In recent days, Democrats have been making some very foolish choices, choices which could provoke a deadly party schism and ruin our chances for retaking the White House. From Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to Kamala Harris, matters ranging from petty personal dissensions within the Democratic caucus, all the way to the primary debates, have been framed in terms of race. This way lies madness and the certain reelection of Donald Trump, if we keep it up.
Ocasio-Cortez even suggesting that Nancy Pelosi’s comments about “the squad” were racially based is absurd and very destructive.
“When these comments first started, I kind of thought that she was keeping the progressive flank at more of an arm’s distance in order to protect more moderate members, which I understood,” Ocasio-Cortez told The Washington Post in an interview published Wednesday. But the persistent singling out … it got to a point where it was just outright disrespectful … the explicit singling out of newly elected women of color,” Ocasio-Cortez added.
Pelosi eloquently stated, “Many of you came here to make a beautiful pate. Most of the time we’re making sausage.” Speaker Pelosi is a realist. She wasn’t disparaging women of color or anybody. She was advocating unity. Unity on the part of Democrats is the only thing that is going to restore the White House to the American people in 2020. Washington Post:
Their ability to work together — or refusal to — will have major implications for Democrats as they seek to oust President Trump and retain their majority in next year’s election. Pelosi knows that fate of her majority rests with the moderate Democrats who captured Republican-held seats in last year’s midterm elections.
“A majority is a fragile thing,” she said, according to two people present for the remarks, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the private meeting, adding that members should show “some level of respect and sensitivity” to more moderate colleagues: “You make me the target, but don’t make our [moderates] the target in all of this, because we have important fish to fry.”
The speaker’s allies say concerns about the next election is driving her moves to isolate these four women.
“Sometimes a leader’s got to take positions to keep the team [united],” said Rep. Gregory W. Meeks (D-N.Y.). “She knows what got us here and what’s going to keep us here.”
The takeaway here is that indulging the far left members of the caucus and pushing the progressive envelope in the Democratic party is not what is needed at this point in history. What is needed is wresting the White House back from the clutches of the Putin-possessed charlatan within it’s walls, because failure to do so will forever alter the course of American history, and America’s stature in the world. This is not hyperbole. This is the simple truth.
Voting Trump out in 2020 will send a message to the world that America, regrettably, lost her way in 2016, and under the seductive influence of television coupled with the pernicious nature of Fox News’ lies, was induced to vote for a common crook, six-times-bankrupt TV game show host — but then America came to her senses and restored sane governance to the land by voting the conman out. That will be the narrative in 2020 if the Democrats are successful in regaining the White House. If not? Then the message to the world will be, “this is what America has become,” i.e., a nation of uneducated, backward, uninformed and disinterested, cruel and immoral fools, wanting only their bread and circus, and believing anything that they see and hear on television; just so long as it fits their angered, jaundiced bias. The myth of American exceptionalism will be dead forever.
There will be no other way to explain the reelection of a man like Trump, who caused concentration camps at the southern border and tanks in the streets of Washington, D.C. If Trump is reelected, the message will be that America is no longer a democracy, it is a kakistocracy, for that is precisely what it is this minute — leadership, nay rulership, by the least competent and qualified. A leader would have never created concentration camps for children at the southern border. A deranged ruler did.
If Trump is reelected in 2020 we will lose the respect of the world even more than we already have and we will deserve it. That is how high the stakes in this game have gone. The 2020 election is not business as usual. It’s not about picking one person or one policy over another. It’s about whether democracy lives or dies. Party schisms over race or anything else are divisive at any time. Nowadays, with the country more divided than it has been since the civil war, they are lethal.
Now, AOC and the squad are not the only ones playing the race card to the detriment of the party, and setting Democrats up to lose in 2020. Kamala Harris kneecapped Joe Biden at the first debate over the busing issue. It seems that she intends to use this strategy to gain the same result that Obama obtained over Hillary back in 2008. Hillary had the black vote locked in until it became apparent that Obama, also a junior senator at that time, was capable of making inroads with that key constituency, and the rest is history. Harris was in New Orleans last week talking about a $100Billion federal program to help black people buy homes, so it’s evident she’s looking to sway black voters away from Joe Biden, who presently has them solidly in his column. However, that may not be as simple as it sounds. Rev. Al Sharpton comments on Biden, starting at 4:43. Here’s the gist of it:
“Donald Trump won playing the race card, but he also played that he was going to undo everything that President Obama did. Well, undoing Obama is undoing Obama-Biden, so a lot of African-Americans are saying, ‘This is my vote to say I am with Obama-Biden and the things that Donald Trump is trying to undo,’ and Biden gets a lot of support because of that.”
