Rashida Tlaib

There was no primary or special election in North Carolina yesterday and the Democratic candidate, Dan McCready, is a Blue Dog who will be voting frequently with the GOP when he gets into Congress-- Blue Dogs always do. But with the existential danger of Trump hanging over us, with have to hold our noses and hope congressional candidates like McCready win. And in this case, we probably don't have to hope too hard, because he's very likely to win.

In a 5-4 ruling, a very right-wing Supreme Court reversed a series of lower court decisions to OK Turmpanzee's Muslim travel ban, claiming the ban is "squarely within the scope of Presidential authority under the Immigration and Nationality Act." Justice Sotomayor: "A reasonable observer would conclude that the proclamation was motivated by anti-Muslim animus...

The DCCC managed to find itself a Michigan Blue Dog, Gretchen Driskell, to support for Congress. Yesterday we looked at what happens when Blue Dogs get into Congress. The damage they cause is very serious.

A couple of days ago, Michael Keegan, president of People for the American Way, invited me to meet a candidate for the open John Conyers seat in Michigan, Rashida Tlaib. The West Detroit district that goes all the way through Dearborn Heights, Inkster and Romulus to the airport, is one of the bluest in America-- with a PVI of D+33. Obama won it with 85% both times he ran and even Hillary managed to get 79% of the vote.

"The Republicans," explained Kyle Kulinski last week, "have shifted further right to some weird brew of theocracy and authoritarianism and fascism and outright oligarchy." He forgot kakistocracy and kleptocracy but no need to quibble.

Two nights ago I went to a meet-and-greet for Rashida Tlaib, an extraordinary former Michigan legislator who is running for the open seat in Detroit formerly held by John Conyers. The event was hosted by Democratic activist Jyoti Sarda. Like Rashida, Jyoti emphasized in her introduction of the candidate, that this was a time not just to elect more Democrats, but to elect "the right" Democrats. That got my attention. Her goal, though, was a little more "identity politics," more women, more minorities, rather than more progressives, or even more men progressives or minority progressives.