Thursday, January 25, 2018

Can Pelosi and Hoyer Kill The Wave?

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The most recent state legislative election was in a state House district southeast of Pittsburgh, in a blueish district where the longtime Representative Marc Gergely (D) was convicted for being part of an illegal gambling ring and forced to resign. Tuesday, voters were not enthusiastic about going to the polls and just 11% of registered voted bothered. But Republicans were more dispirited and unenthusiastic than Democrats. The results-- reflective of a building wave cycle-- were stunning. House District 35-- McKeesport and much of the Monongahela Valley, had gone for Hillary in 2016, convincingly but not overwhelmingly. She won the district 58-39%. More to the point, the state House incumbent, Gergely beat Fawn Montgomery, his Republican challenger on the same day 62.5% to 37.5%, Tuesday, Fawn gave it another try in the open seat and faced Austin Davis, an African-American first-time candidate, The wave is lapping the district strong enough already to give him a massive 74-26% victory.

Republicans didn't show up to vote. Democrats should be worrying about Democrats also not showing up to vote. Like I said, the turnout, in the same week, Schumer offered to fully fund building Truump's wall and then he and Pelosi gave the Republicans enough Democrats in both Houses of Congress to pass the Republican agenda to throw DREAMers under-- or onto-- the bus. In the House 45 Democrats, primarily Blue Dogs and New Dems from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party-- all the regular suspects from Ami Bera (New Dem-CA), Sanford Bishop (Blue Dog-GA) and Cheri Bustos (Blue Dog-IL) to Josh Gottheimer (Blue Dog-NJ), Dan Lipinski (Blue Dog-IL), Stephanie Murphy (Blue Dog-FL), Kathleen Rice (New Dem-NY) and Kyrsten Sinema (Blue Dog_AZ) were delighted to do it. And in the Senate the aisle crossers were Joe Donnelly (D-IN), Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND), Jones (D-AL), Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Claire McCaskill (D-Maddow).

This turns off Democrats base voters. The DC Democratic establishment thinks it excites Republicans and right-of-center independents. It does. But will it make them vote for Democrats. Probably not-- at least not in great numbers. And even if they do and the wave sweeps Republicans out of office like it did in 2006 when Rahm Emanuel recruited dozens of conservatives (again, Blue Dogs, New Dems, wealthy self-funders and "ex"-Republicans) what invariably happens is that sooner or later Democratic base voters realize they've been duped and then stay away from the polls-- generally in the next midterm-- and those fraudsters are defeated, which is exactly what happened in 2010 when all Rahm's recruits were defeated after 3+ years of voting with the GOP on crucial issues.

Goal ThermometerA few days ago we talked about how Steny Hoyer sneaks around the country's backrooms trying to rig elections for corrupt conservatives who will "play ball" with K Street lobbyists the way he does. It turns off Democrats and independent voters. And on Wednesday, Mitch Perry reported for FloridaPolitics.com that today Pelosi is teaming up with the most despised villain in the Democratic Party, Debbie Wasserman Schultz against progressive reformer Tim Canova. Pelosi and Wasserman Schultz will be speaking at Florida Atlantic University campus in Boca Raton (fittingly, Mouth of the Rat). This will be Pelosi’s first visit to Florida since last May, when she also appeared with Wasserman-Schultz. Wasserman Schultz was caught rigging Democratic primaries for Hillary and was forced to resign-- in disgrace-- as chair of the DNC. By publicly supporting her, Pelosi fills many Democrats with disgust and again defines the Democratic Party-- at best-- as the lesser-of-two-evils and the anti-change party.

Fight back by supporting and helping elect the kinds of progressive candidates who Hoyer and Pelosi keep DCCC resources from. That ActBlue congressional thermometer just above is how you can do it. I asked Tim Canova what he thought about Pelosi coming into South Florida and getting together with Wasserman Schultz. His response:
Nancy Pelosi’s joint appearance with Debbie Wasserman Schultz shows much of what’s wrong with the Democratic Party. These two political insiders are tied together by moneyed interests, and certainly not united by integrity or progressive principles. This is the leadership team that has brought such abject failure to Democrats, losing a thousand legislative seats across the country since becoming party leaders. Democrats are now in their weakest position in the U.S. House of Representatives, the U.S. Senate, governorships, and state legislatures since 1920. They've brought us back 98 years! For the Democratic establishment, it’s been Make America Fail Again #MAFiA

Yet, the party leadership is still rewarded for all its monumental failures. They rig the system at every level, from corporate campaign contributions to a lapdog corporate media, from mass purging of voter roles and voter suppression, to safe gerrymandered districts and other rigged electoral processes. They count on the lack of integrity in our elections. After my 2016 race against Wasserman Schultz, I was forced to sue in an attempt to inspect the ballots. While the lawsuit was pending, local election officials illegally destroyed the ballots, violating federal and state law, destroying evidence in defiance of the court’s authority, and engaging in perjury and other serious offenses. We are pushing for election justice and election integrity to make sure they don’t rig the next election.

