In a comment on my recent pro-O’Rourke post Beto O’Rourke-A Statement of Honorable Purpose (http://www.boomantribune.com/?op=displaystory;sid=2019/1/25/17285/8239), esquimaux wrote:
Yeah, unlike Obama, O’Rourke hasn’t even pretended to be progressive.
If you want a candidate who’s a white man from the conservative half of the party, [O’Rourke is] more charismatic than the average blue dog and definitely better than Joe Biden. I don’t think that’s what Democratic voters will want next year.
I personally have absolutely no preferences for the eventual candidate’s race, religion, sex, geographic residence, supposed “progressivism” or age!!!
None whatsoever.
Read on for more.
The word “progressive” has been so worn down by corporate-owned/DNC-allied politicians and commentators that it no longer has any reliable definition whatsoever. If the PermaWar/neoliberal Clintons, Obama, Schumer and Pelosi were/are “progressives,” then God save us all.
Plus, the statement “I don’t think that’s what Democratic voters will want next year” misses the point entirely!!!
The old reliable “Democratic voters” voted for HRC in 2016. Some held their noses, but they voted for her anyway.
And they lost.
The usual pack of “Democratic voters” are not going to be enough in 2020 either, esquimaux.
In the absence of an effective, truly “progressive” third party…if the word “effective” could even be applied to an almost necessarily small party that would most likely tip the total vote rightward…we need a Democratic presidential candidate that can reach the non-Democratic voters without alienating the Dem base.
Lots of them!!!
So…what do I want from that candidate?
Honesty.
Integrity.
Imagination.
Intelligence.
Originality.
Stamina.
Charisma.
A common touch.
And…above all…new age political acumen!!!
The old ways are over, esquimaux. Trump exploded them. O’Rourke clearly understands this, as do a number of the new Dem representatives like AOC. It remains to be seen if any other potential Dem presidential candidates clearly understand this one simple fact.
So far?
Not a hint of that happening except for O’Rourke, who also appears to have the other 8 attributes that I have listed above. All of the rest are playing the old game…a game still absolutely dominated by the old-school, big-corporate-money DNC people who got their asses whipped in 2016 by an execrably nasty, lifelong con man. You shouldn’t feel too bad, though. Before he did that he performed the same operation on the even more old-school RNC.
Your orthodox DNC “identity politics” approach to winning is dead meat, esquimaux. Trump killed it in 2016, had it chopped up and made into poisonous McTrumpburgers.
If the Democratic Party does not recognize this one simple fact, it will either lose again or we will have another sad remnant of the already failed neoliberal doctrines sitting in the White House, waiting for the apocalypse.
So it goes, and WTFU.
Please!!!
Later…
AG