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Citing his vote confirming Jeff Sessions as attorney general and his outspoken support of President Trumps fossil fuel-based energy policy, powerful liberal groups on Thursday demanded that Sen. Joe Manchin be removed from his post in Senate Democratic leadership.

Nearly a quarter-million progressives signed a petition, delivered to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Thursday morning, slamming Mr. Manchin, West Virginia Democrat, and arguing he no longer represents the values of the party.

The idea that Manchin is considered a Senate Democratic leader is both morally disturbing and politically toxic for a Democratic Party with millions in the street demanding its members stand united in opposing Trumps hateful and corrupt agenda, said Charles Chamberlain, executive director of the liberal PAC Democracy for America, one of the groups that organized the petition. Joe Manchin has spent the last few months aiding and abetting the Trump administration, removing him from Democratic leadership should be a no brainer.

Mr. Manchin currently serves as the partys vice chairman of policy and communications in the Senate. But hes often clashed with his own party on energy policy and other issues, and has been by far the most supportive Democrat in the chamber when it comes to the Trump administrations cabinet posts.

He was the only Democrat to vote in favor of Mr. Sessions, now embroiled in a scandal over his conversations with Russian officials during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Mr. Manchin also was one of just two Democrats joining North Dakota Sen. Heidi Heitkamp to vote to approve Scott Pruitt as EPA administrator. He was one of four Democrats who voted in favor of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

Whats more, progressives say, Mr. Manchin has been among the strongest proponents of Mr. Trumps plans to roll back EPA regulations, eliminate the federal governments focus on climate change, and promote more coal mining and oil-and-gas drilling across the country.

Joe Manchins been a tool of the coal industry, blowing the tops off of West Virginias mountains, since before entering the Senate. Now hes a tool of Donald Trump and his terrifying agenda for America, said Kelly Mears, an official with the activist group Other98, which also helped gather signatures for Thursdays petition. Why in the world would Senate Democrats want this DINO (Democrat in name only) on their leadership team?

For his part, Mr. Manchin has bemoaned the hardcore left in American politics. In an interview earlier this week, he said progressives are wrong to try to block Mr. Trumps every move, likening such a strategy to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnells tack during the Obama administration.

The hardcore left looks back and says, Well, it worked for [the Republicans]. They have both the House and the Senate and they have the presidency. So, why dont we try the same thing, since it worked for them? Mr. Manchin said during an interview Wednesday on conservative Laura Ingrahams radio show. Well, that didnt work for the American people, I can assure you, and thats not what they want. Two wrongs dont make a right.

Continued here:
Progressives target Sen. Joe Manchin, demand removal from Democratic leadership - Washington Times

Organizers expect thousands of Michiganders will take part in rallies across the state tomorrow in support of President Trump.

Anti-Trump protests have dominated the news for months.

Michigan rally organizer Meshawn Maddock says this weekends events are intended to show the president is loved."

If you watch nothing but mainstream media, it does feel like overwhelmingly people are dissatisfied, says Maddock, and those of us who support the president, and walk every day among each other, know that thats not true.

Maddock says the presidents supporters plan to work to help him push through his agenda. She says shes even organizing now to help Trump win re-election in 2020.

Noon-hour rallies are planned in Lansing, Grand Rapids and a half-dozen other Michigan cities.

More pro-Trump rallies are taking place across the country this weekend.

Meanwhile, Michigan progressives will meet just a short walk from the state Capitol where Trump supporters will rally.

Tomorrow, more than 600 are expected to attend the 2017 Michigan Progressive Summit at the Lansing Center.

Organizer Marissa Luna says people who have been in the Progressive movement for many years will be mixing with others who have been inspired to become more politically active since Donald Trump was elected last year.

She says the point of the summit is to help attendees learn how to channel their energies to move their policies forward.

Well be able to see some immediate effects in the form of folks doing a lot more local grassroots organizing and engagement in their communities, says Luna.

Much like the pro-Donald Trump supporters who will be rallying down the street, the progressives hope to influence the outcome of the next election.

See the article here:
Trump supporters to hold rallies across Michigan, while ... - Michigan Radio

In case you ever wondered about the definition of hypocrisy, you might just want to compare and contrast a couple of documents which can be found online today.

Exhibit A is the outrageous hit piece just published in the op-ed section of Berkeleyside.com by Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, the owner of the DailyKos website under his corporate umbrella, the very prosperous Kos Media LLC.

Its billed as an endorsement of Kate Harrisons opponent in Berkeleys District 4 council race, but provides him with an opportunity for a gratuitous attack on Mayor Jesse Arreguin,

Exhibit B is the Daily Kos Rules of the Road , his proprietary sites somewhat smarmy guide to making nice online. Lets see how Mr. Moulitsas Zuniga follows his own rules.

