Whither the Democrats?

[liminalOyster]

I vote no. Move it to current events. This stuff is important, currently. The Democrats are doubling down on cutting off their base. That's the point of this thread, to me.

Ok. But serfs. Doubling down on silencing their serfs.

[Elvis]

I'm just disappointed. I've seen every reason for ignoring the Democratic party as if it doesn't matter in this emergence—this emergency—of fascist Trumpstyle GOP. Now Jerry Brown's a storm trooper. Get real. California, with Jerry Brown, is leading the fucking way in the United States.

I don't how to take over a political party, but the Socialist Democrats or somebody needs to do it to whatever extent they can, and start making universal free health care and education a reality, pass humane immigration laws, rebuild unions, reclaim public parks and put the U.S. on a course of peaceful cooperation with the rest of the world.

That basic stuff is only going to happen if Democrats elect a president like a Bernie Sanders—or a Jerry Brown—and/or have a majority in Congress. I'm just sayin'.

[Elvis]

This is brilliant and true, if only for its day when a white supremacist wasn't U.S. president...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chFaesfO7fQ

[American Dream]

Jerry Brown was satirized as a Zen Fascist by Jello Biafra in 1980, wasn't it? I don't hate him but I don't love him, either.

Some of my best friends actively contemplate joining the DSA to build an alternative power bloc within the Democratic Party but I think it's a questionable idea to compete right now with the DNC's mafia on the national or state level. Bernie Sanders for example has proven to be a sheepdog, leading those he can back to the institutional power I can't support.

I'm not against all electoral tactics but in engaging with such a powerful political monster, you've got to have a tremendous counterpower. Otherwise you'll probably get played.

[Elvis]

I would much prefer an independent candidate, an independent "movement," as Bernie Sanders still calls it. Bypassing the parties would be best, but the current duopoly's stranglehold on televised debates and on other election processes most likely does preclude an independent strategy.

That leaves the Democrats. Heh.

[Elvis]

Ocasio-Cortez Gets Criticized For Imperfect Response

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5fCLaMID0E

[Elvis]

This is an example of what I mean:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RG9N4ZP5MQA

A House majority of people like Ocasio-Cortez I would call progress. As Sanders says, anybody can do it and win, because it's what people want anyway. Maybe I'll run for Congress in 2020 when I'll have more leisure time. Sending Sanders $10 is more my usual extent of participation, but thanks to Trump, my dark past shouldn't be an obstacle to winning high office.

[dada]

The thing is, the drumbeat for 2020 pregame show has already started, and people are all excited and ready to sit down and armchair quarterback. Get your popcorn popped, get your snacks snacked.

Chomsky may be wrong sometimes, but I think he's right when he says that voting is a tool that shouldn't take very long. You do a bit of research, you decide if you're voting or not, you go do it or not, the end.

That's voting. Politics is the rest of your life.

(edited to generalize)

[Elvis]

Stop telling me what I'm thinking.

[dada]

Hey, don't take it personally, Elvis. I should have used the word "people," and not "you." Because I was making a comment on the pregame show spectacle, the cheering squads, the viewers, the whole thing.

But really, I'm only really criticizing myself. Because I'm yelling at the TV.

So I really can't criticize the viewers. I'm a viewer, too. I just have my own old bad horror movies with hosts that make dumb jokes that I like to watch. Midnight Frights, that one is a total surrealist shitshow. That's politics.

edited to add: I realize I've misquoted Chomsky. He would probably say you do some research on the candidates, decide who to vote for, go do it, the end. I added the non-voting option. I don't want to put that off on him, that was my fault.

Anyway, why not move this thread to current events? That's on the floor. I think the topic of this thread will be a current event for a while.

[Elvis]

'k thanks.

[conniption]

Bad Attitudes


April 29, 2018

Watch The Democrats Lose Again

I was all set to rant about the ineptitude of the Democratic party, but William Astore at Bracing Views beat me to the punch:

Meanwhile, Democratic officialdom is looking backwards, not forwards. The Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) idea of progress is to bring a lawsuit;against Russia, the Trump campaign, and WikiLeaks for the 2016 election. This act will “fire up the base,” or so leading Democrats appear to think. But it’s really sour grapes, a loser policy conducted by pols who remain out of touch with the pressing concerns of ordinary Americans (you know, things like health care, a living wage, and other issues associated with Bernie Sanders’s campaign). If only America had a true Labor Party instead of a DNC that mirrors the Republicans while lacking their focus and ruthlessness.

And it just gets worse. It turns out the the DCCC or the DNC or some other sclerotic party organ got their big six-figure brains cookin’ and came up with an exciting new message for the upcoming midterms. Or maybe not:

Democrats are looking back to the last time they took control of the House for lessons on what may work this year, and they’re starting to narrow in on a major theme: the Republican “culture of corruption, cronyism and incompetence.”