Wasserman Schultz and Pelosi embody the failed big business as usual politics that have left us with Republican majorities across the country and Donald Trump as president. They are swimming in corporate cash and pushing a predatory corporate agenda that’s dictated by Wall Street banks and the fossil fuel industry. They both stand in the way of Medicare for All, they support failed drug policies and mass incarceration, and they ignore the needs of working folks and the poor. But their days are numbered. People are fed up with the corrupt status quo. Here in South Florida, we are growing our grassroots movement to finish the job we started in our 2016 campaign against Wasserman Schultz. And Stephen Jaffee is a true progressive alternative to Nancy Pelosi.

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12 Comments:

At 5:38 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Well, here you are again. When will you FINALLY realize?

Even if they don't smother the wave in 2018, they'll have it washed back out to sea by 2020. Lefty voters just love being ratfucked time after time after time after time.....

 
At 6:16 AM, Blogger Ronnie Goodson said...

The Republican Party on the far right and the Democratic Party on the "lip service" left and their wealthy donors comprise the two front war that Progressives have to fight.

 
At 7:42 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

There's our 'democrap' friend again with no solutions. Start your own blog with your hundreds of 3rd party candidates that will somehow replace the Democrats. 3rd party would need to not only completely replace Democrats, they then have to overcome enough Republicans to get a majority. (That's assuming your vaunted 3rd party is actually just one party and not a collection of parties that can't govern as one.) Progressive Democrats can start governing by getting just enough seats to vote out Pelosi and Hoyer. That voting majority won't even have to be only pure progressives. Congress is filled with self-interested backbenchers who will vote to change leadership and follow a new path if they fear the grassroots.

Dem leadership is awful and it won't be easy to get rid of them, but you are a true purity pony.

 
At 8:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

7:42

Which primary are you entering? I'd hate to discover that you aren't willing to walk your bold talk. Consider us from Missouri - SHOW US.

 
At 8:11 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Flood the place with Canova supporters, all waving signs. Or all with Canova T-shirts under outer garments, which can then be displayed on signal. Take pictures and videos of it and send it viral.

 
At 11:47 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Anon at 8:00, why would I be in a primary? I support the mission of DWT and if one of these candidates were in my district I would vote for them and I donate money to Blue America to help support these candidates.

I finally got one of you trolls to admit that 3rd party is where you stake your claim. Of course, I am sure you are running for office under a 3rd party banner, right? You've been boldly trolling this place for well over a year that I have been reading this blog and yet you never once put up call for voting for a 3rd party candidate in any of the districts DWT is supporting a Democrat. You never once give us a link to your web page as a candidate. All you do is spout your ad hominins and call anyone who wants to try and change the Democrats from within naïve or stupid.

So Anonymous troll will you SHOW US your bona fides or will continue to sling your (demo)crap on the comments page?

 
At 3:57 PM, Anonymous ap215 said...

Here's Kyle's Breakdown

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jBq_tzdwCA

 
At 4:25 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Spoken like a True Republican, 11:47. It's never about you, is it? Enjoy more Republican rule, for your beloved Democrats aren't going to save you.

 
At 9:44 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ronnie said it well.

7:42 lives under the same delusion today that has produced zero results since 1982. In 2008 we elected "hope for change" and got jack diddle. Why? Because our progressive turned out to be a stealth fascist, which we'd have known if we had just watched the donor list turn into the same corporate murderers' row that had bought CFMA, GLBA, NAFTA, WTO, GATT, telecom dereg and had almost bought the 2008 nom for $hillbillary. That was confirmed when obamanation named his first slate of cabinet and staff nominees. And, of course, that diddly squat was guaranteed by the re-elections of Pelosi, hoyer, reid, scummer and all the rest.

7:42 believes that a dozen more progressives (real ones, not like obamanation) can somehow convince 240-odd self-indulgent, corrupt whores to NOT reselect the biggest distributors of bribe money as their leaders again. Is 7:42 delusional or does he have his head up his sphincter... or can someone 'splain how his scenario can possibly play out. Or why, if this scenario even COULD play out, why did it not do so in 2009... or any other cycle since '82? 'splain why 2018 is so special, especially when the democraps are working HARDER THAN EVER to either retain their minority status or elect as many more corrupt whores as they possibly can buy. Perhaps DWT has his own hallucination to offer here. I'll genuinely try to remain open minded.

 
At 8:02 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

No you won't. You'll troll every post on this blog, because that's all you do, and you have no other life, just as you have no solutions.
--
Note to Howie: Either ban this assclown or cut off comments altogether, because I'm done reading the comment threads here as long as I have to put up with this shit.

 
At 8:49 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Someone's fee-fees is hurt? Maybe one should walk his own talk and stop pretending to be better than the rest of us.

And don't let the door hit you on the way out. Red State doesn't have medical coverage.

 
At 10:11 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I believe without proof that Howie is mulling over what I've been saying. I think he is starting to wonder if what he's doing will ever work or not. He's not stupid and he's thoughtful. It'll happen sooner or later. I'm predicting by next year.

And when he has that realization? THEN we can start working on an alternative using DWT as, hopefully, a catalyst.

8:02, we'll even invite you to jump on.

 

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