For those who think things are settled?
Think again…
Progressives WANT the party…..
Establishment has been fighting this over 4 years….
The lefties keep losing at the top and coming back….
Bernie Sanders is 0-2 and probably done on the Presidential level…
He HAS told his fellow Progressives to back Biden for now….
They have made inroads in down ballot races…
Joe Biden needs all the votes he can get….
Hopefully the Progressives will hold their noses and vote…And vote for the guy who will probably listen MORE to them and could help their wants….
Despite presenting a mostly united front during the Democratic convention, opposing sides of the party are clashing over health care, climate change, police reform and primary challenges. The disagreements have largely taken place on the sidelines due to the pandemic, but they offer a glimpse at the coming fights between progressives and centrists if Joe Biden wins in November.
Progressives have been frustrated by the limits of their political capital — feelings that were exacerbated by what unfolded during the Democratic convention and since. Many questioned the decision to give Republican politicians more air time to present their vision for the country than actual members of the party, including stars like New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Liberals lashed out at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for backing primary challenger Joe Kennedy in his bid to unseat Green New Deal co-sponsor Sen. Ed Markey. They called her move hypocritical after she cracked down last yearon consultants who worked with Democratic primary challengers seeking to oust incumbents.
Days later, Ocasio-Cortez endorsed Alex Morse in his bid to take down House Ways and Means Committee chairman Richard Neal — one of her biggest targets this cycle. The two Sept. 1 elections could bolster either faction’s mandate in a potential Biden administration.
Other progressives registered their discontent by voting against the official Democratic platform, taking issue with its exclusion of “Medicare for All.” The DNC revealed that nearly 1,100 delegates of more than 4,700 total voted against the platform, including Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.).
The dissent underscores that health care will be a major front in the battle between moderates and progressives if Biden wins. And while it doesn’t compare to the party’s heated 2016 primary, it’s plain that bitterness toward the DNC still lingers on the left…..
Using what is happening now as the definition of “ civil war?”
There has been a “ civil war” raging in both parties for a hundred years or so.
Absolutely Jack….
Cept Trump is winning on the GOPer side u have kept pointing out, eh?
Except for a few who want to talk about “civil war”, everyone is focused on the enemy outside the party. Eventually, progressives will indeed prevail and this drives the others crazy.
I think they HAVE moved the party a bit to the left RE….
But they have little chance to controlling the party….
As Democrats get older they move to the middle and slightly to the right….
Also they begin to see that certain things are doable…
A lot is not….
Book Review
It Was All A Lie:How the Republican Party Became Donald Trump
Readers here are familiar with my recent series of “Conservatism Is Bunk.”Of course ,I’m what a “conservative” would describe as a “Librul,” so my skepticism of Right Wing inanities is to be expected.Now comes Stuart Stevens, a well known Republican political strategist ,who worked in almost all recent Republican presidential campaigns and innumerable state and local races to,well, say the same thing as me. Hell, he goes even further and labels the all damn thing,a Lie.
Part a history of contemporary conservatism and part a mea culpa for his role in the spreading of vicious lies, subtle (and not so subtle) racial bigotry and paving the way for Donald Trump,Stevens presents ,in fairly short form(200 pages) ,a searing indictment of the Republican Party and. “conservatism “in general.The deceits and lies pile up since Nixon’s time as the Republican Party becomes nothing more than a vehicle for resentments of the increasingly fading White majority which culminates in the election of a grifter like Trump ,who Stevens concedes ,is the logical outcome of over 50 years of of Republicans deception.
If you’re looking for personal attacks on Republican leaders over this period,you won’t find it here.There is no score settling.Indeed, Stevens appears to have genuine respect and affection for the two Bushes but surpringly barely mentions Mitt Romney, in whose campaign he was a central figure.Stevens describes himself as a “flawed messenger.” Then explains that it likely took someone like him to tell the ugly truth of what the Republican Party has become.
Lest you think that Stevens is merely anti Trump and optimistic that once this monster exits the scene Republicans will see the error of its ways and take a different path,you will be disappointed.Indeed, Stevens ,while maybe surprisingly calling Trump a “favorite” for re-election ,believes that Trump may be the last Republican President ,arguing that even the Electoral College will be beyond the Republicans grasp as early as 2024 due to the demographic changes that have,in effect, ended any chance of a Republican winning a majority of popular votes again.
And so, I end my short lived “Conservatism Is Bunk” series.Why listen to a “librul” like me?Just read this book.Its all there .Told much better and with more inside insight that I will ever have!Its an easy read and well worth the time.Note to CG if you’re lurking?Dont read it .It will shatter those myths you’ve built in your own mind all these years.
This will be a post…..
I saw an interview with Stuart Stevens. He definitely has a sober take on how the Republican party got to where it is now and articulates it well. John Dean also describes the coalition that make up the Trumpists and calls for a well-organized and strong opposition to their undemocratic objectives.
This conflict is so incomparably less dramatic than previous struggles within the Democratic Party that it’s just commentary malpractice to call it a civil war.
Look at the party before 1860 (when in fact the party did split in two) or in 1864 (when the Northern Democrats split in two again) or between the progressives and regular organization conservatives over what became New Deal policies between (say) 1925 and 1945, or the overlapping struggle over segregation and civil rights between 1941 and 1968 (when the States’ Rights faction often ran their own presidential candidates), or between 1965 and 1975 over the war in Vietnam, race and culture (when Humphrey couldn’t get partywide support in 1968 nor McGovern in 1972).
Sure there are differences, and political struggles over Democrats’ differences, but there is no significant disagreement which even approaches the chasm on that issue with the G.O.P. — for example, whether universal health care should come through expanding Obamacare or establishing Medicare for All, or whether the Green New Deal is the right approach to the environmental protections that all Democrats want.
No significant Democrat is threatening to bolt to another party on the left, on the right or in the center. The Squad backs Biden, not Howie Hawkins (Green Party & Socialist Party USA); Joe Manchin, Jon Tester and Doug Jones all back Biden, too.
No Dr Spocks, no John Breckinridges, no Strom Thurmonds, no Henry Wallaces, no George Wallaces, nor any Al Smiths or Joe Liebermans.