Democrats

Trump Is Still The Most Unpopular President Since Polls Have Been Kept; But It May Not Matter In 2018 Or 2020

By John Atcheson Common Dreams (4/7/18) Trump recently bragged that his approval ratings were higher than “Cheatin Obama” at this point in his Presidency.  As it turns out, only Rasmussen – a right wing polling organization that has consistently put Trump’s approval ratings above those of other polling organizations – had Trump approaching a 50 percent approval.  The rest put him somewhere well below that, with two placing his rating below 40 percent. As a Party, the democrats are completely devoid of a set of coherent policies based on values.  But to anyone who navigates through the world using facts, reason, and critical…


The Dem Party Establishment’s Long, Ugly History Of Sabotaging Progressives Candidates

By Branko Marcetic In These Times (4/5/18 – May issue) In February, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) attempted to undermine Democratic primary candidate Laura Moser out of fear she’s too far left. The Houston journalist and activist is running in Texas’s 7th District on a platform of single payer, gun control and reproductive rights. In a move typically reserved for Republican opponents, the DCCC—whose mission is to fundraise for Democratic House candidates—posted opposition research it had conducted on Moser. Citing her recent move to Texas from Washington, D.C., and her campaign’s payments to her husband’s D.C. research firm, the memo portrayed her as corrupt…


The Denver Democratic Party Platform Now Has An Anti-Capitalist Plank, Thanks to Socialist Activists

By Miles Kampf-Lassin In These Times (3/28/18) In a sign of how far left the political axis has shifted since Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential run, on Saturday the Democratic Party of Denver officially ratified an anti-capitalist plank in its platform. The move was spurred by members of the Denver chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) who petitioned Denver County Democratic Assembly delegates to vote for an amendment to the official party platform. The language states: “We believe the economy should be democratically owned and controlled in order to serve the needs of the many, not to make profits…


French Economist Thomas Piketty Has Counterintuitive Idea For How Democrats Can Retake America

By Martin Cizmar The Raw Story (3/27/18) Would Bernie Sanders have won? French economist Thomas Piketty seems to think so. The author of Capital in the Twenty-First Century, a New York Times best-seller and the most-bought book in the history of Harvard University Press, has published a paper that uses exit polling data to argue that embracing economic populism would power the left toward huge electoral wins. The paper is called “Brahmin Left vs. Merchant Right: Rising Inequality & the Changing Structure of Political Conflict” and it’s a book-length 174 pages with references and charts. Piketty says that both parties now appeal to elites in…


“What Velveeta Is To Cheese”– Bill Maher Delivers Spot On Critique Of Democrats Lack Of Political Courage

  By Mark L. Taylor The Commoner Call (3/19/18) One can quibble with some details of Bill Maher’s critique of democratic candidates and the party, and I wish he would stop with the snarky generalizations about Trump supporters, but his central argument is spot on: “Republicans, they’re all claws and sharp teeth and fangs when they fight,” said Maher. “The Democrats? Their weapon of choice is adaptive coloration.” Maher further claimed Democrats were “to political courage what Velveeta is to cheese.” Link to 6-Minute Video ***** The Mall Of Hypocrisy: Kimmel’s Shopping Spree At Trump’s Store Turns Up Potential Violations…


From Pushing Empty ‘Thoughts & Prayers’ To Dissing Medicare For All, Dem Leadership Called Out For Sabotaging Progressive Demands

  By Julia Conley Common Dreams (2/27/18) Progressives found new reason for dismay on Tuesday after internal documents revealed efforts by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) to squash support for Medicare for All and a separate attempt to curtail demands for stricter gun control following the mass shooting in Las Vegas last year. “It’s becoming evident that the DCCC—and the billionaire donors and revolving door consultants that make up the Democratic Party establishment—believe Democrats can only take back Congress by running on a watered down message…instead of the basic values of decency and fairness that voters demand,” said Waleed Shahid of Justice Democrats…


Democrats Call For Gun Control At Home, While They Join GOP Pushing Bloody Arms Deals Abroad

  By Adam Johnson In These Times (2/22/18) In the aftermath of the shooting in Parkland, Fla., that left 17 dead, many Democrats in Congress are once again calling for gun control, as they have for decades. But all too often, this concern for the unchecked spread of weapons ends at America’s shores. Last week, top Democratic senators, such as Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) and Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), expressed outrage over the lack of action by Congress to stop gun violence in America. However these same senators voted against an effort in 2017 to end the U.S. arming of the Saudi Arabian government—a flagrant human rights…


Why Are Democratic Party Thinktanks Still All Squishy On Universal Healthcare For All?