Yes, the Democratic party, which has become a watchword for corruption, cronysim and incompetence, is running against corruption, cronyism and incompetence. Insert punchline here. In between attacks of aphasia, Nancy Pelosi has repeated the phrase numerous times:

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is bringing back her 2006 refrain for this cycle. It first appeared in an April 6 statement calling for the resignation of Environmental Protection Agency head Scott Pruitt, saying he was “a part of the Trump Administration’s culture of corruption, cronyism and incompetence.” It then popped up later that day in one of her press releases, and then three days later in a letter to her colleagues about their priorities in the coming months. In her weekly press conference the following day, she used the phrase twice, reminding reporters of that earlier election: “Some may recall that in 2005, 2006, one of our mantras during the campaign was to drain the swamp, to end the Republican culture of cronyism, corruption and incompetence, and that is exactly what we did. The president has misappropriated that term of art, ‘drain the swamp,’ and what does he do but have an administration that is wallowing in it.”

Is there anything more inspiring than a seventy-eight year old establishment politician repeating a slogan from 2006 over and over again? It’s just the spark we need to beat Trump and the Republicans. If Chuck Schumer takes it up, I just might have to slip into something a little more comfortable.

Good God. Who will rid us of these moribund old fuddy duddies who haven’t had a new idea idea in thirty years? How much longer must the party be ruled by these stale, stagnant, calcified, ossified, visionless, unimaginative, doddering, corrupt cronyist incompetents? They’ve brought us nothing but defeat and humiliation. They’ve driven the Democratic party to the brink of extinction and delivered the country to Donald Trump. They are total fuckin’ losers and they need to go yesterday.

They lost to Donald Fucking Trump. Say those words over and over in a quiet dark room free of all distractions. Say them slowly. Let them linger. Wallow in each syllable until their full impact seeps deep into your brain: They lost to Donald Fucking Trump.

And just know that if the Dems don’t embrace a positive New Deal style populist agenda — an agenda that actually attracts new voters and enlarges the party — they will lose to him again.

But they won’t. They’ll sprinkle socially liberal confetti around to distract from the fact that behind closed doors they fellate the exact same banks, corporations and arms manufacturers who finance the Republicans. They’ll run an exact replay of the 2016 campaign, convinced, as always, of their superiority and wonderfulness. They’ll shiv progressives in the back, screech all day and night about Russia Russia Russia, and run against Trump’s bad manners. Meanwhile, they’ll continue to pray for St. Comey and St. Mueller to save us.

It’s possible that sheer revulsion over Trump might lead to a “blue wave” election, but I’m skeptical. The Democrats are just as arrogant and lead-footed as their standard bearer was in the 2016 campaign, and they show every sign of being similarly blindsided. One can’t escape the suspicion that they are sleepwalking into another massive defeat. They will not, cannot change their agenda. Nancy Pelosi came right out and said, in the wake of historic democratic defeats, “I don’t think people want a change in direction.” (She then gibbered on about “our values” and other such meaningless nonsense that party hack Tom Perez frequently employs). They’ll cling to their neoliberal Washington Consensus agenda until the whole ship fuckin’ sinks, which quite literally might happen, in a manner of speaking. Even if they should win, they must do something with their victory or Trump, or possibly Pence, will beat them again. At any rate, the pundits who are confidently predicting a blue wave also confidently predicted a Hillary Clinton victory (and before that, they confidently predicted that Bernie Sanders would be out of the race by the South Carolina primary; for the last year, they’ve been confidently predicting, on an almost daily basis, the imminent demise of Trump. Forgive me for not popping out the champagne quite yet.)

This picture sums up how incestuous and corrupt our political establishment is more than anything else I can think of. It clues us in to what we have in store in the event of Democratic victories (hint: not much).



That’s Paul Pelosi, Nancy’s son, partying hearty in the Hamptons with Ivanka Trump, who has replaced Sarah Palin as every seventy year old Republican's favorite masturbation fantasy. That shows you everything you need to know about the impossibility of change in our current system. Viva la Resistance!


