Democratic (Party) Direction

if you're not at the very least profoundly skeptical of financial deregulation efforts then uhh idk enjoy the next crash I guess

The Democrats who support the Senate bill all voted for Dodd-Frank. They argue that bipartisan buy-in for modest adjustments to Obama’s Wall Street reforms would essentially enshrine their permanence, something they’ve tried but failed to do for Obama’s health care law.

Not all these people are morons - some are grifters, many are both.

they believe with more conviction

as dean baker never tires of pointing out, this is bad reporting: we don't know what they actually believe, much less with what degree of conviction. we know what they say, and what they do, that's it. i mean thank goodness politico is here to tell us what these democrats really "believe" otherwise we might think they were actually interested in cosying up to the sources of potential campaign contributions

Thoughts about Illinois? Lipinski seems to have won :(

idk guys but if a literal Nazi had run unopposed as a Democrat and won - even in a safe/ uncontested GOP stronghold - i feel like i'd hear a lot more about it.

from the GOP/FOX/RW mediaverse something along the lines of "All Democrats Are Literal Nazis", and then very serious "both sides" people would be writing in newspapers/on the internet and saying on TV very serious things about how Democrats have really got to deal with this ascendant Nazi problem

good mourning!

"What is it about the current incarnation of the Democratic Party that a literal Nazi feels comfortable running as one, and that registered Democrats are actually willing to show up and vote for him?"

The voice of politico reporting is the echo of all the staffers used to source every story. Staffer life inside those buildings is the absurd realized in a way that can only be surpassed in wartime. Everyone is there to make a difference, but none of it really matters, push the rock.

Also, I seem to recall mutliple male actors announcing their gubernatorial runs ( and winning, including one that went on to be POTUS) and not getting the shit Cynthia Nixon is right now. And seriously, AT LEAST SHE PLAYED A LAWYER AND NOT THE FUCKING TERMINATOR.

— Cher (@thecherness) March 19, 2018

Not especially invested in that race but "at least she played a lawyer" = classic argument

it's Cher, it's funny

Ha

or rather the main point precedes the punchline

I forgot about Sonny Bono. Did he get shit when he ran?

Not enough to keep him from being elected.

the seven-term incumbent’s 1500-vote win in a district gerrymandered specifically for him means centrism hasn’t completely failed https://t.co/S3gVGD4x3W

— Paul Blest (@pblest) March 21, 2018

(btw, i'm sorry, that's not THE Cher) xp

From Public Policy Polling: “But 19% of people voting in the primary approved of Trump. And Lipinski won those folks 85-10. Trump supporters in this open primary were responsible for saving Lipinski from a resounding defeat yesterday.”

http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/379482-ppp-poll-dem-leads-by-5-points-in-tennessee-senate-race

Since Trump’s victory, however, Democrats have flipped 39 statehouse seats, counting the 15 Virginia pickups plus four in New Jersey. Amazingly, 20 of these victories have come in special elections, mainly in districts carried by Trump, some by very large margins, in places as varied as Wisconsin, Missouri, Kentucky, and Florida. Democrats have taken five GOP statehouse seats in purple New Hampshire, four in red Oklahoma, and a big one in Washington State last November 7, when activist Manka Dhingra grabbed an open seat formerly held by a Republican, flipping the State Senate to blue. Almost immediately, Washington passed a statewide automatic-voter-registration law, which Governor Jay Inslee signed on March 19. Earlier in March, a bill was passed banning so-called conversion therapy for LGBTQ folks. Elections have consequences.

Nationwide, there are 7,383 state legislative seats, and 6,066 of them, in 87 out of 99 chambers, will be on the ballot this November. Democrats aren’t quite running a 7,383-seat (or a 6,066-seat) strategy—at least not yet. But after years of frustration and neglect, it’s no longer impossible to imagine the day when the party contests every single statehouse seat in every state in the Union. Party insiders, activists, resistance groups, and candidates—from Maine to Minnesota, from Arizona to Georgia, and all the GOP-dominated states in between—are gearing up for an unprecedented number of races in 2018. In dozens of states, Democratic leaders are vying to bring about “the next Virginia,” in the words of North Carolina Representative Graig Meyer, who is part of a recruitment effort that has enlisted a Democratic challenger for every Republican incumbent in both houses of the state’s General Assembly for the first time in recent memory. In 2014, by contrast, 34 GOP incumbents in the State House of Representatives and 12 in the Senate went unopposed. Ohio Democrats have likewise recruited a challenger in every legislative district in the state. And in Pennsylvania, the number of Democrats who have filed to run for the State House and Senate outnumber Republicans 56 percent to 44; most of the Republicans are incumbents.

https://www.thenation.com/article/the-7383-seat-strategy/

now that's a little bit heartening.

word

To quote a friend's excellent take on Nixon/Cuomo:

"Why do we need some rich celebrity to run against Cuomo? Why can't we have someone with real political experience?"

