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Many Democrats expressed outrage Thursday at allegations from a former party chairwoman that an agreement with the Democratic National Committee gave the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton some day-to-day control over the party early in the 2016 campaign.

Donna Brazile, a former interim chairwoman of the party, says in a forthcoming book that an August 2015 agreement gave the Clinton campaign a measure of direct influence over the partys finances and strategy, along with a say over staff decisions and consultation rights over issues like mailings, budgets and analytics.

The control was given in exchange for a joint fundraising pledge by the Clinton campaign that helped fund the DNC through the election year, Brazile says.

This was not a criminal act, but as I saw it, it compromised the partys integrity, she wrote in a book scheduled for publication next week, a portion of which was excerpted Thursday in Politico.

Throughout the campaign, the DNC and its then-chairwoman, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, fiercely denied any suggestion that the party was helping Clinton over other candidates. The presidential campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) had criticized Wasserman Schultz for limiting the early primary debate schedule, allowing party money to be used for Clinton fundraising, and briefly cutting off Sanderss access to the party voter file shortly before the New Hampshire primary after a Sanders staffer inappropriately accessed information.

Some Democrats now say the arrangement is evidence that the concerns were valid. Ray Buckley, the chairman of New Hampshires Democratic Party, said that he first learned of the agreement while serving as DNC vice chair in 2016. The day that Donna discovered this, she called me and I almost passed out, Buckley said. We were blatantly misled.

In response to the report Thursday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said in a CNN interview that she believed the primary contest between Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders had been rigged. This is a real problem, she said. We have to hold this party accountable.

President Trump also jumped on the controversy with a tweet on Thursday night that suggested the Justice Department should investigate the real collusion and dishonesty, even though Brazile and the Sanders campaign have not alleged criminal activity.

Donna Brazile just stated the DNC RIGGED the system to illegally steal the Primary from Bernie Sanders, he wrote.

Trump said in an interview with Fox News Channel broadcast Thursday night that the Brazile allegations are a major story.

Its illegal, number one, and its really very unfair to Bernie Sanders, Trump told Fox host Laura Ingraham. I thought that was terrible.

The current leadership of the party said it would address the problem.

One of my goals here, as DNC chair, is to make sure that the nominating process for 2020 is a process thats fair and transparent for everybody, DNC Chairman Tom Perez said in an interview with CNBC. Were going to set the primary debate schedule well in advance of when we know which candidates will be there.

Charlie Baker, the chief operating officer of the Clinton campaign, said that in 2015 the campaign agreed to raise money for the parts of the DNC that were going to be most crucial to the general election, including data, research, communications and the like. The agreement also gave the Clinton campaign some say over personnel. If there was a vacancy for a position in one of these departments, the DNC had to consult the campaign on the three finalists but could make the final decision itself.

We never tried to be presumptuous, Baker said. We were literally trying to make sure the DNC had the resources it needed, whoever was the nominee.

The joint fundraising agreement allowed Clinton to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars from individual donors money that was spread across state parties under federal campaign guidelines. Sanders had a different fundraising model, relying more on small-dollar donations directly to his campaign, and he told the DNC that his campaign was not interested in following the same program.

The idea that the DNC was willing to take a position that helped a candidate in the midst of a primary is outrageous, and there is no justification for it, said Mark Longabaugh, a senior adviser to the Sanders campaign.It gets back to the fundamental way that Bernie Sanders was running his campaign, which was to break the stranglehold of big money on politics.

Jeff Weaver, Sanderss campaign manager, said in an interview that their campaign was led to believe it had the same joint fundraising agreement as Clinton.

We were not offered veto power on staff at the DNC, I can tell you that, said Weaver. This was a laundering operation. Theyd go to fundraisers, theyd get a $350,000 check from donors which was supposed to be divvied up. Instead of disbursing that money, theyd turn around and run a small-dollar fundraising to generate small contributions that went to the Clinton campaign.

In a September 2015 email obtained by The Washington Post, a lawyer from Perkins Coie, a law firm representing both the DNC and the Clinton campaign, wrote the Sanders campaign with a copy of what was presented as a standard joint fundraising agreement.

This is the same one we have used with other campaigns, wrote attorney Graham Wilson.

At the end of the same email, Wilson suggested that should the Sanders campaign raise significantly more money than was required to pay for the party voter file, then Sanders could have a say in how those funds would be used to prepare for the general election.

