I was shocked when the Florida Republican Party seemed so calm when Amendment 4 passed in November. It's going to probably mean a million new voters, many of then not especially GOP-friendly. Florida was one of only 4 states, the others being Kentucky, Iowa and Virginia, where convicted felons do not regain the right to vote after serving out their sentences.
4 progressives recently elected to CongressWhen I was first getting into politics-- believe it or not, I was (briefly) the president of my college's Young Democrats-- the word "liberal" was worn proudly by people on the left. Now? It was tarnished from all sides and replaced by "progressive." I want to talk about that word...
Jacobson & Penn: Murdoch pays they to undermine the Democratic PartyYou've heard the term "Fox Democrat," right? Mark Penn is the prototype. Politically he's another Bill and Hillary Clinton-Tony Blair fox in the henhouse shitbag always working to pull the Democratic Party rightward-- for which he gets paid-- and handsomely so-- by wealthy conservatives.
It's time for Nancy Pelosi to go. We need someone else to lead the Democratic Party in Congress. She's part of a status quo-- like Hillary-- that voters are not happy about. IT IS TIME FOR HER TO MOVE ON and make way for someone who comes from a different, more up-to-date personal and political context. Pelosi's priorities are no longer in synch with the priorities of the Democratic base. But that does not mean throwing her out and replacing her with a cabal of Wall Street and Big PhRMA-backed corporate shills. God forbid!
One New Dem leader down, another one to goI just got back from a post-election rest in Istanbul. On Saturday I was still there and I dashed off a post about how Blue America is going about looking for 2020 congressional recruits. That generated a ton of e-mails like this one [in part] from Melissa in Houston:
Alan Grayson's grassroots PAC, The Resistance, did a final appeal for Randy Bryce Sunday evening. At this point, forget about the contribution part, just try to remember if you know anyone who lives in Racine, Kenosha, Janesville, the suburbs south of Milwaukee... and call them and tell them why they should vote for @IronStache. Meanwhile, though Grayson's PAC made some good points.
For the first time ever, Trump is doing something as so-called "president" that hurts his own business. The Trump family makes huge profits by leasing expensive apartments to wealthy pregnant women from China, Russia and other former Soviet states so that their children are born in the U.S. and become automatic citizens.
Reporting for The Hill the week, JulieGrace Brufke-- whose byline I've never seen before so maybe she's new and about to learn something valuable-- made a grievous error in the opening two words of an important story, Democrats in swing districts advised to avoid talking about immigration.
In the last few weeks, I've been complaining that the elites who control both parties recruit elites like themselves to recruit and to support. When someone from the working class self-selects and manages to win a primary, those elites are more likely to turn up their nose at them than to support them. After Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez won her primary about a member of the House elite club in New York, I sensed that the House Democrats were more vicious in their reaction than even the House Republicans were. I remember thinking to myself, self, I sure hope she has a thick skin!
