National

In this week's address, President Obama discussed one of the single most important steps to help grow middle-class wages – expanding the number of workers who are eligible for the overtime that they have earned. In his weekly message, Governor Markell highlights Delaware's commitment to ensuring students have the skills and education they need to thrive in the new economy.

Matt Taibbi asks if this is the end for Republicans: “If this isn’t the end for the Republican Party, it’ll be a shame. They dominated American political life for 50 years and were never anything but monsters. They bred in their voters the incredible attitude that Republicans were the only people within our borders who raised children, loved their country, died in battle or paid taxes. They even sullied the word ‘American’ by insisting they were the only real ones. They preferred Lubbock to Paris, and their idea of an intellectual was Newt Gingrich. Their leaders, from Ralph Reed to Bill Frist to Tom DeLay to Rick Santorum to Romney and Ryan, were an interminable assembly line of shrieking, witch-hunting celibates, all with the same haircut – the kind of people who thought Iran-Contra was nothing, but would grind the affairs of state to a halt over a blow job or Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube.” “A century ago, the small-town American was Gary Cooper: tough, silent, upright and confident. The modern Republican Party changed that person into a haranguing neurotic who couldn’t make it through a dinner without quizzing you about your politics. They destroyed the American character. No hell is hot enough for them. And when Trump came along, they rolled over like the weaklings they’ve always been, bowing more or less instantly to his parodic show of strength.”

I see valued commenters Dave falling into a kind of cognitive trap. He seems to think that that Nevada was all about people (Bernie and Hillary), and their supporters. It is nothing of the sort. Nevada is part of an ongoing push-back against the out and out bullshit that has dominated capitalism (and by extension our politics) for the last 30 or so years. In part, I blame myself for Dave's confusion. When I said unruly Democrats would come home when "Warren is announced as VP" I was using a sort of shorthand for the Clinton campaign recognizing that there is a cancer. Consider your take on the economy like your take on climate change. The politics of climate change are binary. You believe is it real or you don't. Similarly, you believe capitalism in trouble or you don't. The question yet to be settled is - what side of the issue is the Democratic Party on? If the Clinton Campaign can somehow show that they understand that climate change (e.g. rigged economy) is real... I see all Democrats coming home. If the Clinton campaign, and the Democratic Party Apparatchiks, can't get over that hill, I see chaos ahead.

If the Democratic Party is to be successful in November, it is imperative that all state parties treat our campaign supporters with fairness and the respect that they have earned. I am happy to say that has been the case at state conventions in Maine, Alaska, Colorado and Hawaii where good discussions were held and democratic decisions were reached. Unfortunately, that was not the case at the Nevada convention.