Posted by OHollern at April 29, 2018

~~~

[Elvis]

Pardon me for quoting the entire piece, it's worth reading twice.

Emphases added:

Bad Attitudes


April 29, 2018

Watch The Democrats Lose Again

I was all set to rant about the ineptitude of the Democratic party, but William Astore at Bracing Views beat me to the punch:

Meanwhile, Democratic officialdom is looking backwards, not forwards. The Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) idea of progress is to bring a lawsuit;against Russia, the Trump campaign, and WikiLeaks for the 2016 election. This act will “fire up the base,” or so leading Democrats appear to think. But it’s really sour grapes, a loser policy conducted by pols who remain out of touch with the pressing concerns of ordinary Americans (you know, things like health care, a living wage, and other issues associated with Bernie Sanders’s campaign). If only America had a true Labor Party instead of a DNC that mirrors the Republicans while lacking their focus and ruthlessness.

And it just gets worse. It turns out the the DCCC or the DNC or some other sclerotic party organ got their big six-figure brains cookin’ and came up with an exciting new message for the upcoming midterms. Or maybe not:

Democrats are looking back to the last time they took control of the House for lessons on what may work this year, and they’re starting to narrow in on a major theme: the Republican “culture of corruption, cronyism and incompetence.”

Yes, the Democratic party, which has become a watchword for corruption, cronysim and incompetence, is running against corruption, cronyism and incompetence. Insert punchline here. In between attacks of aphasia, Nancy Pelosi has repeated the phrase numerous times:

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is bringing back her 2006 refrain for this cycle. It first appeared in an April 6 statement calling for the resignation of Environmental Protection Agency head Scott Pruitt, saying he was “a part of the Trump Administration’s culture of corruption, cronyism and incompetence.” It then popped up later that day in one of her press releases, and then three days later in a letter to her colleagues about their priorities in the coming months. In her weekly press conference the following day, she used the phrase twice, reminding reporters of that earlier election: “Some may recall that in 2005, 2006, one of our mantras during the campaign was to drain the swamp, to end the Republican culture of cronyism, corruption and incompetence, and that is exactly what we did. The president has misappropriated that term of art, ‘drain the swamp,’ and what does he do but have an administration that is wallowing in it.”

Is there anything more inspiring than a seventy-eight year old establishment politician repeating a slogan from 2006 over and over again? It’s just the spark we need to beat Trump and the Republicans. If Chuck Schumer takes it up, I just might have to slip into something a little more comfortable.

Good God. Who will rid us of these moribund old fuddy duddies who haven’t had a new idea idea in thirty years? How much longer must the party be ruled by these stale, stagnant, calcified, ossified, visionless, unimaginative, doddering, corrupt cronyist incompetents? They’ve brought us nothing but defeat and humiliation. They’ve driven the Democratic party to the brink of extinction and delivered the country to Donald Trump. They are total fuckin’ losers and they need to go yesterday.

They lost to Donald Fucking Trump. Say those words over and over in a quiet dark room free of all distractions. Say them slowly. Let them linger. Wallow in each syllable until their full impact seeps deep into your brain: They lost to Donald Fucking Trump.

And just know that if the Dems don’t embrace a positive New Deal style populist agenda — an agenda that actually attracts new voters and enlarges the party — they will lose to him again.

But they won’t. They’ll sprinkle socially liberal confetti around to distract from the fact that behind closed doors they fellate the exact same banks, corporations and arms manufacturers who finance the Republicans. They’ll run an exact replay of the 2016 campaign, convinced, as always, of their superiority and wonderfulness. They’ll shiv progressives in the back, screech all day and night about Russia Russia Russia, and run against Trump’s bad manners. Meanwhile, they’ll continue to pray for St. Comey and St. Mueller to save us.

It’s possible that sheer revulsion over Trump might lead to a “blue wave” election, but I’m skeptical. The Democrats are just as arrogant and lead-footed as their standard bearer was in the 2016 campaign, and they show every sign of being similarly blindsided. One can’t escape the suspicion that they are sleepwalking into another massive defeat. They will not, cannot change their agenda. Nancy Pelosi came right out and said, in the wake of historic democratic defeats, “I don’t think people want a change in direction.” (She then gibbered on about “our values” and other such meaningless nonsense that party hack Tom Perez frequently employs). They’ll cling to their neoliberal Washington Consensus agenda until the whole ship fuckin’ sinks, which quite literally might happen, in a manner of speaking. Even if they should win, they must do something with their victory or Trump, or possibly Pence, will beat them again. At any rate, the pundits who are confidently predicting a blue wave also confidently predicted a Hillary Clinton victory (and before that, they confidently predicted that Bernie Sanders would be out of the race by the South Carolina primary; for the last year, they’ve been confidently predicting, on an almost daily basis, the imminent demise of Trump. Forgive me for not popping out the champagne quite yet.)

This picture sums up how incestuous and corrupt our political establishment is more than anything else I can think of. It clues us in to what we have in store in the event of Democratic victories (hint: not much).



That’s Paul Pelosi, Nancy’s son, partying hearty in the Hamptons with Ivanka Trump, who has replaced Sarah Palin as every seventy year old Republican's favorite masturbation fantasy. That shows you everything you need to know about the impossibility of change in our current system. Viva la Resistance!


Posted by OHollern at April 29, 2018

~~~

[Elvis]

Assuming he's free of Franklin-type involvements, I kind of like Biden for a couple of reasons. One reason is that he never tried to get rich; for years he was the least wealthy member of the Senate (I dunno if that's still true). A regular Joe.

This is the second reason:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25aDP7io30U

Concerning Syria, it sounds like Biden may have been a lone voice in the White House wilderness.

I don't like the 'close pal of Erdogen' part, didn't like the conclusion of his Clarence Thomas hearings, and so on.

Biden would need top-drawer PR help (I wouldn't exactly call him "larger than life") and take some lessons from Bernie. Or, step aside and endorse Bernie.

[conniption]

President Trump: How & Why...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLG9g7BcjKs
Jonathan Pie
Published on Nov 10, 2016
Pie thinks he knows who is to blame for the rise of Trump...and you're not going to like it!