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The Daily Delawhere – November 18, 2016
Rockford Tower, on Tower Drive in the Highlands neighborhood in Wilmington. The tower was built in 1902 to serve the water needs of the city. At 115 feet high, and on top of the highest point in Wilmington, an observation deck above the storage tank provides views all across New Castle County.
McBride, Henry, Poore elected as the new Democratic Leadership in Senate.
Current Majority Leader Sen. David McBride (D-13), has been nominated by the Senate Democratic Caucus to replace defeated Senator Patricia Blevins as Senate President Pro Tempore when the Senate convenes for the 149th General Assembly on Tuesday, January 10, 2017. The current Majority Whip, Senator Margaret Rose Henry (D-2), will likewise move up and become the new Democratic Majority Leader. Replacing Henry as the Majority Whip will be Senator Nicole Poore (D-12).
The November 17, 2016 Thread
Ryan Lizza: “Seven days may not be enough time to fully assess any new leader, especially in the case of Trump, whose first week was marked by seeming chaos in his efforts to put together an Administration. But what we’ve learned so far about the least-experienced President-elect in history is as troubling and ominous as his critics have feared.”
“The Greeks have a word for the emerging Trump Administration: kakistocracy. The American Heritage Dictionary defines it as a ‘government by the least qualified or most unprincipled citizens.’ Webster’s is simpler: ‘government by the worst people.’”
The November 16, 2016 Thread
So a week later, and the Trump transition is in total chaos. Who could have predicted?
President-elect Donald Trump’s transition operation “plunged into disarray on Tuesday with the abrupt resignation of Mike Rogers, who had handled national security matters, the second shake-up in a week on a team that has not yet begun to execute the daunting task of taking over the government,” the New York Times reports. Two sources close to Mike Rogers, who was ousted from the Trump transition team, told NBC News that he had been the victim of what one called a “Stalinesque purge,” from the transition of people close to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who left Friday. It was unclear which other aides close to Christie had also been forced out.
Meanwhile, “Gov. Mike Pence took the helm of the effort on Friday after Mr. Trump unceremoniously removed Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, who had been preparing with Obama administration officials for months to put the complex transition process into motion. Now the effort is frozen, senior White House officials say, because Mr. Pence has yet to sign legally required paperwork to allow his team to begin collaborating with President Obama’s aides on the handover.”
Perhaps because of that, according to TPM, Donald Trump’s transition team has not reached out to officials at the State Department or the Pentagon for briefings as the President-elect prepares to take office in January, according to officials from those agencies. State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said on Tuesday that the department has not heard from Trump’s transition team, according to Al-Monitor reporter Laura Rozen.
The November 15, 2016 Thread
E.J. Dionne Jr. on Trumpian triumphalism:
To point out Clinton’s popular-vote advantage is not a form of liberal denial. It’s a way of beginning to build a barricade against right-wing triumphalism — and of reminding immigrants, Muslims, African Americans, Latinos and, yes, our daughters that most Americans stood with them on Election Day.
It is also not true that the emerging political coalition that elected President Obama died on Nov. 8. That alliance maintained its national advantage, as the popular vote shows, and came within a whisker in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan of delivering the election to Clinton despite an onslaught of partisan congressional investigations, Russian meddling and the last-minute political intervention of the FBI.
We dare not forget the power that was arrayed behind Trump because it is that power that must be resisted over the next four years.
Election Results set up a showdown in the 10th
Well, I won’t doubt Harris McDowell and Bruce Ennis again, that’s for sure. Both easily won reelection over what I thought were strong challenges by Republicans James Spadola and Carl Pace. It turns out the closest race among the three competitive races I highlighted before the election was the 8th SD, where Senator David Sokola held on against Republican upstart Meredith Chapman 51% to 47%. It turns out the surprise of the night was Republican Anthony Del Collo upsetting Senate President Pro Tem Patricia Blevins by 206 votes. Boy, getting that job of President Pro Tem seems like a curse recently. That reduces the Democratic majority in the Senate to razor-thin: 11-10.
Indeed, Blevins’ loss now makes the special election in the 10th Senate District do or die. Senator Bethany Hall Long, having been elected to be the next Lt. Governor, will likely resign the seat just before she takes office in mid-January. That would place the special election in either mid to late February or early March. The Democrats have a registration advantage in the 10th, with 15,600 Dems to 9,800 registered Republicans, but it is a competitive seat, with Republican John Marino getting 48.9% of the vote in 2014 amid the backlash to Hall-Long’s husband’s sign stealing scandal.
The November 14, 2016 Thread
David Remnick: “The election of Donald Trump to the Presidency is nothing less than a tragedy for the American republic, a tragedy for the Constitution, and a triumph for the forces, at home and abroad, of nativism, authoritarianism, misogyny, and racism. Trump’s shocking victory, his ascension to the Presidency, is a sickening event in the history of the United States and liberal democracy. On January 20, 2017, we will bid farewell to the first African-American President—a man of integrity, dignity, and generous spirit—and witness the inauguration of a con who did little to spurn endorsement by forces of xenophobia and white supremacy. It is impossible to react to this moment with anything less than revulsion and profound anxiety.”
I’m Back
The reason why I was gone was that I had a business trip to New Orleans planned for immediately after the election. I thought I was going celebrating. But it turns out it was good to be away from the constant newstream of Twitter and Cable News and your normal routine during what was the most shocking election result in all history, and the most heartbreaking. The only way I can describe the feeling was it was like I just lost two friends (Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton) in the same car accident. So there was actual grieving. Tears would well in my eyes for no reason, well, yes, there was a reason, but you know what I mean. But I had to force the sadness and shock away so I could concentrate on the real world business meetings. So that helped. Being away helped. I’m still devastated. I’m in the anger/acceptance stage of grieving. But I am ready to fight back now.
First thing I want to do is apologize to Jason330. His pessimistic view of the election and the electorate was, in the end, proven right. I was wrong. I was relying on polls, data, demographics, and early voting results, but they were wrong. And I am sure I argued with a number of readers, commenters and even some contributors aside from Jason330, like El Somnambulo. I am sure I was arrogant in my analysis. My apologies extends to you all as well.
Second, we have to lay down a marker for all Democrats everywhere but especially here in Delaware: we demand full, complete, and hostile obstruction and opposition to every single thing the …. god… President Trump does. The Republican playbook of 2009-16 is now yours. Use it. There shall be no bipartisan agreements to deport 11 million people. There shall be no bipartisan agreement to repeal and replace Obamacare. There shall be no bipartisan agreement to end Medicare. There shall be no bipartisan agreement to cut taxes for the rich.
Senator Carper, Senator Coons, and Representative Rochester, if you vote yes on a single Republican bill just one time, you might as well join the Republican Party that very same day.
We just elected Hitler, and your first instinct should not be to cut deals with him. Your first instinct must be resistance. No matter if your life or livelihood are in danger.
Third, I have no interest in re-litigating the 2016 primary or debating whether Bernie Sanders or Joe Biden would have done better. I have my opinions on that, and I am sure others have theirs, but really, what good does that debate do us except turn us against each other? You know what we should do? We should take the Democratic Platform as it stands now, which was agreed to by both the Clinton and Sanders campaigns, and use it as our starting point when we discuss how to move forward and what policies to change. It was the most progressive platform in party history.
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