Better Deal?

I spend half my day talking to candidates and congressional incumbents. I haven't heard a single one mention the new Papa John's Pizza slogan Pelosi and Schumer are pushing on Democrats. A crew of top Politico reporters found the same thing. One congressmember told me, on the condition of anonymity, that Pelosi "is a leader with no following. They've all died, retired... or largely evaporated." Politico talked with rotgut California Blue Dog, Jim Costa, who doesn't like any national messaging since he has little in common with normal Democrats and nothing at all with anything that is motivating and energizing all the excitement among Democratic activists. "Just as there isn’t one kind of Democrat, there [is] not just one kind of message that works. One size doesn’t fit all. We have an economically diverse country." Costa, whose voting record is rated an "F" by ProgressivePunch has a 43.64 lifetime crucial vote score, one of the worst of any Democrat in the House. He votes with the Republicans and against the Democrats an awful lot. Any inspiring messaging about the kinds of issues that motivates the grassroots would be an attack on him and his career.

When the party's congressional leaders gathered in suburban Virginia to roll out the new affirmative economic message they'd long been promising, it was designed to give Democrats a way to talk about what exactly they stand for-- other than simply standing as the party of opposition to the White House.

Despite the disaster Democrats bought themselves in 2016 by countering on Trump-hatred to help them win seats, the DCCC is operating on the assumption that "mere antipathy toward the party in power, rather than a memorable message, can be effective" to win seats. That leads to being willing-- even eager-- to recruit worthless garbage candidates, Blue Dogs, self-funders, ex-Republicans, New Dems and all sorts of uninspiring candidates from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party.

Watch this video of you haven't already seen it from Politicon last weekend by a spokesperson from the DNC, which makes it sound like the DNC and the DCCC are living on different planets. The DNC appears to be in touch with actual voters. The DCCC is in touch strictly with each other and the moron consultants they spend immense sums of money on who tell them-- as this one did according to Politico: "If you’re not in the majority, there shouldn’t be a coordinated message. The message should be: 'The other guy sucks,' or 'The Iraq War sucks,' depending on the decade." [When you contribute to the DCCC that's where your money goes... and to Blue Dogs and anti-Choice nuts.]



An even worse Blue Dog than Costa is Texas DINO Henry Cuellar who said the Blue Dogs and normal Democrats "agree on the broader goal of creating economic prosperity for the American people. What we want to do is create economic opportunities, not guarantee results." Can you name any Republican that wouldn't be just as comfortable mouthing that message?

That tap dance isn’t by accident. Moderates want to be seen as team players, which is why some attended the Better Deal rollout news conference. They support the overall goals of the messaging initiative but don’t intend to run on a message that they worry can be interpreted as anti-business back home in their districts.

Still, several centrist lawmakers and aides told Politico they are encouraged that their leaders are shifting the spotlight away from social issues that threaten to divide the party and toward economic issues, on which there is more agreement.

Blue Dogs, in particular, say they are encouraged by the attention they have received from Democratic leaders after years of feeling that they were stuck on the margins. They’ve worked closely with House Democrats’ campaign arm on recruitment in recent months and are relieved pro-jobs policies finally seem to be the party’s focus.

Kia Hamadanchy is running for an Orange County seat held by Trump rubber-stamp Mimi Walters who lives in a mansion on the beach in another district. Walters is another mass produced anti-Choice fanatic. Hamadanchy is progressive and values-driven. "It's as important that we as Democrats support and elect candidates who can unify behind a common vision and purpose," he told us today. "Otherwise when we end up in power we end up like the Republican Party who has control of all levers of government but who actually can't get anything accomplished. I don't want that to happen to the Democratic Party. Moreover the reason we didn't get the public option or other progressive things done in the early days of the Obama Administration is because we weren't unified behind that common vision. We are the pro-choice party and those are the policies that we support and would try and enact if we took power. Our caucus should reflect that."

Peter Jacob is a progressive Democrat in New Jersey. He ran an impressive race against Leonard Lance in 20016 but was studiously ignored by the DCCC which has no interest in his progressive policy platform. Now that Hillary won the district against Trump, the DCCC has decided to recruit their own conservative-leaning candidate and are again ignoring Jacob. He doesn't seem very fond of their approach: "The DCCC's campaign to appeal to what they think right wing voters want to hear has been proven a failure over, and over, and over. This strategy has been used over the last 10 years throughout the country, and has resulted in the loss of over 1,000 state and federal government seats. Simply put, when given the choice between a Republican, and a Democrat who talks like a Republican, people will choose the Republican nearly every single time. If the Democratic Party ever wishes to see itself return to leadership, it must return to unwavering progressive values that are shared by most Americans. The vast majority of the people are not anti-choice. The vast majority of people are not in favor of tax cuts for the rich while gutting programs that Americans support. We must return to our Progressive roots, and fight to raise worker pay across the board, protect and guarantee women's rights, ensure healthcare as a right and enact Medicare for All and paid family and medical leave, and heal our broken democracy by removing private money from politics, abolishing gerrymandering and slimy Republican voter suppression tactics, and create a publicly funded electoral system beholden only to the American voters."