Fight Or Die

Andy Beshear for President....The Ghost must recede and a person with genuine presence - blooded (not bloody) presence, depth, smarts, experience and hutzpah must emerge....if there's a particle of creativity in the Democratic Establishment, they'd coalesce it into a surprise, truly progressive person unafraid to call the shots and meet the insanity with creative enlightenment for the masses. Michigan's entry while appealing stands on sand, not deep fertile fiery mineral laden earth.

An insightful analysis. However, I think the diagnosis is a bit gloomier still: I'd say "would" instead of "could" in this sentence: "It’s a reminder that if Democrats could muster even half the fighting spirit in combat with MAGA that they routinely muster for fighting their own left flank, they might be in a stronger electoral position — and the country might be on a better track." In other words, Dems have clearly shown that they would much rather lose to the GOP, and even to Trump, than to progressives of their own party or any other party (note in particular Dems' ongoing and determined 'fighting spirit' tooth-and-nail attacks on Jill Stein and other Greens). This behavior shows that Dems no longer have even a 'hidden populist agenda' and haven't since Obama got into office. Rather, they have a hidden corporatist agenda that they cover with populist rhetoric. And they are also actively backing a genocide. This is what will doom them in 2024: their choice to betray their own constituents.

The Dem establishment won't do more than pay lip service to what the voters want because they serve the 1 Percent. President Biden made a lot of populist campaign promises in 2020 that later vanished into thin air. Now he is defending the status quo, while Trump says burn it all down (and he could be serious even though Wall Street and Silicon Valley own the GOP too).

I will never vote again for any democrat that has voted for any money for genocide in Palestine. The dems are all about hegemony and war . That is it for me. There is no democrat in office that I would want in my family, or want around my children. This country is so sick it on like support (republicans as well). Out of NATO, stop the proxy war with Ukraine, stop what Israel is doing, and heal the planet. For me, Jill Stein. In 2020 i voted for Cornell West—- haven’t had cable in years. The dems don’t deserve or will ever get my vote.

Red or Blue, policy will be 93% the same. The MIC will be running the country, we will keep pretending NATO is a peacekeeping alliance and not a warmongering alliance, and we will be wallowing in the fecal matter of the two-party system EITHER WAY. It's time for a third party win and Kennedy can do it if everyone is sick enough of the charade of either party giving a damn about US citizens, peace, dignity, or decency. No one trusts the Democrats anymore unless they are that vapid idiot in a hurry to get to brunch.

Joe Biden is pretending he has COVID-19 to hide his increasingly obvious cognitive decline, and no one wants Warden Kamala who stomped other brown women into the ground and kept men in prison because she needed the slave labor. The Democrats are done and they can thank the corrupt DNC.

25% of people, our youngest born... have NEVER known a time that the US was at peace. Ef them BOTH 2024. I'm voting for Kennedy. It is the two-party everything for WAR and nothing for the people con game that needs to die. It was Julius Nyerere who famously quipped: “The United States is also a one-party state but with typical American extravagance, they have two of them.”

Weimar Germany crushed its left, so then workers who were outraged turned to the Nazis. I have found that Democrats don't really like anger, and certainly didn't like the 60% in my state who voted for Sanders in the 2016 primary. It's hard to say, but the 2020 primary didn't feel Democratic--Biden didn't campaign here, and we put a lot into learning about Beto, Warren, Sanders, Klobuchar, Buttigieg, but then none of them were the nominee! I really had thouht the nominee would be Klobuchar, since she was acceptable to both the moderates and the anti-corruption types. But you just never heard of her again. Anyway, ithe Democratic primary didn't feel too Democratic in either 2016 or 2020.

The comments on their partisan stooge sites and emails from Democratic Party candidates have two messages: (1) Send us yer money! and (2) We are the lesser evil. Asking these people what they are FOR is like getting bored with watching all the sheep caught in the headlights. What they SHOULD be FOR is encapsulated in the Biden administration's willingness to confront monopolies, regulate corporations and support collective bargaining. They are unable to articulate they are FOR this agenda because the Democratic Party operatives are so against it that they are organizing to dump the President doing it!

If Trump wins this thing, we need a wholesale resignation from this Democratic Party and founding of a Progressive Democratic Party. The operatives are simply Elephants in Donkey suits and are totally happy with a corporate dictatorship and shadow governance of the American people courtesy of Bibi Nuts'n'Yahoos.

Insightful article. If trump wins, I think that the trans-national criminal kleptocratic wing of that regime will quickly lose patience with any prattle about economic populism from the true belivers ( see Infrastructure week). And that can provide opportunities for a vigorous counter-assault. That counter-offensive doesn't have to be "masterminded" by the dems to undermine an authoritarian agenda intended to consolidate power in the greedy hands of the fewer.

“Where national memories are concerned, griefs are of more value than triumphs, for they impose duties, and require a common effort.” Ernest Renan from “What Is a Nation”

In 2015-16, Sanders really inspired me and millions of other folks. Thus he became the target of systematic political assassination by an utterly corrupt Democratic Party and crony corporate media. (Lest we forget, the Washington Post published 16 Sanders hit pieces in one span of less than 24 hours.) 

