The Rhode Island Democratic Party Establishment-- Just Like The DCCC

This is the right-wing Trumpist nut the Rhode Island Democratic Party endorsed instead of the progressive incumbent

Rhode Island is a very blue state. In 1928 the whole country lined up behind Herbert Hoover, except the Lincoln-hating Solid South plus Massachusetts and Rhode Island which both voted for Al Smith. It wasn't until 1952 and 1956 that Rhode Island went Republican (they loved Ike)-- as did everyone but the Lincoln-haters. All Democratic after that except for 1972 (Nixon over McGovern) and 1984 (Reagan over Mondale, narrowly). Other than those it was all Democrats. The state's PVI is D+10. Bernie won the primary 54.6% to 43.6% and Hillary beat Trump 55.4% to 39.8%. Of the 75 members in the state House, only 12 are Republicans. And in the state Senate just 5 of 38 members are Republicans. All the federal officials are Democrats, as are the governor and lieutenant governor, attorney general, treasurer and secretary of state-- every statewide post. The voters vote for Democrats and they tend to vote progressively. The Democratic establishment stinks to high heaven and calls itself Democratic but is almost entirely corrupt, owned by Wall Street, backward and from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party. Rhode Island is always an uphill battle for progressives because of the state establishment which always prefers Republicans to progressives.

There's been an exposure of this dynamic blowing up in the last week. Ted Nesi, reporting for WPRI wrote that progressives are at war with the establishment shitheads House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello and Warwick Rep. Joe McNamara. Why? The party they control-- the Democratic Party (not us, them, our enemies)-- endorsed corrupt conservatives, one of whom, Michael Earnheart, a challnger against a sitting Democratic state Rep, Moira Walsh, had voted for Trump.

“It is absolutely shameful that the establishment machine is lining up behind conservative, unethical and anti-woman candidates to run against real Democrats in races across Rhode Island,” state Rep. Aaron Regunberg, a Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor, said in a statement Monday.

The controversy is the latest evidence of a deep divide in the Rhode Island Democratic Party, which holds every federal and statewide office as well as durable supermajorities in the state legislature, at the price of massive differences in policy and perspective across its membership.

...Progressive women have also been frustrated that their priorities got short shrift in this year's legislative session, particularly a high-profile bill on abortion rights that the General Assembly's pro-life leaders kept bottled up in committee.

In addition to Earnheart and Carnevale, Regunberg took issue with the state party’s endorsement of former state Sen. Gregory Acciardo over Bridget Valverde in Senate District 35, as well as the House District 5 Democratic committee’s endorsement of Holly Coolman over incumbent Rep. Marcia Ranglin-Vassell. Acciardo pleaded no contest to driving under the influence in 2010 and is currently seeking to have the record expunged; Coolman is pro-life, while Ranglin-Vassell is pro-choice.

...A story on Slate.com asked, "Why did the Rhode Island Democratic Party endorse an alt-right supporter over a progressive incumbent?" Topher Spiro, a former staffer for U.S. Sen. Jack Reed who is now a prominent leader at the liberal Center for American Progress, called on Reed, U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse and Gov. Gina Raimondo to endorse Walsh and "call for a shake up" in state party leadership.

"This is totally unacceptable," Spiro tweeted. "Deal with it swiftly."

The first high-level officeholder to take sides was Democratic Congressman David Cicilline, who said he had reached out to Walsh to offer his support. "Rep. Walsh has consistently stood up for Democratic values," he tweeted. "Something that clearly cannot be said for her opponent." Within hours, General Treasuer Seth Magaziner and state Sen. Donna Nesselbush said they had donated to Walsh, too.

A few days later Nesi was back on the beat: "The ex-Republican endorsed by Rhode Island Democratic Party leaders to unseat a progressive incumbent female lawmaker says he has no plans to exit the race despite a backlash that’s drawing national attention." This is exactly the problem with the Democratic Party nationally as well. Party Chairman Joe McNamara is like the DCCC-- corrupt, conservative, authoritarian. He gave "the party" endorsement to Trumpist (an "ex"-Republican crackpot) over Rep. Moira Walsh, for giving right-wing corrupt House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello shit. "[P]rogressive women,"he wrote, "[are] casting it as another sign the male-dominated party leadership doesn’t respect them. A number of prominent elected officials have broken with party leadership and sided with Walsh, while old-guard Democrats have mostly remained silent so far." Meanwhile Mattiello and the other establishment thugs are avoiding the media and laying low to try to ride out the growing firestorm.

