Archive for the ‘Democrats’ Category

Only Democrats Can Restore Faith in the Political Process – New Republic

Serious political crimes arent the same as regular ones: They require not just punishment for lawbreakers, but also political fixes. Thats why the Democratic Party cant rely on the likes of Rosenstein and Mueller. In fact, since Republicans largely remain loyal to Trump, Democrats are the only ones capable of truly solving this crisisif theyre given the power to do so. They just have to convince voters of it.

Watergate is often seen as the zenith of modern political scandal. Yet there was only a minimal attempt by Congress back then to solve the problem of the imperial presidency. Instead, almost every subsequent presidency has gotten bogged down in legal quagmires, as Congress uses law enforcement as a Band-Aid, without grappling with the real problem of presidential power. To criminalize the political process is to evade checks and balances, and it has resulted in a never-ending tit-for-tat, where one party seeks revenge by scandalizing the other.

Gerald Ford poisoned his own presidency from the start by pardoning Richard Nixon, thereby setting a precedent for protecting executive branch lawbreaking. Ronald Reagans presidency nearly capsized because of the Iran-Contra affair, which stained his successor, too; George H. W. Bush pardoned many leading figures, including Caspar Weinberger and Robert McFarlane, which broadened the precedent by showing how a wide-ranging criminal conspiracy could be shielded after the fact. Bushs son followed this tradition by commuting the sentence of Scooter Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, who had been guilty of perjury and obstruction of justice. Democrats got a taste of the criminalization of politics with various ginned up scandals against the Clintons, ranging from Bill Clintons perjury during the Monica Lewinsky affair to Hillary Clintons use of a private email server.

President Barack Obama seems to have escaped this pattern, since his administration was notably squeaky clean. The public largely saw the Benghazi, Fast and Furious, and IRS controversies for what they were: Desperate, partisan attempts by Republicans to damage a popular president. Yet in a different way, Obama contributed to the larger constitutional crisis that has gone unresolved. Obama greatly expanded the power of the president to operate unilaterally, notably through drone strikes and executive orders on domestic policy. This left a dangerous set of tools to be abused by future presidents, beginning with Donald Trump.

In all the major modern presidential scandals, prosecutors and law enforcement officials have played a central rolefrom Lawrence Walsh to Ken Starr to Patrick Fitzgerald to James Comey to Robert Mueller. Its easy to see why both liberals and conservatives look to these lawmen as the solution to scandals real or imagined. They fit a familiar cultural pattern found in Law and Order and many other shows: the heroic prosecutor, often an overgrown Boy Scout with a crew-cut, who works relentlessly to put the bad guys behind bars. Prosecutorial liberalism is the dream that the messiness of politics can be replaced with the moral clarity of a cop show.

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Only Democrats Can Restore Faith in the Political Process - New Republic

In Va. governor’s race, Democrats pledge unity and say they will send message to Trump – Washington Post

RICHMOND - Days after Ralph Northam defeated former congressman Tom Perriello for the Democratic partys nomination in the race for Virginia governor, the victor and the vanquished came together Saturday in their first joint appearance and declared a united party heading into the November election.

The men embraced at the annual Jefferson-Jackson dinner, the state Democratic partys biggest fundraiser of the year, and Perriello pledged to work hard to see Northam defeat the Republican nominee, former Republican National Committee chair Ed Gillespie.

Former Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., who delivered the keynote address, said Virginia finds itself at the epicenter of the political universe in 2017.

In November, the commonwealth will have the first opportunity to send a message to the present occupant of the White House and the extreme right wingers who surround him, Holder said.

As one of just two gubernatorial contests across the country this year, Virginias election is expected to draw tens of millions in outside spending and will be carefully watched as an early test of the political landscape in the Trump era. The other race, in New Jersey, is seen as less competitive.

[Democratic push to end gerrymandering to begin in Virginia]

Holder is leading an initiative to end gerrymandering that Democrats say have allowed Republicans to lock in control over statehouses and congressional districts. The effort, which former President Barack Obama has embraced as a priority upon leaving office, will focus on Virginia and other states.