    By Adam Gaffney The Guardian (2/25/18) On Thursday, the Center for American Progress (CAP), a Democratic party-affiliated think tank, launched a proposal confusingly called “Medicare Extra for All”. For proponents of a Bernie Sanders-style single-payer “Medicare for All”, this might seem like a positive development. Well, yes and no. On the one hand, “Medicare Extra” is a step to the left for CAP, suggesting that the Democratic establishment is following the lead of its galvanized base. On the other hand, this new proposal would exact sacrifices from patients to placate the insurance industry, and could serve to divert…


The Clock Is Ticking — ‘Blood Clot’ Dem Leadership Not Up To The Tumputin March To Fascism

By Harvey “Sluggo” Wasserman Reader Supported News (2/3/18) The partisan uproar over the release of the infamous Nunes memo on FBI surveillance MUST be accompanied by the release of Donald Trump’s tax returns. If Trump is to be consistent about openness in government and the public’s right to critical information, releasing his tax returns is the least he can do in conjunction with this attack on the FBI. But of course that would be too much to ask of this White House, which has long since established itself as a fascist regime that hates democracy and is consistent only in…


Progressive Principles Can Be The Source For Successful Democratic Campaigns — If The Dems Are Willing To Change

  By Scott Wittkopf Frame4Future.com (1/24/18) Let’s look into the future. There will come a time when progressives and Democrats begin to acknowledge more recent (than the 17th Century) developments in the science of thought. Political communication will account for the importance of unconscious emotion in motivating our actions, and how language can effectively frame ideas so that people not only hear, but actually accept fundamental truths about the world around them. How powerful WOULD it be if all the candidates were focused on a new, better strategy – based on science? This vision of a better, more effective strategy is nothing…


Time For Deadbeat Dems To Finally Pay Up Their Dues To Labor

  Time for the Democratic Party to show gratitude & solidarity. By James Thindwa In These Times (2/6/13) The swift passage of Michigan’s so-called right-to-work legislation in December (2012) cemented a stark reality for labor: U.S. workers have been left without a national political party to champion their interests. Many local Democratic leaders—and a few members of Congress—still join the struggle for union rights, but aside from union-friendly rhetoric deployed around election time, the national party is disengaged. The fact is, the success of the American labor movement has always depended upon a welcoming policy environment facilitated by an allied…


A Warning For Democrats, And Indeed For All Americans

  By John Kiriakou Reader Supported News (1/11/18) Many Americans, at least most in my circle, are enjoying watching Donald Trump self-destruct. It’s bad for the country, but to some of us it’s as much fun as watching a train wreck. And maybe if the Democrats can get their act together, they can win back the House in 2018 and the Senate and White House in 2020. Trump is making it look like it might be easy. But I have a warning for Democrats, and indeed for all Americans. For God’s sake, don’t elevate the likes of former CIA directors…


Hey, Dems: Your ‘Trump, Bad. Send Cash’ Pitch Is Not Enough

  By Mark L. Taylor The Commoner Call (1/1/18) In a Thursday [12/28] Morning Edition interview with National Public Radio’s David Greene, Jess O’Connell, CEO of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), addressed concerns that the party coffers are down to about $6 million while the Republican National Committee has banked some $40 million. Greene asked about that money gap and how much of an obstacle that is for the dems running strong in 2018 mid-term elections. Acknowledging the money issue was real, O’Connell gave an upbeat assessment of the “Democratic ecosphere”, pointing to recent election results in Virginia and Alabama. Putting…


