New Dems

The New Dems-- even worse than the old DemsMost leadership battles are playing out in Congress outside of the purview of regular Americans. A couple weeks ago, we mentioned that the Republican wing of the Democratic Party-- the New Dems-- was in the process of electing new officers.

What we usually refer to as the New Dems, the New Democrat Coalition, is, even more than the Blue Dogs, the Republican Wing of the Democratic Party. They're getting ready to elect their next leader and the mailer below is from a slick 3-pager sent to newly-elected New Dems members from Jared Polis-- except he accidentally sent it to a Berniecrat who immediately forwarded it to me, along with Jared's message.

How do you know which congressional candidates-- often without records, or without easily accessible records-- you should vote for? Many people just base it on party ID. People who identify with the Democratic Party, for whatever reason, vote for Democratic candidates and people who identify with the Republican Party, vote for Republican candidates. I bet that accounts for upwards of 70% of the electorate.

Friday, I had dinner with former congressional candidate and Air America host Richard Greene, to talk strategy in congressional races beyond just candidates. Richard wants voters to focus on issues that are important to them and then vote for the candidate whose positions coincide with their own. Last week he wrote a guest post here about the concept.Like many progressives, Richard wants to see voters go beyond the personality shit-show between Clinton and Trump and vote rationally down-ballot.

Peter King has over $3 million cash on hand but racist Blue Dog Steve Israel has made sure the DCCC refuses to help DuWayne Gregory in a very winnable districtLate last week investigative journalists Lee Fang and Zaid Jilani went through a leaked DCCC memo compiled for chairman Ben Ray Luján that includes Wall Street lobbyists being reassured that Elizabeth Warren doesn't speak f

We often talk about how Congress has redefined how the Justice Department is supposed to look at bribery, specifically overlooking standard congressional behavior.

As we get closer to November, we've been spending more time warning readers about the consequences of electing Blue Dogs and New Dems-- the Republican wing of the Democratic Party-- to Congress.

The other day, we looked at a list of the sneaky conservative Democrats who applied for endorsements from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party-- the New Dems and the Blue Dogs.

When I was growing up I always thought Labor Day picnics marked the beginning of the election season. Now it seems to be the beginning of the final stretch of a campaign that's been raging for a year. We hope no Blue America members are focussing solely on the presidential race.

This morning, we quoted GOP billionaire Mike Fernandez, from his OpEd endorsing Hillary Clinton, that party loyalty should never come before cores values and principles: "No longer can we hide behind the excuse that party loyalty is paramount, and that a bad candidate of our own is always better than any candidate of theirs.