Heres one Kos Ruledont:

And then theres a little problem with facts, a topic which the Rules address admirably:

And by the way, he lost. Not such a strong candidate, right?

More missing facts: How many units of housing did Mayor Arreguin vote for since hes been on the Berkeley city council? A whole lot more than he turned down. Look it up, Kos.

The Kos site is billed as a way for Democrats to discuss important issues in a positive way:

Havent you heard that Jesse, a Democratic party activist since the age of 8, was endorsed by the Alameda County Democratic Party in the recent election?

And by the way, some of his supporters in that regressive faction were progressive Democrats before you were born, as were many of us way back when you were still a Republican.

Those same rules say Do:

" Accept that reasonable people may in the end still disagree."

Let the market decide? Not my idea of progressive.

My correspondent Tree Fitzpatrick deftly depicts Kos economics:

Real democracy is at the polls, not the people who show up at arcane meetings. And the voters have spoken clearly and convincingly... I know that's an inconvenient reality, but it is the reality nonetheless.

Who could have said that?

A guy named Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, Thats who.

Click on his name above for more of his wit and wisdom as recorded for posterity on Disqus.

Someone should really out him to his bloggies, many of whom would be appalled if they knew who this sanctimonious twerp was when hes at home.

Mayor Jesse Arreguin won the election. Get over it, Kos.

And dear reader, if youre a voter in District 4 and you still havent turned in your vote for Kate Harrison, just do it now. We need another genuine progressive on the Council.

Continued here:
Markos Moulitsas Zuniga trashes Berkeley progressives, supports developers' shill - Berkeley Daily Planet

Democrats have a tough time getting into the trenches. This has been clear from the beginning of the Obama era, when the Tea Party was able to thwart a number of progressive policy initiatives, despite being a political minority. It became frustratingly apparent when Senate Republicans successfully blocked federal Justice Merrick Garlands nomination to the Supreme Court for an unprecedented 293 days.

Facing partisan impediments at nearly every turn over the past eight years, congressional Democrats chose to take the high road. They chose to place their faith in the system, believing that if only they could weather the storm, the ship would right itself, and the Republican Party would be exposed and punished for their unyielding obstructionism.

The Democrats were wrong. Sure, progressives faced down Republican obstruction and came out with the moral high ground, but from a pragmatic standpoint, that hasnt earned Democrats much. Garland is not sitting on the Supreme Court and his spot is likely to be filled by another ultraconservative justice in the mold of the late Justice Antonin Scalia. And Republicans control not only the White House, but both houses of Congress as well.

After Novembers elections, progressives across the country knew that they would be facing serious political adversity at both a national and local level. Outside of Washington, Republicans control 33 governors houses and 32 state legislatures. Across the country, Democrats cannot currently propose and enact policy in any substantial, meaningful way. Instead, they must play defense, focusing their efforts on fighting dangerous and unconstitutional actions in much the same way the conservatives once fought the Obama agenda.

Many pockets of resistance are inspired by the Indivisible Guide, a now 26page document originally released in December by former progressive congressional staffers. The guide outlines methods of fighting the Trump agenda. Since the guides release, Indivisible groups have sprung up in every congressional district, and they currently number more than 5,000 nationwide. There are two Indivisible groups in Oberlin alone one affiliated with the College and one with the greater community.

The Indivisible strategy is simple: Obstruct President Donald Trumps agenda in much the same way that the Tea Party, and later the Republican Party, were able to slow or stop key progressive initiatives during the Obama years.

According to the guides authors, the Tea Partys success was based on two strategies. First, they were purely defensive, focused on saying no to Obamas agenda rather than presenting policies of their own. Second, they acted locally, targeting elected officials at events in their home states.

In these ways, Indivisible is inspired by the Tea Party, although the authors make the difference between the two groups clear: according to the guide, Indivisible is grounded in facts, and people in opposition to Trump comprise the majority of the country, while alliance to the Tea Party was a minority position nationally.

For many progressives, the tactical shift from focusing on maintaining the moral high ground to concentrating on obstructing regressive policy changes is a welcome one. Democrats spent a lot of time following the rules over the past eight years, and that idealism has been costly.

However, after coming out on the losing side of the 2016 election despite having faith that the American people would punish Republicans for their obstructionism, Democrats are finally realizing that the old rules of bipartisan cooperation dont work the same way they used to.

Due to the work of groups like Indivisible, progressives even those in conservative districts are seeing the beginnings of tangible breakthroughs. Confirmation votes for Trumps cabinet appointees were among the most contentious in history. Progressives nearly blocked Betsy DeVos nomination as education secretary due to a flurry of furious phonebanking. Angry constituents also let their representatives know that they oppose a straight repeal of the Affordable Care Act, pushing Republican legislators to be more cautious with the issue. On a local level, protesters held congresspeoples feet to the fire last week at town halls across the country, including right here in Ohios Fourth District.