“He was the co-pilot of the years that Mr. Trump is now trying to displace, so it’s going to take more than one or two bad nights at a debate for people to look at Joe Biden as separate from the last 10 years. They weren’t around 50 years ago for busing. It’s a big issue and an important issue, but they remember in real life their own experiences over the last 10 years that’s trying to be displaced by this president, and Joe Biden was part of that.”
CNN’s Chris Cillizza publishes a newsletter called, The Point. This is from July 8 and entitled, “Here’s Why Donald Trump Can Totally Win in 2020””
in a new Washington Post-ABC News poll there’s at least the suggestion that who Democrats nominate could make a difference in whether Trump wins a second term or not. Former Vice President Joe Biden leads Trump 53%-43% in that national survey. But Biden is the only Democrat with a statistically significant edge over the incumbent. California Sen. Kamala Harris took 48% to Trump’s 46%, while Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders stood at 49% to Trump’s 48%. Trump was tied with both Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg.
Biden’s lead over Trump is explained, somewhat, by the fact that Biden is a wholly known commodity on the national stage — the result of eight years as Barack Obama’s vice president and more than three decades of service in the Senate. Biden is also known — even by independents and lean-Republicans — as a centrist, unlike, say, Sanders, who has unapologetically embraced every imaginable tenet of liberalism.
While the next eight months(ish) will decide the electability question vis-a-vis Biden, the takeaway from the Post-ABC poll — or at least one of the takeaways — should be that Trump isn’t going to be a pushover in November 2020.
The Point: What the Post-ABC numbers remind us is that Trump won’t be running against an idealized Democratic candidate in 2020. He’ll be running against a flesh-and-blood person with strengths and weaknesses. And judging from the poll numbers, he has a decent chance of beating that eventual nominee. [emphasis Cillizza’s]
2016 was the Year of the Populist. That much was evident in the Democratic primary from the get go. Hillary was the front runner and Bernie Sanders was polling against her at 43%. That says a lot on its face. There was one hell of a schizm in the party and we need not revisit that at this time.
Right now, it appears that some Democrats are, once again, hell bent on fracturing the party over purity issues. Biden is too old, he’s white, he’s male, he’s not the face of the party, he’s not the future of the party. These are excellent points. However, whatever Biden is not, he is a highly visible and “wholly known commodity” associated with a successful administration. As Al Sharpton points out, people are more focused on what has happened in the last ten years than they are on something that happened half a century ago.
Democrats are like a herd of cats. Will Rogers was telling the truth when he said, “I’m not a member of any organized political party; I’m a Democrat.” Now is not the time for purity considerations. Now is the time for all good men and women to come to the aid of the party, and save the country from the hands of the most vile and corrupt administration in the history of the republic.
WE CANNOT LOSE THIS ELECTION OR WE LOSE DEMOCRACY! PERIOD! DEMOCRATS, WAKE UP AND UNITE BEHIND THE FRONT RUNNER, JOE BIDEN, AND SAVE THE COUNTRY! STOP TRYING TO DESTROY A GOOD THING, A WINNING HAND, IN FAVOR OF SOME ABSTRACT IDEAL!
The nation needs to heal. We need to be restored to some kind of recognizable, sane government. This is not the year of the newbie progressive, this is the year of the tried and true centrist. Many progressives will cringe and groan reading this sentence. I don’t blame them. I’m a progressive too. But I say to my progressive-within self, “Would you rather cringe and groan and win, to fight for greater progress another day? Or, would you rather leave the country in the hands of the current kakistocracy for another four years, and watch more right wing judges appointed, more children molested/die in the camps, more dismantling of all that was good that Obama achieved, so that you can feel good about backing the purest candidate — that didn’t have a snowball’s chance of winning?” It’s like the line from the movie, “Primary Colors:” “Oh yeah, I want to vote for the best candidate, the purest, the one who fought the good fight — and watch him lose to the Republican — again.”
This election is the Democrats to lose — and so far, it looks like we’re teeing up to do just that. Fox News is having a field day with this latest AOC/Pelosi incident, blathering about, “The civil war within the Democratic party.” The Republicans love it when we do our purity bit. It’s the equivalent of rolling over and showing our soft underbelly so that they can gut us all the easier. Will we wake up in time, stop fighting, unite and save the country? Or will we hand it over on a silver platter to Trump? The race card is his to play. That’s his home turf. It is no territory for us to be squabbling in.