The DNC has had discussions like this with the Clinton campaign and is of course willing to do so with all committees raising funds for the Committee, Wilson wrote.

Weaver said the Sanders campaign decided early on to ignore the joint fundraising program and raise small dollars on its own to pay for access to the voter file. Who are the wealthy people Bernie was going to bring to a fundraiser? Weaver asked. We had to buy the voter file right before the primaries.

After the election, the effects of the Clinton fundraising effort hit some state parties hard. Jane Kleeb, who took over Nebraskas Democratic Party in late 2016, discovered that the party had accrued $35,000 in debt for the Clinton campaign.

Nebraska never even signed the JFA because we ... didnt want to be a funnel for, essentially, money-laundering, Kleeb said. And now we learn that a small group of establishment Democrats got to determine who our nominee was. That goes against everything that Democratic values are built on.

Kleeb, who along with Weaver is a member of the Democrats post-primary unity commission, said the party had made some amends under Perezs leadership. In his campaign to run the DNC and since, Perez has chastised Wasserman Schultz for turning the party into a vehicle for the presidential campaign.

After Braziles book excerpt surfaced, state chairs began calling and emailing each other about a change to the DNCs rules and bylaws that would forbid any arrangement like the one Clinton got. Buckley and other DNC members suggested that the party should also give DNC members access to its budget, which would have made it clear much earlier how the joint fundraising agreement was affecting the flow of money.

I will co-sponsor that amendment and vote for it, Buckley said. Theres so much reform that has to happen.

The 2015 agreement was struck at a time when the partys finances were in a dire situation. Two sources said that it was in danger of not meeting its payroll.

The Clinton campaign had effectively taken control of the Democratic National Committee in the year before the nominating process began, said Tad Devine, the top strategist for the Sanders campaign. They exercised their control through the use of the joint fundraising agreement.

Read more at PowerPost

Excerpt from:
Democrats express outrage over allegations of early party ...

Donna Braziles forthcoming memoir triggered renewed recriminations at the highest ranks of the Democratic Party this weekend over the topic that just wont die: 2016.

The latest bombshell from the book came Saturday in a report that the former interim Democratic National Committee chair seriously considered replacing Hillary Clinton on the ticket with Vice President Joe Biden after Clinton collapsed at a 9/11 memorial service. Brazile also describes the Clinton campaign as badly mismanaged and spiritless, according to a copy of the memoir that The Washington Post acquired early.

Story Continued Below

That came on the heels of an excerpt published by POLITICO Magazine about how Brazile said she discovered the Clinton campaign had essentially rigged the DNC if not the primary itself in Clintons favor long before she became the nominee, apparently confirming the worst suspicions of Bernie Sanders campaign.

"The timing couldn't have been worse. It does us no good to hash out all this stuff. At this point, we should be looking to the future what's done is done," said former DNC chairman and Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, pointing to the financial arrangement at the center of Brazile's account. "There was no crime committed, but it would've been easy to avoid. [So] I don't think it was rigged, I think what the DNC did was just awful."

"But we should stop talking about it; it's passed. We can't adjudicate it now, let's focus on the elections Tuesday and on going forward," Rendell added. "There can't be any positive that comes from it."

The backbiting commenced again after Brazile's excerpt described how Clintons campaign had secretly formalized its control over the party apparatus during her primary contest with Sanders. That claim was soon muddied by the publication of the fundraising agreements in question they revealed that many of the provisions Brazile wrote about pertained only to the general election but the stage was set for another relitigation of the bruising primary.

Seizing the opportunity to inflame Democratic tensions, leading Republicans have jumped on the dispute.

The real story on Collusion is in Donna Bs new book. Crooked Hillary bought the DNC & then stole the Democratic Primary from Crazy Bernie!, President Donald Trump tweeted on Friday.

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Sanders responded: We wont be distracted from your efforts to give billionaires tax cuts, take health care from millions and deny climate change. Do your job. But a number of his supporters and aides were more upset. Former campaign manager Jeff Weaver, for one, said on MSNBC that the DNC should apologize.

"Donna's revelations, at least vis-a-vis the DNC and the primary, didn't tell us anything we didn't already know," said Mark Longabaugh, a senior Sanders campaign adviser. "We basically had a party chairwoman resign" because of her preference for Clinton during the primary, he said, referring to Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who was ousted in July 2016.

