Democratic (Party) Direction

more good news:

CNN has projected that Republicans won the special election in Arizona's 8th Congressional District, but once again Democrats have overperformed in a deep red district, in another sign the national environment is in the their favor.

The vote count is not final, but Republican Debbie Lesko is currently ahead of Democrat Hiral Tipirneni by about a 5-point margin.
In a neutral environment, the margin should be much wider. President Donald Trump won the district by 21 percentage points in 2016 and Mitt Romney won it by 25 percentage points in 2012. Combining those outcomes and controlling for how well Democrats did nationally in each of those contests, we can say that Arizona 8 is 25 points more Republican than the nation. Lesko looks like she's going to do about 20 percentage points worse than that.

Whomever you are, Hiral Tipernini, you made the GOP spend money in Maricopa fucking County, so you’re all right by me.

love how Trump and co. are gloating about this victory

With Hoyer in Denver, Tillemann met the minority whip at the Hilton Denver Downtown to make the case that the party should stay neutral in the primary and that he had a more plausible path to victory than the same centrism that Coffman had already beaten repeatedly.

Hoyer, however, had his own message he wanted to convey: Tillemann should drop out.

In a frank and wide-ranging conversation, Hoyer laid down the law for Tillemann. The decision, Tillemann was told, had been made long ago. It wasn’t personal, Hoyer insisted, and there was nothing uniquely unfair being done to Tillemann, he explained: This is how the party does it everywhere.

Tillemann had heard the argument before from D.C. insiders and local Democratic bigwigs, all of whom had discouraged him from challenging the establishment favorite. The only difference was that for this conversation, the candidate had his phone set to record.

https://theintercept.com/2018/04/26/steny-hoyer-audio-levi-tillemann/

https://i.yomyomf.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/virgil_sollozzo_4.jpg

It wasn’t personal, Hoyer insisted, and there was nothing uniquely unfair being done to Tillemann, he explained

obviously no big surprises here but it is laid out a little more explicitly than usual

well after enjoying such a great run of sustained electoral success, why change tactics?

Well, good to know Intercept will still publish any nothingburger as long as it's 'secretly taped audio'. Talk about not learning from the past.

Meanwhile, opponents of the party’s unspoken pick are driven into paranoia, wondering if they are merely imagining that unseen hands are working against them.

Lol

whatever else our differences may be can we agree "nothingburger" is at least six months past its sell-by date

Which only makes it more fitting for the Intercept

Most of all, Tilleman sounds like a self-righteous asshole. The only thing he has shown about himself is that he is deceitful and untrustworthy, and then he ends like this: 'I’m proud to be on the side of truth. I’m proud to be on the right side of democracy, and I’m proud to be on the right side of free and fair elections.'

It's brainless tribalism, and I wouldn't want to be on the side of Greenwald, Assange, etc.

there's bad political strategy on the one hand, and a nefarious plot to undermine progressives on the other.

pretty sure most of the dems' foibles can be categorized into column A

...

Lol that was like an xxxp to Fred, nm

Greenwald, Assange

there are clearly legit reasons to take issue with GG but equating them as being anywhere near equally bad is pretty fucking rough

That's not what I did.

It's brainless tribalism, and I wouldn't want to be on the side of Greenwald, Assange, etc.

― Frederik B, Thursday, April 26, 2018 8:12 PM (sixteen minutes ago)

priding yourself on "not being on someone's side" is brainless tribalism

what "side" do Assange and Greenwald share in 2018, Fred

Ok, so because Tilleman is speaking out against party leadership trying to avoid any debate over the Dem nominee by getting him to withdraw, he’s “on the side” of a Trump-supporting accused rapist asshole. I see why people love discussing politics with you.

I for one have no clue why you would take the side of Hoyer and the DCCC in this, Fred.

Talk about brainless tribalism

Oh J.D. beat me to it

DCCC is making a potentially grave error it they don’t restrain from getting involved in this way. It places too much confidence in conventional wisdom/historical norms to think it will be good enough to just tell people “more progressive candidates can’t win here”. You have the take the risk of seeing that demonstrated. On the immediate level it’s just bad politics.