In Virginia, Republicans hold 66 of 100 state House of Delegates seats and seven of 11 seats in the Congressional delegation while Democrats have prevailed in statewide contests in recent years. The next governor will have sway over how state and federal legislative maps are drawn in 2021, shaping politics for the next decade.

Critics say the national Democratic party neglected state races, leading to the partys decimation down-ballot, with Republicans now controlling 33 governors mansions and 32 state legislatures.

The National Democratic Redistricting Committee (NDRC), chaired by Holder, is trying to change that. The group plans to support Democrats in gubernatorial and state legislative races, in addition to funding ballot initiatives to create independent redistricting commissions and legal challenges to GOP-drawn legislative maps.

For the Virginia contest, the NDRC plans to steer money to elect Northam and draw a national spotlight - and national donors and activists - to the race. Holder said prominent national Democratic leaders would hit the campaign trail, though he declined to identify them or say whether Obama would stump for Northam.

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D), who cannot seek consecutive terms under the state constitution, is also fundraising for the group and helping shape its strategy.

Our goal is not to gerrymander for Democrats, said Holder in an interview after his speech. Our focus is really on making sure that throughout this country we have fair districts drawn and a contest between parties on their philopsophies, as opposed to their line drawing capabilities.

Holder urged Democrats at Saturdays dinner to avoid intra-party conflict, a marked contrast from progressive leader Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who last week called the Democratic Partys strategy an absolute failure at a gathering of activists in Chicago.

Now is not a time for this party to be beholden to ideological litmus tests, said Holder. Our party is made up of disparate parts, but it is held together by common goals.

[Was Perriellos loss a defeat for progressives? Not quite]

The primary fight between Perriello and Northam echoed the ideological divide within the Democratic Party nationally: Perriello pushed for greater focus on economic populism to win back rural and other disaffected voters, while Northam urged a pragmatic approach and reaching compromise with Republicans.

But on Saturday, they seemed to embrace Holders advice and presented a united front.

We have a champion who is going to fight tirelessly and endlessly for economic justice and racial justice here in the state of Virginia in the form of Ralph Northam, said Perriello, drawing a standing ovation as he vowed to stop at nothing to help elect the Democratic ticket.

[Democrats look united, GOP in disarray after Virginia primary]

His one-time rival returned the praise in his remarks.

The Democratic Party of Virginia is stronger tonight because of Tom Perriello, said Northam in a fiery speech condemning Republicans in Washington and Gillespie.

They drew a contrast to disarray on the Republican side of the race. Gillespie barely beat Corey Stewart, a Prince William county supervisor who fashioned himself after Trump in espousing hardline conservative about immigration and calling for a need to protect Confederate monuments. Stewart has withheld support for Gillespie, saying after the returns came in that he didnt recognize the word unity.

Stewart has subsequently hinted that hes interested in challenging Sen. Tim Kaine, whos up for re-election in 2018, and that he would be meeting with Gillespie to discuss conditions for an endorsement. He said he would only offer support if Gillespie moved to the right to support aspects of Stewarts platform.

Gillespie campaigned over the weekend with Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, not Stewart.

Defeating Gillespie would be a particularly fitting start to his groups electoral efforts, Holder said. As chair of the Republican State Leadership Committee, Gillespie was among the Republican strategists behind the successful takeover of state houses in 2010 to influence redistricting.

He is the founder of the Freedom Caucus, said Holder, referring to the group of deeply conservative House Republicans in safely GOP districts. We want to hang around his neck exactly what he did in 2010 that resulted in the decade we are now having to endure.

In an earlier interview with The Washington Post, Gillespie said he was proud of his work and a smart plan to flip state legislatures to influence redistricting.

In addition to the gubernatorial contest in November, Attorney General Mark Herring is running for a second term against Republican lawyer John Adams, Democrat Justin Fairfax faces state Sen. Jill Vogel (R-Fauquier) for lieutenant governor and 100 House of Delegates seats are on the ballot.

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In Va. governor's race, Democrats pledge unity and say they will send message to Trump - Washington Post

Yes, Democrats need a civil war: Believe it or not, it’s the only real … – Salon

In April, Bernie Sanders and Democratic National Committee chair Tom Perez took off on a bumpy cross-country road trip. Their unity tour mostly served to highlight their differences and remind people that Sanders is not actually a Democrat. May it be a lesson to Democrats: Unity requires agreement, which requires debate.

