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Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders was defeated in last years Democratic primary, but his impact on the party could be felt in the 2018 midterm elections. Several groups of former Sanders campaign staffers are ready to put up primary challengers to run against establishment Democrats next year, according to a report released Monday from NBC News.

Frustrated by a perceived lack of change in the Democratic Party following its crushing loss in the 2016 presidential election and in the House and the Senate, some on the left of the party have already been issuing threats against party incumbents.

Two groups of one-time Sanders aides, Justice Democrats and Brand New Congress, this week joined forces ahead of the midterms.

The point is, we've watched this party over the last decade lose over 1,000 seats, lose a national election to the least popular nominee in history, Donald Trump, and now we've seen poll after poll showing the Democratic Party less popular since election day, Brand New Congress' Corbin Trent told NBC News. What we think is, the American people are ready for a new direction.

Trents group states on its website that it will put more than 400 candidates forward in 2018 in an effort to pass an aggressive and practical plan to significantly increase wages, remove the influence of big money from our government, and protect the rights of all Americans.

Another group of Sanders staffers, #WeWillReplaceYou, announced last month that it planned to fund primary challengers to Democrats.

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) speaks between Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Patty Murray (D-WA) during a news conference to unveil the FAMILY Act on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., March 14, 2017 Yuri Gripas/Reuters

Despite hisloss, Sanders has remained a prominent voice on the national stage. A Fox News poll released last week showed him to be the most popular political figure in the United States, with a favorability rating of 61 percent.

Following the election, the independent senator was welcomed into the ranks of the Democratic leadership by Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer. Still, Sandershimselfhas expressed frustration with what he perceives as theparty's stagnation and its failure to learn from its 2016 losses.

Last month, Sanders ally Keith Ellison lost the race for the leadership of the Democratic Party to former Labor Secretary Tom Perez. And when asked by The New York Times earlier this month what the Democratic Party stood for, Sanders struggled to provide an answer.

Youre asking a good question, and I cant give you a definitive answer, he said. Certainly there are some people in the Democratic Party who want to maintain the status quo. They would rather go down with the Titanic so long as they have first-class seats.

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What's Next for Bernie Sanders Voters? Former Aides Want Progressives to Challenge Democrats in 2018 Midterms - Newsweek

How could the voters be so stupid? Boom! - heads exploded. That was on display recently (news story, Feb. 20): "Carper, Coons get an earful."

Of course, some of this had to do with how unexpected was the outcome of last November's presidential election. Many Republicans believed the polls, too. Count this scribbler as one of those.

One thing we have here is that progressives are experiencing classic symptoms of grief, or to be more specific, the five stages of grief. Pastors, psychologists and counselors witness this daily, often associated with death of a loved one, or divorce. These can be described briefly and perhaps simplistically, this way:

Denial: Refusal to believe what happened. "Mom can't be dead, can she?" Anger: Accusing others: How dare you let this happen? Bargaining: Trying to effect a better outcome. Depression: Listlessness and inaction. Acceptance.

Some on the political left are still mired in that first one. Beginning the day after the election, when progressives woke up to the horrifying news that Mrs. Clinton wasn't president-elect, they have been denying the outcome. Surely it must have been the Russians' fault. Or it happened because of FBI Director James Comey. Or because of the stupid people in "fly-over" America.

Two. Blaming the Russians or the FBI is part of the second one. Surely it can't be because the stupid voters in Wisconsin and Michigan actually preferred Mr. Trump, could it? Apparently, the New York Times thought this when they sent a reporter out to eastern Iowa, only to find that the men drinking coffee in the caf were quite pleased with President Trump. Oops.

Three. So today, we find ourselves somewhere between two and three. In this case, three involved getting senators like Tom Carper and Chris Coons to vote against President Trump's cabinet nominees (only one was defeated/withdrew). And definitely against the appointment of Neil Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court. This despite the fact that virtually all these appointees are people of great accomplishment and intelligence.

Or is this an argument that the CEO of Exxon/Mobil, or a billionaire investor, or a Wall Street banker, or a state attorney general, or a congressman who's a doctor, are somehow incompetent to manage a federal agency? What this is, too often, is the unstated assertion that only career politicians are qualified to run the government.

Four and five. We aren't there yet. At least, not while we note that the American Civil Liberties Union is organizing resistance to anything the Trump administration does.

A lot of Congress members are experiencing big opposition demonstrations at their constituent events these days, including Republicans from the middle of the country. When you think about it, this isn't surprising even in reliably Republican districts and states. Progressives are found, at least in some numbers, everywhere. Given the level of anger and denial, this is inevitable.

