How Badly Are Democratic Leaders In Congress Alienating The Voters Who Put Them In Power?

No one elected Hoyer and Pelosi king and queen of anything, let along of the House Democratic caucus. Their innate, across-the-board, status quo, establishment perspective-- especially Hoyer's-- holds the Democrats in the House back and saddles America with no-can-do policies on virtually everything to the left of Pay-Go... meaning everything. You can imagine how freaked out they are about having to contend with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her band of allies. Fox News was only too happy to report that "a brash batch of freshmen Democrats including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN) captured the hearts and imagination of the Democratic Party’s activist wing with an agenda combating climate change and income inequality and beyond. But the influence and attention they are quickly amassing, as well as high-profile stumbles along the way, are creating tensions with party leaders-- which exploded in full public view this week." Fox reported that establishment hysteria over Ilhan's criticism of AIPAC was just "the latest sign of growing tensions between a tight-knit group of female freshmen and the party brass." True dat.

The Democratic leadership does not support the policy agenda-- first articulated by Bernie, who none of them respect anyway-- and which includes what millions of Americans use to persuade themselves to even bother voting for a bunch of corporate careerist whores like congressional Democrats, who have tried, successfully, to always position themselves as just a little bit-- but never more than just a little bit-- better than the Republicans.



That agenda that both establishment hierarchies dismiss out of hand includes Medicare-For-All, the Green New Deal, free public universities, Job Guarantee, etc. Pelosi and Hoyer have made it clear that those will never pass while they still run the House. Many voters who propelled the Democrats to victory in November are learning they made a terrible mistake by imagining the Democrats who get behind what Bernie has been talking about-- and what progressive candidates were talking about-- last year. The majority of the Democratic freshmen-- having been chosen by Pelosi's New Dem-controlled DCCC, absolutely suck and are not any better on the issues people care about than are Pelosi, Hoyer or... the Republicans. Let's take a look at what's going on in the minds of the Republican wing of the Democratic Party. Fox is in touch with the Democraps:

Strategist Brad Bannon told Fox News that the new wave of energetic, more radical Democrats shows the shift in the electorate from baby boomers to millennials.

“With all her flaws, Ocasio-Cortez is good for the Democratic Party, because she reflects the growing power of millennials in politics, and the tension between her and Pelosi is good for the party,” he said.

He said, however, that the recent stumbles hurt the party, and that he expects more senior Democrats to try and rein in lawmakers like Ocasio-Cortez.

“I think they will try and rein her in, yes, is the short answer. And basically, I think what they're telling her and her friends is that it’s fine to raise these issues but you have to be careful how you do it,” he said. “If you’re going to introduce a Green New Deal, make sure you’ve dotted the ‘i’s and crossed ‘t’s before you do it.”

But he didn’t doubt Pelosi’s power to use the energy that the freshmen bring to her advantage: "Pelosi is a master legislative tactician and the thing about Pelosi is she knows how to use and channel energy of younger members. I think she looks set to do that.”

Other strategists warned that, with 2020 Democrats under pressure to go along with these policies, it could drag the party into unelectable territory next year.

“If we’re going to be competitive in 2020, the Democrats need a message that is more reflective of the mainstream of the country,” Doug Schoen, a Fox News contributor and former adviser to President Bill Clinton, said.

He went on to say that items like the Green New Deal are “at best aspirational, rather than necessarily prescriptive.”

“It raises doubt in people’s minds about the seriousness and practicality of the Democratic Party,” he said. “Further, some of the anti-Israel and frankly anti-Semitic comments raise doubt about the entire commitment of the Democratic Party to Israel and the sort of traditional values, that approach [to] politics we longtime Democrats have come to expect from our party.”

That stance saw some agreement from moderate Democrats. Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) head of the Problem Solvers Caucus [and one of the most corrupt Wall Street-owned scumbags ever elected to Congress], told the Washington Post that the Democratic Party “has to be open and recognize that.”

“And if we don't and insist that everyone takes a hard line view on everything, (a) I don't think that's going to attract votes in the next election, and (b) it puts our majority at risk," he said.

Democratic leaders and centrists are likely to face more pressure to act against the left-wing newcomers going forward-- particularly as Republicans sense an opening. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, with the slightest of grins, told reporters Tuesday that he was planning on bringing the Green New Deal to a vote in the Senate: "Give everybody an opportunity to go on record and see how they feel about the Green New Deal."