Many expected 2016s losing party to engage in fierce debate and a bloody civil war. Had Republicans lost, theyd have opened fire on one another in their concession speeches. Democrats took another tack. First, they rehired all their top management; their discredited consultants and decrepit congressional leaders. Then, in the spirit of Debbie Wasserman Schultz, they cancelled the debate.

Party elders say its no time to squabble. They always say that. The specter of an emotionally arrested, proto-fascist fraud in the White House adds force to their argument, but ducking debate is what got Democrats here in the first place. This is in fact the exact right time, maybe even their last chance, to have one. So, whats stopping them?

One problem is President Donald Trump. The danger is that while rubbernecking his 50-car pileup of a presidency Democrats run their own car into a ditch. A favorite Democratic strategy is to sit idly by, waiting for Republicans to implode. Trumps serial idiocy and fast-mounting legal woes may trick them into thinking this time it may work.

Barack Obama is another problem. His charm was the glue that held Democrats together. They need to own their mistakes, which, by and large, are his. Its a tender topic. Democrats in love with Obama prefer defending his legacy to saying what theyd do different. They pay a steep price for letting their feelings cloud their vision.

Political parties civil wars often take the form of insurrections. In 2009, the GOP base laid siege to the party, driving scores of incumbents from office. In just seven years, the worst Republican Party ever perfected a near monopoly of power. Democratic leaders warn their base that intraparty warfare would spell their doom. But it was while Democrats papered over their differences and Republicans shot each other in the streets that Republicans drove Democrats into exile. Civil wars, while risky, are also the chief means by which political parties are renewed.

The divisions that led to Republican civil war were relatively minor. Apart from the bank bailout, the principal grievance of the GOP base was that its leaders didnt simply arrest Obama. Divisions between the Democratic base and its elites ran far deeper, yet there was little unrest to speak of. A crucial factor was the tight bond between the party and institutions that purport to speak for the base.

Progressives once prized their independence. For a century, independent, progressive movements gave the party vision, energy and spine. Late 19th-century populists, early 20th-century progressives and the mighty, mid-20thcentury labor movement kept Democrats in a constant state of political and intellectual ferment. Thus was forged a social contract, and with it the modern middle class.

In the early 1980s, liberal groups formed political action committees and entered electoral politics. The party soon colonized them. Grassroots movements morphed into Washington lobbies, trading the politics of pressure for the politics of access. They became so obsessed with defending Democrats, they lost the will to challenge them. Both sides were better off in a more arms length relationship. Progressives can do little when they are chloroformed and pinned down in a Democratic display case.

In 2016 Sanders backers fumed over theDemocratic National Committees conniving with Hillary Clintons campaign. But the DNC could screw up a two-car funeral. Its too ineffectual to effect anything as big and complicated as an election.Progressives made Clinton. Without labor, shed have opened the 2016 campaign with three straight losses (in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada). Labors top goals were blocking trade deals and enacting a living wage. Sanders was with labor. Clinton wasnt. He outperformed her in nearly every general election poll. Labor went with her anyway, often without consulting the rank and file.

Most old line, Washington-based African-American, womens, LGBT and environmental groups did likewise. It was the progressive establishment, not the party establishment, that secured Clintons nomination. The democratization of the Democratic Party starts with the democratization of the left.

What hope and energy we have comes from web-based mass membership groups like Democracy for America and Moveon.org and upstarts like the Working Families Party(which endorses but also primaries Democrats while seeking its own spot on the ballot) and 350.org(which doesnt even do electoral politics). But the new kids on the block cant do all the heavy lifting.

People hear debate on the left and think the Democratic Party is having one. But party leaders debate only when forced to by their base.Much of the left no longer engages the Democratic Party. The Tea Party showed us how much incumbents fear primaries, yet the Green Party is content to run protest candidates in general elections. The problem isnt just votes lost in November but energy drained year-round from a party in desperate need of a revolt. The left still doesnt know how or where to bring the fight. The goal isnt just to reform the party establishment but to replace it.