That's a great question! Allow me to explain:

1) Cuomo has spent the last eight years selling influence in Albany to rich people for millions of dollars. It's enormously hard for a middle-class person to challenge someone who can sell the entire regulatory apparatus of state government to the highest bidder to raise money.
2) Cuomo is powerful and vindictive and will do his best to destroy the career of anyone who challenges him (see De Blasio).
3) Since the one thing that unites all sitting Democratic politicians is a collective interest in protecting incumbency as some sort of sacred right, it's immensely hard to convince anyone to challenge an incumbent; when Democratic state senators were *voting with Republicans* on a regular basis it took several years of grassroots pressure to get anyone to challenge them, because incumbents. In other news the Democrats in the Assembly are willing to gerrymander the state senate Republican for decades if it allows them to protect their own incumbency against primary challengers.
4) Given the enormous difficulty of challenging incumbents in these circumstances, the only reason we ever have competitive elections at all is because there are two parties. But in New York statewide elections, much like in all of New York City, we're de facto under one-party rule, which means that plenty of districts can go a decade or more without seeing a competitive election at any level of government. Of all the glaring contrasts between the US system of government and what a hypothetical liberal democracy might be like, this is perhaps the least noticed.
5) For all these reasons it's enormously hard to find anyone to challenge an incumbent, particularly in such a large race; it's virtually necessary that the person doing it be independently wealthy and independently famous. We're lucky we found a rich celebrity from a working-class background with decades of public-education activism under her belt rather than some asshole, frankly.

In conclusion, New York incumbents are well-enough-protected from incumbency as it is; given how well advantaged they are by the rules they wrote for the game they play, they don't also need your idiot technocratic concern-trolling about how governing should be left to the enlightened few to help them maintain their stranglehold on the levers of power. Thanks for your time!

damn

can i share that anonymously elsewhere, man alive?

I think leftists outside of NYC who are (rightfully) confused about why a rich celeb is suddenly good now just underestimate the burning hatred we carry in our hearts for Cuomo

— Brandy Jensen (@BrandyLJensen) March 22, 2018

oh it's your friend's not yours; i don't expect you to be able to OK that, then

but very cogent

xp

I think those who carry burning hatred in their hearts for Cuomo are confused about their numbers

Leftists, Moo. She's talking about leftists.

don't even try, Simon

it's nice to know that our #1 Dem mover/fantasist approves of a gov who keeps NY Repugs in power though

Nixon’s years and levels of activism and involvement w non-profit orgs seem to indicate that she does actually have experience. Seems preferable to highlight that than the “political experience is bad actually” takes I’ve seen the last couple of days.

I'm a realist and so is Cuomo. I don't approve or disapprove of anyone, really.

What does that mean

classic moo

realist = party hack

https://www.thecut.com/2018/03/bernie-supporters-back-cynthia-nixon-for-governor.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Democratic_primary,_2016#New_York_City_results

k

Man all these articles always quote just a certain subset of people aged mid-20s thru mid-30s in media gigs

Oh wait, correction, there’s one person who’s 45 but also an actor.

The rest are a 32-yr-old video editor, a late 20s exec asst, and Will from Chapo(who’s 34).

Which expiration date on litigating 2016 comes first—ILXOR or TRUMP?

I'm a realist and so is Cuomo.

I have not the slightest doubt that Kissinger would have claimed this label in regard to the Pinochet coup d'état in Chile or supporting Suharto's massacres in East Timor, too. The benchmark for being a political realist always seems to be the ability to firmly embrace the odious without so much as wrinkling your nose.

these articles always quote just a certain subset of people aged mid-20s thru mid-30s in media gigs

NYT writer's guide: Three friends a deadline = a trend

A sign of the times: In 2016, there were 4 U.S. House runoffs in Texas (1 D, 3 R). In 2018, there will be 17 (11 D, 6 R), and 5 of the GOP runoffs are due to Republican retirements pic.twitter.com/BPMKEoo1o1

— Daily Kos Elections (@DKElections) March 23, 2018

This from Daniel Biss, who was beaten as a progressive challenger in the Illinois gov primary but did much better than anyone expected, and now has this to say to nominee JB Pritzker:

"I spoke with JB about the two structural changes I see as necessary to solve so many critical problems in Illinois: a progressive income tax to fund the investments we need in healthcare, education, and job creation; and public financing of elections to create a political system that's accountable to everyone, not just big money. We cannot just pay lip service to those ideas -- we must have a clear plan for how to get them done.

That conversation was just the beginning. I look forward to continuing it in the days ahead, and I hope that before long the results of these discussions will enable me not just to advance our shared goal of defeating Bruce Rauner, but also to affirmatively endorse JB."

still give Biss side-eye from when he dropped Rosa off his ticket tbh

oh it's your friend's not yours; i don't expect you to be able to OK that, then

but very cogent

xp

― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Friday, March 23, 2018 12:32 PM (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I'm sure he'd be fine with you even attributing it to him, a lot of people are sharing it. If you really want the name I'll message you.

All the big insurance companies are starting to pour money behind Blue Dog Democrats to ensure Medicare for All supporters aren't elected into congress with the blue wave pic.twitter.com/LCvyQL3rG5

— Michael Sainato (@msainat1) March 25, 2018

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/religious-democrats-young-republicans-what-the-stereotypes-miss-about-both-parties/

The concept of “Medicare for All” has majority support in 42 states, according to the small liberal policy shop Data for Progress. Using numbers from the Kaiser Family Foundation, which tracks public opinion about health-care policy, a handful of researchers found that the concept of universal Medicare was popular in all but two states (Montana and West Virginia) where Democratic senators are seeking reelection this year.

“We find that there are a number of states, such as New York, Illinois, Rhode Island and California, where there is majority support for Medicare for All but Democratic senators who have not signed on to S1804,” said Data for Progress’s Sean McElwee, giving the number for the Medicare legislation introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2018/03/19/medicare-for-all-enjoys-broad-support-but-pollsters-worry-that-it-hasnt-been-tested/?utm_term=.8209ad9d56f5