Democratic (Party) Direction

Conservatism of establishment dems shining through.

lol p sure Pelosi has access to more polling data/inside baseball info about Dem prospects than anybody here

stop defending her, just this once

stop pretending she's an ineffectual right-wing shill and not, like, an actual expert manager of a very large caucus just this once

She's a shithead for tweeting that right now.

er saying that right now

if she's got a failing it's that she hasn't groomed a younger generation of leadership to succeed her (lol Steny Hoyer), but if she were to step aside there would be a huge power vacuum and internecine squabbling would ensue that would likely fracture the caucus into something more closely resembling the incompetent GOP, which can't even marshal enough votes to pass its own bills from its own majority - is that what you want? not an ideal outcome for leftist priorities.

xp

her comment still sucks, nagl to dump on a win that fires up your base

I do think there's a risk of overstating the meaning of the victory. She had amazing on the ground organization, she's a great candidate, and she ran in a progressive district. Not every district can have an Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, I can acknowledge that. And anyone who wants to be another AOC needs to focus on on-the-ground organization yesterday, it's about more than just adopting the Bernie platform.

that flyer upthread with her platform on it would look great in the hands of pretty much any candidate tbf

Beals lost NY-19 bad on the same platform. He was kind of a lackluster candidate running in a crowded field.

even if she can't be bothered to voice a full-throated endorsement of AOC's socialist critique or w/e, it would be pretty easy for her to say some boilerplate thing like "i've known joe crowley for many years and am proud of his great work on behalf of his constituents. i join him in congratulating alexandria ocasio-cortez, who speaks passionately for a whole new generation of democratic voters; i wish her success in november and hope to work with her on a range of critical issues that all americans share, from health care to reforming our broken immigration system" or whatever.

"i've known joe crowley for many years and am proud of his great work on behalf of his constituents. i join him in congratulating alexandria ocasio-cortez, who speaks passionately for a whole new generation of democratic voters; i wish her success in november and hope to work with her on a range of critical issues that all americans share, from health care to reforming our broken immigration system"

uh, this is like verbatim the text of her statement. lol @ cherry-picked Sherman quote designed to stoke maximum outrage from an innocuous comment about the larger electoral playing field.

OK that's fair

haha okay fair enough, i only had the tweet to go on there

Honestly anyone who thinks that this somehow weakens the Democratic Party should take a good long look at the GOP and what happened to them since the Tea Party insurgency. HINT: they now control all three branches of government and most states.

and they still can't pass bills

thinking the results of an admittedly surprising primary battle are going to weaken the democratic party is some peak nyc-centrism

they have control over one branch (judicial) by virtue of the fact that one half of the legislative branch (the Senate), being the institution least prone to high rates of turnover and its own internal pressures, has been largely immune to the Tea Party insurgency

and the Senate still can't pass bills either

xp

that wasn't very clear - what I was getting at is that it's not some Tea Party wingnut running the Senate and packing the courts with Federalist Society minions, it's fucking Mitch McConnell, as establishment a GOP figure as there ever was.

and McConnell has steadfastly marginalized and openly fought with the Tea Party wing of his Senate caucus - Ted Cruz and Mike Lee and hey let's throw in Rand Paul for good measure, these guys are not running the Senate, and they aren't always reliable votes for McConnell. Generally they are an annoyance to him.

it's a different story at the state level, I'll grant you that one. And energized surge of radical leftist candidates/votes at the state level is something we should all be working towards.

sorry for the cherry-picked tweet guys. I should’ve sought out the full statement.

otoh, throwing Maxine Waters under the bus was total asshole move and isn’t going to win any points with literally anyone.

yeah I'm gonna stay mad about that for a while regardless of Pelosi's cat-herding skills, it was totally unnecessary.

