Centrist Democrats begin pushing back against Bernie Sanders, liberal wing
More neocentrist bullshit follows.
Read on.
The high-profile stars of the Democratic Party’s populist wing have steered the agenda their way on Capitol Hill this year, but the fight over the party’s direction is far from settled.
As the party faces great expectations of big gains in the 2018 midterms, Democratic centrists are increasingly worried that the disproportionate share of attention shown to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and the agenda pushed by his anti-establishment allies will do more harm than good.
“Disproportionate!!!???” That sounds like the Republicans complaining about the so-called “liberal press.”
I don’t see Bernie Sanders being featured on the front pages or lead TV news of the dominant mass media outlets. Do you?
That direction, the thinking goes, will energize liberals in places that Democrats are already winning by big margins. But it might drive away the voters needed to win inland races that will shape the House majority and determine which governors and state legislators are in charge of redrawing federal and state legislative districts early next decade.
More importantly, “that direction” might steal the thunder from the presidential fix being set up for 2020. They are afraid that…if they can manage to demonize Trump sufficiently to get him outta there, they’ll comfortably go back to the usual “good candidate/bad candidate” routine, because whoever wins the nominations in 2020 will be neither a fire-breathing outlier or a “socialist.”
Enter a group called New Democracy, a combination think tank and super PAC trying to reimagine the party’s brand in regions where Democrats have suffered deep losses.
Leaders of the group want to focus on rebuilding in states where, during the Obama presidency, Democrats lost nearly 1,000 legislative seats and more than a dozen governor’s mansions.
“Our most important work will be done outside of Washington,” Will Marshall, founder of New Democracy, said in an interview.
Right again. It will be done in the backrooms of the controlled media, just as it has been done since the day JFK got shot.
The effort is publicly being labeled as “supplemental” to the emerging agenda being crafted on Capitol Hill, including the highly populist “Better Deal” proposal touted by party leaders in the House and Senate last month. But the new group’s leaders do not see that agenda, including a push for lower prescription-drug prices, as particularly helpful to Democrats in exurban districts or key Midwestern states where President Trump won last year.
“That is an accurate reflection of many Democrats who represent deep blue districts. But it has limited appeal beyond the coasts,” Marshall said.
–snip–
These people are even further to the right than Pelosi and Schumer, and that is saying something!
It goes on…and on and on and on…with this foolishness. I do not believe that these Democrats particularly want to win, they just want to make sure that no outliers tumble their braead basket again.
New Democracy is taking shape under the failure of another Clinton — Hillary — whose loss to Trump helped solidify the already growing divide between Democrats and voters beyond large urban centers. Several dozen Democrats have signed on with New Democracy, including Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack, Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto and Rep. Stephanie Murphy (Fla.), a freshman rising star.
In other words, centrist HRC was not centrist enough to win.
I can see the posters now.
Hickenlooper for Preznit!!!
The perfect name.
Who’s writing this shit? Charles Dickens?
Unbelievable.
But true.
The two Democratic wings could be headed for a fierce clash over what the party needs to stand for in the wake of the stunning 2016 defeat. Sanders, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and other liberals have been making gains in getting congressional Democrats to support ideas such as a $15-an-hour minimum wage, some form of free college and demanding a full-frontal assault on big banks and big corporations.
“A fierce clash.” Oh, I hope so!!!
So far, however, the minimum wage and college plans pushed by Sanders have not been in the “Better Deal.” Senior Democratic advisers say that their effort has been to embrace economic populism without focusing on less politically popular liberal ideas.
Oh.
Kinda like…centrist Republicans.
Riiiight…
The early portions of the “Better Deal” agenda tilt in the populist direction, with calls for stronger antitrust regulations and its tough talk on trade deals. Their belief is that white, working-class voters — millions of whom voted for Barack Obama but then switched to Trump — felt left behind in an economy with fewer manufacturing plants and those jobs went offshore or disappeared through automation.
Marshall and other Democrats fear that the populist tone is built around a negative message of casting blame and lacks the optimistic tones around which Bill Clinton and Barack Obama built their successful presidential bids.
“Optimistic tones.”
What more can I say?
Can you eat them?
Spend them?
Count on them to help you when you are in trouble?
Hell no!!!
We need massive reform, not “optimistic tones.”
Give people a reason for optimism, like a fair deal. Then maybe they’ll vote for you.
In fact, “A Fair Deal” cuts the recent Democratic Party slogan “A Better Deal” to shreds!
A “better” deal leaves the rhetorical question open, “A better deal for whom?”
A “fair” deal guarantees a better deal for everybody except maybe the .01%.
Somebody get Bernie on the phone!!! Quick!!!
–snip–
“Obama’s success has masked the narrowing of the party’s appeal,” Marshall said, fearing that Democrats are not reaching beyond liberal elites. “Dogma seems to be in the driver’s seat.”
Dogma my ass!!!
The driver’s seat is…still…thoroughly occupied by corporate interests, which are working overtime to get this Uber-type Trump out of their business.
It’s gonna get ugly, I think. We are nearing a generational shift throughout this country. Will the young…who have largely rejected the entire mass media hype machine in favor of getting their false news in less centrally controllable forms…go for this new hustle?
I hope not.
One honest sentence from Bernie Sanders is worth all the DC neocentrist hype in the world.
I hope.
Later…
AG