Finally, some might think that the dust cloud surrounding the repeal and replacement of Obamacare shows that the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress are incapable of governing. Apparently these folks have never observed a legislative body. What we witness today is the way it is supposed to work.

Major legislation doesn't often appear fully formed. Nor are any president's proposals often enacted without alteration. The legislative process involves hearings, debate, amendment and a lot of votes. We've just begun.

Reid Beveridge has covered politics in Texas, Iowa, Wisconsin, Delaware and Washington, D.C. He is now retired at Broadkill Beach.

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Progressives showing classic symptoms of grief - CapeGazette.com

The shifting focus is at once a concession to Republican dominance on Capitol Hill and a mark of frustration, as activists continue to clash with establishment Democrats they view as unwilling or unable to craft a compelling alternative to President Donald Trump's agenda.

In California, progressives face a much more welcoming political environment. Trump is deeply unpopular there, and state Democrats are on the front foot, controlling both chambers of the state legislature and the governor's mansion.

"There's not many places where you can say to people, 'If we do this work, change can occur,' rather than, 'If we do this work, it will lead to change one day,'" Our Revolution board chair Larry Cohen told CNN, explaining why the organization, spun off from Sen. Bernie Sanders primary campaign, chose the Golden State for its most robust outlay since Election Day.

California legislators passed a single-payer bill in 2006, but Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed it. Similar efforts to create a single-payer system, in which the state, rather than private insurers, pays for health care, have stalled out at earlier stages. Those efforts, however, did not have the emerging Sanders operation -- with an estimated 300,000 supporters in California alone -- working as an engine room dedicated to driving popular support.

Organizers also point to the fight over Obamacare, and the specter of an overhaul authored by Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan, as a potentially powerful motivator.

"It's a real test of whether we can be more than an email machine," Cohen said. "Not just people signing up for things online, but instead actually building a political organization. That's what it's always been about. I don't spend this kind of time as a volunteer and board chair to generate more emails."

Those efforts could be bolstered with the passage in Washington of the Republicans' American Health Care Act. The bill as currently composed would limit federal support for Medicaid by placing a cap on funding per enrollee. That would contribute to what the Congressional Budget Office predicts will be a surge in the ranks of the uninsured and, in an ironic turn, potentially provide new political momentum for single-payer advocates.

"The Republican proposal has put oxygen in the room for progressives to go on offense with real solutions that provide health care to everyone, increase quality, and reduce costs -- like Medicare for all or a public option offered to every American," Stephanie Taylor, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, said in an email.

"If Democrats learned the right lesson from 2016, they won't just depend on a negative message but instead pivot to bold inspiring ideas like Medicare for all," she added.

State Sen. Ricardo Lara, who co-authored and introduced the California bill in February, described it as a local necessity with the potential for creating a road map for other states. Hillary Clinton's defeat last year has accelerated the process, he added.

"There's no doubt that Trump's election and what Republicans are doing to dismantle health care has really given us an opportunity to have an honest dialogue about how we get to health for all," Lara said. "I don't think we would have had the same opportunity if Clinton would have won. Then again, we also wouldn't be in a place where we're going to lose billions of (Medicaid) dollars for California."

Lara views the health care fight as one piece of a broader play to turn back the Trump agenda -- first with grassroots resistance, then by actively shaping more attractive and inclusive policy.

"People in my district are genuinely scared -- scared that they are going to lose their health care, scared that their mom or dad might be deported," he said. "We have transgender children who are scared now about who they are and questioning that. Democrats in general, now, it's time for us not only to present alternatives, but be unequivocal and unapologetic about who we are. If we don't do that now, when? This is a moment that will define us as a party and we need to fight."

Elected officials, though, are understandably wary of those numbers. Issue polling is a notoriously dubious indicator of how flesh-and-blood candidates will fare at the ballot box. Still, the upward trajectory is encouraging to activists and growing political organizations like the Democratic Socialists of America.

"Our longstanding positions on health care issues, such as supporting single payer and reproductive rights, are extremely important to new DSA members, including many young people that Bernie Sanders presidential campaign inspired to embrace democratic socialism," the group's deputy director, David Duhalde, said in an email.

Turning to California, Duhalde touted his group's work canvassing in support of Lara's legislation, saying more than 200 people had volunteered to help push the bill.

RoseAnn DeMoro, the executive director of National Nurses United, an early union backer of the Sanders campaign and growing power base in progressive politics, said DSA's recent spike in membership underlined growing dissatisfaction with the Democratic establishment.

