Donald Trump talking about trade during his March 8 victory speechby Gaius PubliusShorter Thomas Frank: It's easier for liberals to blame Trump voters for racism than to blame themselves for the job-loss and pain of the working class. I want to share a piece about Donald Trump, racism and working class voters. It's long enough (and good enough) to ask you to read the whole thing.
I was excited last night because there were 4 special elections for Kentucky House seats.
With hyper-partisan Republican obstructionism kicked up into full gear, several Senate incumbents who looked relatively safe, no longer are. Most Americans want the Republicans to go through the process of giving the president their advice and consent on his Supreme Court nomination rather than just declaring that they will not-- under any circumstances-- even consider anyone he nominates.
Al Franken hasn't been a bad Senator... unless you were expecting a real fire-breathing progressive champion like Elizabeth Warren or Jeff Merkley. He votes well enough... and that's more than you can say for 10 Senate Democrats who have F-rated voting records or even for the half dozen who are C-rated. And you can't really blame Franken for the political calculus that saw him jump on the Hillary Clinton bandwagon. Even far better Democrats than he stepped into that open pit sewer. But...
We've mentioned that Republican obstructionism over the Supreme Court vacancy could hurt some of the Republican Senate incumbents, particularly Chuck Grassley in Iowa, who the DSCC had originally declared invulnerable.
Patty and ChuckyThe DSCC deemed Iowa a lost cause this cycle, despite the fact that Obama won the state in 2008 (54-44%) and 2012 (52-46%). So they didn't both recruiting a candidate and just shrugged their shoulders and ignored the 3 progressives who jumped in, legislators Tom Fiegen, Rob Hogg and Bob Krause.
As progressive champion Alan Grayson continued to pull ahead of Republican-lite Congressman Patrick Murphy in polling for the Florida Senate primary, Obama weighed in with an endorsement. He's certainly entitled to his opinion, parroting the exact Chuck Schumer talking points he hands out to all the stooges he gets to endorse his corrupt conservative little Schumercrat: "a tireless champion for middle-class families," a sad joke on the American people.
If yesterday's results are indicative of what it expect in November, it looks like Americans will be, once again, asked to choose between 2 really awful nominees... another less-of-two-evils election that is sure to turn off millions of Americans and hold down voter turnout. Who the hell-- other than what Trumpf calls his beloved "poorly educated"-- voters wants to be culpable for the kind of endemic corruption that would be at the heart of either a Trumpf or a Clinton Administration? Is he so much more than she is? Sure. She's the lesser of two evils, evil, but the lesser evil.
The Republicans gave their base a little smooch Friday by passing Bob Wittman's H.R, 2406, the Sportsmen’s Heritage and Recreation Enhancement (SHARE) Act. The first thing I noticed about the bill is that it passed 242-161 with all but 4 Republicans backing it and all the Democrats except 12, mostly Blue Dogs and New Dems, voting NO.
