Dave McTeague

Long before DFA, MoveOn or the nurses' national union came to their courageous decisions to support Bernie over Hillary, Blue America had made it's first-ever presidential election.

At least Trump doesn't support "saving" Social Security and Medicare by cutting the benefits, the way Paul Ryan, most Republicans and the Wall Street-owned New Dems do. Right? As with all policy matters involving Trump, who knows?

Losers, Inc-- this is what's become of the Democratic Party in DCThe DCCC suffered another stunning defeat by local Democrats Tuesday.

It became clear during the 2008 Democratic primary that Obama knew what was wrong with NAFTA and knew he could use it effectively as a weapon against his neoliberal, free-trade-supporting opponent, Hillary Clinton. Once Obama got into office he seems to have forgot his NAFTA-related trade promises-- and worse. We'll get to the TPP in a moment. Recall that on November 17, 1993-- quite late at night-- the House voted on NAFTA, the George H.W. Bush "free trade" bill that he tried to pass but couldn't. Bill Clinton assured Wall Street he would get done. And it got done.

As the Republican Party has, over the past 3 decades moved further and further right, a certain kind of conservative Democrat unenamored of a progressive world view, has moved in into to fill the void on the center-right that the GOP has abandoned for their more and more commonplace, Hate Talk Radio-driven extremism.

Tom SteyerYesterday, Greg Sargent reported on how climate change and the debate over the long-term fate of the planet might end up exerting a bit of influence over the political agenda in this election cycle.

Joe Baca was one of the worst members of Congress when he was in Congress-- a corrupt, conservative Blue Dog and NRA shill. Although he voted with the Republicans against core progressive values and principles virtually all the time, there is such an utter lack of party discipline that he was able to cross the aisle with complete impunity.

Tim Canova, the intrepid Democrat challenging entrenched incumbent Debbie Wasserman Schultz in a deep blue district in South Florida, wrote that "primary challenges like mine are often the only effective way to force accountability on entrenched incumbents. Here at home, for instance, Florida’s 23rd Congressional District is seen as a safe Democratic seat.

Kurt Schrader leads the Republican wing of the Democratic Party in the House, the much-depleted and defanged Blue Dogs. His constituents have long wanted to replace him with a real Democrat and Dave McTeague's late February decision to run has been widely hailed. The 5th district is considered a "swing district," although Obama won it against McCain 53-44% and against Romney 50-47%.

Every incumbent and candidate running for Congress pays lip service to jobs, jobs, jobs. But many of them support trade policies that send jobs, jobs, jobs to low-wage, anti-labor union hell holes abroad. Last June, fast track authority for the TPP narrowly passed in Congress, 218-209. 190 Republicans and 28 Democrats voted for it.