"It's a new day in politics," she said. "There is a dynamic base of people who are demanding health care. Demanding. It's not discretionary -- they want it, they need it, they are fighting for it. We've always got an extremely mobilized base from the Sanders movement. And they are determined to take legislators out who don't support basic issues."

National Nurses United, which plans to take a lead role in shaping the California bill and mobilizing supporters, is deeply entrenched in the state and expects Lt. Gov. Newsom, the 2018 gubernatorial candidate with his own single-payer plans, to be an ally going forward.

The national health debate remains mostly focused on repealing Obamacare, but there are signs that if Republican efforts fail, progressives could find new and strange bedfellows.

In the aftermath of a CBO report showing the Republican bill would, in comparison to Obamacare, nearly double the number of uninsured Americans, Newsmax Media CEO Chris Ruddy, a friend and supporter of Trump, published an essay calling for the White House to scrap the current plan and set a path toward "universal coverage."

The details of Ruddy's ad-libbed argument were perhaps less important than his willingness to write it. For progressives, the absence of a consensus on the right has breathed new life into long-stewing plans to pursue their own overhaul plans.

It was only in the mid 20th century, Our Revolution's Larry Cohen noted, that Canada began on a path he hopes Americans will follow.

"Obviously, the US is 10 times bigger," Cohen said. "But I think that we need to model this to take away the fear. And there's no place better than California to do it."

Correction: This story was updated to reflect the number of volunteers recruited by the Democratic Socialists of America to push for the California bill.

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Obamacare on the ropes, progressives push single payer in California - CNN

San Francisco Examiner

The Progressive Capacity Problem San Francisco Examiner San Francisco progressives accomplish many things, despite holding a minority on the Board of Supervisors and a statistically insignificant number of citywide offices throughout modernity. We have passed trailblazing legislation, improving lives ...

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The Progressive Capacity Problem - San Francisco Examiner

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Anti-Trump progressive organizers in the area are flooding social media with messages detailing their plans for disruption and even expressing the hope that President Trump dies soon. They openly state their goal is to halt the mandate the president has from his landslide electoral college win on Nov. 8, when he crushed Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton by winning 30-and-a-half states cruising to a 306 vote electoral college victory.

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The vitriolic nature of the progressive lefts desperate anti-Trump streak shines through in organizing messages inlocal Facebook posts, including one in whichprogressive activists say their favorite interaction with someone recently was a man who rolled down the window of his car while they were protesting and said he wished that President Trump was dead.

The local progressive Facebook group Indivisible Bradenton Pro-gressive wrote:

Our street protests were lively again, and we practiced our sign-waving skills with a lot of razzmatazz this week. Our signs reflected our concerns: Did Trump Collude With Russia? Trumpcare is Worse Than Obamacare, GOP Bad Health Bill; 24,000,000 LOSE; Rich Get Tax Break, 24 Million Will Lose Coverage Under Republican Plan, Protect Our Care! Save the ACA, and Sessions Must Resign. Our smaller group seemed to embolden the hecklers this week. We got several long profanity-laced tirades directed at us from both passing cars and people on the street. We just thanked them loudly or whooped in response for our own cheers. Were enough of a regular fixture now on Tuesdays mornings that one woman who works in a nearby office asked if we are here because we are only allowed to protest on Tuesdays (?!). That made me realize all the more the importance of making our presence known and what peoples democratic rights truly allow them in this sleepy town. We of course got a lot of cheers and honks, as we always do, along with some thank yous. The favorite this week was an older gentleman who rolled down his window, spoke very slowly, and said: We all need to pray very hard that Trump goes to heaven very soon.

In other words, one of the favorite comments these progressive organizers heard all week was a man wishing that President Trump was dead and goes to heaven very soon. The original Facebook posting has since been removed and reposted with slightly different wording, where instead of the original description of that exchange with the man who wished President Trump was dead as the progressive organizer and post authors favorite of the week, it was altered to say the exchange with that man was the most notable oddity of the week. Breitbart News has screenshots of the original, however, and is providing both the original post and the revised one here.

image2 (3) by Breitbart News on Scribd

Both the original and revised postings also included details about the left-wing activists efforts to storm Buchanans town hall on Saturday, noting that a Buchanan staffer received us kindly as always when asked for details about the congressmans upcoming town hall event.

First, we sought more information about the format of Saturdays town hall meeting, the progressive group said in both posts. She said that much of the time and format of the meeting was still being decided. So we dont have anything new to report on that front.

