Statue quo - precedent - playing by the rules while their opponents have been waging war like barbarians for years - I am beyond disgusted with the democrats who share blame for where we are and why Trump was elected a 2nd time. Over and above that, their PR has always sucked - always reacting instead of coming out ahead of republican nonsense which becomes entrenched in the psyche before the dems can come up with a good response - by then it just comes off as defense in the face of the established truth the republicans have hammered hard
Just like in sports if you are on the defensive you are losing
Republicans view politics as a blood sport and play for keeps.
Democrats think baking a hot dish and making nice with their “friends across the aisle” is the way to go. Bipartisanship died when newt issued his contract on America
Just brilliant, Paul.. A quick example--when Marie Perez ran in our district WA 3rd the first time, we were excited, and went to party headquarters to ask for some yard signs to pass out to our Dem. friends. The only person in the office was a guy from the DNC busily copying the district's mailing list. He ignored us initially--when we finally asked him for help--he said, "No one here now can help you--I am from THE PARTY. Dissing enthusiastic voters because they interrupt your typing is always a good idea. Right?
Schumer is done. He has lost the trust of both the base and his fellow senators. I'd expect him to announce his retirement before he gets humiliated. As for Jeffries, he better watch himself. Mamdani won his district in a landslide and if a Mamdani supporter chooses to run against Jeffries in a primary, he's toast...especially if Mamdani wins in November.
I think this why america fell to a concerted attempt at fascist takeover so easily. America's two-party system that was most strongly sustained by the two major parties themselves, self-censored elections—saying your vote is freedom while suppressing the pool of candidates for whom to vote is the epitome of authoritarianism.
They didn't take away civil liberties like the current regime, but they took away real and genuine democratic choice. What they did and said to McMorrow is how both parties have been operating for decades.
Kamal Harris is such a a disappointment. Her whole deal now is her book and her grievances against Biden she has left public life. She aspired to being the president. Where is she now for actual leadership when the country needs it!!
An outsider’s view…. In your whole article you did not address the policy positions taken by the Dems. And you may not like it, but most of the American voters do not align with the left-social-democratic positions taken by your “young, smart, charismatic, adept at social media” candidates. Obama was young, smart and charismatic but he ran initially in the middle as a unifier. He said, “There is not a liberal America and a conservative America — there is the United States of America. There is not a Black America and a White America and Latino America and Asian America — there’s the United States of America” at the 2004 Democratic Convention. Biden also ran from the middle, as did Bill Clinton. So, your last three victorious National candidates ran from the middle.
Selecting young, smart charismatic social-Democrats may win elections in NYC, but you cost the Dems national power. Americans don’t want socialism, government run grocery stores, etc. even if New Yorkers do. Running social-democratic candidates will continue to alienate the rest of the country. Most Americans are amazed and disgusted at how bad the coastal urban centers are being run, but feel free to advocate continuing down this path.
I agree 100% with having full open primaries. The Democratic Party seemed to work against Bernie in 2016 vs. Hillary; played games in 2020 resurrecting Biden; shut down anyone from running against Biden in 2024 by canceling primaries, not allowing Kennedy to run and de-platforming him; and then stopped anyone from running against Kamala in an abbreviated primary, or having an open convention. They created the concept of a "super delegate" to overrule the people, if they did not like the results, years ago. They are very undemocratic! Pardon the pun.
When I was younger I voted Democrat but left because of the policies, and policies matter, that was my point in the initial reply. Dems will continue to struggle until they get back to issues that help the average person and run and lead from the center.
Now? Or when I left. Now, Domestically, I would say 1. Illegal immigration/open borders, 2. Transgender/woke policies, 3. Cutting government wasteful spending, 4. Cutting fraud out of government spending USAID etc. 5., DEI programs. 6. Using Medicaid for healthy young people and illegal immigrants. 7. Fighting crime versus no cash bail. Just to name a few.
GOP congressional approval ratings and general party approval ratings are all higher than Dems. Just sayin’.
You never were a democrat you are a republican by those issues you list. Democrats have a different set of values that are more inclusive and humane.
You support the most corrupt, inhumane administration in US history headed by a narcissistic rapist felon sociopath. Those are your values that the left does not share.