As Brazile's excerpt circulated, Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison, the DNC deputy chair, who is closely aligned with Sanders, said "we can't allow this idea to persist that any candidate has an inside track.

"Donna Brazile's account cannot simply be dismissed. We must heed the call for our party to enact real reforms that ensure a fair, open, and impartial nominating process in elections to come," he added in a statement.

Nina Turner, the former Ohio state senator who now runs Our Revolution, the political group spawned from Sanders' campaign, also chimed in: "It was rigged all along," she wrote in a fundraising email to the organization's supporters.

While Sanders himself has largely stayed out of the conversation about the primary, other leading members of the party have weighed in. Sen. Elizabeth Warren a prominent progressive who stayed out of the 2016 primary ahead of a possible run of her own in 2020 answered Yes when CNN asked her on Friday whether she believed the contest had been rigged for Clinton.

Appearing on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday, Brazile sought to contain her claims of unfair manipulation to the party apparatus, not voting itself. "I found no evidence, none whatsoever" that the primaries were rigged, said Brazile, who managed Al Gore's campaign in 2000.

On Saturday, DNC Chairman Tom Perez issued a statement that was part apology, part pledge to do better. The uproar comes at a difficult time for the DNC, which has struggled to raise money and which last week abruptly fired its finance director.

I am more committed than ever before to restoring voters faith in our democratic process because even the perception of impartiality or an unfair advantage undermines our ability to win. That is unacceptable, he wrote on Medium, alluding to the 2016 process run by then-chair Wasserman Schultz.

Pledging to work with the Unity Reform Commission set up with Clinton and Sanders campaigns last year, Perez also promised to ensure that no candidate participating in our presidential nominating process gains any unfair advantage real or perceived during our primary season. We will decide the debate schedule in advance, instead of negotiating it after all our candidates have entered the race.

"I totally agree ... with the notion that the DNC fell short during critical moments of the primary" in 2016, Perez said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press."

"Everybody has a right to tell their stories," DNC associate chairman Jaime Harrison told POLITICO on Sunday. But "there's a lot of confusion about 2016, and the only thing we can do about it is make sure 2020 isn't like that."

Yet it was a note posted by over 100 former Clinton aides Saturday disavowing Braziles portrayal of the campaign that sent the biggest shock waves through the party. The letter signed by a group that included campaign chairman John Podesta, campaign manager Robby Mook, and campaign vice-chair Huma Abedin was especially noteworthy given that former campaign aides have issued no similar statement about other scathing portrayals of their effort.

We are pretty tired of people who were not part of our campaign telling the world what it was like to be on the inside of our campaign and how we felt about it. We loved our candidate and each other and it remains our honor to have been part of the effort to make Hillary Clinton the 45th President of the United States, they wrote in the note that also insisted: "We do not recognize the campaign she portrays in the book."

The letter also criticized Brazile for "buy[ing] into false Russian-fueled propaganda, spread by both the Russians and our opponent, about our candidate's health," referring to her musing about replacing Clinton when she fell ill in September 2016.

Perez echoed the sentiment on Sunday: "The charge that Hillary Clinton was somehow incapacitated is, quite frankly, ludicrous," he said.

It was the kind of backward-looking argument that has dogged party leaders for months, but which could hardly come at a less opportune time. Democrats appear likely to win the gubernatorial race in New Jersey on Tuesday, but polls are tightening in Virginia's gubernatorial contest, the most closely watched election this year.

"The timing is obviously not ideal," said New Hampshire Democratic Party chairman Raymond Buckley, whose state has over 200 local elections on Tuesday. But, he said, he had yet to hear about Brazile's book from donors or volunteers. "This is a problem in the Beltway, and in certain state parties."

The Clinton aides note ended with an entreaty to all Democrats, who, they wrote, should be doing everything they can canvassing, phone banking, etc. to help our candidates for Governor of Virginia and New Jersey and other races around the country next Tuesday."

Perez and other national party leaders were in the state campaigning for Democratic Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam over the weekend. And while Republicans including Trump were eager to use the Brazile fracas against Democrats, officials on the ground insisted voters were not following the storyline.

Covered 300 miles of campaign trail in VA today, tweeted Tom Perriello, the former congressman who lost Democrats gubernatorial primary and is now backing Northam. If I got $1 for every voter who asked about Brazile book, my pockets would still be empty.

