Thursday, October 11, 2018

With The Democrats Offering Almost Nothing, The Wave Isn't Blue-- It's Just Anti-Trump

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More like this would've meant an actual Blue Wave

I wish there was a Blue Wave coming. But as I've been saying for months, there's not. Oh, Democrats are going to win lots of House seats and gubernatorial houses and state legislative seats... but that's because of an anti-Red Wave or an anti-Trump Wave, not because of any Blue Wave. A Blue Wave would be much better. It would be all about millions of Americans marching to their polling places to standup for an inspiring agenda-- like Medicare-For-All, free state college, Job Guarantee. Instead, Pelosi is offering voters the exact opposite: PayGo. People hate Trump and his enablers so they'll vote for the lesser evil. And then in 2022, they'll kick the worthless Democraps out of office and bring back the Republicans.

Norman Solomon asked me to read something he and some colleagues had written for The Nation this week: Democratic Autopsy: One Year Later. "Progressive momentum," they wrote, "could lead to historic breakthroughs in the midterms and beyond. Realizing such potential will require transforming and energizing the Democratic Party." They know as well as all of us do what a pipe-dream that looks like now. Their Autopsy update evaluates how well the Democratic Party has done in charting a new course since the autumn of 2017-- and, if you follow internal Democratic Party politics at all-- you probably know already. The only thing that keeps them from being the worst political party in the country is that that space is already occupied. They rate the "progress" on seven broad categories:
Corporate Power and the Party-- somewhat worse
Race and the Party-- mixed bag
Young People and the Party-- mixed bag
Voter Participation and the Party-- somewhat improved
Social Movements and the Party-- mixed bag
War and the Party-- somewhat worse
Democracy and the Party-- somewhat improved
Goal ThermometerSound to you that any of this is going the spark an actual Blue Wave? This sums it up appropriately: "How did the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee react to this grassroots energy? Often by intervening on behalf of establishment primary candidates against progressives, as in Colorado’s sixth district and in Texas’s seventh district (where the DCCC publicly attacked progressive candidate Laura Moser). Social movements have the ability to energize the Democratic Party, but not if blocked by party leaders.

Today, less than a month before the election, the DCCC wants progressives to get behind their bag of crap candidates from the conservative Republican wing of the Democratic Party, for the sake of the unity needed to defeat the Trump bogey man. OK, fair enough. But is the DCCC getting behind progressives who won primaries and are now representing the party against the GOP candidates? Nope; they're-- at best-- ignoring them, and in some cases actively undermining them based primarily on an intense hatred from progressives and progressive ideas. Blue Wave-- not while Pelosi and her DCCC are in power. And, I'm afraid, every realistic alternative to her and her cronies is even worse.

More from the report that goes to show why this cycle is an anti-Trump wave, not the Blue Wave we all crave:
“The Democratic Party still isn’t offering a bold vision that can excite young adults, a demographic known for not voting much... The Democratic leadership is still using a 1990s-era playbook of technocratic half-measures that don’t inspire-- or bring out to the polls-- America’s youth.”
“The party could dramatically boost voter participation by mobilizing around progressive proposals that are broadly popular, such as higher taxes on the wealthy, Medicare for All, a $15 minimum wage, stronger environmental protections, public transportation and criminal justice reform.”
Corporate power continues to dominate the party... A crucial disconnect remains between rhetoric about corporate influence and subservience to it.”
“The depressed turnout that cost Hillary Clinton the 2016 election was due to both voter suppression efforts by Republicans and the Democratic Party’s own inability to mobilize its base. The party has made some progress on both counts.”
“Few Democrats in Congress are willing to strongly challenge the unaccountable military budget, which soaks up most discretionary spending that could be redirected toward the party’s proclaimed domestic agenda.”
On matters of war and peace... the 17-year war in Afghanistan and the Trump team’s extremely one-sided Israel-Palestine policy, top Democrats have offered few alternative policies.”
“To get closer to living up to its name, the Democratic Party should rely on a broad base of small donors and refuse donations from corporations, particularly those with interests adverse to the party’s platform.”

