Bernie Sanders Rip Carper and Coons Some New Assholes
It’s going to be a tough four years for the Corporate-Clinton Democrats who fucked everything up in 2016. The Left is not going to stand for your bullshit like voting against cheaper prescription drugs. There will be a price to pay for your pragmatism, for selling out to the highest bidder. You Clinton supporters own this shit.
Sanders said:
“The Democratic Party has got to make it very clear that they are prepared to stand up to powerful special interests like the pharmaceutical industry and like Wall Street, and they’re not going to win elections and they’re not going to be doing the right thing for the American people unless they have the guts to do that. That 13 Democrats did not is disappointing. I absolutely hope that in the coming weeks and months you’re going to see many of them develop the courage to stand up to Pharma.
If we can import vegetables and fish and poultry and beef from all corners of the Earth, please don’t tell me that we cannot bring in, from Canada and other major countries, name brand prescription drugs of some of the largest corporations in the world. That’s a laughable statement.”
Laughable. So while Astra-Zeneca was laying off 120 workers in Delaware, Tom Carper was defending his vote against importing cheaper drugs into the United States saying there is more to providing affordable health care than this one vote. He’s right there is. However, Senator Carper, it was the wrong vote. Special thanks to Jeff Day for asking this question at Carper’s “rally”.
Facebook video link.
Delaware Online video link.
Meanwhile, Cory Booker is taking some body blows for voting like Delaware’s spineless Senators.
If Sen. Cory Booker was serious about making a bid for the presidency in 2020, as several pundits have speculated, then he just put a huge dent in his odds of winning.
Tags: Bernie Sanders, Chris Coons, Cory Booker, Tom Carper
That video defines Carper. Won’t answer the question b/c he CAN’T answer the question. I mean listen. Making prescriptions affordable is ‘just one aspect’ of the Affordable Care Act. He opposes affordable prescription coverage b/c he’s in bed with Big Pharma and Big Insurance. So, he tries to change the subject.
I love it when he says he helped to ‘author’ the act. You know what he’s talking about, right? He’s talking about some language that his ex-Chief of Staff, who was already lobbying for Big Pharma and Big Insurance at the time the bill was being written, snuck into the bill. You can bet it didn’t benefit consumers.
Keep it up, folks. People are finally paying attention. And, yes, big thumbs up to Jeff Day. Hold our elected officials accountable.
Ironically, Coons has no problem with importing cheaper labor to take our jobs.
Also, kudos to Jeff Day and the person who filmed him. That is how it is done. This clip is probably worth its own post to highlight it. Putting it in a “Bernie” post is kind of burying the lede. How about “Carper draws heat on pharma vote at his own event”
I kind of agree with you there puck. In my defense, I hadn’t finished my first cup of coffee yet.
That’s Carp rs last town hall. It will be all the phony telephone versions from now on
So I’m going to make this critisism here because I vowed not to invade Blue Delaware’s cyber safe space. But I’m livid about Coons & Booker voting no on this prescription drug deal. (Carper doesn’t surprise me. Squids can’t defy their nature.)
No commentary or mention of this on Blue Delaware I notice. There is fawning over Coons for voting ‘no’ on the Attorney General nominee however. That’s fair enough on its own, but…
This is not “blogging-about-blogging.” This is a very important argument. If we don’t settle it we’re all in terrible trouble.
@Nemski How about my Spurs? Look good, huh. Audere est facere.
I belong to a new group of women who are trying to resist and change our politics, especially in Delaware. This was supposed to be a “rally,” but turned into a press conference at the last minute. I decided not to go because I did not want to be a prop for Carper, and I knew he wouldn’t answer any questions directly. Those who attended were upset about his non-answers. They were however, enthusiastic about Jeff Day, and hoped he would primary Carper.
@RE_Vanella, I have a post already written about Coons’ Session vote. It was scheduled for later. I’ll post it now.
Here’s a BD post on the votes.