Other party officials outside the Beltway were similarly determined to ignore the infighting.

"We made a decision long ago in Michigan to not relitigate the 2016 election; other folks can do that," said Brandon Dillon, the state Democratic chairman, who spoke as he drove between party events. "We'll let the circular firing squad go on in D.C.; we'll keep our firing squad on Republicans."

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Democrats shaken and angered by Brazile book - POLITICO

Democratic lawmakers are renewing their calls for gun control, following the largest mass shooting in Texas history, as Republicans, including President Donald Trump and local lawmakers, insisted firearms are not the problem.

The renewed guns debate came after 26 people were killed and 19 more were injured during a shooting at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs. Victims ranged in age from 5 to 72, officials said.

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., led the charge demanding stricter gun control laws with a scathing and lengthy statement.

"As my colleagues go to sleep tonight, they need to think about whether the political support of the gun industry is worth the blood that flows endlessly onto the floors of American churches, elementary schools, movie theaters, and city streets," Murphy said.

"The terrifying fact is that no one is safe so long as Congress chooses to do absolutely nothing in the face of this epidemic. The time is now for Congress to shed its cowardly cover and do something," he added.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said, "As we mourn the lives that were cruelly cut short today, we must resolve to denounce all forms of hatred and violence and to drive them from our communities and our nation."

Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., put it even more bluntly. "Screw the @NRA & can you help Dems take back the House," he tweeted.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., piled on.

How many more people must die at churches or concerts or schools before we stop letting the @NRA control this country's gun policies? she tweeted.

Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., posted, "Senseless gun violence has torn apart another community this time in a house of worship."

"When do we say enough is enough?" she added.

Law enforcement officials set up along a street near the First Baptist Church after a mass shooting in Sutherland Springs, Texas on Nov, 5, 2017. Mohammed Khursheed / Reuters

Several Republicans, however, including Trump, said guns weren't to blame, with some suggesting that more guns may have helped bring the tragedy to a quicker end.

"I dont want to create impediments for law abiding citizens having guns," Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said Monday on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "The people who slowed this guy down were people who had guns."

Paxton's remarks referred to information from Freeman Martin, a regional director with the Texas Department of Public Safety, who said on Sunday that an armed local resident had confronted the gunman. The resident "grabbed his rifle and engaged that suspect," Martin said.

Trump, meanwhile, called the suspect in the shooting a "very deranged individual," adding that "we have a lot of mental health problems in our country, as do other countries."

At a press briefing in Japan, Trump added: "This isnt a guns situation. Fortunately somebody else had a gun that was shooting in the opposite direction."

See original here:
Texas Church Shooting: Democrats Demand Gun Control

Democrats arerenewing theircalls for gun reform after reports ofa mass shooting at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, on Sunday.

Multiple people are dead after gunfire erupted at the church, which is not far outside San Antonio, according toreports.

Sens. Bob CaseyRobert (Bob) Patrick CaseyFive takeaways from new Senate fundraising reports Vulnerable Dems: Trump hasn't won them over on taxes Trump gives Barletta edge in crowded Pa. primary MORE Jr. (Pa.), Dick DurbinRichard (Dick) Joseph DurbinDem senators write DHS calling for accurate hurricane death counts Sessions spars with Dems at heated oversight hearing Durbin slams Sessions for pulling funds from sanctuary cities MORE (Ill.) and Kamala HarrisKamala Devi Harris19 sens question EPA methodology behind Clean Power Plan repeal Overnight Energy: Montana energy firm feuds with San Juan mayor over contract Pelosi calls for DACA deal ahead of spending debate MORE (Calif.) were among the Democrats who urged Congress to act in response to the latest deadly shooting.

"Im thinking of and praying for all those impacted by the shooting in Texas. In addition to offering my prayers and thoughts I also believe Congress must take action on gun violence," Casey wrote in two separate tweets.

In addition to offering my prayers and thoughts I also believe Congress must take action on gun violence (2/2)

"The shooter turned his gun on people -- kids -- in a place of worship. America is in the grips of a gun violence crisis. Congress must act," Durbin tweeted.

The shooter turned his gun on people -- kids -- in a place of worship.America is in the grips of a gun violence crisis. Congress must act. https://t.co/CIJX3jM3Tq

Harris, a possible 2020 presidentialcontender,also condemned senseless gun violence after the shooting.

