merrily
merrily's JournalDo you assume that all DU posters want the Party moved left? If so, I disagree.
I don't care what lip service is or is not paid to that. Some of the most vocal posters do NOT want it moved left.
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”
― Upton Sinclair, I, Candidate for Governor: And How I Got Licked
The motive may not be salary per se. It may be a job, a tax rate or some other kind of economic interest. It may be a genuine, albeit mistaken,* belief that only centrists can win elections and LOTE is better than nothing. But something is certainly driving a contingent of posters--and it's not a desire to have the Party "get back to where it once belonged," to adapt a lyric.
* http://www.democraticunderground.com/12777036
What are populist priorities? I say the vote is priority one.
Get people registered to vote.We--yes, we--Democrats--rushed to kill off ACORN, for reasons that are a mystery to me.
Meanwhile, I listened to the IRS hearings on CSPAN. The big complaints about IRS scrutiny were coming from one astroturf not for profit after another, all Republican and probably teabagger. Doesn't seem coincidental.
One testified that they have a national conference call amongst themselves every Sunday night to share info and encourage each other. (Who pays for that?) My guess is that they are not focusing on registering poor people. My guess is that they are not focusing on the college youth vote, either, with the exception of Young Republicans.
Bottom line: We used to have ACORN, a not for profit that focused on getting people registered to vote who who were likely to vote Democratic. Now, we have a network of astroturf organizations that are probably focusing on getting people likelier to vote Republican registered to vote and no ACORN. What's wrong with that picture and what can we do about it?
Make voting convenient.
People should get at least a half day off from work to vote, providing they produce proof of having voted. Early voting should be an option in every state, and should include weekdays and at least one weekend. Absentee ballots should be easy to obtain.
Use paper ballots!
Boston went to paper ballots for the 2004 Presidential. Yes, a machine counted them. Over time, a voter could opt to have a machine mark them as well, or could opt to use the pencil. (Either way has its risks--pencil can be erased later and who can say if the voter was responsible for the erasure or not). In any case, though, the voter can inspect the ballot before feeding it to the machine that will count it. And, in the event of a close count, the ballots can be counted by hand.
We can lobby hard for this with our state reps and state senators. The feds can also require it for federal elections and help fund a switchover. The voting machine people will squeal, but they have fewer votes than we do, so let's squeal louder.
Enact stiff state and federal penalties for interfering with the vote in any way at all, including intentionally giving false info about when and where to vote, vote caging, etc..
I'll leave the exact wording to legislators, lawyers and staffs. I have full confidence they can do it if they wish. Force them to "wish."
INSIST!
I don't want to hear voters or politicians do any more whining about stolen elections or elections close enough to steal, while doing next to nothing to keep the vote abundant and clean.
Any suggestions?
I'm taking stock.
This post is my personal view, reflecting my personal perceptions. Yours may differ.
Not so long ago, media was pretending that Obama was about as far left as any politician could be.
Not so long ago, media was not admitting that that the Democratic Party had at least two different factions.
Not so long ago, media was not admitting that there was anything to the left of the Democratic Party (not sure they are yet).
Not so long ago, I had little to no hope that the country would wake up to takeover of the Democratic Party by New Democrats.
Not so long ago, Democratic candidates sought and/or were grateful for the endorsement of the DLC.
Not so long ago, populist messaging was ONLY for campaigning, if that.
Not so long ago, the left of DU was feeling very lonely and very silent to me.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026603293
Not so long ago, the left of DU was not showing a lot of unity, a lot of solidarity.
Not so long ago, DU's left was being driven off or leaving DU by choice. (If you are lurking: we miss you.)
Not so long ago, DU had no populist group and no Sanders group.
I see encouraging change in all the above.
Even though this Op is about my personal perceptions, I welcome your comments.
The Virtual Candidate
The relationship between Senator Elizabeth Warren and Hillary Clinton, the Party’s most likely Presidential nominee, goes back to the second half of the Clinton Administration. Warren told me recently that the most dramatic policy fight of her life was one in which Bill and Hillary Clinton were intimately involved. She recalls it as the “ten-year war.” Between 1995 and 2005, Warren, a professor who had established herself as one of the country’s foremost experts on bankruptcy law, managed to turn an arcane issue of financial regulation into a major political issue.
