The Creation of the Clinton vs the Progressives Narrative

The Creation of the Clinton vs the Progressives Narrative

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It is fascinating to watch and of course Mark Halperin would be at the tip of the spear of this bullshit. According to him and his interlocutor here, Hillary Clinton is "terrified of the left". Setting up this narrative of Clinton vs "The Left" is all about demonizing "The Left" and its ideas in a way that Halperin would never do for the Tea Party -- who are demonstrably dangerous. Which might be why he feels that he can do this -- there's no downside to him for taking sides against "The Left". He won't be the only one, of course, but this is the first I've seen of this narrative in the wild this cycle.
Saturday Open Thread [4.18.15]

Saturday Open Thread [4.18.15]

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Dana Milbank:
Also of note is that the partisan polarization occurs even though Americans aren’t all that split on policies or ideology. Their partisanship is more tribal than anything — the result of an ill-informed electorate. “In order to have an understanding of the ideology of your party and the opposing party you have to have a lot of information,” and “that’s something that just doesn’t happen for the majority of the electorate,” said Westwood. “However, most people understand their side is good and the opposing side is bad, so it’s much easier for them to form these emotional opinions of political parties.” This leads to a grim conclusion: The problem with politics isn’t Washington but the electorate. Members of Congress, most of whom come from safely gerrymandered districts, are behaving in a perfectly rational way when they avoid cooperation with the other party and instead try to build support within their own tribe.
It's the Fox News problem. Back in the day, there was a balanced media that punished extremism. But for 20 years now, there has been one channel dedicated to ideological news. That has led to having half the electorate being ill informed and rejecting any compromise, because their news anchors rejected reality and any compromise by not punishing extremism. So now you have a political party that rejects reality and compromise and does not punish extremism. The electorate is part of it, but Milbank has to look at HOW the electorate got uninformed.

The Weekly Addresses

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President Obama speaks about his commitment to combatting the threat of climate change and to keeping ourselves and future generations safe. Governor Markell celebrates volunteerism in the First State during the annual Week of Service.