How’s This For A New Years Resolution? The Democratic Party Is Yours. Take It

This and unionizing your workplace are good new year’s resolutions, if you don’t have one already. By Hamilton Noah Splinter News (12/29/17) Are you discouraged by our national political nightmare? Looking for a project for the new year? Great: Your local Democratic Party, which may not be worth a damn today, is just waiting for you to revive it. Do you live in “red” America? Are you surrounded by Trump voters? Have you spent the past year asking yourself what dark stroke of fate has plunged you into this nightmarish world, making you question whether your friends and neighbors are…


Thomas Frank: The Fury Around Donna Brazile’s New Book Is Symptomatic Of Our Broken Politics

  By Thomas Frank The Guardian (12/20/17) Donna Brazile has spent most of her life as a good soldier of the Democratic party, managing presidential campaigns, supporting the Clinton family, and (last year) stepping in to take over the Democratic National Committee after its chair was felled by scandal. But with the publication of her campaign memoir Hacks, this woman with a fondness for old-style cooking metaphors has finally succeeded in pissing off every last group on the country’s political spectrum. Supporters of Bernie Sanders were furious last year when a hacked email revealed that Brazile, then a popular CNN…


Bipartisan Stupidity & Blindness Have Destroyed Whatever Democracy The US Ever Had

Our Clueless Leader By Dave Lindorff Counter Punch (12/15/17) Okay, somebody has to say this, so it might as well be me. The American political system exists as it is because of two reasons: 1) The majority of Republican voters are either incredibly ignorant or are simply incredibly selfish, and 2)  The majority of Democratic voters are so blinded by their fear of Republicans that they will vote for the most puerile, manipulative, deceitful, greedy and/or feckless candidates, as long as they are Democrats, and will re-elect them even after having been betrayed by them time and time again. There, I’ve…


Absolutely Do NOT Watch This Video!

Michael Moore: The DNC Will Cost Us The Election In 2018 Unless You & Others Run For Office My friends, if we let the old guard, the party hacks of the Dem party call the shots next year, we are doomed. By Michael Moore Michael Moore’s Facebook Page (12/16/17) At the DNC, a Bernie supporter goes off on the corruption of the party hacks who… spent over $700 million on 5 consultants?! (Watch video below.) The DNC will cost us the election in 2018 unless you and others get out there and run for office on your own. I drove…


Charles Barkley’s Wake-up Call – And Deep Warning – To Democrats On Alabama Victory

By Richard Eskow OurFuture.org (12/14/17) Before he became one of the great basketball players of his time, Charles Barkley was a son of the Alabama soil.  He went home to help Doug Jones pull off his upset victory against Roy Moore in this week’s special Senate election. Here’s what he had to say on CNN after Jones was declared the winner: “This is a wake-up call for Democrats. Democrats, I told Mr. Jones this, and I love Doug, they’ve taken the black vote and the poor vote for granted for a long time. It’s time for them to get off their ass…



Dunderhead: Rewiring The Dull, Primitive, Slumbering, Antiscientific Democratic Party Brain With George Lakoff

By Melissa Batchelor Warnke San Francisco Magazine (12/1/17) “Democrats are basically science deniers,” George Lakoff says. “They’re denying the truth discovered in neuroscience and cognitive science.” Harsh words, coming from a lifelong liberal Democrat. But the famed UC Berkeley cognitive linguist thinks his party desperately needs a wake-up call. If they’d listened to him, he says, Donald Trump would not be president. As the election approached, Lakoff was looking forward to retirement. He’d been a professor at Berkeley for the better part of 50 years; he’d published countless peer-reviewed papers; he’d written or coauthored a dozen books. And he’d made a mark…


Ralph Nader: Democratic Party Stumbling & Wheezing Into The Future With Same Old Tired Cast & Crew

  By Ralph Nader Common Dreams (11/23/17) Seeking to capitalize on the Republicans’ disarray, public cruelty and Trumpitis, the Democratic Party is gearing up for the Congressional elections of 2018. Alas, party leaders are likely to enlist the same old cast and crew. The Democratic National Committee and their state imitators are raising money from the same old big donors and PACs that are complicit in the Party’s chronic history of losing so many Congressional, gubernatorial and state legislative races—not to mention the White House. The large, embattled unions are preparing to spend millions on television ads and unimaginative get-out-the-vote…