Trump lashing out at Obama/Biden is the way to defeat Trump. Trump fears Biden, that’s known. He knows Biden can take the blue collar workers from him. He knows Biden can take the independents and the voters who have become totally disenchanted with him. Joe Biden can hand Donald Trump his ass and if we really get lucky, we could take back the Senate as well. Do we want to do that, or do we want to be pure? Ivory Soap is very pure — and all that purity goes down the drain, every time.
Biden is going to have to stop talking like it’s the 80s. He’s way behind the times. (So is Sanders, who’s still running in 2016.)
I don’t disagree for a nano second. He needs to be tweaked, groomed, prepped, whatever adjective works. We cannot afford to ignore what he has going for him, however. He is visible, does have name recognition, good like-ability. We’re not talking business as usual here. If I had my druthers, I would support a Warren/Buttigieg ticket, or some variation of that. I’m horrified to be thinking only of electability and not of policies, but we’re in a different era right now. We need to get back the White House, plain and simple. America is under siege, with this dysfunctional administration.
I’d like a Liz/Julian ticket, but Pete is probably okay, though really inexperience to be running for President.
I would have zero problem with Warren/Castro as a ticket. But I’m not the one who voted for Donald Trump. I’m also not the one who is misogynistic or homophobic. If I’m advocating for good old white bread and mayonnaise Joe, it’s because I no longer trust the judgement of the American electorate. My Democratic candidates have lost before, that’s nothing new — but never to a circus side show freak. That’s why I’m advocating caution. I’m terrified of Trump getting reelected. I just want to circumvent that. If Harris could get elected over Biden — then all the better. That’s called having one’s cake and eating it too. My gut tells me to play it safe. Biden is a good man and a good Democrat and the worst Democrat is lightyears beyond Trump.
I disagree P.J. Biden sees the gigantic threat Trump is and is putting his neck out to run because he knows he has a good shot at getting Trump out of office. If anyone is talking like it is another time, Kamala Harris using busing to score points against Biden is missing current issues. Biden’s comments are often taken out of context and no one really cares to report the positives of what he says.
Too many people bought into the unfair negative narrative against Hillary Clinton and if this happens again with Biden it will have the most tragic of consequences. And no, I don’t believe any of the Democrats running have a chance to beat Donald Trump and I am not even sure Biden can but he is our best shot. I really like Warren and really all those running but we have to face reality here. Biden is both a good Democrat and is also our best chance to unseat Donald Trump.
Biden helped get us *into* this mess, by favoring banks and credit-card companies and not backing the Dems when they were trying to fix actual problems. He’s still not seeing those problems.
Thank you. I have been watching with horror how the NYT, Wapost, and the Progressive sites have been attacking Nancy Pelosi and Biden excessively. So much so that I wonder how many of these people care one bit about the future of our country and the world. Please keep up with the truth. Biden and Pelosi are strong Democrats but the Left has learned many of the tactics used by the Right and are really jeopardizing our maintaining our lead in the House and also setting us up for another Trump term. I feel like you are a lone voice in the wilderness to use a cliche but one that is appropriate in this case.
Thank you, Mirelle. What you just said means a lot to me. I also feel like I’m the lone voice in the wilderness. Pelosi gets disparaged unjustly all the time. We don’t have the effing Senate, so impeachment is a waste of time. End of discussion. I’ve already made my argument in favor of Biden, so no need to repeat it. We need to take back the White House and i think he’s the guy to do it. If it was merit alone — I would support Elizabeth Warren. She’s totally brainy and competent. I don’t think she will win. I know that in saying that i will be called sexist, whatever — which is insane, since I’m a female who has suffered from sexism her entire life.
Point being, we live in strange times and the 2016 election showed me, at least, that the under current of racism, misogyny, all of it, is far nearer than we know. It’s not deeply buried or weak, it’s a very strong, tidal presence. Trump has enabled all these resentments and cultural character defects, if you will, to come into the light and be accepted.
The reason I have the attitude I have about this election is because if we, as Democrats, live in a bubble and nominate the perfect progressive candidate, turning a blind eye to who can defeat Trump, then we’ll hand him the WH for another four years. That piece that Cilllizza over at CNN wrote was very sobering. We need to pay attention to this, or we will repent for another four years.
And that would be a disaster because truly I fear we will have banana republic status in the world. America will never be the same if we allow Trump to be reelected. We have to find a compromise candidate, that is widely acceptable to the greatest number of people. I know that’s not a “progressive’ attitude, per se, but I believe it to be a realistic one.
Ursula,
I am in shock after reading your opinion piece!!