I was a Democrat and voted for Teddy Kennedy in the 1980 Primary and voted for Jimmy Carter in the 1980 Presidential Election. In college, I believed in socialism. I could not stand Reagan, but then saw that he helped get rid of inflation and improved the country. Over time I became a libertarian who votes for the GOP. I changed the way I thought about and viewed the world.
Seems ignorant of you to try and say that I was never a democrat without knowing me. But you seem to say many things without knowing about them.
I'm curious what you think the unpopular Democratic policies are. Can you quote from the Harris platform or a DNC source to show what you're talking about?
Sadly, the Democrats are for the status quo. The status quo is not all bad, but there are pieces of it that need to be changed. One was the power of public employee unions like the teachers. Another bad element of the status quo was the power of tiny interest groups. Could it be that te Democrats' establishment does not want to upset wealthy donors and will push their agenda to the exclusion of an agenda of economic change?
See my comment for my answer to this. Obama's "foaming the runway" for the "too big to jail" mega banks, allowing the mass "robo-signing" of foreclosure documents, while the public cried, "Where's my bailout?" is nothing to be emulated. I remember the 2010 wipe-out that followed.
So did Joe Biden, which is why he did a 180 on such policies, very much includingbClunton's. "Milton Friedman's not running the show anymore" he said in 2020, and meant it. Hence Lina Khan, hence walking a UAW picket line.
"Centrist" is, in effect, means deferring to markets, which means, in effect, to those that control them.
Portraying left Democrats as something out of the faculty lounge at Oberlin (my daughter's an Obie, so I can say this) just serves to obscure this.
It’s not just cowardice or caution. They are actively protecting their corporate interests, whom some of the “exciting” candidates you mentioned take direct aim at.
mallory mcmorrow is fantastic, as is James Talarico, płatner in maine, mamdani, and a few other hot shots that deserve to be in the spotlight. they show fight, smarts, and integrity. the dem parts deserves to be overthrown just as the fascist regime does
I agree 100% with you Paul. I'm so fucking disgusted with the gutless so called leadership of the Democratic Party that I'm ashamed to call myself a Democrat. Voters don't want safe, they want someone who will burn it down and start fresh. Getting rid of Schumer and Jeffries should be Job #1. I had hopes for Jeffries, but he's just a miniature Schumer with a darker tan. And AOC is rapidly becoming one of them too.
We have a current DNC head who remarked there were "good", as well as "bad" billionaires, and a candidate for Mayor in NYC, who questioned whether there should even be billionaires. I submit this shows the real dynamic at work here.
Chris Murphy, who codes safe and sensible if anyone does, published a poll after the election showing 71% of Republicans - Republicans, Ds &Is were higher - in his state agreed economic power is too concentrated, which is just how you get billionaires. Thus his emphasis on a "pragmatic economic populism" since.
Far and away the most popular Biden appointee, with fans ranging from Bernie to Matt Gaetz, is Lina Khan. who as head of the FTC was reviving antitrust law after 40 years of ignoring it, which had led to just that said over concentration of economic power. Yet when Reid Hoffman, a billionaire Harris donor, loudly called for her to be fired, Harris said nothing (Hoffman's name recently came up in the Epstein scandal, btw).
It's not that complicated. Billionaires are bad, if only because we obviously have no way of protecting ourselves from the bad ones.
There are no good billionaires period. If they were good they would give away all their money to solve hunger and homelessness and then they wouldn't be billionaires. They need to be taxed out of existence just like churches.
John, seriously no offense meant, but you are the kind of person that makes me doubtful about "democracy" or even "progressives." i would tend to agree with RC (above, the comment you are replying to) that Billionaires are bad if only because we have no way of protecting ourselves from the bad ones. But the kind of thinking that leads to "all billionaires are bad" is like "all Ns are bad, all J.s are bad...etc/
meanwhile taxing them out of existence is exactly their reason for not letting you have any power. and then you throw in the church. so having made enemies of all the money and half the people you are going to go out and win elections? much less govern a country with respect for minorities... even just the monority of voters.
Billionaires only got to be Billionaires by taking advantage of their employees. Elon Musk has never built shit. His employees have and if they try to forma union to get a fair share of what they built they are fired. Clearly you have never been a blue collar worker. I suggest you research the number of Billionaires in America prior to Ronnie Raygun being elected and starting the decimation of the American middle class.
