Despite Oz attacks he was a Bernie socialist, "nothing scared Fetterman off from embracing a left economic populism and he pulled it off better than any other candidate.. unabashingly pro-union--- his lefty populism was a boon not a curse--- Krystal Ball - The Case for Left Populism
I see DeSantis as Viktor Orban in white boots and a bigger threat to democracy than Trump.
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| Which is funnier? DeSantis in white boots or Fetterman in a suit? |
While the Dem center right media celebrates DeSantis as a positive alternative to Trump - oh the relief that we can get the Republican Party out of Trump's hands - instead of rooting for its continued internal destruction. I'm not as impressed with the win given the sclerotic former Republican Christ as his opponent and the equally sclerotic Florida Dem party which rivals the NYS one in terms of right center incompetency. And let me include the Val Demmings campaign against Rubio - when Dems run as Rhinos they often lose. I don't think Florida is as red as people think but the Dem party there needs a complete rebuilding and rebranding.
So let's look at the Josh Shapiro win in battleground Pennsylvania over a bad opponent. Still double digits and he probably helped Fetterman win. Shapiro made inroads even in red parts of the state. He's not as progressive as Fetterman, who also made inroads in red areas.
Look at the battle in Dem party in NYS where Adams etc attack and blame progressives for losses when it is the Sean Patrick Maloney types that created the debacle. Having Fetterman join Bernie and Elizabeth Warren as a left Dem flank in the Senate is a win win.
Despite Oz attacks he was a Bernie socialist, "nothing scared Fetterman off from embracing a left economic populism and he pulled it off better than any other candidate" - Krystal Ball
Krystal Ball on Breaking Points did a rundown on Fetterman's win making the case for a progressive platform reaching working class people in red state areas. Starting at 1:31:34.
She reminds us that Fetterman, running as a Bernie Sanders guy, overwhelmingly won the Dem Party primary against a darling of the right Dems who had all their support and money. Conner Lamb was viewed by Dems as more electable. How did that work out with Fetterman's 30 point win?
In the general election he did better than Trump, Biden and Toomey. He cut down on rural margins. Aside from his persona she also points to what he ran on -- like Medicare for all is not a shackle as most Dems want us to believe. She points to how the media misunderstands politics, elections and voters. His debate performance actually gained him respect for trying. She takes on the argument that progressive politics are bad politics. Oz attacked him for his progressive politics. He had union support because he was so pro-union, unlike so many Dems who are defensive about union support. Also pro-weed and raised the price gouging as a cause of inflation to counter the Biden is at fault narrative. His left populism outperformed every other Dem candidate with independents.
And she shows this chart showing how he outperformed in every area of the state. His largest gains came in areas where Dems had been fleeing the party.
The media narrative below has things backwards:
https://youtu.be/YCQ_LWNKbR4?t=5671
Krystal also appeared on The Lever: • LEVER TIME: The Midterm Shellacking That Never Was (w/ Krystal Ball)
And more on the progressive movement from them:
• PA’s Next Governor: The Democrat Who Picks Fights With Bad Guys — “Josh Shapiro is a Ted Lasso-style politician who does the one thing most Dems never do: He names the villains.”
• Eight Key Midterm Election Takeaways: The Progressive Electorate Has Spoken — “We constantly hear about how progressives are too extreme; Tuesday’s results should quash that narrative.”
• The REAL Reason For Dems’ Rust Belt Revival — Political analyst Krystal Ball on why Democrats overperformed in the industrial Midwest — and how it could pave the way for transformational policy that challenges corporate power.
• The Midterm Issue No One’s Talking About — “As voters push to prioritize climate change and fossil fuels spend big on key races, less than one percent of election ads are focused on the environment.”
• The Lever’s Guide To The 2022 Midterms — “A look back at the blockbuster reporting we produced this election season.”
• YOU LOVE TO SEE IT: Working People’s Issues Won On Election Night — “Across the country, ballot measures and new candidates delivered midterm victories for economic justice and workers’ rights.”
Stuff To Watch & Listen To:
• LEVER TIME: The Midterm Shellacking That Never Was (w/ Krystal Ball) — The Lever’s reporters run through the midterm election results and David speaks with Krystal Ball about big-picture takeaways.
• LEVER TIME PREMIUM: The Former U.S. Senator Who Became A Saudi Lobbyist — David explores how a former U.S. Senator became a lobbyist for the Saudi Arabian government.
• THE AUDIT: Prioritize The Painters — The study group FINALLY finishes George W. Bush’s MasterClass on leadership.
• Donald Trump’s Disastrous Night (The Owen Jones Show) — David joins British columnist and media analyst Owen to break down how the elections will affect the right.
Undistorted Election Discourse
Buried in Fox News’ national exit poll from this past week’s midterm election, one stat sticks out: Less than one in five Americans now say they have a great deal or a lot of “trust and confidence… in the news media when it comes to reporting the news fully, accurately, and fairly.”
You can see that distrust expressed in another part of the poll that explains much about why the media-predicted red wave never materialized: As The Lever showed in our post-election analysis, a whopping 46 percent of voters rejected the media-created argument that the Biden administration’s spending policies — not corporate profiteering — is to blame for the inflation crisis.
Corporate media is completely broken right now. More and more political news is quite literally being “presented by” corporate sponsors trying to influence politics. Put another way: More and more political news is designed to distort the discourse on corporate terms rather than hold corporations and politicians accountable.
The good news is that the aforementioned survey data prove that America has woken up to the mass deception. The even better news is that building alternative reader-supported independent media is now easier than it ever was in the pre-Internet age.
That’s exactly what we’re building here at The Lever. And as you can see from this week’s clips above — and from all of our election-season reporting — we’re making a big impact.
In truth, many in our newsroom went into election week feeling despondent. It didn't seem like there would be much to look forward to as results rolled in. We planned accordingly, writing our election postmortem — well, premortem — with a dim tone to match the anticipated dim results. But as election night wore on, we began reporting out early polling data and outcomes that afforded us a sense of cautious optimism during our election livestream event. The situation forced us to do something that, as journalists, we have plenty of experience with: be nimble.
So Wednesday morning, our editorial staff jumped in a shared Google doc and raced out an analysis unmatched by any that corporate media could deliver — one that told the story of a progressive electorate that showed up to the ballot box, inspired by the possibility of what our government, at every level, can deliver for America.
As importantly, we worked up a midterm election report that shows what can happen if and as more people awaken to the pervasive reality of a corporate hegemony. And it made us pause and ask the question: What is possible if more people read a publication like The Lever, which boldly tells the truth about power in our country?
This is ultimately our mission: to bring the truth-telling, investigative work we do to more mobile phones, kitchen tables, and coffee shops. And as paying subscribers, we owe you a debt of gratitude for allowing us to continue this kind of critical journalism.
With your support, our newsroom is not just complaining about corporate media — we’re actually building an alternative that holds power accountable.
