SKULL.GIF posted:

schism Schism SCHISM SCHISM

https://twitter.com/kristinapet/status/1017851528491790336

SKULL.GIF posted:

schism Schism SCHISM SCHISM

https://twitter.com/kristinapet/status/1017851528491790336

Ruzihm posted:

paywall

Ruzihm posted:

paywall

quote:

WASHINGTON—Since Hillary Clinton lost to President Donald Trump, the loudest voices in the Democratic Party have been jockeying to see who can tout the most liberal policies. Sen. Chris Coons is over it.

The Delaware Democrat this week launched a one-man campaign imploring his party to exchange “pie-in-the-sky” promises such as abolishing the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, or ICE, for pragmatic policies. Without naming names, the subject of his ire was clear: Democratic colleagues aiming to win favor from the party’s liberal base as they test out 2020 presidential bids.

“Some members of our party, I fear, are instead taking the easy road, and proposing ideas that might sound great in a tweet, like free college, and free health care,” Mr. Coons said in a speech to New Democracy, a centrist Democratic group.

“If the next two years is just a race to offer increasingly unrealistic proposals, to rally just those who are already with us, our strongest supporters, it’ll be difficult for us to make a credible case we should be allowed to govern again,” he warned.

Mr. Coons’s chiding comes as a crush of Senate Democrats are laying groundwork for presidential runs in 2020, with several vying to harness the progressive populist energy that nearly propelled Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, an Independent, to the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination in 2016.

The Democrats’ intraparty fight over how robust their progressive agenda should be began during the 2016 primary contest, and has only accelerated since then, prompting a broader party shift to the left.

Mr. Coons’s comments follow the upset win by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a 28-year-old former Sanders campaign organizer, over House Democratic Caucus Chairman Joe Crowley in a New York primary on a platform that included abolishing ICE—a proposal sparked by the Trump administration’s policy of separating young children from their families at the border.

Mr. Crowley’s loss spooked Washington Democrats who were already uneasy with their party’s restive base. Since Ms. Ocasio-Cortez won, Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts echoed her call for abolishing ICE and assigning its responsibilities to other federal agencies.

Liberal Democrats say the risk for Mr. Coons’s strategy is that it could demoralize the most energized segment of the party, whose votes will be particularly crucial in the midterm elections, when turnout is generally lower.

Yet centrist Democrats have demonstrated general election success in the Trump era. In March, Pennsylvania Rep. Conor Lamb won a special election upset in a district Mr. Trump carried by 20 points. And last November in Virginia, Gov. Ralph Northam cruised to victory after dispatching the Sanders-endorsed former Rep. Tom Perriello in the Democratic primary.

“The Democratic tent better be really big and there better not be litmus tests or we’ll never defeat Trump and regain congressional majorities,” said Matt Bennett, a co-founder and senior vice president at Third Way, a centrist Democratic think tank.

Mr. Coons’s sharply worded critique of the party’s left wing was unusual because while many congressional Democrats privately agree with him, few are willing to say so publicly.

California Sen. Kamala Harris, a possible 2020 presidential candidate from the party’s liberal wing, hasn’t endorsed abolishing ICE but backs fully re-evaluating the immigration agency. She said she “wouldn’t suppress” any of the debate about abolishing ICE.

“Those concerns should be heard and they need to be addressed,” she said.

Wisconsin Rep. Mark Pocan, who introduced legislation Thursday to terminate ICE and establish a commission to implement a more humane immigration enforcement system, said liberal policies reflect what he is hearing from his constituents.

“People out in the country, not inside the Beltway, understand there’s a problem with the way the agency’s operating,” he said.

Republicans, who failed last month to pass immigration legislation despite weeks of negotiations, are thrilled to have a Democratic-instigated debate about abolishing ICE.

“It’s the craziest position I’ve ever seen,” House Speaker Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) told reporters Thursday. “They’re tripping over themselves to move too far to the left. They’re out of the mainstream of America. And that’s one of the reasons why I feel very good about this fall.”