More than 4,000 people have RSVPd for Buchanans Sarasota town hall on Saturday morning, Buchanans office and local Republicans tell Breitbart News, and they are expecting an onslaught of progressives who are not representative of the districts electorate as a whole to attempt to dominate the discussion. If the RSVP numbers hold firmor even come close to matching that whopping totalthis town hall will be the biggest nationwide as of yet in a series of recent unruly town halls Republican members of Congress have faced since President Trumps inauguration, and it has the potential to set the tone for whether the president will succeed in legislatively achieving his agenda moving forward.

Several deep ties between Sarasotas political story and Trumps national rise make this one of the most interesting events early in Trumps administration. This particular congressman, Buchanan, has a personal story thats eerily similar to President Trumps rise to power: both were highly successful businessmen before running for office. Whats more, this district in many ways serves as a bellwether not just for Florida but perhaps for the nation as a whole. To top it off, the venue for the town hallthe Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall here in Sarasotais hallowed ground for President Trump.

Just weeks before Trumpannounced his presidential campaign, the Sarasota GOP awarded him its annual Statesman of the Year award in May 2015 in front of a sold-out crowd in the same hall. That award was bestowed upon Trump by Sarasota-area GOP powerbroker Joe Gruters, now a Florida statehouse representative. Gruters was vice chairman of the Florida GOP, and joined the Trump campaign early as a senior official. That made him the highest ranking Republican Party official in the state to back any candidate in the GOP primaries, drawing ire from allies of Trump opponents and state power players Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and former Gov. Jeb Bush.

What you have here is Vern Buchanan and Donald Trump are very similar in that theyre business guys who want to get deals done, Christian Ziegler a state committeeman who also served as a delegate for Trump to the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio last July and as a presidential elector for President Trump in the electoral college told Breitbart News in a Friday afternoon interview. Ziegler said:

They know how to negotiate. They sit around a table and want to accomplish stuff. They really dont understand why theres gridlock in Washingtonit makes no sense to them, because theyre used to their businesses, being the CEO and just executing. Thats why theyve been successful, theyve both made a lot of money, theyve hired a lot of peopleboth of themand they know how to manage, they know how to pick good executives, which is really important in government especially being president because hes got to pick all the agency heads and all that stuff. They really know how to negotiate, thats really all Washington isone big negotiation on Capitol Hillso I think thats a big strength both of them share. And I think theyre both frustrated that nothing can get done in Washington and were not looking after the consumer, the voter. So I think they kind of both share that too. I think its interesting because Ive gotten to know Vern and the governor, Rick Scottwe have a governor too, which is great, thats what we need. We need more business guys to get in. Actually, Ive never thought of itour congressman, our governor and our president are all successful business people. At least for Sarasota County, we can claim all our people here are not career politicians and all three of them, their first political office is what theyre in now.

Sarasota offers national politicians, especially Republicans, access to a network of centrally located donors with deep pockets. But it also has the potential for big crowds, as Trump saw in his many trips to the area during the primaries and general election.

Before launching his own political career, Ziegler served for six years as a senior staffer to Buchanan. He made a nearly successful bid for the Florida GOP chairmanship against current chair and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) ally Blaise Ingoglia this year, coming up just short of toppling the establishment on his own. His wife serves on the local school board, something Ziegler noted offers him a unique window into understanding how the left operates from a local level and how that professionally organized approach from progressive activists seeps from the ground level up to state and eventually all the way to national politics in an interconnected fashion. His wife, he said, regularly faces down progressive protesters targeting her on matters relevant to the national cultural debate, like transgender bathroom policies. Ziegler said:

When they come out to protest the school board, they have all these printed signs and all these groups that are bussing people in. But I think the same thing is happening with Trump. You look at all these different organizations. Theres people from outside the districtpeople from downtown Tampa that have no connection to our district, that are organizing all these counter protests around the state. Theyre doing a fairly good job for their cause, but its definitely an organized, paid, apparatus if you will and effort. So I think well see that tomorrow as well.

The orchestration from the hard left is nearly identical and linked together at every level, he added. He went on to say:

That is occurring and were seeing that on the ground in Florida statewidemy colleagues in the Republican Party of Florida as well, theyre reporting the same thing as well. Its happening all around the state, especially over on the east coast. People who have never really gotten involved or have never been able to turn out a crowd, all of a sudden busses are coming in and people are showing up outside of Mar-a-Lago pretty upset. So, its an opportunity for the left to generate support whatever you think of Trump but I dont think its truly representative of the average Floridian if you will. I think it is an orchestrated effort by professional protesters and professional activists. You look at something like the womens marchthat was something that was organized by these groups and then they just blend because they say lets march for women, lets march against Trump.

For now, it does not appear the left is making headway at least not here in Sarasota or specifically with Buchanan. In a statement, Buchanan told Breitbart News he plans to work with President Trump to accomplish the things both of them campaigned on.

