Harm reduction has been given short shrift in a Democratic primary dominated by calls for transformative change. This administration is caging children, turning away refugees, bringing us to the brink of war, giving cover to white nationalism, and ignoring a planetary crisis. It is doing so while brazenly defying the law and lying about everything. Meanwhile, his potential opponents are too busy attacking one another over ideas that will never become laws to effectively attack this administration. I’m over the Democratic primary. Any one of them will do. It’s time to take the fight to Trump.
Please share widely!
Great minds think alike — I’m on the same page.
In retrospect, I actually got there about halfway through the last debate. I turned it off because I’m just weary of the same old same-old.
I confess to being surprised and bit underwhelmed by this week’s endorsement of both Ms. Warren and Ms. Klobuchar by the New York Times. I think their decision to avoid making a choice validates your thread-starter.
It is indeed time to take the fight to Mr. Trump.
We could start by having the Sergeant At Arms of the House start arresting administration officials who ignore perfectly valid congressional subpoenas. Perhaps allow them to avoid incarceration by paying something like $50,000/day for each day they refuse to comply.
Since William Barr is plainly a co-conspirator, it is useless to expect the DoJ to do anything whatsoever. If a House subpoena is unenforceable, what power does the House actually HAVE?
I’m with you that their endorsement process was flawed , but I actually appreciated their final decision for a few reasons. I think the Times is correct that Klobuchar and Warren are the smartest candidates in their given lanes with the best record of advocating for change. Amy speaking softly while Warren carries the big stick sounds like a pretty effective administration to me.
It also serves as an implicit endorsement of ranked choice voting, which is the single best reform the DNC can adopt for the next primary to keep the debates substantive and the disagreements civil. Only in a plurality race will candidates go to the lengths these ones have to create artificial divisions (Sanders attacking Biden or even Warren as insufficiently progressive; Warren going after Bernie over a secret dinner conversation, etc.) to gain fractions of a point over the other. It was also a nice reminder that the two credible women left in the race should be taken seriously as electable choices.
When I saw the endorsement I wondered whether NYT was trying to put together a ticket.
Feel this. I do think differences matter … but only up to a point.
Our loyalties are primarily to each other, and to the country, and to the people who need social democracy, justice, and a little mercy. Not a candidate. The candidate is the medium by which that happens, not a savior or celebrity-in-chief.
Are you watching the same race I am? There have been a few thrown elbows, but this has been pretty tame.
Maybe not? You run in party circles where rallying around the nominee is not only a given, but a requirement. I run with more activist and campaign oriented circles. A lot of the younger MTA and BTU members I’ve doorknocked with have been Bernie or Bust since the get go, more so after Warren’s recent “betrayal”.
I know a few folks in the Warren campaign HQ, even someone who was with Bernie in 2016, who can’t stand Bernie now. Perhaps both are in their own bubbles and are reacting in the heat of the moment? I know I was like that on and off this site as an Obama worker in 2008, but it seems very counter productive this cycle.
The anti-Biden and anti-Pete vitriol on the left has become downright toxic lately. I think there’s a strong case to be made against them in the primary, but to argue they are equivalent to Trump or the GOP is a fallacy. Both are to the left of the 2008 field, even to the left of Kucinich. Warren’s low blow against Sanders gave me great pause about supporting her going forward, but his campaigns dishonest attacks on Biden aren’t winning me over either. I also can’t help but notice it’s largely college educated whites arguing amongst themselves while working people and people of color seem to be rallying around Biden and Bernie in equivalent numbers.
I interpreted your original comments to be referring to the candidates themselves rather than their supporters. Also, what low blow by Warren against Sanders are you referring to? The “worst” I can think of is her mentioning that she recalls Sanders telling her he thought a woman could not win the presidency. If that is what he said (He says he didn’t.) then I have always assumed he was playing pundit as opposed to affirmatively hoping it were true.
Seems like most of the vitriol lately has been directed at voters who are not as you would like them to be.
Primary’s not done with us, tho
It’s hard to see the forest through the trees, but the primary battle -should- be hard. Not only is it a fight for the direction of the Democratic Party, it is a warm-up for the general election.
What we, as well-informed supporters, have to do is to be able to not take anything personally. No one can afford to sit the general election out. No one can afford to hold grudges, or to be permanently offended.
I see the 2020 primary as the fight between liberals and conservatives within the Democratic Party. As in 2016, it is the fight between those who champion incremental and measured change versus those who champion larger and more radical change.
It is also in my opinion, the fight between “democrats” and “republicans” (notice I used lower-case) in the Democratic Party.
When you strip away all the ideological baggage away from the words democrat and republican, you are left with their original intent. Original democrats favored the people making the decisions. Original Republicans favored the well-informed making the decisions. The rabble vs. the elite.
The 2016 election was mostly a rabble election, because the rabble believe (with good reason) that the entire USA game is rigged against them. Democrats did not recognize that, and lost the electoral college.