There are also commentary in the post about this and comments pointing out that the reason for their votes is that “pharmaceuticals contribute a great deal to the Booker campaign and to the Carper and Coons campaigns.”
Just sayin’
I’d say the last two words of your comment are very accurate. You’re just sayin’.
Compare the language you used to praise Coons’ JB Session vote. The number of words, the message you’re conveying.
One vote is a show vote against a cabinet appointment. The other would allow millions of people to save millions of dollars on medicine. You’re out of proportion is my argument. I propose you haven’t learned the lesson.
@RE: A Democratic Party blog gonna do what a Democratic Party blog gotta do.
If they were capable of learning they wouldn’t have left.
“There is fawning over Coons for voting ‘no’ on the Attorney General nominee ”
It’s important to give props when due.
My highest blog compliments however will go to the first blog that features the Jeff Day clip under a Carper headline, before it fades into the Delaware memory hole.
You said, “No commentary or mention of this on Blue Delaware I notice.” I linked to a post that proves this comment wrong.
Then you move the goal posts by admitting, in fact, we did write a post, but we didn’t… Get angry enough? Swear enough? Call people names? That really hasn’t ever been my style.
Move the goal posts? It’s not a game.
We should all be in this together, not fighting with other blogs.
The bottom line is that we are going to have to get 1,000 people to call Coons and Carper after each fucked up vote.
I don’t care what blog people read as long as they make those calls.
Simple semantics. Fine, I retract the word ‘mention.’
You understand the the point. I clarified to say your arguments are not in proportion to the salience of the issue.
There’s a real lesson here. I promise there is.
@AQC: That’s why I don’t go there. But if they come here, I’ll treat them as I do any other wrongheaded commenter.
For clarity, and again… We are not “fighting other blogs.”
The question of priorities is important. I say fawning over Coons’ nominee vote while glossing over the prescription drug vote is an important distinction, not just on blogs, but like in real life (aka IRL).
I would have hoped that was obvious. This is an example of something very important.
Since the other thread is moribund, I’ll post this here:
It’s called the Women’s March. I don’t care how may issue-oriented groups are represented, it will be presented to the world as a Women’s March. Not an anti-Trump march, a Women’s March. As I noted on the other thread, every one of those issues would be worth a march under ANY Republican president.
Nothing there makes it clear that this is an ANTI-TRUMP march.
Optics matter. Ask the president-elect. We need the largest possible umbrella to fight this guy, and we won’t get it by patching together a quilt.
And with that mixed metaphor, time for coffee.
“It’s called the Women’s March.”
That’s how you get the women to show up. And I have no problem with that.
Sometimes even a vote is not a vote. And, since the past is often prologue, I’ll warn people now.
Tom Carper voted against the nominations of Alito and Roberts to the Supreme Court.
However, and this is the vote that mattered, he voted to end the filibuster on their nominations. Which is why they were voted on in the first place.
Let’s see what Carper and Coons do if a similar situation arises this time.
@puck: And that’s also how you get everyone who’s not a liberal woman to ignore it.
Carper is a go-to vote when you need to break a Democratic filibuster.
“And that’s also how you get everyone who’s not a liberal woman to ignore it.”
There will be time for more broadly-based marches later. Anyway the marches are just a sideshow. Although I guess they help set the tone and form a foundation for dissent. The real work is stuff like the Carper/Jeff Day clip.
Haven’t commented on the other “march” topic. While I understand anonymous’ point about single issue focus v a broader anti Trump thing. I disagree.
I’m skeptical that a broad ‘Occupy’ type of deal gets any traction right now. There should be one demonstration a week. Every Saturday. I say women’s rights is good for the first one. What should be the following Saturday? The press? How about a huge labor rally?
Occupy had 99 problems, but breadth was not one of them.
Even your idea will be dismissed as a bunch of liberals whining about their usual issues. It won’t work.
Neither will marching, frankly. I’m going to boost the body count, but actual civil disobedience — swamping the city with people without asking for a permit first, for example — is going to be necessary, and if you think it will be later rather than sooner, I disagree.
