Open Thread for Saturday, Nov. 4, 2017
The civil war in the Democratic Party should be slouching toward Appomattox Courthouse, but the belligerents just won’t let it go. Shots are still being fired over Donna Brazile’s book excerpt, despite pleas from all quarters to focus on the Orange Menace.
Most voters don’t know what’s in the GOP tax cut plan, but polls consistently show that about 60% of us believe corporate rates are low enough. Do Republican lawmakers care?Nope. They simply refuse to believe those polls, and proudly say so.
Jeff Sessions might not be long for his job, but this story shows why he’s so desperate to keep it: On Friday his Justice Department sued the ACLU attorneys who represented that underaged, undocumented immigrant Jane Doe in her quest for an abortion. The case touches on both the Grand Elf’s obsessions, so it perfectly illustrates why dwarf-tossing should make a one-time return.
Salon asks, “Is Kevin Spacey done?”, and answers with a convincing case for “Yes.”
Donald Trump and his henchmen find ways to break laws most people don’t know exist. You know those stories about how Trump still takes Steve Bannon’s phone calls? Turns out it’s against the law for someone who leaves the White House to talk to the president about policy. Republicans care about this about as much as they care about those tax polls.
Have at it, and add anything interesting you find.
My personal observation is that the civil war in the Democratic party is the consequence of the Clintons embracing “Third Way” funding, from the financial sector, in exchange for jettisoning our traditional ties to organized labor and urban black populations. This resulted in passing several pieces of what has become devisive policy decisions in Democratic circles, Nafta, the draconian sentencing of blacks, and the vote to go into Iraq. There were many more such policy decisions by the Clintons and their allies. Telling big pharma that they’d get amazing tax breaks if they moved offshore to Puerto Rico, taking thousands of jobs out of the country in a scheme of dubious political or economic merit. Finally, the track record of Clinton ally Debbie Wasserman Schultz must be about one of the worst in the history of the party. Thousands of seats lost across all levels of government, including a three chamber sweep of the federal government, culminating in a stunning unconstitutional refusal to consider Obama’s nominee to the Supreme Court. Now we have a corporatist shill creating another conservative majority. Neo-liberals stand for failure at all levels. Their only guiding principle is to be re-elected. Is this the kind of Democratic party I’m interested in funding, or supporting in any way? NO.
To be fair, some “neo-liberals” would be better behaved in the absence of the glut of the “freedom of speech” we now enjoy thanks to Citizen’s United, so I always check, “campaign finance reform” as my most pressing issue. What kind of government will we get when we finally have a level playing field? How would my legislators vote without the onus of having to raise money for a campaign? I would hope for an improvement.
I don’t think I can improve on that analysis. Except to point out that Barack Obama allowed DWS to continue destroying the Party when he really should have replaced her.
Obama has come under criticism for his disinterest in the DNC, but I always read it as an acknowledgement that if he tried to take over the party machinery he would have faced lots of resistance from the Clintons, and he didn’t need one more headache.
That’s a charitable take on Obama’s neglect of the DNC. My sense was that his neglect was based on being swayed by concern trolls who constantly fret about “partisanship”.
That’s just as charitable as mine, isn’t it? 😉