I agree that our top priority must be to boot out and jail The Orange Pustule. On the other hand I am sick to death of moderates! I want our country to progress, not wallow in this endless corrupt gyre. Elizabeth Warren would move us forward and be more effective at reversing all the damage this nutcase has brought on us.
Biden is a good man with a heart of gold, but do we want to go back decades?
I think it is much too early to judge who can beat drumph.
Annis, you have articulated the quandary perfectly. I could not have said it better myself. I, too, support Elizabeth Warren. If I’d had my druthers, I’d druther have her above all of them. She’s by far the brainiest and has the best policies. The reason I suggest Biden, is because I think that the country is too m.f.ing STUPID to elect Warren. Why do I think this? Because I saw Trump get elected in 2016, and realized at that moment how completely backwards and lost a country we are. (Either that, or there is something horrible about Hillary Clinton, and I am oblivious to it.)
Believe me, I want to be wrong about this. You can’t know how much I want to be wrong about this. But, let me share this with you: my initial reaction to 2016 was that Bernie was more electable than Hillary. Now Hillary is infinitely more qualified, there is no issue there. However, I saw from the get-go how much baggage she had, and how truly hated she was (and still is, by so many people. If ever a politician was the victim of unjust lies, it is Hillary Clinton.) But, when she got the nomination, and ran against the Pig of All Pigs, Bum of All Bums, I figured, “no way she can lose, against this POS.” I was wrong, and my world view changed that night and my opinion of who and what actually lives in this country morphed into something new.
Now, yes, there were Russian bots, no question about that. But still, too many people bought into Trump’s bulls*it. Just like P.T. Barnum said, “there’s a sucker born every minute.” And there were protest votes — you know what went on, we don’t need to rehash it.
So, I’m scared to death, that’s the long and the short of it. That’s why I recommend Biden as a realistic compromise. All I want is for the Democrats to take back the White House because the country cannot take another four years of Trump. Nor can the world.
And I feel terrible about all this, because I would rather support the candidate of my choice, rather than some alternative. Hell, I was even favorably disposed towards Michael Avenatti, back before his crookedness was revealed. ALL that I can think about is beating Trump. I don’t care how or who, I just want to beat him and I’m afraid that in this misogynistic, backwards nation of ours a woman can’t beat him. I don’t respect where America is at, in that regard. I think we missed the boat big time, in a world where women like Angela Merkel and Theresa May and others can be leaders, but in America somebody like Hillary lost to a POS like Donald Trump.
I have lost faith in America. That’s the bottom line. That’s why I’m advocating doing the safe thing and going with Biden. I think it’s our only hope.
Does this make sense?
Ursula, about this:
“I think we missed the boat big time, in a world where women like Angela Merkel and Theresa May and others can be leaders, but in America somebody like Hillary lost to a POS like Donald Trump.”
Neither Merkel nor May were elected–or faced elections–in the same way that Hillary did. Both countries use a Parliamentary system in which the leaders are even less directly elected than the US. In Germany, the President appoints a candidate and then elected by members of the Bundestag in a secret ballot; the Chancellor need not be a member of the Bundestag (but will usually be and will generally hold a major leadership position in his or her party). In the UK, the Prime Minister is merely a member of Parliament who has ALSO been chosen as his or her party’s leader in outside elections (it is entirely possible that the Prime Minister is not an MP when going to #10 Downing Street since he or she lost election/re-election to his/her constituency but that’s fairly rare); after the Party has won an election, the leader is called to meet the Queen to form a government and will continue as Prime Minister until either stepping down or losing a vote of confidence (with the latter, it’s still actually possible for the PM to continue in the office if there’s no clear replacement). Both jobs are only dependent on “the will of the public” in the sense that their parties *must* retain a majority in the Parliament through national parliamentary elections but neither person is *directly* elected (I know-I know, the US President isn’t “directly” elected either, but the Electoral College IS dependent on how the majority–or plurality–of voters of each state vote). People may not like either May (currently) or Merkel on a personal level but if they support their respective parties’ candidates standing for the parliament, then May or Merkel can remain in charge.
There’s not really an analogous situation in the US since our President is both the Head of State and Head of Government; in both the UK and Germany, the Prime Minister/Chancellor is the Head of Government (the Heads of State–the British Monarch and German President–hold less power but even their roles are different).
TL;DR: Get the US to enact a Parliamentary system and we’d be more likely to get a strong woman as Head of Government.
I am not sure if it is O.K. to refer to other articles here but I read this on The Atlantic on-line the other day. I thought it was a good assessment of what is going on. Here is the article: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/07/progressive-biden/593410/
My dear, throw in a link to a relevant article any old time you want. This is how we stay up to speed on all this
The world will burn if Trump is re elected. That is all.