If we wait for terrible policies to be enacted, it will be too late.
If anything, the Tea Party was too serene — these were people afraid to be arrested. We should take our cue from the NAACP people who were arrested in Sessions’ office. PROTEST is not RESISTANCE.
“The real work is stuff like the Carper/Jeff Day clip.”
Again, I disagree. That assumes that Washington will work as it always has, when clearly it is not working that way. Tom Carper will be a dead possum in the road by the time he runs for re-election.
If you’re going to worry about that kind of stuff, worry that this state will be in Republican hands in 2020. Between our Triassic Period, sclerotic Dover contingent to our fake Democrat in the governor’s office, the Democratic Party in Delaware is as ripe for a fall as any I’ve ever seen.
I don’t hold their platform document against the Women’s March. The manifestos for a march are always horribly written and usually miss the point. Everyone will bring their own reasons and expectations for being there.
@anonymous: I agree. If by some miracle Carper makes even one vote that crosses the banks, pharma, or insurance companies, he will have a strong Republican opponent in his next election, and maybe also a more compliant Dem primary opponent.
I don’t think we could swarm the capital without permit right now. I’m not talking about whether it’ll come to that or how quickly. I’m arguing that the numbers aren’t there. You & I are there, but for most people It’s all abstract yet. Give it a few weeks. I’m keeping a very close eye.
“…the Democratic Party in Delaware is as ripe for a fall as any I’ve ever seen.”
The natural outcome for a party that is more about a couple of personalities, than it is about having a coherent message.
@jason: What personalities? Pete Schwartzkopf the authoritarian? John Carney, the reincarnation of Caspar Milquetoast?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caspar_Milquetoast
Why are Harris McDowell and David McBride still in office? Why haven’t they groomed replacements, or at least stepped aside for younger candidates? And why are they in leadership? Neither one even lives in his district, for Christ’s sake.
No wonder Democrats pee their pants at the thought of increasing taxes. If people start looking at the Democrats closely, the Republicans will win in a walk, simply because they believe in something.
“Say what you will about the tenets of National Socialism, Dude, at least it’s an ethos.”
@RE: “I don’t think we could swarm the capital without permit right now.”
Yeah, I know. Which is why we’re doomed.
I am not outraged at the lack of all the things all those groups will be marching for. I am accustomed to those things, which have been the status quo for most of my 60+ years. I’m not willing to cede territory, but all of that is secondary to the danger here.
I’m outraged at Trump, and the failure of the GOP to be as alarmed as it should be simply because he brought them victory. I am alarmed that our government will now be led by an atavistic cabal of hard-core Randians and a mentally ill megalomaniac in league with Russia.
This is not about issues. This is about the continued existence of the US of America as a democratic republic.
I live in McDowell’s district, unlike McDowell. Maybe I’ll throw my hat in the ring.
I’m on a listening tour now in the 9th
There’s more Indivisible-style activism bubbling along. Delaware Way reports people confronting Carper on his pharma vote down in Seaford – way to go guys! I wish I could embed the photo in this comment.
The news was forwarded to Delaware Way by someone I haven’t heard of, which is a good thing! More people are getting involved!
The same post also reports that Carper will be back at St. Francis on Sunday at 4pm, so if you didn’t get to ask your question yesterday, go see Carper on Sunday!
Update: The Sunday Carper/St. Francis event appears to have been a mistake, probably on my part. I think I caught the post in mid-update.
@Anonymous. You are so 2016 with your calls for resistance. Your plan of action is the type of childish outburst that helped lead to a Trump victory. People have had enough with the traffic blocking and sometimes they don’t stop.
Puck, ive noticed a big uptick in the number of people paying attention to Carper’s comportment.
There is a general awareness that he is on the front lines, representing us, in what MUST be a confrontation (not a collaboration) with the Republicans.
The woman’s march was scheduled the day after the election. No one’s trying to overshadow anyone else’s struggle. We can have a different one each week-end, we just need to work together because only Together We Win!