I promised my constituents I would work to repeal Obamacare, reduce federal spending and protect Americans against terrorists, Buchanan said. Im looking forward to working with President Trumps administration to accomplish these important goals and shake up Washingtons broken political system.

What the leftists plan to do here on Saturday is very clearly stated in literature progressive organizers have been distributing on social media: Grind down President Trump in any way possible, by any means necessary. They want to force Buchanan to take positions and answer questions he may not want to, and put him in a tough spot by pitting him against the president.

A document that the same aforementioned Facebook group has been circulatingopenly online clearly states the groups agenda at this town hall:

The document reads:

The overall strategy at these Town Hall meetings is to use them as a media opportunity for our side. So the goal is to ask questions, and elicit responses from Congressman Buchanan, that will push him to take stances closer to what we would prefer, to demonstrate how Buchanan is out of touch with his district when he stands with Trumps agenda, and to show how Republican policies are hurting everyday Americans. Although things like the AHCA can potentially hurt millions, statistics can be hard to comprehend and sometimes make peoples eyes glaze over. But stories of individuals really bring things home and dramatize issues in powerful ways. So the most effective thing you can do is tailor any of the following questions with a short personal story about how proposed or enacted legislation negatively affects yourself, family, or friends. But dont force it, either a simple, straightforward question that is easy to understand is absolutely terrific, too.

The document then proceeds to detail a number of suggested questions designed to put Buchanan on the defensive, and to pit him against the Trump administration. They range from inquiries on matters like the House GOP Obamacare replacement plan, to the Russia hacking story, to Trumps taxes, to the border wall, to the presidents recent executive orders on immigration suspending travel from a variety of countries, and more. The five-page document literally writes out the wording of dozens of suggested questions for those who would attend Buchanans town hall, and links to the national organization Indivisible which is helping organize the efforts to resist Trumps mandate and agenda across the country.

The efforts to target Buchanan professionally and this certainly seems like a professional political hit, not grassroots bottom-up organization by concerned constituents do not appear to be an accident. Sarasota has always been a battleground county in Florida, though it shades to the Republicans slightly. Florida is a battleground state with 29 electoral votes and was crucial to Trumps win in both the primaries and the general election. Most importantly, though, is that Trump far outperformed recent GOP presidential candidates in the Sarasota area something Ziegler suggests may be a sign the left is worried they are losing ground here for the future and are desperate to regain lost territory. In 2008, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) then the GOP nominee won Sarasota county over now-former President Barack Obama, but only by 237 votes. In 2012, then- GOP nominee Mitt Romney beat Obama by more than 15,000 votes here, but that still was not enough to win the state of Florida. Trump beat Clinton here by more than 26,000 votes, a much more substantial margin something that helped him win statewide. Ziegler says that vote math has Democrats scrambling to regain relevancy. Ziegler said:

He [Trump] made a big statement and its not only [Sarasota County], its Florida as a whole. If you put yourself in the Democrats shoes, right, for the whole election they were told that Hillary is winning and this is her election to lose, right? Theres no way shes losing it. Really, I think Democrats were really complacent and they just expected victory. What happened was was on election night you had Donald Trump and just like Florida that were in now right, he won these states that he wasnt supposed to win and that he wasnt expected to win and theres no chance. The media said that, the left said that to their own allies. If youre a Democrat, on election day youre looking at the map and you see Florida, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan and youre like oh crap, what just happened to us? Now theyre fighting for relevance. So its almost like their last stand when you look at the Democratic Party. And they lose that historic election that they were expected to win, and I think now theyre scrambling. When youre desperate, you scramble and you try every tactic you can and it energizes you. You throw Hail Marys, but its too bad so sad its a couple months late. But thats what youre seeing now. All that activity is being fueled by them being totally desperate and paranoid and freaking out that they could lose their relevance altogether.

Ziegler and other local Republicans are doing everything they can to get Trump voters to show up and back up the president and their GOP congressman even running ads on social media promoting the town hall and blasting out invitations to email lists of Trump backers. And Trumps silent majority army may just show up to support the presidents agenda in the face of the left or they might not, as they have been active in other recent events, and Ziegler notes that the voters from the party that just won the election tend not to be as concerned as those who lost. But here in Sarasota on Saturday morning, it appears the first major outside-the-beltway battle over the Trump agenda will play itself out. If the right holds the line, and rallies around the president, the left may become further disillusioned. But if the left draws blood, expect more of this nationwide.

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Exclusive Progressives Plan to Storm Trump-Like GOP ... - Breitbart - Breitbart News