Even if Democrats woke up tomorrow morning wanting to debate, they might not know how. In the 80s, Republicans poured hundreds of millions of dollars into right-wing think tanks. Democrats invested their more modest fortunes in pollsters and consultants. To this day, when Republicans make a case, Democrats tell a story, which is sort of like bringing cotton candy to a knife fight.

Democrats waste millions on corporate marketing techniques that work only for the other side. Their technology contains the seeds of their defeat. The 2012 Obama campaign was hailed for its advances in data mining and narrowcasting to niche markets. But saying different things to different people isnt how you get change. Its how you stop it. The way you get change is by engaging a whole nation in a single debate.

I was once privileged to work for the nuclear freeze movement. We didnt have different ads for different states. If we had a slogan, I cant recall it. We werent for world peace. We were for a bilateral, verifiable freeze on the development, production and deployment of nuclear weapons. Without concreteness and specificity, there can be no real demand or debate. Change comes via primitive forms of communication: People sharing values face-to-face, not for 30 seconds or 140 characters, but for as long as it takes to change a mind or explain a new idea.

In farewell interviews Obama was often asked to name his biggest mistake. His invariable response: He wished hed done a better job telling our story. But he didnt need to tell a story about Obamacare. He needed to fix it. Democrats listen too much to nimble thinkers like Drew Westen and George Lakoff who tell them they need narratives and metaphors to reach past our prefrontal cortexes to regions of the brain that run our emotions. Maybe, but do our reptilian brains ever choose progress? Democrats dont need a story; they need a blueprint.

The greatest impediment to debate is of course the Democrats addiction to high-dollar fundraising. Big money doesnt just favor one party over the other; it mortgages both parties to the status quo and thus to the past. Democrats craft separate messages for their donors and their voter base, encrypting each of them in hard-to-crack code. The result is a message so muddled no one understands or trusts what they say.

In 2016 more millennials voted for the Libertarian Party than the Green Party, perhaps because the loudest voice in Congress to defend our privacy and resist our impulse to empire is Rand Pauls. Democrats must help America see that its safety lies not in force of arms but in the rule of law, and that assaults on privacy are assaults on ones very personhood. On the overarching issue of our time, climate change, Democrats still dont speak loudly or clearly enough. There are so many issues Democrats are afraid to debate; its hard to know where to begin. They might start by facing three huge issues left unresolved in 2016:

Health care:Democrats scorn Republicans for not producing a plausible alternative to Obamacare, but neither have the Dems. Obamacare isnt dying, but it has a fatal flaw: It costs too much. The best solution is single-payer national health insurance; you cant even make a dent in the problem without a strong public option. Obama ran on a public option but came to view it as a liberal fetish rather than a way to make health care affordable to small businesses and the self-employed. He promised to bring C-Span cameras into health care negotiations but instead went behind closed doors to grandfather the insurance and pharmaceutical industries into his system. He thus gave up all hope of containing costs. Its time Democrats admitted their mistake and embraced an alternative. As 60 percent of Americans support single-payer plans,Democrats might start the conversation there.

Trade:Economists still tout David Ricardos theory of comparative advantage. Ricardo was a smart guy, but hes been gone a long time. Today comparative advantage means huge companies on an endless prowl for low wages and weak governments. In developing countries, thislifts people out of poverty but never into the middle class. In developed countries, it shrinks the middle class while enabling corporations to encroach further on democracy. Had the Trans-Pacific Partnership been debated in public rather than brokered in secret, such issues might have been addressed, perhaps even resolved.

Public corruption:In 2008 and 2016, the winning candidates closing argument was all about corruption. Obamas vow to fix Washington was less vivid than Trumps vow to drain the swamp, but it was the same promise. Sanders campaign boiled down to three points: Our democracy is corrupt, the middle class is dying and the reason the middle class is dying is that our democracy is corrupt. Hillary Clinton was such a weak candidate not because she was personally corrupt but because the whole system is corrupt, and she didnt want to believe it.