You know my feeling that we’re going to lose face in the world forever if we reelect Trump. Four more years of this madness? “A kidney has a place in the heart?” “The moon is a part of Mars?” “They rammed the ramparts, they took over the airports?” If we reelect this f**king idiot, than of course we’re going to look like the morons that we are in the eyes of the world.
Not saying Biden is perfect. Saying he’s a good compromise. It goes against my grain, too, as a quote unquote progressive to be thinking in terms of compromise, but we have to be realistic. We can’t live in some bubble and watch the GOP win again with this Frankenstein’s monster of theirs.
Nothing will be resolved if we do not win this. We can b*tch and moan after we have won. Why is this so freaking hard for people to understand. It is infuriating. `Nancy said this, Biden said that, Aoc said something,’ now we have people trying to say that Speaker Pelosi is a bad as Trump. I am flabbergasted at the shortsightedness of the people making these comments. Have they forgotten what is at stake here? These are not normal times.
Mae, you are preaching to the choir. These are not normal times. This is not a normal election. The Democratic party cannot proceed as if this was just one more election and all the same standards apply. The nation is not functioning properly with this POS at the helm and we need to take the helm from him. Screw everything else. There is one question and one question only and that is: Who can beat Trump? If Biden is at 53% then I say, let’s not eff it up, let’s go with Uncle Joe. Hey, it rhymes even. I don’t say this as a savvy politically aware person, I say this as a devastated Democrat who can’t stand to see us lose — again.
There’s a lot to think about here. I’ve long felt (and said sometimes) I thought Biden missed his moment which if it existed was 2016. He did after all run twice before and flame out during the nomination/primary process. I can understand why he didn’t – parents aren’t supposed to bury their children and given what he’d already been through earlier in life I don’t blame Biden for wanting to take time to deal with the overwhelming grief of the death of his oldest son who after all seemed to get a second chance at a long & happy life by not dying in that accident so long ago. By the time he was ready to think about elective politics again Hillary had locked up all the establishment support so that was that.
As for him running this cycle at best I had mixed feelings about him doing so, even if President Obama did the right thing and stayed on the sidelines. I say Obama has been doing the right thing because given all the “coronation” feelings about Clinton’s candidacy we simply couldn’t afford another round of it – which is why I didn’t want Bernie deciding to sign up formally as a Democrat again. It’s not going to happen for Bernie and within a week of his being out of the race he’ll have resigned from the Party again.
But when it comes to Biden his credentials go way back. That’s both a good and a bad thing. Having been a visible and active VP he’s always had the next best thing to incumbency going for him. Many pointed out that it was likely his original overwhelming poll numbers were significantly & positively impacted by name recognition. And that as time went on & other candidates became better known the gap would narrow which is exactly what we’ve seen. I’m still far from deciding who our best candidate would be but I’ve always thought Warren would have made a good candidate even back in 2016 but she chose not to run then. Since she entered the race I thought Harris might be good, and that if she got the nomination she’d dismantle Trump in the debates – if they happened. Keep in mind Trump doesn’t give a rat’s ass about norms and traditions and I think he’d be afraid to show up and face Harris one-on-one. However, even getting his ass kicked by her two or three times on national TV might not make enough difference. It’s an ugly thing to have to face but the latent racism that’s always been lurking in this country grew in intensity with a black man in the WH and with Trump it’s been unleashed. Add that to the fact Harris is also female and it might well be a double-whammy if she’s our candidate.
I might get roasted for saying this since I’m a white male, but being in my 60s and having spent a lot of time working with women in settings where I was the only guy or only one of a handful of guys my anecdotal observations are that women can be more vicious towards each other than men can be. By men I don’t mean the outright & overtly and unapologetic louts and misogynists but the average guy who more often than not tries to be fair or thinks he does but still doesn’t give women their due. Women will be much tougher on other women than such men usually are.
So, with Harris I worry a lot about electability. That no matter how great she is on the campaign trail and no matter how many people grow to like her that when it comes time to step into the booth and actually cast their vote they just won’t be able to bring themselves to do so for a woman of color. It’s not right. It’s not fair. It flat out sucks. BUT, I can’t help but wonder if that’s why Harris is so far behind Biden in black support. That black people, and especially black women who are our most crucial block of voters and advocates at the grass roots level are feeling but reluctant to say out loud.
Then again I might be an oldish white guy who doesn’t have a clue.
