The Thread of Democrats

[Tero]

Pack the court!

[Brian Peacock]

I think the 'defunding' idea is an easy pejorative for the Republicans. The Dems could talk about 're-funding' schools, libraries, community organisations, social services, etc and still mean the same thing. But honestly, with their very recent track record on due process and evidential burdens the Repugs should just STFU about being a law and order party - more of a ignore the law and order me a new BMW party.

[Sean Hayden]

[L'Emmerdeur]

The Democratic Party will find some way to screw up. They almost always do.

'Pelosi floats above Democrats’ civil war'

For the last decade, Pelosi has had the same post-election routine: swiftly quashing whispers of an insurrection as a handful of members look to end her long tenure as leader. But this year, Pelosi is poised to enter another — and possibly final term — as speaker, with her position as safe as ever despite losing at least six net seats after predicting they’d expand their majority.

Instead of pinning the blame on Pelosi, House Democrats have turned on each other in a resumption of the ideological war gripping the party. The sniping has grown pointed and personal, with centrists and liberals blasting each other by name both privately and in the press. Both sides have been privately discussing how they will exert their will even further in the upcoming Congress.

Meanwhile Pelosi’s only potential challenger, Jeffries, made clear he has no interest in the job this term. Often mentioned as a possible Pelosi heir, Jeffries took himself out of the running as he declared another bid for caucus chair on Monday. The move essentially guarantees the top tier of leadership — Pelosi, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Majority Whip Jim Clyburn — a glidepath to another term atop the House.

But this time, the task of governing will be much harder. Pelosi will preside over one of the slimmest House majorities in decades, a fractured group that is still processing who’s to blame and how to move forward along with a Joe Biden administration and likely Republican Senate.

Moderate Democrats said there was no way to outrun the GOP campaign ads accusing them of supporting far-left ideas like defunding the police and banning fracking. Prominent progressives like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) quickly hit back, saying its centrists’ fault for not doing enough to shore up their own districts, including spending more on digital ads.

[Seabass]

Bernie Sanders: Corporate Democrats are attacking so-called far-left policies


I am very proud of the hard work that the progressive community put into electing Joe Biden as our next president.

And let’s be clear: This election was not just a normal election between two candidates. It was much more important than that. It was an election about retaining our democracy, preserving the rule of law, believing in science and ending pathological lying in the White House. And with a record-breaking turnout, the American people voted to reject President Donald Trump’s racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, religious bigotry and authoritarianism. That is very good news.

Even so, truth be told, the election results in the House and Senate were disappointing. Despite Joe Biden winning the popular vote by more than 5 million votes, the Democrats lost seats in the House and, so far, have only picked up one seat in the Senate.

Now, with the blame game erupting, corporate Democrats are attacking so-called far-left policies like Medicare for All and the Green New Deal for election defeats in the House and the Senate. They are dead wrong.

Here are the facts:

►112 co-sponsors of Medicare for All were on the ballot in November. All 112 of them won their races.

►98 co-sponsors of the Green New Deal were on the ballot in November. Only one of them have lost an election.

It turns out that supporting universal health care during a pandemic and enacting major investments in renewable energy as we face the existential threat to our planet from climate change is not just good public policy. It also is good politics. According to an exit poll from Fox News, no bastion of socialism, 72% of voters favored the change “to a government-run health care plan” and 70% of voters supported “increasing government spending on green and renewable energy.”

The lesson is not to abandon popular policies like Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, living wage jobs, criminal justice reform and universal child care, but to enact an agenda that speaks to the economic desperation being felt by the working class — Black, white, Latino, Asian American and Native American. People are hurting, and they are crying out for help. We must respond.

All over America, voters approved progressive policies to improve the lives of millions of people:

►Florida voters passed an initiative to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

►Colorado voted to provide 12 weeks of paid family leave.

►Arizona voted to increase taxes on those making over $250,000 to increase funding for public education.

►Voters in Arizona, Montana, New Jersey and South Dakota voted to move away from the “war on drugs” and approved legalizing marijuana.

The American people are sick and tired of seeing billionaires and Wall Street become much richer, while veterans sleep out on the streets, our infrastructure crumbles and young people leave school deeply in debt.

They want a government that works for all, not just the few. That’s the right thing to do, that’s the moral thing to do and, for the Democratic Party, that is the way to win elections.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/ ... 258716002/

[pErvinalia]

Preach it Bernie!

[Tero]

Demographics isn't destiny
For a long time, Democrats took as gospel that their future was secure as the country grew younger and more diverse, so long as they turned out those voters.

But turnout broke records this year, and not only did Democrats fall short of their hopes, but Republicans also ate into Democratic advantages among nonwhite voters they had considered part of their base.