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9 Comments:

At 9:10 PM, Blogger edmondo said...

I got my Vote by Mail ballot in the mail today. I ran it through the shredder so I wouldn't be tempted to vote for the corporatists Dems running for Congress and Senate in AZ-02.

Screw the Dems.

 
At 10:46 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Your irrational anger is counterproductive. I hope it felt good. Republicans are proud of you. Their strategy worked on you. Their victims though...

 
At 10:47 PM, Blogger News Nag said...

So, DWT, you were 'Anonymous Democrap' all along?

 
At 6:08 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

No, NN, DWT isn't. It's me. And I'm gratified that this author has totally plagiarized what I've been adding to posts here for the past 2 years, even though he/she softened it quite a bit.

But still no epiphany by DWT.

This must be the worst case of cognitive dissonance in the history of psychological maladies.

edmondo, I must somewhat agree with 10:46. I don't know about the AZ ballot, but writing in a name or voting green or socialist would be more effective, though less satisfying maybe, because every vote NOT for either candidate is a signal to both parties that they are shit and they lost an opportunity for a bigger total.

In 2012's presidential contest, only about 1.4% voted NOT for Romney/obamanation.
In 2016 it was 4.5% voting for NOT trump/$hillbillary.

I'm hoping that number keeps growing until it becomes noticed by both the moron democrap voters and the pundits who have ignored it since perot ran and gave us fucking bill Clinton and his corrupted DLC party.

You missed your opportunity to help out.

 
At 6:50 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Congratulations, Howie. You ALMOST put up a post that I could agree with 100%. Here's where you missed:

"...the DCCC wants progressives to get behind their bag of crap candidates from the conservative Republican wing of the Democratic Party, for the sake of the unity needed to defeat the Trump bogey man."

Taking a strict meaning of your verbiage, Trump isn't running in this election. Even if the "democrats" were to manage to put their Republican-lite corporatists into office, Trump will remain undefeated and will continue to push his divisiveness onto the nation. He will do as he has said in the past, and double down with his counterattack.

Did you miss the reports that Trump set to shuffle top generals? Allegedly, this is for foreign policy reasons. But can we be certain that Trump isn't putting generals loyal to him into position to stage a coup and impose martial law?

I put nothing past this bastard who openly lusts after being dictator. I have no faith in the military officer corps, who can't wait to unleash their inner Pattons and would likely jump at the chance to "pay back" the civilians who aren't falling in upon their orders. They need that kind of power to round up enough "volunteers" to send to foreign lands and impose the corporatist version of "democracy" upon the populations of lands where great profits can be realized.

 
At 6:52 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

URL for the report on Trump shuffling generals

I wish we could edit our posts when we need to!!!

 
At 6:53 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/07/politics/trump-generals-choices/index.html

Inhibiting links, Howie?

 
At 9:12 AM, Anonymous ap215 said...

Here's a little proof of Eric Holder's Republite Speech

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tT4irJOtu6Y

 
At 11:20 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

6:50, please note that the democraps have no intention of defeating any 'trump style boogey man'.

Pelosi's history is to jam both thumbs up her ass and just let the Nazi tyrant continue to act like a douchenozzle -- thus making even the reddest democraps look a tiny bit less horrible in comparison. She will try to gain more house seats in 2020, maybe eke out a nominal senate edge and hopefully grease the skids for a burgundy-colored democrap in the WH.

Then they can really get down to the business of repaying corporate donors and billionaires with some serious tax and regulatory relief... and hopefully continue to baffle the 65 million shit-for-brains who voted for $hillbillary.

As long as they don't get 60 in the senate, they should be able to rely on the Nazis to filibuster whatever the democrap donors want filibustered -- all the better to pretend to try (and fail) to do something progressive.

It won't matter. The 'craps have no intention of affecting anything in a progressive voter mandate. Never will. So 2022 will be another anti-blue bloodbath like 2010 was.

But DWT will still be bleating the same 'hold your nose and...' in 2024. It's not a job... it's a vocation?

 

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