And you have to love how Steny has no explanation, doesn’t even attempt one, other than to drag out a pompous paraphrase of “life’s not fair”

Fred b really showing his true colors in this last part of the thread. Its kind of hard to understand how anyone who doesn't actually work for the DCCC, DNC or some party consultant or think tank would take that line, which is not to say Fred B does, I just find his opinions here completely baffling.

Also Steny's analogizing progressive candidates to Roy Moore is pretty telling on multiple levels.

I mean even Nerdstrom is not with you on this one Fred

don't criticize the DNC on any grounds because they're the only potential bulwark against Republican/Trumpian rule is myopic but plausible and consistent

I believe Tom Perez was even critical of the DCCC during the whole Laura Moser situation.

don't criticize the DNC on any grounds because they're the only potential bulwark against Republican/Trumpian rule is myopic but plausible and consistent

― Mordy, Thursday, April 26, 2018 4:03 PM (forty-three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

But how could anyone who follows politics as closely as Fred really see it this way, as though the DNC and DCCC were the only way the Democrats could win? After a relative unknown mounted one of the strongest primary challenges ever to the DNC's pre-crowned nominee for president with near zero backing from party organs and even polled well against the Republican nominee? We're already seeing progressive democrats win formerly red state legislative seats with no help from the DLCC.

These are rhetorical questions. The DNC and DLCC's goals are not solely to win, but also to maintain ideological control over the platform of the party and to keep it "centrist." That is the function of these groups. It's not a nefarious conspiracy, it's just the inevitable result of who their donor base is.

(meant to say DNC and DCCC but same true for DLCC)

Can you list some examples of progressives having winning red state seats without DNC help? I only recall there was a similar widely circulated claim about Virginia’s Lee Carter which turned out not to be true.

I don’t know for sure that it is accurate to just conflate the DNC and DCCC as if they were identical twin cthuloid mind flayers or whatever. May have been true as recently as 2016! But not necessarily any longer.

If I had to guess at why Fred went balls-out for the wrong side in this it’s probably for the reason I almost did the same: Glenn Greenwald is a fucking turd monger so therefore fuck the intercept QED.

Gotta be able to reign in the reflexes sometimes though, Fred

identical twin cthuloid mind flayers

dammit tombot why you keep stealin my potential band name ideas

fwiw fred was a determined anti-sanders progressive iirc so i think he has been consistent on that front, if that indeed is the front he's on

fred cannot vote in american elections so his position on democratic politics is kinda moot to me anyway

unison HELLO HUNTSVILLE WE’RE THE IDENTICAL TWIN CTHULOID MIND FLAYERS

tcmf1 AND

tcmf2 WE

tcmf1 ARE

tcmf2 HERE

tcmf1 TO

tcmf2 EN

unison SLAAAAAAAAVE YOU

hell yeah

*head tentacles flailing about*

nobody ever thought of having a band that is actually two one-man-band guys playing at the same time

This is incredible. https://t.co/O0oEisXEeJ pic.twitter.com/ro04fnHdcR

— Osita Nwanevu (@OsitaNwanevu) April 26, 2018

Republicans were trailblazers in this area

“We're already seeing progressive democrats win formerly red state legislative seats with no help from the DLCC”

Anyone know what real think this is in reference to? Only case I can think of, it later turned out the guy had help.

*real thing

the party's unspoken prick

man i miss so much stuff out pounding the pavement for a job

Man, this profile of Levi Tillemann’s family doesn’t feel all that much like the working class neighborhood underdog guy I heard about earlier. https://t.co/ayfqFBLRXU

Interesting. And maybe a great candidate. But not what I felt like was being described to me.

— David Waldman, LLC (@KagroX) April 27, 2018

that story is not well-written

*head tentacles flailing about*

http://demonssouls.wdfiles.com/local--files/enemies/mind-flayer.jpg