I guess part of my issue might come from who you mean when you say party leadership. Pelosi flying out to campaign for a moderate Dem seems pretty shitty on its face yeah, but I’m somewhat skeptical that there isn’t more to the story than that, considering you just told me Joe Biden said he would veto M4A.
The reporting I saw (from politico or the hill or some mainstream place) said she did so because she is afraid primary challenges to someone like cuellar will encourage similar challenges to people like Nadler.
It’s the same where I teach as well. It’s terrible.
I’m going to be despondent if VD is jdock. Plz no.
Viridian, sorry but your DemE friends are likely either Pod Save America types (meaning like Jon Favreau and Lovett, Dan Pfeiffer who I consider well intentioned but are willing to accept the game their higher ups dictate) or corrupt, much, much more likely the former based on your description/likely age demographics.
This is how it works, the progressive agenda works it way up through grassroots and party leadership gets let’s say a list of 10 things that their progressive constituents are demanding. They take that list to a Mike Bloomberg type who then says I can live with/am in favor of 5 or 6 things on the list, but the other 4 or 5 things I am against under any circumstances (meaning the $$$ stops if you go HAM for them). Leadership pushes the progressive items the Bloomberg type signs off on and discards the rest (because how are you going to pay for it!).
Not surprisingly, the Bloomberg type is typically okay w/ pretty much any social issue, climate change and throwing loose change to the workers. Any major economic reforms/major tax cuts and they go apeshit, like when Bloomer called Bernie a communist.
And that’s how you end up with the most far right wing government economic policy in the developed world with “San Francisco and New York liberals” Pelosi and Schumer holding the reigns of power.
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Because its a dumb gotcha question and giving vague answers is standard.
About right except they don’t have to being it to the Bloomberg types. They’re in this job be ause they have internalized and fully believe the entire “how you gonna pay for it” BS. They don’t need to be told.
I’m not blaming Liz; to me it’s too early to even start playing the blame game. The pieces aren’t even fully set up.
What I am doing is my little part to fight against the normalization of what we all know is insanity.
A matter of months ago billionaires were crying on national teevees and lamenting how they had to stop madwoman Liz and her wealth taxes!
Of course she should have consolidated when they formed Centrist Shitlib Voltron, and definitely should’ve at least unofficially endorsed after dropping out. We all know this deep in our bone marrow. Why she hasn’t is a good and necessary conversation but we have to not forget it’s taking place in the most insane timeline.
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And I should point out again: Shouldn’t the people who don’t think Warren is a fraud by the ones most unnerved and unhinged over all this?
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Judging by my social media feeds they think she’s a Boss Bitch and taking time for SELF CARE. Same weirdo personality feminism as Hillary. Pay no mind list for all of them.
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I don’t agree. As soon as the ST results came in, it was instantly clear to every knowledgable observer that Bernie was more or less done barring a miracle. While it is hard to imagine for most people on this forum, it’s actually possible for people not named Bernie Sanders to wield political power to the popular benefit, and therefore it would be good for them to have that power.
The question after ST for Elizabeth Warren was should she endorse Bernie to possibly raise his 1/50 shot at 538 (now less than 1/100) up as high as maybe 1/30, or should she not and leave the door open for her being a cabinet secretary in a potential Biden admin in the 29/30 times he wins the primary. Like blah blah power-hungry snake emoji, but that is not an easy decision. She can do real good as Treasury Sec for Biden, certainly far better than replacement level (I heard he floated lol Jamie Dimon).
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I think we both agree that he’s senile, so I don’t think we can put much stock in his answer. I’m sure you’d point out that that’s a big problem for a Presidential candidate, and I agree, which I why I’m still voting for Bernie next week in Florida.
But, Biden wasn’t even asked about M4A. He was asked about a “compromised” version of M4A, and specifically Warren’s version or some other version that Pelosi passes (can imagine what that would look like). I thought compromised versions of M4A were not acceptable? I thought Warren was a traitor to the left for breaking with Bernie on that?
I changed my thought mid sentence as I was boarding the bus. Was going to say something about in their clique…but changed it.
Lol
A more interesting counterfactual, but it’s still not all that clear that Bernie would have been helped that much more than Biden to push him all the way over the top. People mostly pick candidates for a bunch of gut feels instead of on policy. Like, we just saw exit polling where the #1 candidate of one state or another among people who favored Medicare for All was Joe Biden.
I still don’t think it’s necessarily that simple. Enacting progressive policies is a long game, and this one election wasn’t all of it. I think that depending on what’s said behind the scenes, there’s room for an ethical pragmatist to take Liz’s line here. Now, if you want to slam her for not Doing the Right Thing, it’s compromising on her plan before negotiations started, and trying to be both hawk and dove in the face of the assassination of Solemani.
It’s definitely not clear, but I think on balance it would have helped Bernie, likely enough to put him over the top in states where it was close (or give him more delegates in states he won). I agree with the claim that people are choosing candidates for emotional reasons, of course.