Pelosi was probably trying to ratchet down the rhetoric because she doesn't want herself or any of her caucus to get shot, would be my guess

Pelosi and her satraps are old, and to abjure their duty to promote younger colleagues amounts to malfeasance, in my opinion, but I still wanna see her speaker again because she can pass legislation. Maybe there's a lesser known representative out there, untried but talented. We don't know. But I sure as shit don't want Tim fucking Ryan as speaker.

Corp dems: too big to fail

Except they still fail, constantly

but idk, could be something else she has against Waters - either way it's an internal thing that didn't need to be public that's for sure.

Pelosi and her satraps are old, and to abjure their duty to promote younger colleagues amounts to malfeasance, in my opinion, but I still wanna see her speaker again because she can pass legislation.

this is exactly where I'm at. She deliberately created this power vacuum so that she wouldn't have any credible challengers, and that's bad for the party (what are they going to do when she's gone? gonna be ugly). She should have groomed a successor that was half her age, but it's kinda too late now.

xp

she could've been a Rayburn to some younger member's LBJ, but she didn't do it. She picked fucking Hoyer and Crowley from her own generation and then endlessly rewarded their loyalty.

I mean fuck. When Maxine is brought up how hard is it to turn it back to the Trump admin stealing kids from parents or Hicknocchio using the official Press Sec Twitter to train an army of online ghouls to threaten a SMALL BUSINESS OWNER?

Corp dems: too big to fail

Except they still fail, constantly

The undeniable fact that a good candidate and solid ground game (and some other favorable circumstances, it's true) can overcome even massively unequal funding levels and a complete lack of mainstream press is the most heartening takeaway for me. (And a sign that changing the class makeup of the party over time is at least distantly possible.)

I mean if there’s one thing the GOP does grok it’s messaging

I mean, maybe the reason the party has generally failed to groom promising younger candidates is very much tied to the fact that they are unwilling to wholeheartedly embrace more progressive policies? Like what kind of young dweeb really badly wants to be a centrist democrat today?

They just go straight into patent law instead probably.

I mean, maybe the reason the party has generally failed to groom promising younger candidates is very much tied to the fact that they are unwilling to wholeheartedly embrace more progressive policies?

otm

idk about that, it's not like every effective younger candidates/members of Congress were (or are) progressives - Conor Lamb, for ex.

I think it was most likely more about personal ambition/loyalty than policy

how virtuous!

Crowley’s defeat could put pressure on other members of the caucus to declare their ambitions now, given that spots rarely open up in House Democratic leadership without an assumed successor.

Chief among them is Rep. Linda Sánchez, vice chairwoman of the caucus and No. 5 behind Crowley. The California Democrat had been seen as the most vulnerable member of the leadership team after publicly calling last fall for Pelosi, Hoyer and Assistant Minority Leader Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) to move on to make way for a new generation.

Sánchez could declare her intentions to run for House Democratic Caucus chair now that Crowley is no longer in the picture. But the opening could also prompt other younger, ambitious members to vie for the post. Lawmakers including Reps. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, Cheri Bustos of Illinois and Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico were being floated by Democratic members and aides Tuesday night.

I like Sanchez, there's yr new blood for party leadership

although publicly pissing off the top 3 ahead of her was probably not a wise move

Maybe the dems could refrain from publicly calling one another out altogether, I dunno, just a thought.

yup, better to have them inside the tent pissing out etc

Kinda incredible how the Dems seems to have nailed the whole 'women vote women' thing over the last few elections but still can't get past the idea that 'youth votes for youth' even though some of their most celebrated victories over the last 60 years are exactly that.

except for when youths voted for the septuagenarian socialist interloper, you mean?

youth doesn't vote in general, for the most part

It was between two septuagenarians, to be fair.

Bernie definitively the most youthful of the septuagenarians.

and yes, point taken.

...in a primary with a surfeit of youthful candidates on offer

Xp

So yeah, my question to the pol. experts: how many Ocasio-Cortez can happen? is it something that is strickly New York? is it realistic to think a certain blueprint has been laid down for the rest of nation?