I took a short drive to the hardware store yesterday. A few blocks into my trip there was a man and a woman on each corner waving big Zeldin and other local Republican banners at the cars going by. My neighborhood is flooded with Republican signs. i saw one Dem sign. This is still NYC. I see big Republican enthusiasm and none for Dems. The Iceberg is looming - deck chairs, anyone?
I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat....Will Rogers
Zeldin is poised to perform better than any New York Republican in
decades. His lawn signs are everywhere and Hochul’s are nowhere. The
first presidential campaign I ever covered was 2016, and there are
unsettling parallels between this race and Trump v. Clinton, how one
base was clearly more enthused than the other, how airy and detached
Democrats sometimes seemed from all of it. .. Ross Barkan
Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022 - Day of the Dead  |
| The Mood of Democrats today |
|
With a tornado about to hit Dems expect even more disorganization. As leftie Dem I have a lot of issues, contrary to Republican screams about socialism, the center right very anti-left forces that control the party. Dems pine for the old Republican Party they worked so well with because fundamentally, most elected Dems come from the same place politically as the old Rockefeller Republicans. Dems may suck in many ways but Rep triple suck. Name one solution Rep have for any of the problems.
On the other hand, Dems and Reps solution to inflation is the Fed raising rates and driving people out of work and thus lowering wage demand -- yes, make the workers pay but left corps off the hook.
Corp Dem Mulgrew tries to be Joe Namath and sell us on Medicare Avantage - UFT should have hired Namath
Let me point out right up front that as a left critic of our own center right Dems who control the UFT, nothing strikes me as more Republican/Right center Dem than Mulgrew's attempt to force us out of the public option known as Medicare and into a privately managed system of Medicare Advantage. Think of the mentality of national Dems and Unity Caucus just in regards to the healthcare issue. Mulgrew accepts that costs will rise drastically even if due to profit making, high exec salaries, high advertising costs - Joe Namath ads, etc. Mulgrew, instead of standing up for us and calling out this profit making, does a selling job for them - he's the Joe Namath of the MLC.
- Unity Caucus is the epitome of Dem Party Central an echo on policy which is why they talk Medicare for All but never act on it
Diane Ravitch has post after post pointing out why we must vote Dem - I agree - she also has this:
Connecticut: The Biggest Charter Scandal Of All Time. Connecticut is a Dem state. For many of us on the left Dems are the only option but we don't vote with the enthusiasm shown by the right. That suppresses voter turnout. There are Zeldin lawn signs all over my Rockaway neighborhood - along with the other Republican local slugs running. Same on Long Island. One brave soul on my block put up a Greg Meeks lawn sign. Dems don't seem to believe in lawn signs.
I heard a story of a teacher who is left wing but worried about election and was making calls for Hochul -- she said the entire operation was disorganized as per Will Rogers. Dems are massively disorganized, especially on message but also at the state levels. Florida Dem party is a disaster, turning a swing state red. Fuckn Charlie Christ?
Sean Patrick Maloney has been endemic to Dem ineptitude and I have been thinking evil thoughts about some joy in him losing. But when I heard one of my go to people - Sam Seder, Majority Report, say if the Dems had to lose the House he wouldn't mind seeing Maloney lose -- my thoughts exactly.
Republicans and the right are seriously organized with an immediate on message attack mechanism that threatens democracy, the economy (Republicans have no answers), the climate disaster, a willingness to wreck the world economy because the evangelical base is looking forward to Armageddon. The right is fighting at the school board level. Dems have no response.
I've even entertained more evil thoughts that if the Dems lost real big it would prove the Republicans have no solutions other than mayhem and maybe wake Dems up -- but nahhh, they will seek to blame the left. Or Russians. Hillary, you know, made no mistakes.
But I don't need mayhem at this point in my life --- crashing the global economy and wiping out our pensions will not be fun. Would a massive loss lead to a reawakening of Dems -like It's the economy, stupid? Yes, they will find a way to blame Bernie Sanders and the left -- which has been quiet like mice.
Some major trends over the past 60 years that have put the Democratic Party, facing a red wave in the mid-terms, in a box. And never forget that our own beloved Unity Caucus machine and its NYSUT and AFT counterparts are attached to Dem Party central.
Naturally the race issue lost the Dems the south since LBJ's Civil Rights Acts. And race has continued to play a role. But what to make of the fact that the Dems are even beginning to lose people of color - Hispanic, Asian and even black working class - and to some extent the black business class.
But I also blame the neo-liberalism in the Dem party that took hold after Reagan won and has lasted 40 years. The idea that led Dems to be willing to support MedAdv over Medicare and charters over public schools and a free market that allowed millions of jobs to go abroad in the interests if cheap goods but at the cost of social infrastructure that has led to the rise of Trump. Clinton and Obama were endemic. Now they race around trying to save the party from the massive defeat they helped set the stage for.