The media-driven wisdom was that Clinton was more "electable" than Sanders. Not knowing the answer, I tested this premise as scientifically as possible. Beginning February 2016, I tallied every poll reported by Real Clear Politics that pitted both Sanders and Clinton against one or more Republican candidates. 

How did Sanders and Clinton perform not against each other, but side-by-side against the GOP? With no cherrypicking, I tallied every instance. I continued this discipline all the way through early June, when Sanders unfortunately conceded. I made a website --  BernieWorks.com" rel="noopener" target="_blank">BernieWorks.com --  to report and interpret the results. You can still view my key findings there, as I reported them in real time. 

Apples to apples -- same polls, same queries, same polling teams, same timing, same demographics and targeted cohorts, same GOP opponents -- Sanders outperformed Clinton in 135 of a total 150 polls. In other words, Sanders beat Clinton against Republicans (including a reality-show blowhard, one Donald J Trump) 90 percent of the time. 

Meanwhile, Clinton's poll performance against GOP candidates revealed disturbing signs of electoral weakness. Again, you can see summaries at BernieWorks.com" rel="noopener" target="_blank">BernieWorks.com. Given the solid consistency of poll results over a four-month span, Sanders clearly would have wiped the floor with Trump in a November 2016 general election. Based strictly on the data, I dubbed him "Iron Man Sanders."

Highly paid Democratic consultants had access to the same data I did. However, these apparatchiks' mission wasn't to defeat the GOP, but to crush Sanders and the progressive movement. With greed and malice aforethought, they triumphed over truth, integrity, and common decency — giving us Trump and the dismal world we inhabit today. 

Have they learned any lessons? Gained any humility? Of course not; Sirota makes that clear. Can the unrepentant, unreformed Democratic Party prevail in 2024? Perhaps. Somehow. I am not holding my breath.

David, That was an excellent and emotional piece. Thank you. I wish it were less correct than it is. I think Democrats need to decide what they stand for, and not piddle away the hours because they know they are beholden to their own oligarchs (who are also exactly the people screwing over the American public). Republicans have the luxury of Fox News (and the rest of the kook-conservative media) providing cover for their depravity and nonsense. Of course, I will vote for the honest mumbler over the snappy fascist but I know that's a tough sell. --Jeff

I have a much simpler analysis.

For the most part, Democrats consider Republicans to be competitors for the support of the same interests. Not as representing completely different and incompatible interests. It wasn't always this way.

With the dominance of the New Dems over the Democratic Party, Republicans have considered themselves to be in a no-holds barred fight for survival.

The most important political development of the last 50 years, was the decision, by a faction of the Democratic Party, to turn the Democratic Party into a second Republican Party.

The election of Bill Clinton signaled that this faction had won. The effect on the already existing Republican Party was immediate and not subtle.

In prior elections, it had been customary for the leader of the losing party to stand in front of the press and say; "Of course, we would rather have won, but 'X' is the President, and we look forward to working with 'X' to make this country better."

Instead, when Bill Clinton was elected, Bob Dole stood up and started talking about filibusters. I read the first personal attack on Clinton in the WSJ, before the inauguration. I was shocked.

At the time, I thought the Republicans were panicking over the end of the Cold War.

What was really happening, was that Democratic Party was now competing directly with the Republican Party, for what had traditionally been the Republican Party's constituents; big business and the wealthy.

In other words, the Democrats were going after the Republicans' livelihood.

The Democrats had been electorally dominant, and the Republicans had been the minority party for 60 years. So the Democrats had a lot to sell to the wealthy and big business; the destruction of the New Deal, for example.

Ideologically, when the existing center-party, decides to become right-wing, what is the existing right-party supposed to do? Go socialist?

The Republican journey further and further right so as to prove themselves more loyal, more committed to capital looks kind of inevitable.

What if the Democrats called out Republican extremism, and the Republicans cleaned up their act? Would that be a good thing for Democratic electoral prospects? Or, are the vast vast majority of Democratic voters voting Democrat, because they have no choice?

In a democracy, social pathology is supposed to be seen as a political opportunity. That stopped happening 30 years ago.

Yes it's time for Biden to step away. Sooner. Harris isn't the answer as a replacement. If only the DNC (remember that's the entity the decides the presidential candidate, not "the people") would choose a person with grit, energy and resolve. The campaign could be exciting and draw together many elements. With the abortion issue guaranteeing turnout, the new President would have a good chance of a Senate and House that would enable real change. 

Oh, I have one caveat- RFK, Junior is not the ONE. He is really of despicable character - his stupid anti-vax crusade has led to uncounted misery and death for vulnerable folks. Sorry to end on a negative note.

Democrats would have accomplished a lot more while they were technically in power last, including passing Biden’s full Build Back Better Act, if Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema had let them, and Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema both will not be in the Senate next year.

HOPE = NOPE.