Some worry that the party, once rooted in the working class but now run and funded largely by college-educated liberals, may be losing its touch with blue-collar voters of all races outside major metro areas.

"We're such a Beltway party that we can't even fathom that there are a lot of Mexicans in the [Rio Grande] Valley who love Donald Trump," said Chuck Rocha, a Texas-raised Democratic strategist who runs Nuestro PAC, a super PAC focused on Latino outreach. "Biden won, and that's great, but everything underneath Biden was a huge catastrophe."

https://www-nbcnews-com.cdn.ampproject. ... cna1248529

Currently all them Democrats are "working from home." if the state has money, road construction may be going on, but a lot of working class dudes are just now running out of unemployment benefits.

[Sean Hayden]

But how do you appeal to a Trump voter? It's fine to say we're out of touch with these voters. But then, we're out of touch with all kinds of sick individuals...

If you hate gays you're not going to feel welcome. What besides avoiding the issue is a Democrat supposed to do to appeal to homophobic Trump voters?

If you think climate change is a hoax...food stamps a scam...healthcare a privilege...

[Tero]

We need a Democratic Trump. An educated guy/woman who is able to scrap all the educated words and talk simply ro blue collar folks. They may not be happy to hear that tariffs are nothing but a short term solution.

Then you have to give them something, like Medicare for all. AND wait 4-8 years till they are all hooked on that.

This Democrat would just capture the bulk of the working class. The racist hillbilly part would be lost to the libertarian candidate.

[Brian Peacock]

That would be fine if there wasn't a rabid, death-seeking Corporatist media machine dedicated to promulgating bad faith arguments and poisoning of the wells. The problem for the centre through to the left is that the Corporatist camp have no obligation to quaint niceties like truth or facts and will muddy the pitch regardless.

[Joe]

Maybe instead of trying to appeal to Trump fans, they should use their time in power to address problems in the rural areas that tend to vote Republican.

There's plenty to choose from, but this would be a start.

1 In 4 Rural Hospitals Are At Risk Of Closure And The Problem Is Getting Worse

As of January 1, 2020, the rural hospital closure crisis has claimed 120 facilities across the nation over the past 10 years according to a recent study released by the Chartis Center for Rural Health. The rural hospital closures were tracked by the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at the University of North Carolina. The study found a sharp uptick in recent years in the number of rural hospital closures from 2017 (when rural hospital closures slowed somewhat to 10 total hospitals closing that year), to 2019, which proved to be the worst year for rural hospital closures, finding 19 hospitals closing their doors that year. With 60 million Americans living in rural communities (roughly 19.3% of the population) and access to healthcare in these regions already being a daily struggle, the study sheds light on an issue that requires rapid attention by policy makers, as well as local and state governments.

Across the US there are currently 1,844 rural hospitals, so the closure of 120 of them over 10 years (about 7%) is a substantial hit to the rural healthcare system, especially when the regions with the highest number of rural hospital closures are some of the nation’s poorest and most vulnerable. According to the study, States in the Southeast and lower Great Plains (Midwest) bore the greatest brunt of the closure crisis with the highest number of rural hospital closures since 2010 being in; Texas (20), Tennessee (12), Oklahoma (7), Georgia (7), Alabama (6) and Missouri (6). Unfortunately, the trend for these regions does not seem to be abating. The study found that today, “453 rural hospitals (i.e. Critical Access Hospitals and Rural & Community Hospitals) are vulnerable to closure based on performance levels which are similar to rural hospitals at the time of their closure.” And they are all similarly in the Southeast and Iower Great Plains Region.

But what are the factors contributing to these hospital closures? The study found one overwhelming factor that contributed to the increased risk of rural hospital closures, that “hospitals located in states that have not adopted Medicaid expansion have lower median operating margin and have a higher percentage of rural hospitals operating with a negative operating margin. Of the eight states with the highest levels of closures since 2010, none are Medicaid expansion states.” [emphasis in original]

The Medicaid expansion is the biggest and most significant part of the Affordable Care Act, and was supposed to be nationwide. The Supreme Court made it optional by state and the states that opted out are mostly GOP strongholds whose GOP run legislatures did this to their own people. Getting through the corporate media noise machine is certainly a problem, but doing something for people in need might help change some minds.

After all, the demographers say that by 2040, 70 percent of Americans will live in 15 states. I'm thinking the 70 Senate seats the other 30 percent will control might just go to the party that does things for them.

[laklak]

I clicked on First Unread Post and hit one by 42 from 2018. I thought he'd come back for a second.

[Joe]

42. Haven't seen him in a while.

Where the fuck is 42?

[pErvinalia]

Sulked off.

[JimC]

...never to darken our door again...