In the late nineteen-nineties, Congress was trying to pass a bankruptcy bill that Warren felt was written, essentially, by the credit-card industry. For several years, through a growing network of allies in Washington, she helped liberals in Congress fight the bill, but at the end of the Clinton Administration the bill seemed on the verge of passage. Clinton’s economic team was divided, much as Democrats today are split over economic policy. His progressive aides opposed the bill; aides who were more sympathetic to the financial industry supported it. Warren targeted the one person in the White House who she believed could stop the legislation: the First Lady. They met alone for half an hour, and, according to Warren, Hillary stood up and declared, “Well, I’m convinced. It is our job to stop that awful bill. You help me and I’ll help you.” In the Administration’s closing weeks, Hillary persuaded Bill Clinton not to sign the legislation, effectively vetoing it.
But just a few months later, in 2001, Hillary was a senator from New York, the home of the financial industry, and she voted in favor of a version of the same bill. It passed, and George W. Bush signed it into law, ending Warren’s ten-year war with a crushing defeat. “There were a lot of people who voted for that bill who thought that there was going to be no political price to pay,” Warren told me.
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/05/04/the-virtual-candidate
The article starts with Warren and the Clintons, transitions to a bit of Warren's life story, the circles back to Warren and the Clintons.
Hosts: I apologize, but I have not kept up with all the posts in this forum. If this story has been posted previously, please pm me and I will self delete.
DNC fundraising off Bernie.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/05/01/1381733/-DNC-uses-Bernie-Sanders-to-hit-new-low-in-sleazy-misleading-request-for#If you like Bernie for President 2016, like Bernie for President 2016
Sign up at his website.
https://berniesanders.com/
Like him on facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/berniesanders
Join the Bernie Sanders for President group at reddit
http://www.reddit.com/r/SandersForPresident/
Upworthy Sanders stories.
https://www.upworthy.com/democracy
Add more to this thread.
Sanders SCANDAL!!11!!!
He doesn't use a lot of hair products and his hair is clean enough to move when his head does and/or when the wind blows.
Can we move on now, corporate America, to things like minimum wage and other things on which people who are past puberty need and want to focus?
Media Contacts Only Please
On this thread, let's collect media contacts. I'll start with the Daily Show.
We know media, even ordinarily beloved figures like Stewart, Colbert, Letterman, Fallon and MSNBC anchors, are likely to be taking pot shots at Sanders, calling him old, a socialist, etc. I think it's important to contact them every time we catch them doing a hatchet job, subtle or not, "humorous" or not, etc.
Old? He is almost exactly six years older than Hillary. Big whoop.
Socialist? He's a Democratic Socialist who has, for years, run as an Independent and caucused with Democrats (House and Senate--still caucuses with the House Progressive Caucus).
If you saw this past week's Daily Show, Stewart was much harder on Bernie Sanders for being who he is than on Hillary for refusing to comment on the Clinton's Foundation's "forgetting" to report tens of millions of dollars in donations.
If you'd like to comment to the Daily Show about that, go here
https://www.facebook.com/thedailyshow/photos/a.10150284949646800.382185.7976226799/10153259222606800/?type=1&theater
I had posted the show itself here
http://www.democraticunderground.com/12802065
Jon Stewart on Bernie Sanders
Oh, look, he's old(er than Hillary by almost exactly six years), no one knows who the fuck he is, and other "funny" stuff about Bernie.
BUT, also a contrast between a consistent set of principles by which Bernie has lived his life versus the Clinton Foundation's failure, over a five year period, to report tens of millions of dollars received from foreign governments.
On an earlier show, during an interview with George Steph, Stewart mentioned that some of those governments received benefits from the State Department while Hillary was Secretary of State, but did not mention that in this show.
I watch every Daily Show and Jon Stewart is a genius. I love him. That said, I thought he treated Sanders like he might treat Lindsey Graham running against a Democrat.
Anyway, watch it for yourself (including the Wig interview, where we learn voting for Sanders is like voting for a Larry David Presidency).
http://thedailyshow.cc.com/episodes/2u1thc/april-30--2015---kristen-wiig
Jon Stewart interviews Judith Miller about her Iraq invasion coverage
I cross posted in the Jon Stewart Group (Media). Fantastic interview. By a "fake news" reporter. On the Comedy Channel. AKA, msm suck.
http://thedailyshow.cc.com/episodes/27m3xm/april-29--2015---judith-miller
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Member since: Wed Jun 20, 2012, 02:49 AMNumber of posts: 45,251
