We Have To Vote For Every Democrat Running For The House (Except Debbie Wasserman Schultz) Because... Trump

I'm color-blind. I literally can't even tell red from green. Jacquie has been working with Jamie, Blue America's web designer, on a new lay-out. They cc me on the endless discussions of endless minutiae, even shades of colors that I can't see. It's been going on for weeks and weeks. The other day I mistakenly thought they had the final design done and replied that "it looks great," which it did. But it wasn't done and Jacquie gently yelled at me for butting in, implying, correctly, that I didn't know what I was talking about. And it wasn't just about color. Every bit and bop was something that spent time getting exactly right. I hadn't been paying any attention. I just thought it looked cool at the end of the process.

The next day, the political director of another progressive organization I belong to sent out a raw list of candidates they were about to investigate to all the directors. The list was just a random list of Democrats who had won their primaries-- great candidates like Jared Golden (D-ME), James Thompson (D-KS) and Jess King (D-PA) and especially wretched candidates like Anthony Brindisi (Blue Dog-NY), Max Rose (Blue Dog-NY), Jason Crow (New Dem-CO), Tom Malinowski (New Dem-NJ).

I might not know the difference between red and green, but I do know the difference between progressives and corporate Dems from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party. I have no doubt that in the course of investigating crap like Brindisi, Crow and the rest, they will be eliminated from contention and never be heard from again. But many of the directors just saw a list, didn't read what the list was about and thought they were voting for or against endorsing the candidates. Everyone who replied said "yes." I was as mortified as Jacquie must have been when I replied to what I thought was the finished web design the day before.

Let's keep this to House candidates. You can find the Blue America-vetted and endorsed House candidates here and you can find a list of progressive primary winners, some of whom we have already endorsed and some of whom we are still in the process of vetting, here. So those are (some of) the good guys, at least from a Blue America perspective. DFA, Justice Democrats, PCCC and other groups have their own criteria, vetting processes and suggestions.

But what about the bad guys? That's easy. You can find the Blue Dog candidates here and the New Dem candidates here. I'm going to list them below. But first a caveat. There's an existential threat to the country and our way of life right now-- nothing like any of us have ever seen in our lifetimes. Trump is at the nexus of that threat but the Republican Congress-- cowards and shameful enablers through and through-- are co-conspirators and must be stopped. That may mean holing your nose and voting for the kinds of right-of-center Democrats we may wind up fighting in the future. Even garbage candidates like Jeff Van Drew (Blue Dog-NJ) and, if she wins her primary, Ann Kirkpatrick (New Dem-AZ). So vote for them, but know what you're doing and, by all means, send financial support to the good guys. Let the anti-human, corporate end of the Democratic Party use their own money to back the Blue Dogs and New Dems. God knows, they won't be supporting many progressives; they never do. OK, my point is simple:

• Hold your nose and vote for every Democrat running (except Kyrsten Sinema and Debbie Wasserman Schultz)
• Contribute and work for progressives, not reactionaries
• Don't fool yourself about the difference between good Democrats and bad Democrats

That said, here are the Blue Dog candidates that haven't been eliminated yet. Many of them have been defeated in primaries by real Democrats.

• Anthony Brindisi (NY)
• Paul Davis (KS)
• Gretchen Driskell (MI)
• Mel Hall (IN)
• Chris Hunter (FL)
• Brendan Kelly (IL)
• Kathy Manning (NC)
• Dan McCready (NC)
• Ben McAdams (UT)
• Matt Reel (TN)
• Max Rose (NY)
• Clarke Tucker (AR)
• Denny Wolff (PA)
• Jeff Van Drew (NJ)

And these are the New Dems. As you can see, many of the Blue Dogs are also New Dems. There isn't much that separates the two groups. They both vote with the GOP far more than normal Democrats do and both groups are largely based around corporate corruption and playing quid pro quo games that put corporate profits before their own constituents. Don't be a sucker and convince yourself that "yeah, but my New Dem isn't like that; she'll be the exception." She won;'t be. I've been watching this closely for over a decade. There are never any exceptions. They all suck and they have turned the Democratic brand to shit from inside the party. The quintessential New Dem and a personification of brand-destroying corruption: Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Fortunately there's a progressive independent, Tim Canova, running against her this cycle-- and he has already declared that if he's elected, he will caucus with the Democrats.

• Ann Kirkpatrick (AZ)
• Greg Stanton (AZ)
• Josh Harder (CA)
• Katie Hill (CA)
• Jason Crow (CO)
• Nancy Soderberg (FL)
• Lauren Baer (FL)
• Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (FL)
• Mel Hall (IN)
• Brendan Kelly (IL)
• Paul Davis (KS)
• Elissa Slotkin (MI)
• Angie Craig (MN)
• Dean Phillips (MN)
• Dan McCready (NC)
• Kathy Manning (NC)
• Tom Malinowski (NJ)
• Mikie Sherrill (NJ)
• Max Rose (NY)
• Anthony Brindisi (NY)
• Susie Lee (NV)
• Chrissie Houlahan (PA)
• Lizzie Fletcher (TX)
• Ben McAdams (UT)
• Elaine Luria (VA)
• Abigail Spanberger (VA)
• Dan Kohl (WI)

One more rule of thumb: oppose all these people in primaries. Primaries still coming up that involve Blue Dogs and New Dems: Arizona, Florida, Minnesota and Wisconsin. And don't forget to hold your nose in November-- because nothing is as important as defeating Trump. As John Cassidy wrote in the New Yorker on Friday, Republicans are caught in a Trump bind this cycle. He pointed out that the results from OH-12 "highlighted fissures in the Trump-G.O.P. voting coalition, particularly the aversion to Donald Trump among some affluent, educated Republicans. These fissures are getting wider with every Trump tweet, rant, and insult. Just as worrying for Republican strategists: it’s hard to see any way to change course. Confining Trump to a Trappist monastery for three months might help a bit. But it might not: much of the damage has already been done."

Many of this year’s competitive House races are in suburban areas, where Trump’s presence looms large and unfavorably... Republican strategists are well aware of these trends. According to the Washington Post, White House aides are now “mapping out plans for the fall that would offer a variety of options to Republican candidates, including visits by the president’s daughter Ivanka Trump to blue states and presidential tweets to bolster red-state allies.”

Evidently, the thinking is to use Trump to boost turnout in areas where he is popular, but to keep him away from latte-sipping Republicans in the ’burbs. This may sound like a reasonable idea, but it’s impractical. There’s no keeping him away from anywhere. Whenever he says or does anything, he dominates the media agenda nationwide, and he winds up on televisions, computer screens, and smartphone screens. It’s fanciful to imagine that he could spend September and October whipping up his diehard supporters at rallies in places such as Charleston, West Virginia, and Bismarck, North Dakota, without entering the consciousness of Republican voters in the areas surrounding Chicago, Columbus, and Philadelphia.

The G.O.P. can’t escape the old truism that midterm elections are largely referendums on the President. With a lightning rod like Trump in the White House, the saying may apply doubly this year. Of course, things could change between now and Election Day. But, with less than three months to go, it’s looking like House Speaker Paul Ryan and roughly three dozen other House Republicans knew what they were doing when they announced that they would retire instead of seek reëlection this year.