I have been blue collar all my working life. so much for "clearly". everything is so clear to you you can't see anything you don't want to see.
i was talking about actually winning elections that do working people some good. you can't do that by spewing hate. well, maybe you could if you joined Trump and Vance, but I thought you were on our side.
as for the billionaires, i haven't been keeping close watch, but I think inflation might be part of the actual dollar amount since Reagan. And while Reagan was a turning point in American politics, he wasn't a huge departure from Coolidge and Hoover, Meanwhile I think Clinton had something to do with ending Roosevelt era checks on banks.
Clinton absolutely did have something to do with that. One Larry Summers was a significant actor in it. Then Summers showed up in the Obama administration to do still more damage (inadequate fiscal stimulus, a mistake Biden did not repeat) And was a loud voice attacking Biden for "inflation", while CEOs were bragging about their "pricing operations" and increased profits. He rivals Larry Kudlow in the 'always wrong' sweepstakes.
My point is Brandeis, 'we can have concentrated wealth, or democracy, not both'. Lina Khan et al believe this.
by the way, i never met a millionaire i liked, but even if they doubled their workers 'wages they would still be billionaires. where they get their money is from you buying what they are selling.
It’s evident that the two parties are controlled by big money. The American people will need to think their way through this in primaries. Making the money investors lose repeatedly will get us back on the right path. There are plenty of good leaders. We don’t need party apparatchiks telling us who the “right” leaders are.
Statue quo - precedent - playing by the rules while their opponents have been waging war like barbarians for years - I am beyond disgusted with the democrats who share blame for where we are and why Trump was elected a 2nd time. Over and above that, their PR has always sucked - always reacting instead of coming out ahead of republican nonsense which becomes entrenched in the psyche before the dems can come up with a good response - by then it just comes off as defense in the face of the established truth the republicans have hammered hard
Just like in sports if you are on the defensive you are losing
Republicans view politics as a blood sport and play for keeps.
Democrats think baking a hot dish and making nice with their “friends across the aisle” is the way to go. Bipartisanship died when newt issued his contract on America
Well said!
Just brilliant, Paul.. A quick example--when Marie Perez ran in our district WA 3rd the first time, we were excited, and went to party headquarters to ask for some yard signs to pass out to our Dem. friends. The only person in the office was a guy from the DNC busily copying the district's mailing list. He ignored us initially--when we finally asked him for help--he said, "No one here now can help you--I am from THE PARTY. Dissing enthusiastic voters because they interrupt your typing is always a good idea. Right?
Schumer is done. He has lost the trust of both the base and his fellow senators. I'd expect him to announce his retirement before he gets humiliated. As for Jeffries, he better watch himself. Mamdani won his district in a landslide and if a Mamdani supporter chooses to run against Jeffries in a primary, he's toast...especially if Mamdani wins in November.
Another great piece, Paul!
I think this why america fell to a concerted attempt at fascist takeover so easily. America's two-party system that was most strongly sustained by the two major parties themselves, self-censored elections—saying your vote is freedom while suppressing the pool of candidates for whom to vote is the epitome of authoritarianism.
They didn't take away civil liberties like the current regime, but they took away real and genuine democratic choice. What they did and said to McMorrow is how both parties have been operating for decades.
Kamal Harris is such a a disappointment. Her whole deal now is her book and her grievances against Biden she has left public life. She aspired to being the president. Where is she now for actual leadership when the country needs it!!
An outsider’s view…. In your whole article you did not address the policy positions taken by the Dems. And you may not like it, but most of the American voters do not align with the left-social-democratic positions taken by your “young, smart, charismatic, adept at social media” candidates. Obama was young, smart and charismatic but he ran initially in the middle as a unifier. He said, “There is not a liberal America and a conservative America — there is the United States of America. There is not a Black America and a White America and Latino America and Asian America — there’s the United States of America” at the 2004 Democratic Convention. Biden also ran from the middle, as did Bill Clinton. So, your last three victorious National candidates ran from the middle.
Selecting young, smart charismatic social-Democrats may win elections in NYC, but you cost the Dems national power. Americans don’t want socialism, government run grocery stores, etc. even if New Yorkers do. Running social-democratic candidates will continue to alienate the rest of the country. Most Americans are amazed and disgusted at how bad the coastal urban centers are being run, but feel free to advocate continuing down this path.