“Rhode Island is very much a microcosm of what’s going on nationally,” Walsh, who defeated an incumbent herself in the 2016 primary, argued in an interview. She linked her situation with last week’s primary victory of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a 28-year-old progressive, over powerful New York Congressman Joe Crowley.

“The establishment often puts their weight behind the wrong horse,” she said. “And more times than not, young progressive women get snubbed for male candidates who aren’t going to have the audacity to ask for reproductive rights or equal pay or many of the other things that us progressive women are demanding and deserve.”

"Democratic Gov. Gina Raimondo [a total Wall Street whore] weighed in Tuesday, tweeting: "Endorsed Democrats should be candidates who embrace our party’s values and stand against the Trump agenda. If I’ve learned anything, it's that being in the trenches fighting for change and helping people keep up and get ahead matters more than any endorsement." Her primary opponent, Matt Brown, criticized Raimondo for not explicitly backing Walsh, and called the endorsement of Earnheart "outrageous."

Walsh and Earnheart will square off in the Sept. 12 primary in House District 3, a heavily Democratic seat that includes Providence's North End. The primary winner will be unopposed in the November election, virtually guaranteeing he or she will take the seat.

Earnheart was a registered Democrat from 2008 to 2014, then a registered Republican from 2014 until last year, when he switched back to Democratic, according to the secretary of state’s office. A photo circulating on social media shows him holding a “Make America Great Again” sign at a pro-Trump rally. He also voted in the 2016 Republican presidential primary.

“I only voted for Trump on economic policies,” Earnheart said. “Trump’s rhetoric is awful. He says divisive things. He’s a little bit mean-spirited and bullyish. But the reality of the situation is he’s a very pro-business candidate, and … I want to be able to see that trickle down into Rhode Island.”

Earnheart said he was not impressed by either Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton, the major 2016 Democratic presidential candidates.

Sanders has “basically never had a job in his entire life. He’s going to dictate how the economy runs?” Earnheart said. “And then Hillary Clinton, who got so fabulously well-connected and disconnected from the populace that it’s almost laughable. These were my choices.”

“So I was, like, I can’t do this,” he continued. “I’ve got to go with somebody who’s a proven businessperson or somebody who at least purports to support the interests of the middle class, the working class. That was him.”

Earnheart had told Eyewitness News back in late May that he planned to run as an independent, not a Democrat. But he said he eventually approached McNamara to ask for the endorsement. “I think he represents more of the vision of the party that I ascribe to, which is the moderates,” Earnheart said, adding that he also “knew Moira was kind of a controversial figure.”

You can contribute to Moira Walsh's grassroots campaign by clicking on the 2018 ActBlue state legislative thermometer on the right. Moira needs a little love to take on the stinking corrupt establishment and their Rhode Island Trump-like swamp. Earnheart is exactly the kind of fake "Democrat," the establishment recruits and thereby confuses voters who then find it hard to even identify which party actually is the lesser evil.


UPDATE: Ghost In The Machine

This morning, Aaron Regunberg, the progressive state legislator, Blue America endorsed for the lieutenant governor job, issued a statement: "In a string of shameful endorsements this week, the State Democratic Party endorsed conservative, criminally indicted, and even Trump-supporting candidates running against strong progressive women incumbents. The state party machine has been operating like this for a long time. What's new is that our Democratic movement is actually standing together, speaking up and fighting back. And guess what-- this advocacy works! Today, the party officially rescinded its endorsements in two of these races, against Rep. Moira Walsh and Bridget Valverde. That is the power of this movement. But we’re not done yet. There are other powerful women incumbents still being targeted. Let’s keep the pressure on... The machine is getting nervous. They should be. Let’s show them what our movement is really made of."