Spanberger’s view was echoed by Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) on “Meet the Press”: “I don’t think the American people want to sign up for the Green New Deal. … I don’t think they’re interested in Medicare-for-all or higher taxes that would slow down the economy.” But this diagnosis is at odds with the numbers. A near-majority of voters in swing districts supported the Green New Deal. Fifty-three percent of Americans support Medicare-for-all (and 70 percent support a public option). In exit polls, 57 percent of voters expressed support for Black Lives Matter. In Florida, while moderate Democrats up and down the ticket fell flat, voters passed the $15 minimum wage that the left has been pushing for years. As Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) observed, every swing-district House Democrat who co-sponsored Medicare-for-all kept their seat.
Yet even if we assume that these polls and results are all misleading, as Ocasio-Cortez pointed out on CNN on Sunday, “not a single member of Congress that I’m aware of campaigned on socialism or defunding the police.” It’s understandable that congressional Democratic leaders want to blame something other than their own candidate recruitment process. But if a candidate didn’t run on defunding the police, yet still couldn’t avoid being tied to “defunding the police,” that’s the candidate’s fault. If a candidate ran on reaching across the aisle, yet got defined as a socialist, that’s the candidate’s fault. And if that candidate couldn’t manage to tie his or her Republican opponent to almost a quarter of a million covid-19 deaths in the United States, a tanked economy or a dozen other policy fiascos, at least one of which was probably directly relevant to the candidate’s district, that’s the candidate’s fault. SOURCE
Bernie’s flaw as a candidate, and the reason that he lost and Joe won the primaries, is that Sanders didn’t spend decades cultivating relationships with members of black/brown caucus groups. His belief is that economic justice will become racial justice, and I think he has a point, but without building those relationships with leaders in black communities, he didn’t have the kind of credibility that Biden did.
People laugh at the idea that Biden will be able to break bread with McConnell and the GOP but if anyone can do it, Biden can, and that might not be a terrible development either. Biden’s no dummy but his intellect isn’t his greatest strength; his ability to read people and cultivate alliances and willingness to have discussions with the opposition - that’s his strength.
It got Biden nowhere for eight years as VP. The republicans obstructed at every turn and any time the Obama admin moved to compromise the republicans just took a step back playing them for fools.
I’m sure that everything was very collegial over some scotch at the end of the day though.
I just can not wrap my head around this insistence that the left is the problem, and that the right is suddenly going to want to play ball.
McConnell has NOTHING to gain by playing along. Obstruction isn’t losing him, or the GOP, votes. It is strengthening their power, and every time we kick at the football and they pull it away, it just makes them look that much stronger in their supporters’ eyes, and probably in the eyes of the undecideds.
I said it in another thread- the American people are valuing strength, so we need to show our own, not keep capitulating to the right.
This is a good point. I think he is right, in a way – African Americans are disproportionately poor, so if we help the poor we will be disproportionately helping African Americans. If the War on Drugs was in effect a fight against African Americans by proxy, a War on Poverty would be a fight FOR African Americans, also by proxy.
As a practical matter, I agree with this. It would also have the beneficial side effect of allowing us to aid the African Americans who need it most first. That’s all well and good.
The problem is that racism in this country isn’t beaten yet. It is not enough to fight it by proxy, because it is the great shame of this nation. We need to tackle it head on.
I think a Sanders presidency with an African American woman as Vice President who takes an active role in the administration and focuses on racial justice could have been a great thing for this country, or vice versa – a more centrist African American president picking Sanders as VP. unfortunately that would never fly in the current climate. [Sanders is further left than I am, but it’s not like Republicans wouldn’t exist to anchor him somewhat in this fantastical timeline! )
I think we need to tackle both issues; the window is closed for Sanders, but he’s done his part in allowing the conversation to encompass things like a $15 minimum wage or UHC. Other politicians are pushing through frontier on the racial issues, and that’s good too. Maybe we really can get some real change this time.
As I see it, the Democratic establishment wants ‘business as usual’ (with the emphasis on business). The less meaningful economic and social reform the better.
But… it was disgust with ‘business as usual’ that was responsible for the rise of Trump.
The only reason McConnell would back down to this threat is that he’d worry losing those bases would make him lose support. But since the Dems shut down the bases, it would be TRIVIALLY EASY for McConnell to BLAME THE DEMOCRATS!
It has been “made very clear” that a substantial portion of the electorate isn’t making rational decisions about who they vote for. These are the same people who won’t blame Trump or their R governors for the raging pandemic in their states. You can’t possibly believe they’ll suddenly see reason when Biden shuts down their base.
I’m afraid this is the sort of thinking that gets so many activists in trouble: they forget that the opposition gets moves, too. How do you think Mitch would respond to this, and who do you think is going to be more effective in influencing KY voters in this regard?
Here’s one possible response:
“Republicans are trying to put a budget forward for American Families. Democrats are trying to play politics: they think that taking jobs away from citizens of Kentucky is going to frighten me into surrendering to their obstructionist demands. I am ready to negotiate with them when they come back to the table, but I will not negotiate as long as they are using the liveliehoods of people of the Bluegrass State as a bargaining chip.”
Only he’ll say it a lot better than I do, because he’s like a level 15 Death Knight or whatever.
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