Okay, so maybe you're right.
So let them all run equally in the primaries and allow the voters to prove it.
That is, after all, the point of having primaries in the first place.
I agree 100% with having full open primaries. The Democratic Party seemed to work against Bernie in 2016 vs. Hillary; played games in 2020 resurrecting Biden; shut down anyone from running against Biden in 2024 by canceling primaries, not allowing Kennedy to run and de-platforming him; and then stopped anyone from running against Kamala in an abbreviated primary, or having an open convention. They created the concept of a "super delegate" to overrule the people, if they did not like the results, years ago. They are very undemocratic! Pardon the pun.
When I was younger I voted Democrat but left because of the policies, and policies matter, that was my point in the initial reply. Dems will continue to struggle until they get back to issues that help the average person and run and lead from the center.
Again...which policies are you referring to that make Democrats so "unpopular?"
Now? Or when I left. Now, Domestically, I would say 1. Illegal immigration/open borders, 2. Transgender/woke policies, 3. Cutting government wasteful spending, 4. Cutting fraud out of government spending USAID etc. 5., DEI programs. 6. Using Medicaid for healthy young people and illegal immigrants. 7. Fighting crime versus no cash bail. Just to name a few.
GOP congressional approval ratings and general party approval ratings are all higher than Dems. Just sayin’.
Is this news to you?
If you don’t believe me, let’s try CNN. https://youtu.be/qFS70h2PPq8?si=pRitLGWwVt_uiwoR
None of those are democratic policies. Not a single one. They’re right wing propaganda talking points.
LOL, keep thinking that way. Keep your head down running in the same direction. Have fun.
You never were a democrat you are a republican by those issues you list. Democrats have a different set of values that are more inclusive and humane.
You support the most corrupt, inhumane administration in US history headed by a narcissistic rapist felon sociopath. Those are your values that the left does not share.
I was a Democrat and voted for Teddy Kennedy in the 1980 Primary and voted for Jimmy Carter in the 1980 Presidential Election. In college, I believed in socialism. I could not stand Reagan, but then saw that he helped get rid of inflation and improved the country. Over time I became a libertarian who votes for the GOP. I changed the way I thought about and viewed the world.
Seems ignorant of you to try and say that I was never a democrat without knowing me. But you seem to say many things without knowing about them.
N L Lewis
yes.
I'm curious what you think the unpopular Democratic policies are. Can you quote from the Harris platform or a DNC source to show what you're talking about?
Dems don’t have national power.
Sadly, the Democrats are for the status quo. The status quo is not all bad, but there are pieces of it that need to be changed. One was the power of public employee unions like the teachers. Another bad element of the status quo was the power of tiny interest groups. Could it be that te Democrats' establishment does not want to upset wealthy donors and will push their agenda to the exclusion of an agenda of economic change?
See my comment for my answer to this. Obama's "foaming the runway" for the "too big to jail" mega banks, allowing the mass "robo-signing" of foreclosure documents, while the public cried, "Where's my bailout?" is nothing to be emulated. I remember the 2010 wipe-out that followed.
So did Joe Biden, which is why he did a 180 on such policies, very much includingbClunton's. "Milton Friedman's not running the show anymore" he said in 2020, and meant it. Hence Lina Khan, hence walking a UAW picket line.
"Centrist" is, in effect, means deferring to markets, which means, in effect, to those that control them.
Portraying left Democrats as something out of the faculty lounge at Oberlin (my daughter's an Obie, so I can say this) just serves to obscure this.
We the people who vote Democratic want new leadership…
Please, for the love of god and country, fire Chuck Schumer…
He and his team got us to where we are today…
He doesn’t understand how to play the game anymore (if ever)…
The Democratic Party should win the midterms in a landslide…
But it won’t unless they remove current leadership…
And implement a new approach…
Schumer will kill the party…
I am an old guy and have been saying the party needs fresh faces and new ideas for at least 20 years. Lord knows what we are doing now ain’t working
It’s not just cowardice or caution. They are actively protecting their corporate interests, whom some of the “exciting” candidates you mentioned take direct aim at.
mallory mcmorrow is fantastic, as is James Talarico, płatner in maine, mamdani, and a few other hot shots that deserve to be in the spotlight. they show fight, smarts, and integrity. the dem parts deserves to be overthrown just as the fascist regime does
I agree 100% with you Paul. I'm so fucking disgusted with the gutless so called leadership of the Democratic Party that I'm ashamed to call myself a Democrat. Voters don't want safe, they want someone who will burn it down and start fresh. Getting rid of Schumer and Jeffries should be Job #1. I had hopes for Jeffries, but he's just a miniature Schumer with a darker tan. And AOC is rapidly becoming one of them too.
going full Jacobin! 😄
And what's wrong with that?
