Want To Stop Conservative Democrats From Betraying The Party? Take Part In The Nominating Process

In the 2006 midterm elections there was a huge wave against Bush and the Republican Party, Despite the DCCC running some really ghastly Republican-lite candidates-- tons of putrid Blue Dogs-- the wave swept them into office. The Republican House losses: 30 seats. The list below are districts that flipped from red to fake-blue and then subsequently flipped back to red once voters realized they been cheated (primarily by DCCC charlatan Rahm Emanuel):

• AZ-05- J.D. Hayworth to Blue Dog Harry Mitchell to David Schweikert
• FL-16- Mark Foley to Blue Dog Tim Mahoney to Tom Rooney
• IN-02- Chris Chocola to Blue Dog Joe Donnelly to Jackie Walorski
• IN-08- John Hostettler to Blue Dog Brad Ellsworth to Larry Bucshon
• IN-09- Mike Sodrel to Blue Dog Baron Hill to Todd Young
• KS-02- Jim Ryun to Blue Dog wannabe Nancy Boyda to Lynn Jenkins
• NY-20- John Sweeney to Blue Dog Kirsten Gillibrand/Blue Dog Scott Scott Murphy to Chris Gibson
• NY-24- Sherwood Boehlert to Blue Dog Mike Arcuri to Richard Hanna
• NC-11- Charles Taylor to Blue Dog Heath Shuler to Mark Meadows
• OH-18- Bob Ney to Blue Dog Zack Space to Bob Gibbs
• PA-04- Melissa Hart to Blue Dog Jason Almire to Scott Perry
• PA-08- Mike Fitzpatrick to Blue Dog Patrick Murphy to Mike Fitzpatrick
• PA-10- Don Sherwood to Blue Dog Chris Carney to Tom Marino
• TX-22- Tom DeLay/Shelley Sekula-Gibbs to Blue Dog Nick Lampson to Pete Olson

Who cares? Old news? Yeah... but. But the moron Pelosi put in rage of the DCCC is following ever single step Emanuel took in 2006 to "win," including openly recruiting Blue Dogs and New Dems from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party. Many are pretending to be "progressives." So what will happen in 2022, the next crap Ben Ray Lujan candidates will all be beaten the same way Emanuel's crap candidates were beaten in 2010.

On Wednesday LaTosha Brown, southern activist and cofounder of Black Voters Matter, asked-- and answered-- an important question: How Long Does It Take a Southern White Democrat Elected by Black Voters to Shift to the Right? Less Than a Week. "Over the past few days," she wrote, "many voters in Alabama who helped carry Doug Jones to a historic election victory have expressed frustration over recent comments from the senator-elect regarding both President Donald Trump’s alleged history of sexual harassment and the GOP tax bill. In an interview this week with CNN’s Jake Tapper, Jones said that he doesn’t agree with the Democrats who argue Trump should resign from office over the allegations regarding sexual assault and harassment because the allegations 'were made before the election, and so people had an opportunity to judge before that election.' He also gave a less-than-clear answer on how he would have voted on the GOP tax bill, were he given the chance. That Jones would pursue a faulty strategy of shifting to the right is not surprising. In fact, many of those who voted for him expected such a shift, although we didn’t necessarily expect to see it before the election was even certified. What we also did not expect, and what may be more troubling, is the feedback from supporters within the progressive community asking us to 'be patient' with Jones. Such feedback is very reminiscent of the comments from white clergy members urging Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to wait-- comments which gave birth to Dr. King’s famous Letter From a Birmingham Jail.

Those of us who have dedicated our work and lives to engaging and empowering Black and marginalized communities know that once we allow white candidates to shift right, history shows that they never (or almost never) prioritize the policies and issues most deeply affecting Black voters’ communities. In fact, in most instances these electeds will use the distancing-from-Black-voters tool to build “white political caché” in the South. The cycle of abandonment and lack of accountability never stops because Black voters become their Southern white rallying tool. Unfortunately, Black voters have a long history of being the political pawns of both parties; in recent years we even witnessed and experienced this with our own beloved President Barack Obama. Because of the insidious nature and pervasiveness of racism in this country, Black political abandonment has always generated some level of white political support in the South and in the nation. We have to change this paradigm.

...As a Black woman and feminist, I’m no longer willing to continue to leave my fate and the fate of people in the Deep South who are hurting in the hands of those who don’t have the moral fortitude, courage, or forward thinking to create a shift in the current paradigm of power. Historically, Black voters have blindly supported white candidates we believed (or at least hoped) would “remember us” and our issues legislatively while they publicity shifted or positioned themselves on the right. This has not been an effective strategy for us. The strategy of depending on blind, unaccountable white benevolence for building political power has never quite panned out for Black people, women, or people of color in the South. And it never will.

Additionally, I believe the other severe damage of Jones’ apparent pivot to the right is the devastating and traumatic impact on the psyche and spirits of Black people who went beyond the call of duty to over-perform in the last election cycle in Alabama. What message do we want to send Black voters? Do we think this strategy is sustainable? Are we still imploring a “just wait and see”‘ strategy for Black people more than 50 years after the Voting Rights Act? We will continue to tell Black voters, “Just hold on and wait because this is simply the best you will have to work with.” Do we think young Black voters will stand for this?

We know that it is precisely the type of behavior from elected officials like Jones that creates an uphill burden for the Democratic Party, because it further alienates the Democratic base, feeds voter apathy, discourages civic participation, and supports a narrative that somehow Black people in the South are powerless and only pawns in this two-party system. It was by challenging and resisting this very faulty belief that we actually mobilized the tens of thousands of Black voters who participated in unprecedented numbers in the Alabama election.

No one was voting to guarantee a career for Doug Jones

Sometimes we will focus so intently on the battle before us that we will lose the war. Last week’s election wasn’t about helping the Democrats gain more power, but it was about Black voters sending a strong and clear message to America that we know our collective power, we know that we are the core base for advancing progressive politics in this county, and we will no longer continue to be taken for granted by either party. This election was not about Doug Jones. It was about us. We care about health care, affordable housing, mass incarceration, education, immigrant rights, and tax reform. And as the people who put Doug Jones in power, we will demand his attention to these and other priority issues.

It is for that reason that I think it is critically important that progressives think more deeply about the direct and indirect consequences of Doug Jones’ actions and the intended and unintended damage that his public kowtowing to the conservative right will have on eroding the base and further alienating the very same voters who put him in office.  

Just wait 'til grassroots Democrats get a load of the two corrupt right-wing crap candidates Schumer has picked to run for the Senate from Arizona and Nevada, respectively Blue Dog Kyrsten Sinema (who has the worst voting record of any Democrat in the House) and Sinema wannabe Jackie Rosen. Doug Jones is unlikely to ever be as bad as either.