Neo-liberalism mentality has undermined the message of the Democratic Party as they - and not just white working class.
The lack of focus from Democrats on the economy and inflation comes as recent polls from the Washington Post and Monmouth University found that the top two most important issues among voters are the economy and inflation — far outpacing abortion... The Lever
The
only explanation for [Democrats] political malpractice [in not holding
Republicans accountable for anti-worker policies] is fear of making
promises they might have to keep.... Krystal Ball
Disaster on horizon with safety net, climate, democracy on the block when Rep win
Republicans have been trying to get rid of the FDR socialist program known as social security since 1936 and the LBJ socialist Medicare (for seniors who reach 65) and Medicaid for the poor since implemented in the mid-60s. Getting rid of them means some form of privatization. The problem for Democrats is that at times they have been willing to go along with aspects of the program. Remember how Biden and Obama were ready to deal on entitlements?
There's a pretty good chance Hochul may lose and the Dem Party and the UFT will be in deep shit. All we hear from Hochul is abortion. I get a call an hour from the UFT telling me to vote Dem. I got one I answered and had a nice conversation with Jill, a retiree who hates the idea of Mulgrewcare but spends weeks calling people all over the country. I told her hearing Mulgrew leave us messages on how to vote probably costs the Dems votes.
Someone left this anon comment: Old white guys: abortion is not important.
Well, this election will prove that it is not old white guys who think other things are important. I responded: If you want to win - it's the economy stupid. Look where abortion
finishes in the polls. And there's nothing dems can do about it other
than the state level. Fact is healthcare issue affects the most people. And want to know something else -- people don't care if there is our
version of democracy where the politicians are owned by corporates. They
will settle for dictatorship -- After this election it's over for Dems.
Republicans will never let them win another election. And most Dems
will sit on their hands and whine about it but as long as they are left a
slice of the pie it is fine.
Note how the commenter makes it seem as if I said abortion is not important -- I said it's not the only thing. Reminds me of when I worked with people who always put race at the top -- I said it was important but not the only thing. I was called a racist.
Dem Party central and Unity Caucus will still be in business even after a Republican landslide. In some ways seeing the Dem Party go extinct - which it has in so many states and even in large swaths of blue states - may lead to something else. But what else?
I've grown to despise the consultant class that has such influence of the Democratic Party. Despite the Republican loony society branding Democrats as socialists the reality is the party is under the control of right of center Dems - what used to be the liberal wing of the Republican Party -- the neo-liberal philosophy of anti-labor unions (they restrict the beloved market forces), supporting the movement of American industrial jobs to China, Mexico, etc where workers are paid bupkus, and a list of transgressions too many to name.
There is hysteria abounding before the probable end of democracy as we know it, not only due to anti-democratic moves by Republicans but because as they gain control I see a massive economic disaster coming as the cut budgets and taxes and take away the safety net - including social security and Medicare. Oh, am I talking about Michael Mulgrew? I accuse him and his Unity gang of fundamentally supporting Republican (and most Dem) attempts to move Medicare into private hands.
Now those of us on the left who criticize Dems for being neo-liberals get attacked for helping Republicans win.
A massive loss may kill Biden 2024 candidacy - but then who?
Pennsylvania Senate candidate John Fetterman has run an
ad
declaring that “our economy is a mess because of Washington — the rich,
powerful, the insiders, and the lobbyists,” adding: “They set the
rules, weakened our supply chain, and spiked inflation.”
Krystal and Sagaar went into of not Biden, who on Breaking Points yesterday -- they listed the usual suspects from last time - all a disaster. They didn't mention one - Tim Ryan - who I thought was a real attack dog on progressives last time. But if he's close in Ohio tonight, he becomes a 2024 candidate as many say he's run the best Dem campaign considering he's in a deep red state. I hated him then, but just to show how desparate we are, he would be my choice in 2024 - and if he wins by some miracle tonight -- may just be ambitious enough to primary Biden. After all, he once ran against Pilosi.
2 comments:
Still waiting for you to admit how wrong you were on some many counts here, Norm, from completely missing the importance of the abortion issue as an old white guy and how important the democracy issue was to missing how well Democrats outside of NY State would do. If it were not for Sean Patrick Maloney and Co., we would have held the House, which hasn't happened since the 1960s Democrats in mid-terms, much less with all of the fundamentals -- galloping inflation, unpopular president -- going the wrong way.
I'm working on it - mostly wrong but some right. I was right about Maloney. If we lose by 2 he was my fave to lose.
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