Senseless gun violence has torn apart another community this time in a house of worship. When do we say enough is enough? https://t.co/gsW1KN54xc

"Enough is enough," Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.)said in a series of tweets. "Now is the time for commonsense gun violence prevention steps. Congressional complicity must end."

Enough is enough. Now is the time for commonsense gun violence prevention steps. Congressional complicity must end.

Sens. Dianne FeinsteinDianne Emiel FeinsteinFeinstein blasts 'immoral travesty' after immigration agents detain girl with cerebral palsy Dem mega-donor Steyer runs ads calling on Hoyer to support impeaching Trump Trump's tax plan and the certainty of Democratic resistance MORE (Calif.) and Elizabeth WarrenElizabeth Ann WarrenOvernight Regulation: Trump declares opioids a public health emergency | Mark Kelly lobbied Scalise on guns | Warren rips plans to ease bank oversight | Coal industry advocate tapped for mining regulator Overnight Finance: House adopts Senate budget, taking step to tax reform | GOP worries Trump feuds will endanger tax plan | Trump talks NAFTA withdrawal with senators | Treasury calls for looser oversight of insurers Trump's tax plan and the certainty of Democratic resistance MORE (Mass.) also joined their colleagues in condemning the lack of action.

When will this end? When will we decide that we cant accept massacres in our places of worship, schools, or at concerts? When will we actually do something about it?" Feinstein wrote in a statement.

Im horrified by the news of this latest mass shooting. My thoughts are with all of those in Sutherland Springs. https://t.co/gCTIsAXQX6

"Thoughts & prayers are not enough, GOP. We must end this violence. We must stop these tragedies. People are dying while you wait," Warren wrote in one tweet.

Thoughts & prayers are not enough, GOP. We must end this violence. We must stop these tragedies. People are dying while you wait.

Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, called on his Congressional colleagues to show "courage" and take a stand against gun violence.

Sickened by yet another mass shooting leaving people dead & injured. Enough! Congress must muster the courage to help prevent gun violence.

Sen. Chris MurphyChristopher (Chris) Scott MurphyDems to introduce bill barring Trump from preemptive strikes without Congress approval Juan Williams: Trump's cynical sabotage of ObamaCare In Congress, fears grow about lack of strategy on multiple battlefields MORE (D-Conn.), meanwhile, released a lengthy statement in which he called on his colleagues in Congress to hold themselves accountable.

"Ask yourself how can you claim that you respect human life while choosing fealty to weapons-makers over support for measures favored by the vast majority of your constituents," Murphy wrote.

Witnessessaid an armed man walked into the First Baptist Church around 11:30 a.m. and opened fire.

Police have notconfirmed the officialnumber of fatalities.

The local news stationKSATreported that the gunman was also killed.

The attack comes more than a month after the nation's deadliest mass shooting in modern history, in which a gunman opened fire on a country music festival in Las Vegas, killing 58 people and injuringhundreds more.

President Trump, who'sembarking on a12-day tripto Asia, tweetedshortly after reports of the shooting surfaced.

"May God be w/ the people of Sutherland Springs, Texas. The FBI & law enforcement are on the scene. I am monitoring the situation from Japan," Trump wrote.

Updated 4:50 p.m.

See original here:
Dems renew calls for gun control in wake of Texas church ...

Former President Barack Obama, right, speaks as Virginia's Democratic gubernatorial candidate Lieutenant Governor Ralph Northam listens during a rally in Richmond

This article originally appeared at The Huffington Post. Subscribe here.

The Democratic Party, Democratic voters, and grassroots progressive activists should be in a state of high agitation, focused on one thingcontaining Trump, his fake populism, and his Republican allies.

Instead, the party of the people is withering. Energy on the ground is low, infighting is high. The run-up to the Virginia gubernatorial election is feeling sickeningly like the last days of Hillary Clintons campaign.

The most recent reliable poll, The New York Times/Siena poll, shows the Democrat, Ralph Northam, up by just three points, 43 to 40, with 17 percent undecided. There is the same sort of chasm by race and class as in the Clinton-Trump race, with non-college educated whites favoring Republican Ed Gillespie by 40 points.