Warren is at least white, but like Hillary she too has to face an unfair gender bias and again, it’s a bias not limited to male voters. I keep hearing how personable she is at campaign events, even ones with a thousand or more people attending. You know what? The same was true of Hillary, at least at smaller events. Alas, for Hillary her “stage presence” in front of large crowds and on TV didn’t allow the personal warmth/connection people marveled over to show through to the masses. It remains to be seen how Warren does on that over time, if she can communicate in a way that doesn’t make her come across as a policy wonk “professor” which Trump and the GOP could exploit to high heaven. Same for Harris.
When it comes to Mayor Pete I think he will face a form of ageism himself as in being too young and/or inexperienced. And just as the two women I’ve written about face an unfair gender bias he’s also going to have to deal with being gay & as with gender and race I think a lot of people who might not really care during the campaign itself will, once the curtain is closed and they are casting their vote be overwhelmed with old feelings they thought they’d gotten past.
Now, if you’ve read all that I want to circle back to Biden. He should have been better prepared for that first debate. He damn well needs to pay attention to his staff as they try and condition him for a campaign in the here and now. He’s got plenty of baggage the GOP will, with the help of Russia exploit and while he’s got the support of black voters now and would have plenty of it as our nominee in battleground states whether it’s bussing, Anita Hill or that Crime Bill back in the 1990s social media will eat up some crucial support he needs by causing some to just stay home instead of getting out to vote. I don’t know if others feel the same way but from where I sit Biden has acted to some degree like he’s going to have a “coronation” both in the primary and the general. That he can simply play up being Obama’s VP and win. I think that might work in the primary but not so much in the general election and while it’s only one “debate” he’s going to have to be a lot more nimble on his feet in a one-on-one with Trump and again that assumes there will be general election debates. It’s said the candidate Trump most fears is Biden and so Trump might well blow off the debates rather than submit himself to a side-by-side comparison.
I don’t think Trump refusing debates is a crazy notion. And mark my words – if that’s how it goes down Trump will surely have to endure lots of coverage on non-Fox networks about ducking them BUT I guaran-goddam-tee you it will be mitigated with a shitload of speculation as to how clever Trump is being by avoiding the side-by-side comparison. And some of that would morph into discussion of “golly gee – he might be more skilled than we thought!”
For now I’m in wait and see mode, and the one poll number I took to heart yesterday & think really means something is that at this point only 12% of Democrats are already sure of who they support.
This is going to be a rough ride. And to touch on another point I agree it doesn’t help one bit to see the public feuding between some of our new folks in Congress and the Speaker. Where I might differ with Ursula or others is my belief that some of the fault lies with Speaker Pelosi. It doesn’t do us any good for AOC for example to tell a reporter she hasn’t had any direct contact with Pelosi since February, but it doesn’t say much that’s good about the Speaker that that has been the case. If the same (lack of contact) with the rest of “the squad” is true then someone needs to be telling Speaker Pelosi it’s way past time for some personal mentoring. Btw, I hate having race injected into all this and AOC should be doing all she can to walk that back but I saw Katie Porter on TV a while back explaining why she was now in favor of opening in impeachment inquiry and Porter is a white woman in a borderline district.
Well, Denis, you’ve articulated the insanity of politics in July, 2019 succinctly. Yes, the AOC/Pelosi debacle is regrettable. And the impeachment debate rages. And i see both sides of that, as well. OTOH, why impeach, when we don’t have the Senate? OTOH, an impeachment inquiry, televised, would probably wake the country the hell up, if anything would. So I get both sides of that issue. I understand why Pelosi wants the clock to run out on Trump and the voters to vote him out. I also understand why impeachment is warranted and why holding back is a questionable policy. I do not envy Speaker Pelosi her position right now. She is truly between a rock and a hard place.
As to Biden and 2016, I agree with everything you’ve said. Personally, I support Warren. I think she’s the smartest by far — but I don’t have much confidence that she can win, because i don’t trust the judgement of my fellow countrymen. Since the election of Trump, I have concluded that we are a nation of morons, who have been dumbed down for the past 40-50 years by a failed educational system. I see rampant stupidity everywhere I go.
When I was at the dentist yesterday (I go there like other people go to the gym) I was talking with the office manager and I used the term “corporate America.” She said to me, “That’s my bank.” I looked at her blankly and then realized she thought I was talking about Bank of America. I then realized that the reason I don’t particularly like the woman is because she has no remote clue what the hell I’m talking about and never has. She’s just trying to get a signature on a bill, that’s the extent of her comprehension. And she’s got a nursing degree, so figure that.