Reckoning? Bill Clinton’s Sex Scandals Face Fresh Scrutiny In Post-Weinstein Era

  By Jane Clayson On Point/WBUR (11/20/17) We talk to Caitlin Flanagan of The Atlantic, Michael Warren of the Weekly Standard and Joe Klein of TIME Magazine about renewed attention on former President Bill Clinton’s sex scandals. Should he have resigned? Been removed from office? How is this conversation changing in the post-Weinstein era? Guests: Caitlin Flanagan, contributing editor at The Atlantic. (@CaitlinPacific) Joe Klein, political columnist, TIME magazine. (@JoeKleinTIME) Michael Warren, senior writer, The Weekly Standard. (@MichaelRWarren) Link to Story and 46-Minute Audio The Atlantic: Bill Clinton: A Reckoning — “It was a pattern of behavior; it included an alleged violent assault;…


Multi-Millionaire Party Owner & Hillary Donor Gives Dem Leadership Their Marching Orders

  By Mark L. Taylor The Commoner Call (11/20/17) In case you missed it, Las Vegas multi-millionaire Democratic Party not-so-silent-owner Steve Cloobeck recently had a bit of a meltdown on MSNBC railing against the dangerous notion that the Democratic Party should represent the interests of all Americans and not just the incestuous Wall Street cheats, corporate con artists and hedge fund grifters, scammers and sociopaths he usually runs with. I know, I know, not a radical idea that a major political party should actually stand for the interests of the families, communities and small business people they say they represent….


In Case They Are Interested: Socialists Just Showed The Democratic Party How To Win Across The US

  By Miles Kampf-Lassin In These Times (11/9/17) One year ago, a wave of disbelief, gloom and rage washed across the country. A vile orange manifestation of America’s darkest id had won the presidency, Republicans held control of all three branches of government, and new nightmares awaited. Trump is still president, the GOP still has the House and Senate, and every day we witness new threats to the environment, the social safety net and—with an incoherent man-child’s hands on the nuclear football—the very future of humanity. But last night we saw a very different kind of wave, one that moves us…


How A Democratic Socialist Led An Upset Over Major Republican Power Broker In Virginia

  By Megan Dean Jacobin (11/10/17) n Tuesday, democratic socialist Lee Carter unseated Jackson Miller, the Republican majority whip of Virginia’s House of Delegates. Buoyed by the enthusiasm around the Bernie Sanders campaign and backed by the Washington DC chapter of Democratic Socialists of America, Carter successfully campaigned on single-payer health care, getting money out of politics, and putting the interests of working-class Virginians above those of big donors. Running in Virginia’s 50th district, which includes the city of Manassas, Carter won with a nine-point spread, 54 to 46 percent. His Republican opponents distributed red-baiting mailers comparing him to Stalin, and the state’s Democratic…


Autopsy: What Killed The Democratic Party?

A bracing autopsy of the 2016 election—and a plan for revitalization. By Wlliam Greider The Nation (10/30/17) The Democratic Party lost just about everything in 2016, but so far it has offered only evasive regrets and mild apologies. Instead of acknowledging gross failure and astounding errors, the party’s leaders and campaign professionals wallowed in self-pity and righteous indignation. The true villains, they insisted, were the wily Russians and the odious Donald Trump, who together intruded on the sanctity of American democracy and tampered with the election results. Official investigations are now under way. While the country awaits the verdict, a…


Warren & Sanders Deliver 3-Minute Takedown Of GOP’s Pro-Billionaire & Corporate Tax Cut Scam

  Wisconsin’s very own Rep. Paul Ryan campaigns in Delavan, Wisconsin for GOP tax scam to siphon off the last nickles of wealth from the middle-class and poor to give even more to corporations and the super wealthy.  By Jake Johnson Common Dreams (11/2/17) In a video released shortly after House Republicans unveiled a tax plan they claim “is for the middle class families in this country who deserve a break,” Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) argued—consistent with independent analyses—that the GOP’s proposals would in fact primarily reward large corporations and wealthy individuals while slashing programs low-income and middle class…