These are people, based on social class, who should be Democrats. If the lackluster, accident-prone, and risk-averse Democrat, Lieutenant Governor Northam, does pull out a narrow win, it will only be because his Republican rival Gillespie, is a longtime party hack and lobbyist, and even less convincing than Donald Trump as a populist.

That, however, has not stopped Gillespie from using the Trump playbook of stirring up racial and anti-immigrant hatreds. And in the absence of a compelling economic-populist alternative, it works.

Gillespie baited Northam into saying hed sign legislation banning sanctuary cities, even though there are none in Virginia and this is a non-issue. That was sufficient to cause Democrats for America (DFA), the group founded by Howard Dean, to announce it was no longer supporting Northam.

Its hard to know which action was more perverseNorthams stance or DFAs.

Gillespie is also running an ad with the tagline, Youd never take a kneeso take a stand on Election Day: Vote Gillespie. Nice touch.

Voters will only fall for this stuff if the other side is not offering anything real.

But if you asked a computer to design a Democrat who is the opposite of an economic populist, it would devise a creature like Northam. The other day, pollster Stan Greenberg, who has advised the Clintons for three decades, and who recently wrote a scathing critique of the sheer incompetence of Hillary Clintons presidential campaign, told The New Yorker magazine:

Look at Virginia right now. We have a candidate running as Hillary Clinton. He is running on the same kind of issues, and has the same kind of view of the world. Its the Republicans who talk about the economy, not the Democrats.

Though Trumps popularity ratings are at record lows, Northam has declined even to attack Trump.

Meanwhile over in New Jersey, the Democratic nominee, Phil Murphy, is comfortably ahead, thanks to the gift that keeps on giving, incumbent governor Chris Christie. Murphys opponent is Christies lieutenant governor, Kim Guadagno, who is lagging well behind.

But waitHillary Clinton got tarred for taking some speaking fees from Goldman Sachs. The Democrat in the New Jersey race, Murphy, comes from Goldman Sachs. So did the last New Jersey Democratic governor, Jon Corzine. These guys are actually relative liberals, but cant we look elsewhere for Democratic candidates? Corzine, as the incumbent, was beaten by Chris Christie.

In the past couple of weeks, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Tom Perez, has executed a purge of leading Sanders supporters. Donna Brazile, who served as interim DNC chair after Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, the Obama-era chair, was forced out, published book excerpts supporting Bernie Sanderss view that the nomination was effectively stolen by the DNC, which was supposed to be neutral, but instead supported Clinton. Maybe Brazile could have waited until after Tuesdays elections?

Oh, and one of the wealthiest and best connected Democratic lobbyists, Tony Podesta, brother of Clinton campaign chair John Podesta, managed to get caught in special counsel Robert Muellers dragnet. Tony Podesta evidently was working with Paul Manafort on behalf of a front group for the pro-Moscow Ukrainian government in power at the time. Its stories like this that display a bipartisan special interest swamp, and turn working people against both parties.

Meanwhile, recriminations among the diverse elements of what should be the Democrats broad coalition are at a rolling boil. There is bitterness among feminists that deeply seeded misogyny cost Hillary Clinton the presidency.

I have had arguments with numerous feminist friends to the effect that a more compelling woman candidate such as Elizabeth Warren could have defeated Donald Trump in 2016, and could win in 2020. But some of my feminist friends counter that it would be more prudent to nominate a Midwestern white guy, say Ohio Democratic senator Sherrod Brown. There has to be something perverse about feminists arguing that misogyny is so pervasive that its better not to nominate a female.

Meanwhile, on the racial front, there is understandable bitterness among many African American Democrats that whites, even progressive whites, failed to protect blacks from deepening racism. Conversations about the need to talk about class as well as race tends to produce vituperation about white privilege.

In short, the progressive side of the political spectrum is a cauldron of grievances, each understandable and legitimate in its own right. But if Democrats cant find areas of common ground, then Trump and his imitators will keep winning.

Somehow, Democrats need to nominate more compelling candidates, who can narrate the grievances of ordinary Americans in a convincing way and propose drastic remedies. Democrats need to remember the larger stakes and try to limit the infighting.

Out of this mess, a leader will emerge as the Democratic standard bearer for the 2020 election. Before that nominee can take on Donald Trump, or Mike Pence, or whoever the Republicans put up, he or she will need to restore some semblance of Democratic purpose and unity. Right now, that challenge seems more daunting than the election itself.

See the article here:
Wither the Democrats?