I think it is generational, because it is incredible to me that an office manager of a chic dental office in South Paradena, California, which is an upscale neighborhood, wouldn’t know a simple generic term like “corporate America.” But I guess the newscasters on TV don’t use it and the woman has never read a book or a newspaper in her life. And if you think she’s stupid, the people who answer the phones are such dim bulbs that I’m amazed that they can find their way home.
I honestly think that the dumbing down of America via a failed educational system is what has befallen us. There is no way that an unspeakable *%#*$ (I lack adjectives, but you get my drift0 like Trump is POTUS. That’s all you need to know about America. And if he gets reelected, the entire world will say, “Game over for the Americans. They fought a good fight, they were a great people once. They’re done now.” That’s what I honestly feel because I see stupid, self-centered people everywhere, who are so bleeping dumb that they don’t understand that everything is connected and they think “politics” is some esoteric topic for the brainy or the weird — and I come across as both to a lot of these people, and if they knew how low an opinion I had of them, their heads would explode.
I know how misanthropic I feel, and I apologize for any offense given. I’m very angry as I write this, because I don’t know what else to do or how to wake people up. If Trump being in the People’s House isn’t enough of a wake up call to go to the ballot box and vote his ass into oblivion then I truly give up on America. I never thought I would say that. But that’s how I feel.
And I had friends from the WWII generation (they’re all gone now) and they were a remarkable group of people. This world, today, is not what all that blood and sacrifice was for. This stinks.
Thanks for letting me vent, Denis, and I nope you’re happy with the computer.
I’m a writer from the UK who takes a keen interest in American politics since, like it or not, American politics affects the world. I’m also fascinated by the history and how the USA came about. Sorry to use a cliche but you have hit the nail on the head. People are dumb, people are morons and that is the fault of a deliberately dumbed down education system over here as well as in your country. I’m not a subscriber to conspiracy theories en masse but a dozen years ago I had lunch with a sixth form teacher (bright 16-18 year olds headed for university) who had taken a keen interest in my work. He said he had left education, which he loved, because the year before his school had received a government instruction to stop teaching English grammar. Given that his passion was English literature this was a game changer. Now why would a government want its younger citizens to be less articulate? From time to time since then I have taught at English universities and this has been borne out. Some of these kids cannot construct a proper sentence and have no business being at university. The words scholar and scholarly are now a joke. If you think I am digressing from getting Trump out of the WH I am not. The reason he is there is because people are stupid and that is, in large, the fault of an education system and a media which will mock intelligence and applaud mediocrity. Over here now anyone who aspires to be clever and articulate is regarded by the main body of the electorate as suspicious thanks to the mainstream media and the appalling political bias of a once great organisation called the BBC still trading on a long-extinct reputation for impartiality. We have the same problem in that we have a corrupt and vicious government who is soon to have their very own Donald Trump as Prime Minister. Boris Johnson is also a complete idiot and an embarrassment. We too once had a great country and, although I disapprove, the biggest Empire the world had ever seen. So once upon a time we were smart, now we’re becoming a nation of idiots just like you. The voices on your site are voices in the wilderness. We truly live in an Orwellian world where where war is peace, freedom is slavery and ignorance in strength. Read that again: Ignorance is strength. That is the aspiration of the majority. I’m a progressive in his sixties who supports the leader of the opposition (minority leader to you) who is a thoroughly decent, honest and positive man being ripped to shreds by a rabid public infected by the vested interests of Rupert Murdoch and his ilk. Unfortunately his honesty and decency is his undoing. So if I were American I would bite my tongue and vote for Biden as a pragmatist, even though I agree with you about Warren. This is not the time for idealism. If it were 2016 I would have held my nose and voted for Hillary, although not a fan. Those who couldn’t bring themselves to vote for her or anyone gifted Trump the election. Ursula, I responded to your comment because I think that, given you are a woman, what you wrote was very brave and honest and accurate. I despair at the prejudices that humanity parades – all men and woman are born equal under the law – but nevertheless humanity parades them. And to get rid of Trump you’re going to have to be pragmatic. I enjoy your articles, keep up the good fight.
As I see it, Ursula, we can have these fights now or we can have them next year. And we really do not want to have them next year.
I reject the notion that Joe Biden is the only person who can beat Trump like a tambourine. Any and all current challengers (and yes, my distaste for him aside, I include Bernie on that list) can do the same trick. And do you REALLY think that someone in the other camp won’t play the same card Harris just did on Joe? If the latter can’t handle his record being questioned in a semi-friendly setting, he’s got no business going up against the REAL nastiness waiting for him in the general.
Beyond that, it’s too early to get stressed. If we’re still like in February, THEN I’ll worry. Right now, we’re getting the kinks out of the system.