Nobody enjoys partisan gridlock. But the current political reality in the U.S. is that obstruction works. Voters rewarded Republicans for it. Democrats refused to face that reality and now face opposition from the White House, Congress and state legislatures across the country.

For Democrats, there is a silver lining, however: Through groups like Indivisible, progressives are finally learning how to fight back.

Read the original post:
Progressives Learn From Tea Party - The Oberlin Review

posted at 6:21 pm on March 1, 2017 by Ed Morrissey

This new progressive project, called We Will Replace You, could just as easily be called Operation Cutting Off Our Noses to Spite Our Faces. According to The Hill, the frustration from the Bernie Sanders wing of the Democratic Party will take aim at Senate Democrats they deem to be too cooperative with the Donald Trump administration. They plan to challenge those Democratic incumbents in primaries next year as punishment for straying from the resistance:

We fundamentally reject the assumption that Democrats can only win in red states by pandering to racists and big bankers, said Claire Sandberg, a co-founder of the progressive political action committee We Will Replace You.

The way we beat Trumpism and take back Congress and statehouses is offering a coherent vision of our own to put people back to work. We dont need to completely compromise our own values and principles.

We Will Replace You is the most visible effort gearing up to back primary challenges from the left. Spearheaded by a group of progressives, including two former senior staffers on Sen. Bernie Sanderss (I-Vt.) presidential campaign, the groups website includes a warning for Democrats looking to avoid a competitive primary race.

Do everything you can to Resist Trump, or we will replace you with someone who will, the groups statement reads.

Well, thats quite a choice either lose a general election or lose a primary. The progressives at WWRY argue that Democrats can retain these seats through a purity campaign that will turn out like-minded voters enough to beat Republicans in these states. Progressives tried that strategy in at least one winnable state in 2016, the Senate election in Wisconsin, with disastrous results. Rather than look for a fresh face that might appeal to a changing electorate, they hauled Russ Feingold out of mothballs to run as a true progressive against incumbent Republican Ron Johnson. As they now argue, progressives figured that a presidential-turnout model and a pure candidate would provide more than enough turnout lift to win the seat back. Not only did they miscalculate on the turnout model, they also miscalculated on the attractiveness of progressivism in Wisconsin a state that had been turning red ever since Johnson and Scott Walker first won in 2010.

This project takes aim at Joe Manchin (WV) and Heidi Heitkamp (ND) most, but probably will attempt to put pressure on Claire McCaskill (MO), Jon Tester (MO), and Joe Donnelly (IN) too, among others. Manchin could just decide to switch parties if progressives attempt to primary him, as he remains very popular at home, leaving Democrats with a huge hole and a thin bench in West Virginia to fill it. Donnelly and McCaskill are on thin ice in very red states, and a progressive primary challenge might force them to abandon moderate Republican support in the general election. McCaskill only won her last election by hand-picking Todd Akin as her opponent, and Donnelly only won his first Senate election because of a purity campaign against then-incumbent Richard Lugar. With Ryan Zinke out of the way, Tester has the best chance of escaping a tough challenge unless progressives force Tester to go left, in which case Republicans might be able to grab that seat with a lesser-known candidate. Pushing any of these to the Left would be suicidal, and in Donnellys case deliciously ironic.

How serious is this effort, though? The inclusion of former Sanders staffers makes it look at least potentially significant. That also provides another point of irony, however. WWRY explains their threshold for action on the home page of their website:

Three Democratic Senators voted yes to confirm Rex Tillerson, a Big Oil baron with close ties to Putin who conspired to destroy our climate by suppressing evidence about global warming. Fourteen Senate Democrats joined with Republicans to confirm Rep. Mike Pompeo to be our new CIA director, despite Pompeos past Islamophobic remarks and ties to far-right conspiracy theorists, his position in favor of unconstitutional surveillance on Americans, and his enthusiastic support for torture and secret detention. And Senate Democrats like Dick Durbin, Claire McCaskill, and Jon Tester have all voiced the opinion that Trumps Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch deserves a fair shakeafter Republicans refused to even meet with President Obamas nominee Merrick Garland for almost a year and effectively stole a Supreme Court nomination.

This cannot stand. We will only defeat Republicans on the local, state, and federal level if we go on the offensive.

The irony? Bernie Sanders himself doesnt meet this standard, having voted to confirm three of Trumps Cabinet picks so far. If Sanders doesnt pass a progressive purity standard, its probably not worth imposing.

Read the rest here:
Progressives begin push to primary red-state Senate Dems for being too Trump-friendly - Hot Air