Top Trump Pollster: ‘No Question’ Bernie Sanders Would Have Won

  By Jake Johnson Common Dreams (10/31/17) At a Harvard University Institute of Politics event on Monday, Tony Fabrizio—the chief pollster of Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign—argued there is “no question” that Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) would have defeated Trump in the general election had he emerged victorious from the Democratic primary. “I think Sanders beats Trump,” Fabrizio concluded. “I think Sanders would have had the ability to reach a lot of the less than college-educated, low-income white voters.” Polls continue to show the democratic socialist from Vermont is far and away America’s most popular politician. Fabrizio’s comments are consistent with polls conducted in…


The (Much Needed) Bruising Liberal-Left Divide Reshaping American Politics

  By Pete Davis The Guardian (10/26/17) It has been almost a year since the catastrophic election of Donald Trump. In his first year in office, the president has governed as cruelly and ineptly as his critics predicted. But while anti-Trump sentiment has never been more fierce and widespread, his political opponents are more divided than ever. And this faultline – which has parallels in Britain with divisions among the Labour party – could, if left unaddressed, compromise efforts to resist and defeat Trumpism. Roughly speaking, these two sides could be characterised as the “populist wing” and the “establishment wing” of the…


They Can’t Handle The Truth: Ron Kind’s ‘Third Way’ Comes To Wisconsin, Heard What It Wanted To Hear And Continues With It’s Clinton Corporate Delusions

  The researchers had somehow found their premise perfectly illustrated. Their journey to Trump’s America had done nothing to unsettle their preconceptions. By Molly Ball The Atlantic (10/23/17) It was the hippies who drove Nancy Hale over the edge. She had spent three days listening respectfully to the real people of Middle America, and finally she couldn’t take it any longer. She turned off the tape recorder and took several deep breaths, leaning back in the passenger seat of the rented GMC Yukon. The sun had just come out from behind a mass of clouds, casting a gleam on the rain-soaked…


Paul Wellstone’s Legacy: “Doing What I Honestly, Truthfully Believe Is Right.”

Wellstone Action By Abbey Zimet Common Dreams (10/26/17) This week marks the 15th anniversary of the sudden death of Minnesota’s progressive Sen. Paul Wellstone in a plane crash that also killed his wife, daughter, several staffers and two pilots. His death in 2002 came days before a dead-heat election where he was seeking a third Senate term; it also came two weeks after he became one of 23 lawmakers to vote against the invasion of Iraq. Many thought it would cost him re-election, but unlike the likes of Flake and Corker, he didn’t care: “This is what I believe. This is who…


The Question For Democrats: Should They Be True To Their Progressive Roots, Or Owned By Wall Street?

Identity crisis… By Harvey J. Kaye Common Dreams (10/24/17) Halloween is coming and fear mongering seems to be the order of the day — not just on the part of Republicans, but apparently no less so on the part of “centrist” and conservative Democrats who are expressing growing anxiety about offending big donors who see politics not as the pursuit of justice but as the pursuit of their interests. Douglas Schoen, said to have been Bill Clinton’s favorite pollster during his presidency, has taken to the op-ed page of The New York Times to warn center-right party members and friends that ‘all Hell will…


History Dem Party Rulers Don’t Want You To Know: Today’s Progressives Need To Know The Courage Of Visionary Henry A. Wallace

  “The greatest remedy for fear is to stand up and fight for your rights.”  – Henry A. Wallace By Mark L. Taylor The Commoner Call (10/26/17) In one of the most tragic pivot points in American – and world – history, Henry A. Wallace, FDR’s strong and visionary progressive vice president from 1941-1944 was elbowed aside in 1948 by the party’s corporate wing in favor of machine pol Harry S. Truman. What the democratic party Clinton/Obama establishment did to Bernie Sanders in the 2016 election was a replay of the nightmarish duplicity and mugged dreams and betrayed promise of 1948….