I’m going to disagree with your take on Sen. Harris’s strategy and its impact.
In her campaign, she’s promised to stand for truth, even hard truths. And the hard truth she conveyed in that debate wasn’t to me a cynical attack on Biden – it was centered in the very valid idea that for decades minorities have looked to white male proxies to help them enact change on issues of race. And often those proxies are good and noble men, who really do help us make progress. But too often, those proxies aren’t willing to fight for minority Americans with the same determination that someone who has lived that experience would.
We’ve seen this when LGBT Americans turned to proxies for equal rights, and were told that civil unions should be enough to satisfy. We see this when women turn to proxies for protection of sexual abuse, and are told that it’s enough that they be believed, even if there aren’t consequences for their abusers. And we see this every single time black Americans ask for something. They are told that someday, somehow things will eventually get better.
It is entirely predictable that Sen. Harris would make a respectful attack like that, suggesting that Biden is honorable, but that we need to work harder and do more, and that she’d get the reaction she has from white Democrats. “Oh no, let’s not stray into identity politics.” “Oh no, let’s not rock the boat.” “We better not play the race card.”
Racial disparity in America is our original sin, and if we fail as a nation it will be the central cause of our downfall. It’s time to talk about that, and to address it, even if the conversation is difficult or controversial. And yes, part of that conversation needs to be that many of us are sick of leaders who show up on weekends to march for civil rights, but come Monday morning they’re behind closed doors striking deals that often serve them better than they do minority communities.
I love Joe Biden, and I wouldn’t overly disparage him or his record. But just like it was healthy to retire a ton of older, white Congresspersons for a younger, more diverse body, it may be time to for someone else to lead the Democratic Party. I’m not sure. But the way Sen. Harris framed that question felt fair, appropriate, and a healthy way to consider the issue.
The AOC/Pelosi disagreement is being over-blown into an issue that it’s not by MSM to attempt to fracture and weaken the Ds chances in 2020. This is a normal in-party disagreement that’s being aired & blown up into more than it really is. This is why I’ve just about completely abandoned MSM except for a few selected less biased choices. Disagree with Sharpton that Biden is only path to beat Trump. Trump’s true approval ratings have continued to drop this year. The polls showing Trump’s approval rating is the highest ever are fake/fixed.
I applaud AOC and Harris’ willingness to fight against bigotry and racism…..
…..Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi are not who they should be fighting.
*points at the blatant racists across the aisle*
I see it as a stress test in Joe’s case and propaganda effort in Nancy’s. The former WILL get that thrown in his face by the other side, so pull that trigger now before it’s a problem. The latter smells of psy-ops meant to revive Pelosi’s unearned rep as the Wicked Witch of Washington DC. As Bill Clinton proved with Gennifer Flowers, better it happen early than deep in the campaign.
The average rightie and their handlers already have the dirt on Harris locked and loaded for use if it becomes necessary.
The Dems won’t bring her past up……but the Republicans certainly will when and if the time comes, and it isn’t pretty.
If she thinks her past won’t come back to bite her the only one she is kidding is herself.
That is a gimme for just about every candidate on the menu, not just Harris. And someone with her long career doesn’t strike me as someone who would be that ill-prepared. But Joe has been on the national stage and is the “frontrunner”. Ergo, he went first.
LOL! What a Joke! This makes it seem like it’s just about Trump! Trump is just showing the ugly naked truth of the GOP. The real message is being sent is ‘be as nasty, evil, corrupt and lawless as you want, no one is going to hold you accountable’.
This could have been written in ’06 as it reuses basically the same things that were said then. All centrists did then was close the wounds with out cleaning them and let thing fester until the wounds reopened worse then even with Trump.
I am tired of Dems who try to play 3d chess or play by the old rules, while the GOP blindside them by playing Lie, cheat and steal.
Democratic “centrist” gave us the tea party, Trump him self and a record number of empty court seats for Trump to fill with people horrible/corrupt right wing judges. “Centrists” will not save us from climate change or solve any of the big problems facing America, “centrists” will simply propose watered down half measures that will not pass because they hope to get a few GOP votes and don’t want to annoy their big money donors.
You speak to my heart perfectly Ursula. We need to prioritize, and this election our number 1 priority is to remove trump from office. I also agree in your assessment of the condition of our fellow American’s intelligence. That, for me, was a shocking revelation, but has become quite apparent in the last 2 plus years. I don’t suppose, as baby-boomers, we’ll live long enough to realize the American exceptionlism we so mistakenly believed in our entire previous lives.