Thursday, September 17, 2020

New top sidebar item. DWT inspired.

Go to: The Orange Menace Must Be Defeated-- Biden Needs To Rev Up The Democratic Base

And do note the last item in that post. It tells us what we already know, and must accept. Lesser evil sucks. But it's all THEY for now allow US. Show sense. Moreover, show perseverance. Schumer and Pelosi and their donor-owners will not cave in. They must be overrun by numbers. TAKE OVER THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. To make it, of all things, democratic. If they be sharks, we be piranha. Keep nibbling at them. 

_________UPDATE_________

The linked DWT post in turn quotes and excerpts Sirota, and - excerpting the excerpt from Sirota's item titled, "You’re Not Being Loyal By Staying Silent As Biden Depresses Voters (As Biden has ignored the Democratic base, polls now show he faces an enthusiasm gap. Progressive pressure is needed to force him to energize Democratic voters and defeat Trump):

 The Democratic electorate has voted over and over and over again for change, and their party’s leaders have returned the favor with bank bailouts, record oil exports during a climate emergency, an abandonment of the labor movement, corporate-written trade policies that crush workers and health care reform that props up insurance profits.

[...]  Indeed, throwing shade at voters for feeling burnt out and unenthused is the modern-day “let them eat cake”-- and the impulse to engage in as self-destructive a tactic as vote-shaming evinces the dangerous ideology at work here.

You’ll notice that Democratic vote-shamers rarely complain the other way. Typically, they lament progressive pressure, but don’t lament big donors constantly demanding ideological fealty to an incrementalist corporate agenda that makes sure nothing fundamentally changes-- which inevitably leads to voter disillusionment.

They celebrate efforts to policy pander to affluent conservatives, but scoff at the notion of having to do any work to secure support from disaffected lower income Americans who might consider sitting the election out or voting third party because they are so completely disgusted with both parties.

In this world view, Democrats promising tax breaks to wealthy suburbanites is seen as laudable pragmatism and shrewd politics to attract affluent Republicans. By contrast, the idea of having to promise a Green New Deal to young people who see a lifetime of climate dystopia and think about voting third party-- that’s seen as uncouth behavior and detestable pandering to petulant serfs who supposedly don’t deserve even minimal respect or attention. The political class tells us to pay them no mind-- they are the electoral arena’s “no real person involved.”

As an election strategy, this attitude presumes that Chuck Schumer was right in 2016 when he insisted that “for every blue-collar Democrat we lose in western Pennsylvania, we will pick up two moderate Republicans in the suburbs in Philadelphia, and you can repeat that in Ohio and Illinois and Wisconsin.”


Of course, that theory has been electorally shellacked for a decade. And yet, these Democratic elites adhere to it-- and vote-shame anyone who questions it-- not because it has been successful and is the best strategy to win back Congress, expand health care or save the planet from climate change. They cling to the hypothesis because it at least provides a rationale-- however absurd-- to continue running campaigns whose number one directive is comforting the donor class.

More than even defeating Trump, satisfying the big contributors is the top priority because at least that is guaranteed to keep their checks going to Washington super PACs, consulting firms, think tanks and advocacy groups that are the permanent full-time employment machine for the entire Democratic political class, regardless of whether that political class ever actually wins elections or materially improves the lives of voters.

As long as donor maintenance is the prime directive and the money keeps flowing, that political class will be safely insulated in their second homes in the Hamptons, still getting the big TV invites and the fat corporate lobbying contracts even if Trump wins.

[...]
When progressives criticized Biden for loading up his transition team with corporate cronies, that wasn’t some evil plot to tank the Democratic ticket-- it was an effort to root out the soft corruption that has defined Democratic politics for three decades and that has contributed to voters being unenthused about the party.

When progressives wondered aloud why Biden was giving a platform to unpopular Republican politicians like John Kasich at the Democratic convention, it wasn’t some pointless temper tantrum-- it was an attempt to steer Biden away from touting the GOP politicians who turn off Democratic voters and toward generating the massive Democratic turnout that will be necessary to defeat the current president.

 [...]
Loyalty is not falling in line and shutting up while leaders coddle donors and create a dangerous voter enthusiasm gap.

That’s political suicide-- and all of us who do not want to see another election-night disaster have an obligation to speak up and try to avert it before it happens.

DWT's post ends with a show of a plain fuck-Rahm-Emanual truth:


It feels better to UPDATE via an excerpt for the benefit of any reader not caring to follow earlier links.

It is better. Things written which deserve repeating should be repeated.

DWT and Sirota are painting a true picture of how Joe Biden can follow his campaign guru bunch into a Clinton-Podesta result; coming in second to a swine by dint of stupidity and complacency.

And there is plenty of that; and hubris, within the Biden advisors all content in believing "anybody could beat Trump." At least offer "anybody" and not a junk heap of disdain for the voting public and its wants and needs. So far, Biden-Harris has been DOA, with Trump busy fighting for his base. Either Biden has no base, his base is plutocrats only, or he can't find his base with both hands.

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John Kerry ran a very measured campaign to "not blow it and lose" to young Bush, anybody could beat Bush after that one term - and Kerry lost to young Bush by being  - - - all the things Joe is/does/believes/is told.

The smell of a John Kerry style defeat is in the air, The Biden team cannot see all the people holding their noses. Or - does not care, if indeed, the game is all about and only about plutocratic-donor cashflow.

You'd think the spoils of office at least would mean something to somebody within this clown show. That there'd be a GOTV spirit somewhere among the advisory cadavers.

Time passes. We shall see. Going with Lincoln Project types is shallow thinking and insulting to ones who want some fucking cause of any kind to vote for an owned stiff like Joe Biden.

Ante up. Liven the pot or lose the hand.