As Norman Solomon wrote in a short essay, Bernie 2020 Campaign Has Corporate Democrats Running Scared, Tuesday evening, "The overarching fear that defenders of oligarchy have about Sanders is not that he’s out of step with most Americans-- it’s that he’s in step with them. For corporate elites determined to retain undemocratic power, a successful Bernie 2020 campaign would be the worst possible outcome of the election... Last week, Business Insider reported on new polling about Bernie’s proposal to increase the estate tax, the tax paid by heirs on assets passed down by the deceased. Sanders’ idea would lower the threshold to qualify for the tax to $3.5 million in assets, down from the current $11 million. The plan would also introduce a graduating scale of tax rates for the estates of wealthier Americans, eventually reaching a 77 percent marginal rate for assets over $1 billion. Here are the poll results: “When presented with the details of the proposal, 37 percent of respondents supported Sanders' policy while 26 percent opposed, according to Insider’s survey. (The rest had no opinion.) That kind of response from the public is a far cry from claims that Sanders is somehow fringe. In fact, the ferocity of media attacks on him often indicates that corporate power brokers are afraid his strong progressive populism is giving effective voice to majority views of the public.

The Republicans-- and their corporate masters-- are swooning. The NRCC announced a 2020 district target list this week, predominately composed of freshmen but also including a dozen non-freshmen-- Tom O'Halleran (Blue Dog-AZ), Stephanie Murphy (Blue Dog-FL), Charlie Crist (Blue Dog-FL), Dave Loebsack (D-IA), Cheri Bustos (Blue Dog-IL), Colin Peterson (Blue Dog-MN), Josh Gottheimer (Blue Dog-NJ), Sean Patrick Maloney (New Dem-NY), Peter DeFazio (D-OR), Matt Cartwright (D-PA), Conor Lamb (D-PA), and Ron Kind (New Dem-WI). The only targeted members I would vote for are in a general election are Loebsack, DeFazio and Cartwright and the only one endorsed by Blue America so far this cycle is Cartwright.

As for the freshman members-- none of the GOP bêtes noires like Ocasio or Tlaib or Omar, mostly the corporate slime who vote most frequently with the Republicans on crucial roll calls and who undercut their own standing with the base by opposing the progressive policy agenda. These are the targeted freshmen and their crucial vote scores so far from ProgressivePunch:

Ann Kirkpatrick (New Dem-AZ)- A ($716,143)
Josh Harder (New Dem-CA)- A ($1,010,411)
TJ Cox (D-CA)- A
Katie Hill (New Dem-CA)- A ($793,385)
Gil Cisneros (New Dem-CA)- A
Katie Porter (D-CA)- B ($691,718)
Harley Rouda (New Dem-CA)- B ($710,386)
Mike Levin (D-CA)- A ($756,941)
Jason Crow (New Dem-CO)- A ($896,765)
Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (New Dem-FL)- A ($828,319)
Donna Shalala (D-FL)- A ($624,002)
Lucy McBath (New Dem-GA)- A
Abby Finkenauer (D-IA)- F
Cindy Axne (New Dem-IA)- F
Sean Casten (New Dem-IL)- A
Lauren Underwood (D-IL)- A
Sharice Davids (New Dem-KS)- F ($513,944)
Jared Golden (D-ME)- F
Elissa Slotkin (New Dem-MI)- A ($1,125,159)
Haley Stevens (New Dem-MI)- A ($634,872)
Angie Craig (New Dem-MN)- A ($775,961)
Dean Phillips (New Dem-MN)- A ($580,192)
Chris Pappas (New Dem-NH)- A
Jeff Van Drew (Blue Dog-NJ)- F
Andy Kim (D-NJ)- A ($761,557)
Tom Malinowski (New Dem-NJ)- A ($945,081)
Mikie Sherrill (Blue Dog-NJ)- B ($1,447,753)
Susie Lee (New Dem-NV)- A ($925,202)
Steven Horsford (New Dem-NV)- F
Max Rose (Blue Dog-NY)- F ($785,839)
Antonio Delgado (D-NY)- F ($1,105,197)
Anthony Brindisi (Blue Dog-NY)- F
Xochitl Torres Small (Blue Dog-NM)- F
Kendra Horn (Blue Dog-OK)- F
Susan Wild (New Dem-PA)- A
Joe Cunningham (Blue Dog-SC)- F
Lizzie Fletcher (New Dem-TX)- A ($721,140)
Colin Allred (New Dem-TX)- B ($822,559)
Ben McAdams (Blue Dog-UT)- F
Elaine Luria (New Dem-VA)- F ($808,338)
Abigail Spanberger (Blue Dog-VA)- B ($884,026)
Jennifer Wexton (New Dem-VA)- A
Kim Schrier (New Dem-WA)- B ($735,528)

There's a dollar figure next to some of the names. Those are the freshman members who have been feeding at the bankster trough-- and that's how much money they're taken so far from the Financial Sector. They're the ones who have scooped up over half a million. Normally anything over $100,000 in a single cycle is considered corruption and should be deemed criminal behavior. Just sayin'.