Public corruption is so invisible to elites it drove two historic elections but barely drew notice from pundits. The worst is what we mislabel soft corruption all the stuff thats clearly wrong but still legal; the campaign cash, the no-bid contracts, the revolving doors and all the ethics laws that reward the subtle rather than the good. Global finance capitalism runs less on innovation than corruption. Democrats must admit it, fire every leader who wont, and then put the issue where it belongs, at the center of the debate.

The lessons of 2016 are hard but simple: On, the power of ideas is greater than the power of money. Two, policy precedes message;first figure out what you believe, then how to tell people about it. Trump won by co-opting issues of political reform and economic justice. He didnt steal them; they were a gift from Democrats. What would it take to get them back? Probably a revolt for sure a debate. Leaders must turn away from their donors and their consultants and re-enter the marketplace of ideas. Any who resist must be sent packing,before time runs out.

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Yes, Democrats need a civil war: Believe it or not, it's the only real ... - Salon

Democrats need better outreach to frightened voters, former VP Biden says – Chicago Tribune

Former Vice President Joe Biden criticized President Donald Trump without saying his name Saturday, telling a crowd of Florida Democrats last year's election unleashed a coarseness that hadn't been seen in decades but he said the party's candidates can overcome that by showing disgruntled voters that they have solutions.

Giving a campaign-style, 45-minute speech at the state Democratic Party's annual fundraising dinner, Biden told about 1,300 party supporters that Democrats must help Americans see that the future is bright and overcome their fears. Biden has said he isn't planning a third run for president by challenging Trump in 2020 though he hasn't ruled it out either and he certainly acted like a potential candidate Saturday. He got laughs when he pointed out Saturday was his 40th wedding anniversary, but he was spending it giving a speech.

"This past election cycle churned up some of the ugliest, ugliest realities that persist in our country. Civilized discourse and real debate gave way to the coarsest rhetoric, stoking some of the darkest emotions in this nation," said Biden, 74. "I thought that after all these years we had passed the days when it was acceptable for politicians to bestow legitimacy on hate speech and fringe ideologies."

Biden said Democrats could overcome that by showing everyone from working-class white men to women to minorities that they are the party of ideas and solutions. He called investing in schools, community colleges and infrastructure and providing health care, saying that's how to improve the economy, not by building walls and excluding Muslim immigrants.

"We have to make it clear what we stand for and unite Americans behind the values which we stand for," Biden said. "We can't get bogged down in this phony debate going on in the Democratic Party. The Hobson's choice we have been given is that we need to become less progressive and focus more on working folk or become more progressive and focus less on working folk. There is no need to choose. They are not inconsistent."

He said Democrats need to show Americans that their country is still the greatest in the world and will be for the foreseeable future. China, he said, is no match with its exploding population, lack of clean water and polluted farmland and that the U.S. military is the world's strongest by far.

"I believe with every fiber of my being that we are better positioned than any nation in the world to be the single-most productive, capable, value-added country," Biden said. "The reason why the rest of the world looks to us and this administration doesn't get it is that the example of our power is the power of our example. That's why we are able to lead."

If Biden were to challenge Trump, Florida would be vital to his campaign as it is the largest swing state. Democrats and Republicans have split Florida over the last six elections and in 13 of the last 14 its winner took the presidency.

Biden has been busy this month, launching a political action committee, American Possibilities, that would be a springboard if he runs for president; flying to Greece, where he addressed a climate change conference; speaking three days later at a Utah political summit organized by 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney; and attending the commissioning in Houston of a battleship named after former Arizona Democratic Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who survived a 2011 assassination attempt.

Biden served 36 years in the Senate from Delaware and twice chaired the Foreign Relations Committee. He considered challenging Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders for the 2016 nomination but was emotionally spent after his 46-year-old son, Beau Biden, died of brain cancer. A bid for the 1988 nomination ended after he plagiarized a speech and exaggerated his college record. A 2008 bid ended quickly when he got 1 percent of the vote in the Iowa caucuses that kick off the nominating season.

