Saturday, June 16, 2018

Why You Should Never Vote For A Blue Dog

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I get a lot of retweet and replies from people defending Blue Dogs. I get the feeling that most of the perps are actually conservatives, just morons who don't understand what Blue Dogs are and what kind of damage they cause the Democratic brand and the whole country. I'll explain that in a moment but first let me list the current Blue Dogs and which candidates are running under the Blue Dog banner. First the incumbents:
Sanford Bishop (GA)
Jim Cooper (TN)
Lou Correa (CA)
Jim Costa (CA)
Charlie Crist (FL)
Henry Cuellar (TX)
Vicente Gonzalez (TX)
Josh Gottheimer (NJ)
Dan Lipinski (IL)
Stephanie Murphy (FL)
Tom O'Halleran (AZ)
Collin Peterson (MN)
Brad Schneider (IL)
Kurt Schrader (OR)
David Scott (GA)
Kyrsten Sinema (AZ)
Mike Thompson (CA)
Filemon Vela (TX)
It's important to remember that the phrase "Blue Dogs" is not an adjective to describe conservative Democrats, though it could be. The "Blue Dogs" is a formal organization. You pay dues, elect officers, go to meetings, split up bribes from Big Business interests eager to purchase influence inside the Democratic caucus, etc. In order to be endorsed by the Blue Dogs, you have to apply and pass a written test proving you are a corrupt conservative. Many of their worst candidates-- like Jay Hulings (TX), Brad Ashford (NE), JD Huffstetler (VA) and Jim Grey (KY)-- have already been defeated by more progressive candidates in primaries this year. This is the garbage that's left:
Anthony Brindisi (NY)
Paul Davis (KS)
Gretchen Driskell (MI)
Mel Hall (IN)
Chris Hunter (FL)
Brendan Kelly (IL)
Kathy Manning (NC)
Ben McAdams (UT)
Matt Reel (TN)
Max Rose (NY)
Clarke Tucker (AR)
Denny Wolff (PA)
Jeff Van Drew (NRA-NJ)
For the fun of it, I bolded every Blue Dog candidate who is in a district that was won by Bernie in the 2016 primary. So what's so bad about the Blue Dogs that I would urge readers to not vote for them in primaries and consider carefully if you want to vote for a lesser-of-two-evils candidate in the general? Let's go back a few years when the Blue Dogs were bragging about how they were powerful enough to have scuttled the public option. Not a single House Republican voted for the Affordable Care Act-- and all the negotiating was internal, between Democrats. The Blue Dogs held the bill hostage, threatening to vote with the Republicans to kill it. Mike Ross, then head of the Blue Dogs:
"We insured that if there is a government option, it will be just that-- an option-- and it won’t be mandated on anybody. If it had been based on Medicare rates, I can assure you that it would have eventually ended up resulting in a single payer-type system, because Medicare has really good rates, because they’re negotiating for every senior in America. Private insurance companies could not have competed with that. And so we would have at the end of the day ended up with single payer. Now we’ve leveled the playing field, if there is a government option they’ll have to go out again and negotiate with providers just like private insurance companies do. That was important to me to insure that we don’t end up with some type of single payer system."
Imagine if Pelosi didn't give in to them and passed it. But she did-- she had no choice. Several Blue Dogs just did the same thing with DACA a couple of weeks ago. That's what they do. They call themselves "moderates" and "centrists" but within the Democratic Party they are conservatives who drag the party consistently to the right by threatening to vote with the Republicans, when they do all the time.

ProgressivePunch has graded every Blue Dog's record "F." These are the 7 worst Democrats in Congress based on this cycle's votes. All of them have voted more frequently with the Republicans on crucial roll calls than with the Democrats. Walter Jones (R-NC) votes with the Democrats more than they do. And Justin Amash votes against the GOP than all but one of the stinkin Blue Dogs. This year, worst of all has been Collin Peterson, who has voted with the Democrats 28% of the time. Kyrsten Sinema-- Blue Dog chairwoman who Schumer has chosen to run for the Senate-- has voted with the Democrats (from a safe blue seat) 32% of the time. Jim Costa, also in a safe blue district, voted with the Dems 32%, as have 2 more from safe blue seats, Jim Costa (CA) and Henry Cuellar (TX). Josh Gottheimer- 39%, Tom O'Halleran- 40%, Stephanie Murphy- 42%. Horrible. And if you say, we need them to win, you are absolutely wrong. In fact, the opposite is true. History proves that most of them will likely lose their seats in the 2022 midterms when Democratic core voters realize what they are and stay away from the polls.



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7 Comments:

At 11:34 PM, Anonymous zeeman said...

Howie, this is true IF you have options, Primary YES, General NO! I reside in AZ-09.It will boil down to B Dogs Sinema/Stanton. Do I waste my vote for an Ind/Grn party candidate (I learned and saw how far my vote went in that election)(2016) or not vote at all and let the freaks score another destructive victory. This is how the moron got in the Oval.

 
At 6:28 AM, Anonymous ap215 said...

Deedra Abboud is the better candidate for Arizona https://www.deedra2018.com/

Another reason to never vote Blue Dog New Dem or Big Money Dem

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsIDRC8Yxww&t=295s

 
At 6:55 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

True. Yet the epiphany remains elusive.

Besides those who are openly republicans, there are another 10 in the senate who don't want that label but vote like it. All of them are in power positions in the caucus, led by scummer.

Evil will never be checked by empowering just a tiny bit less evil.

If no matter who you vote for in AZ won't do dick for you (or anyone else), why NOT vote for an independent or Green or Socialist? Do you REALLY have anything on the line?

The purpose of your vote is not to be on a winner's team. It is to affirm someone you feel will BEST support and represent you.

 
At 9:51 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

The 2022 election is quite a jump from today. There is no security that the 2018 election will be held much less the 2020 election.

Ajit Pai has just destroyed the Internet for anyone not a corporation, television and radio continue to be closely held propaganda organs for "conservatives", and there remains the problem of hackable voting machines and the likelihood of electoral fraud.

I'd suggest dealing with one election at a time for right now. 2 years between them is plenty of time to act. if one is diligent.

 
At 12:21 AM, Blogger pm said...

So you're waiting for the internet to get fixed before you stop voting for shitty Dems in primaries? And hell man there won't be ANY election in 2020 -- game over! What's it matter?

Spoken like a true junkie!

 
At 6:59 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

9:51, I often wonder if the suspension of elections would finally trigger DWT's epiphany. Would it finally hit home for the 65 million who wasted their 2016 votes? Would it hit home for anybody at all?

I have been considering the famous epiphany of Rev. Niemoller more and more these days. Also, the prescience of Upton Sinclair.

Could it be that DWT's epiphany is elusive simply because it would make DWT not only blind and stupid but irrelevant, as well as a really, really long-term waste of time? Would anyone besides me know that we've ALL been screwing the pooch for 38 years?

 
At 8:45 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

6:59:

I knew we were in trouble when Ford pardoned Nixon. Carter made matters worse, and Reagan was my last straw. I voted for Anyone But The Top Two every chance someone viable showed up (and that didn't include David Koch's attempt to run as a Libertarian). What I noticed each time was that more people did as I did in each election than in the previous one, so the progression indicates that the Two Corporatist Wings of the Big Money Party are losing support of the voters. The real race is now between humanity reining in Greed before Mother Nature wipes us out.

pm:

Let me know when you run for office so I can vote for your opponent. Even a rock has more of a clue than do you.

 

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