Well, if you want to be associated with the Reign of Terror, thousands of executions, I guess nothing. BTW, they were not the good guys.
We have a current DNC head who remarked there were "good", as well as "bad" billionaires, and a candidate for Mayor in NYC, who questioned whether there should even be billionaires. I submit this shows the real dynamic at work here.
Chris Murphy, who codes safe and sensible if anyone does, published a poll after the election showing 71% of Republicans - Republicans, Ds &Is were higher - in his state agreed economic power is too concentrated, which is just how you get billionaires. Thus his emphasis on a "pragmatic economic populism" since.
Far and away the most popular Biden appointee, with fans ranging from Bernie to Matt Gaetz, is Lina Khan. who as head of the FTC was reviving antitrust law after 40 years of ignoring it, which had led to just that said over concentration of economic power. Yet when Reid Hoffman, a billionaire Harris donor, loudly called for her to be fired, Harris said nothing (Hoffman's name recently came up in the Epstein scandal, btw).
It's not that complicated. Billionaires are bad, if only because we obviously have no way of protecting ourselves from the bad ones.
There are no good billionaires period. If they were good they would give away all their money to solve hunger and homelessness and then they wouldn't be billionaires. They need to be taxed out of existence just like churches.
John, seriously no offense meant, but you are the kind of person that makes me doubtful about "democracy" or even "progressives." i would tend to agree with RC (above, the comment you are replying to) that Billionaires are bad if only because we have no way of protecting ourselves from the bad ones. But the kind of thinking that leads to "all billionaires are bad" is like "all Ns are bad, all J.s are bad...etc/
meanwhile taxing them out of existence is exactly their reason for not letting you have any power. and then you throw in the church. so having made enemies of all the money and half the people you are going to go out and win elections? much less govern a country with respect for minorities... even just the monority of voters.
Billionaires only got to be Billionaires by taking advantage of their employees. Elon Musk has never built shit. His employees have and if they try to forma union to get a fair share of what they built they are fired. Clearly you have never been a blue collar worker. I suggest you research the number of Billionaires in America prior to Ronnie Raygun being elected and starting the decimation of the American middle class.
Johm
I have been blue collar all my working life. so much for "clearly". everything is so clear to you you can't see anything you don't want to see.
i was talking about actually winning elections that do working people some good. you can't do that by spewing hate. well, maybe you could if you joined Trump and Vance, but I thought you were on our side.
as for the billionaires, i haven't been keeping close watch, but I think inflation might be part of the actual dollar amount since Reagan. And while Reagan was a turning point in American politics, he wasn't a huge departure from Coolidge and Hoover, Meanwhile I think Clinton had something to do with ending Roosevelt era checks on banks.
Clinton absolutely did have something to do with that. One Larry Summers was a significant actor in it. Then Summers showed up in the Obama administration to do still more damage (inadequate fiscal stimulus, a mistake Biden did not repeat) And was a loud voice attacking Biden for "inflation", while CEOs were bragging about their "pricing operations" and increased profits. He rivals Larry Kudlow in the 'always wrong' sweepstakes.
My point is Brandeis, 'we can have concentrated wealth, or democracy, not both'. Lina Khan et al believe this.
RC
thank you for confirming my memory of things.
by the way, i never met a millionaire i liked, but even if they doubled their workers 'wages they would still be billionaires. where they get their money is from you buying what they are selling.
The Democratic party leaders drive around in your father's Oldsmobile.
On point…time run not walk from the status quo and support candidates that can excite the people
It’s evident that the two parties are controlled by big money. The American people will need to think their way through this in primaries. Making the money investors lose repeatedly will get us back on the right path. There are plenty of good leaders. We don’t need party apparatchiks telling us who the “right” leaders are.