Still Getting It Wrong: How Media Pundits Keep Steering Democrats Into The Shoals

By John Atcheson Common Dreams (9/19/17) In his Monday column at the New York Times, Paul Krugman said: “These days, America starts from a baseline of extreme tribalism: 47 or 48 percent of the electorate will vote for any Republican, no matter how terrible, and against any Democrat, no matter how good. This means, in turn, that small things — journalists acting like mean kids in high school, ganging up on candidates they consider uncool, events that suggest fresh scandal even when there’s nothing there — can tip the balance in favor of even the worst candidate imaginable.” He’s not alone. …


The “Center-Left” Had Its Chance; It’s Past Time For Something New

  By Richard “RJ” Eskow Campaign for America’s Future (10/4/17) The once-proud political project known as “centrism” is collapsing around the globe, despite increasingly desperate attempts by billionaire backers to revive it. The center-right’s implosion can be seen in the weakened state of Theresa May’s Conservatives in Great Britain, the recent setback for Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats, and the withering of the GOP’s Mitt Romney wing. But what about the center-left, the “New Labour”/”New Democrat” phenomenon that once seemed to offer so much hope? Can it survive? More importantly, should it? The Decline of the Center-Left Political scientist Sheri Berman recently wrote an op-ed for the…


In The Midst Of Civic Crisis There Is An Opportunity For Bold Progressive Change

  By Naomi Klein The Guardian (9/28/17) We live in frightening times. From heads of state tweeting threats of nuclear annihilation, to whole regions rocked by climate chaos, to thousands of migrants drowning off the coasts of Europe, to openly racist parties gaining ground: it feels like there are a lot of reasons to be pessimistic about our collective future. To take one example, the Caribbean and southern United States are in the midst of an unprecedented hurricane season, pounded by storm after storm. Puerto Rico – hit by Irma, then Maria – is entirely without power and could be for months, its water and communication systems…


If The Democrats Want To Grow They Better Not Assume Millennial Voters Will Just Fall Into Place

  (Editor’s Note: Memo to Dems – Stand up for real, fundamental, bold progressive reforms. Millennials aren’t chumps. – Mark L. Taylor) By Hannah Hartig, John Lapinski & Stephanie Perry NBCNews.com (9/27/17) Millennials overwhelmingly disapprove of the way President Donald Trump is handling his job and they don’t have a favorable view of the Republican Party. But Democrats shouldn’t celebrate just yet, according to results from the first NBC News/GenForward Survey. A majority of millennials, 64 percent, disapprove of Trump’s job performance, while 58 percent said they have an unfavorable view of the Republican Party. The survey was conducted Aug. 31-Sept….


Collecting His Pay! After Failing To Prosecute Bankers, Obama Cashes In With Wall $400k Street Speeches

    By Jake Johnson Common Dreams (9/18/17) Less than a year has passed since he departed from the White House, and former President Barack Obama has already joined the “well trod and well paid” Wall Street speaking circuit, a decision many argued will negatively impact the Democratic Party’s credibility as it attempts to fashion a message around taking on corporate monopolies, tackling income inequality, and loosening the insurance industry’s control over the American healthcare system. According to a Bloomberg report published Monday, Obama has in the last month delivered two speeches to massive financial firms—Northern Trust Corp and the Carlyle Group—for around $400,000 a pop, and…


Thomas Frank – Hillary’s Book Has A Clear, Bold Message: Don’t Blame Me!

  By Thomas Frank The Guardian (9/12/17) ow do you lose the presidency to a man like Donald Trump? He was the most unpopular presidential candidate of all time, compounding blunder with blunder and heaping gaffe upon gaffe. Keeping him from the Oval Office should have been the single-minded mission of the Democratic party. And it should have been easy for them. Instead they lost, and now their 2016 candidate Hillary Clinton comes before us to account for this monumental failure, to tell us What Happened. Unfortunately, her new book is less an effort to explain than it is to explain away. No…


VIDEO Interview With Author Thomas Frank: Liberal Elite Doesn’t Care Much About Inequality

  By Mark L. Taylor The Commoner Call (9/11/17) Political observer and author Thomas Frank (What’s The Matter With Kansas? and Listen Liberal) was interviewed recently by Real News anchor Paul Jay for a fascinating look at just what the hell is wrong with the bumbling Democratic party. In his most recent book Listen Liberal Frank documented the party’s long, slippery slide from being the champion of labor and the middle and lower classes to a protector and promoter of Wall Street greed and Silicon Valley entitlement. Frank argues that the slide from relevance of the party to average Americans…