
• Pete Gallego (TX)
• Lon Johnson (MI)
• Doug Owens (UT)
• Tom O'Halleran (AZ)

And these are the New Dems who are masquerading as Democrats, every bit as bad as the New Dems and, in many cases, as you can see, identical:

• Isadore Hall (CA)
• Lou Correa (CA)
• Darren Soto (FL)
• Matt Heinz (AZ)
• Salud Carbajal (CA)
• Val Demings (FL)
• Monica Vernon (IA)
• Brad Schneider (IL)
• Emily Cain (ME)
• Josh Gottheimer (NJ)
• Pete Gallego (TX)
• LuAnn Bennett (VA)

Looks an awful lot like the DCCC's Red-to-Blue List, doesn't it? So while the DCCC has refused to back progressives like Mary Ellen Balchunis (PA), Mary Hoeft (WI) and Tom Wakely (TX), they have backed virtually all of the sewerful of candidates the Blue Dogs and New Dems are backing. You can still help progressives overcome this right-wing onslaught from within the Democratic Party that is making the party over as a quasi-GOP comfortable for ex-Republicans like Patrick Murphy and Hillary Clinton, by tapping on the thermometer on the right and giving generously to as many of these candidates as you can. And a little good news about two of these horrible candidates. In California, extraordinarily corrupt Blue Dog Lou Correa and even more corrupt Isadore Hall aren't up against Republicans in November, but against dedicated progressives, respectively, Bao Nguyen and Nanette Barragan, both of whom you can contribute to here.

Wednesday Michael Sainato, reminded his readers what an utterly contemptible den of corruption the Democratic Party has become under the hopeless and vile leadership in power today. "Despite the corruption Wasserman Schultz perpetuated at the DNC-- and her resignation-- Democratic Party leaders flocked to South Florida to assist her reelection campaign," he wrote. "President Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton all formally endorsed Wasserman Schultz, ensuring the Democratic Party system that rigged the primaries for Clinton stays rigged and corrupt. Wasserman Schultz’s victory against Canova is not only a demoralizing defeat for Sanders supporters, but another step backwards for restoring democracy in America. Wasserman Schultz embodies all that is wrong with the current state of politics. The interests of her constituency invariably falls by the wayside in favor of the Democratic Party leadership’s will, and the wealthy, corporate influences that fund them." I disagree with only one word-- Sainato's first: "despite" should be "because of." They support her because of the corruption because corruption is their life's work. All of them.