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Democrats need better outreach to frightened voters, former VP Biden says - Chicago Tribune

The Georgia Special Election is Make or Break for Democrats – HuffPost

By all rights Georgia Democratic congressional candidate, Jon Ossoff, shouldnt even be in the Georgia special election congressional race. He should be in Congress. The Georgia congressional special election was a race that could and should have been won by him the first go around. The district seemed ripe for the Democrats to finally beat a Republican somewhere.

There was a small army of GOP candidates running helter-skelter against each other in the GOP primary. There were lots of young, immigrant, Hispanic and African-American voters that have fast changed the voter demographic of the district. Ossoff typified the change. Hes young, politically savvy, and raised more money than practically any other newly minted Democratic candidate running for a congressional seat ever did.

Democratic committee organizing groups put boots on the ground in the district to rev up voter interest and excitement for Ossoff. He came close to an outright primary win. But that was the problem, he didnt win and now the test in elections like the Georgia special election is not just whether he can win, but whether Democrats can figure out how to beat Trump in races that they must win. The very first step toward doing that was to start winning some congressional seats in the run-up to the 2018 mid-term elections. They lost two special elections, in Kansas and Montana, that were arguably winnable. They lost in part because the Democratic national and local committees didnt put money and troops into a massive on the ground voter education, registration, and voter turn-out effort. They lost in greater part because they ran scared of the GOP in both states. They assumed that they couldnt beat a GOP candidate in a deep red state.

Now theres Georgia. Some lessons have been learned since the losses in Kansas and Montana and Ossoffs failure to win the seat outright in the primary. There are more Democratic organizers in the district. The focus is on door-to-door, face-to-face, voter outreach, targeting African-American voters in the district, and working the phones and voter registration rolls to get more people to the polls.

However, there are three crucial lessons for the Democrats to learn to beat Trump and the GOP. The first is that the Democrats make a horrendous mistake in relying on a GOP opponent to shoot themselves in the foot. This thinking didnt work so well with Trump, and it hasnt worked anywhere else where Democrats try to link a GOP candidate to Trump, or go negative on a GOP opponent. The GOP wont beat itself. Democratic contenders must do that through hard, patient, organizing telling voters why they should vote for a Democrat, and not simply vote against a Republican.

The second lesson is that putting time, energy, and resources into an over the top reach for supposed on the fence white, mostly male, less educated rural and blue-collar workers wont work. For now, they are locked down for Trump and the GOP. The Democrats must reconnect with and reenergize their traditional base, African-Americans, Hispanics, and youth. Their voting numbers plunged in 2016 from 2008 and 2012. The reason wasnt just that Obama wasnt on the ticket in 2016. The brutal reality was that the Democrats did what many black voters have screamed at them about for years, and that is take them for granted. The assumption was that the terror of a Trump White House win was enough for black voters to storm the polls. It didnt happen. A party and a candidate must get off their haunches, put lots of face time into talking to voters about why they are important, and what exactly the candidate will do for them for their vote. Black voters want to know for instance about health care, but they also want to know about issues such as police abuse, and jobs, and what a Democrat will do about them.

The other lesson is that spending millions on TV ads, and getting big name celebrities or party big shot endorsements means little. In more cases than not, its a turn-off. People get sick of being preached to in non-stop sound bite TV ads that endlessly go negative about the rival candidate. Theres much evidence that celebrities and a national party household name official barging into a local race and commanding voters to vote for a Democrat has almost no effect.

The Democratic National Committee following the 2016 presidential election was, by any standard, a wreck and a ruin. It got pounded for misstep after misstep that included: poor and disconnected leadership, leaked emails, gross favoritism, petty infighting, blatant manipulation of the primaries and gross cluelessness about the Trump threat. There were clearly hard lessons to be learned from this. Those lessons werent learned in the Kansas and Montana special elections. Georgia will tell just what the Democrats have learned since then. This could be a make or break election for the Democrats. If its break, the Democrats are in even bigger trouble.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. He is an associate editor of New America Media. His forthcoming book, The Trump Challenge to Black America (Middle Passage Press) will be released in August. He is a weekly co-host of the Al Sharpton Show on Radio One. He is the host of the weekly Hutchinson Report on KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles and the Pacifica Network.

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The Georgia Special Election is Make or Break for Democrats - HuffPost