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) said Thursday he planned to bring Mr. Pocan’s bill to abolish ICE to the House floor for a vote before the August recess.

But Mr. Pocan and two other Democratic co-sponsors accused Republicans of a political stunt to embarrass them and said they would welcome a debate on immigration policy but planned to vote against their own bill.

On Thursday night the Hispanic Caucus voted to oppose the bill and all House Democrats are expected to vote against it, a Democratic leadership aide said Friday.

“If it’s slogan and messaging, I understand it,” Rep. Raul Grijalva (D., Ariz.) said Friday, but he said the bill didn’t do enough to spell out how ICE would be rebuilt. “The message should have had better content.”

Mr. Coons’ message could have ramifications in his home state, where Ms. Ocasio-Cortez has jumped into Delaware’s Democratic primary between Sen. Tom Carper and challenger Kerri Evelyn Harris.

Ms. Ocasio-Cortez this week dispatched campaign staffers to Delaware to help Ms. Harris, who like Ms. Ocasio-Cortez is an ill-funded insurgent arguing the Democratic incumbent is insufficiently progressive.

Mr. Coons said in an interview he is confident Mr. Carper will prevail.

comedyblissoption posted:

https://twitter.com/gabrielmalor/status/1017825729000636416

unbutthurtable posted:

I HEREBY UNLIKE YOU

papa horny michael posted:

Is the investigation going after individual workers at those bot farms, or only, like, the wealthy owners?

papa horny michael posted:

Is the investigation going after individual workers at those bot farms, or only, like, the wealthy owners?

SKULL.GIF posted:

the 12 russians who were indicted today were all GRU officers I think

including guccifer

Shear Modulus posted:

it extremely owns that russians and republicans are literally stealing campaign analytics data and elections but neera and the other dems are spending their time yelling at journalists for reporting on lovely things they said that make them look like assholes instead

1000 times more concerned about their personal brands than the country or their party

Condiv posted:

Uncle Wemus posted:

Do you have that life in hell one where it's like "all the snotty tattletales of our childhood grew up to be right wingers"

Condiv posted:

D.Ork Bimboolean posted:

Is this loss?

Asking for a friend.

galenanorth posted:

I had been thinking "Ban Congress from using the stock market" but they could always get around it by having a family member being the one investing

an actual dog posted:

gently caress you, you piece of poo poo

the bitcoin of weed posted:

mine is having a maximum wealth for eligibility for public office, easier to enforce remaining alive

SKULL.GIF posted:

lmao that hillary's emails actually were a national security issue and probably cost the election

https://twitter.com/emptywheel/status/1017826412672311296

ikanreed posted:

the bitcoin of weed posted:

mine is having a maximum wealth for eligibility for public office, easier to enforce

the bitcoin of weed posted:

mine is having a maximum wealth for eligibility for public office, easier to enforce

etalian posted:

They went in and set MidwestCampaign=FALSE

docbeard posted:

"This artificial intelligence called ADA is planning everything for the campaign, it will be perfectly flawlessly executed."

"Is there a reason it's humming the Russian national anthem?"

"Eh, it's probably fine."

galenanorth posted:

Thank you for this idea. If they say it's unreasonable and discriminatory to ban a subset of the population from political office, I'd reply back by pointing out our minimum age requirements of 25 and 30 for the offices of Representative and Senator.

WampaLord posted:

Also you could easily meet it by donating any excess wealth until you were under the limit.

Condiv posted:

unbutthurtable posted:

It would be donated to Switzerland or the Cayman Islands lol

papa horny michael posted:

A trust held by my immediate relatives.

SKULL.GIF posted:

schism Schism SCHISM SCHISM

https://twitter.com/kristinapet/status/1017851528491790336

WampaLord posted:

Look we're talking about pie in the sky ideas here anyway, no need to bring reality into this.

It's not like like campaign finance reform is ever going to happen in a post-Citizens United world anyway

Feldegast42 posted:

Yeah she smells the way things are going and is trying to buy more time to fight off the coup