Progressives begin push to primary red-state Senate Dems for being too Trump-friendly
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 don't 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 Sanders's (I-Vt.) presidential campaign, the group's 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 group's statement reads.
Well, that's 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.
Pelosi to Democrats: Treat Trump voters like a friend whose boyfriend is a jerk
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi is telling her rank-and-file members that she is confident a good portion of President Donald Trump's voters will eventually turn on him -- and Democrats just have to wait it out.She's using a colorful analogy to make her point -- comparing Trump to a friend's boyfriend who is a "jerk."
"The way I told my members: It's like telling your friend the guy she's dating is a jerk. You can't tell her that. She has to find out for herself. You can give her clues and then eventually one thing will lead to another, she'll come to her conclusion. But if you tell her right up front, you'll lose a friend. So we're not interested in losing any friends. Let them find out," Pelosi recounted during a small briefing for reporters in her Capitol suite Tuesday.
| A return to civility? That would be nice. |
Pelosi did, however, make a sweeping judgment about educated women who voted for Trump rather than Hillary Clinton.
"White educated women who voted against Hillary? They voted with their husbands on taxes and they always have," declared Pelosi.
Clinton got 51% of white educated women. Trump got 44%.
Matt Gorman, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, blasted Pelosi's comments Tuesday evening,
"Leave it to a San Francisco liberal to belittle and condescend to the 63 million voters who called for real change last November," Gorman said. "Pelosi's comments underscore just how hard it'll be for this out-of-touch party to compete across the country in 2018."
Pelosi also discussed the first White House meeting that she and other lawmakers had with the President after he was inaugurated, when he insisted that millions of votes were fraudulent and Pelosi told him he was wrong.
Beyond that widely reported incident, Pelosi said Trump worked very hard in the meeting to charm lawmakers, especially Democrats, though she conceded Trump worked harder on Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer because he probably knows she is a "lost cause."
"He uses the charm offensive -- which is offensive, very offensive," said Pelosi.
Instead of trying to engage people and convince them of the worthiness of their ideas, they go full hostile on all those that don't agree or tow the party line hard enough. Usually when a authoritarian group does this, it is the last dying spasm before it collapses. The current demoncrat party can't die soon enough. I just hope it is replaced with something somewhat sane.