Pro-corporate Dems know two things - big money and bad strategy

I read this article over the weekend, and it was very hard to keep my eyeballs from sticking to the top of my sockets.

Pragmatism may be a tougher sell in the Donald Trump era, but with the 2020 presidential race just around the corner, moderate Democrats know they are running out of time to reassert themselves.

The gathering here was just that — an effort to offer an attractive alternative to the rising Sanders-style populist left in the upcoming presidential race. Where progressives see a rare opportunity to capitalize on an energized Democratic base, moderates see a better chance to win over Republicans turned off by Trump.

The fact that a billionaire real estate developer, Winston Fisher, co-hosted the event and addressed attendees twice underscored that this group is not interested in the class warfare vilifying the "millionaires and billionaires" found in Sanders' stump speech.

Gee, why would a billionaire real estate sleazeball not want to discuss why so many are struggling and lack hope in a society that gives a lot of power to the rich and corporate? Apparently a mirror wasn't a good investment for Mr. Fisher.

Look, at this point, if you recognize that Donald Trump and the complicit GOP is bad for this country, but you might not vote Democrat in November because...everyone might get health care if you paid a few more dollars in taxes? That makes you a bigger deplorable than most of the hateful trash that wear MAGA hats, and people like that aren't worth being pandered to.

Here are some of the genius ideas this crew came up with.

Some of the key initiatives are a massive apprenticeship program to train workers, a privatized employer-funded universal pension that would supplement Social Security and an overhaul of unemployment insurance to include skills training. Other proposals included a "small business bill of rights" and the creation of a "BoomerCorps" — like the volunteer AmericaCorps for seniors.

Meanwhile, they say the progressive agenda is out of date. They dismiss, for instance, a federal jobs guarantee as a rehash of the New Deal.

"Our ideas must be bold, but they must also fit the age we are in," Cowan said. "Big isn't enough. If it's bold and old — it’s simply old."

Yes, let's have an economic policy based on the goodness of corporate America and make everyone else adjust their lives and grovel to get the scraps they choose to hand out. That'll do absolutely nothing to meet the needs of single parents making poverty-level wages and having to get by on food stamps. And it'll won't do jack for skilled workers who are having a hard time affording health care and seeing their jobs threatened by the profit-hoarding tactics of outsourcing and automation.


Care to answer why this happened, guys?

Dirty secret- Rich a-hole Donald Trump won votes from many less-fortunate Americans because he ran to Hillary Clinton's left on issues such as trade, valuing manufacturing jobs, and recognizing that Obamacare wasn't the be-all, end-all solution to people's ability to afford health care. A lot of these people were willing to roll the dice with Trump, because they knew the status quo that Hillary Clinton had to offer wasn't going to get them much. And yes, these voters are conservative on cultural issues like guns or religion or racism, but they are closer to Bernie Sanders than a calculated centrist when it comes to jobs and what government should do to help people make ends meet.

Sure, Trump had no clue about how to really fix these economic issues himself, and he and the rest of the GOP have made these situations worse in the last 18 months. And that should give an opening for the Dems to win back a sizable amount of voters that they lost in 2016, as well as gain new voters who were previously politically apathetic and/or indifferent between the two parties, but are now disgusted with both Trumpism and corporatism. Instead, these Third Way types want to tamp down on people's rightful disgust and angry responses because....it takes away the power from their inner circle?

As usual, Charlie Pierce recognized this BS for what it truly is, and wrote about it for Esquire's site today.

Big. Bold. Warmed-over Clintonism with a touch of delicately spiced Kempism, a lovely little time trip back to 1990, and almost perfectly designed political chickenshit at a time of national crisis. And absolutely nothing that will do anything about massive income inequality and the concomitant control that the corporate class has assumed over every institution of government....

I realize that as long as there are wealthy people who are not the Koch Brothers, and as long as there are television green rooms and newspaper editorial boards, this kind of don’t-disturb-the-horses politics always will have a constituency. But, while it may have had a place 20 years ago, it is utterly inadequate to the political circumstances of the day. There are no small-scale solutions to the gigantic structural problems that have grown in our economics and in our politics.

And, if there are answers to these, they won’t be found in yet another paean to the imaginary heartland voters who are just dying to join the BoomerCorps.

Charlie ends his column by going back into the NBC News column from oligarch-land, and points out this absurdity from a Northeastern "Democrat"

Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., the chair of the New Democrat Coalition, said members of his side are not "naturally arbiters of emotion and anger." "How we tell our story and put forward our polices in a way that makes people want to mount the barricades is one of the biggest challenges we have," said Himes, a former Goldman Sachs banker who represents Fairfield, Connecticut. He pointed to calls to "Abolish ICE," for instance, which he characterized as emotionally understandable but politically illogical. "It hurts us in areas where we need to win," Himes warned of "Abolish ICE" in the midterms. "You have now made life harder for the 60 or 70 Democrats fighting in districts where we need to win if we ever want to be in the majority."

Yes, because when I look for Democratic solutions to the nation’s rural problems, I look for leadership to a guy from a luxurious Connecticut zip code who used to work at Goldman Sachs. Yes, it’s a big tent, but somebody has to sit in the back. It’s these people’s turn now.

Precisely. These Third Way "problem solvers" don't have a clue about how and why these small-town white people vote. I'll give them a hint- left-right ideology has little to do with it, and top vs. bottom (or perceived top vs bottom) is the bigger separator.

The idiots who hate/fear brown-skinned immigrants aren't going to vote Dem whether they call to abolish ICE or not, and Dems should make clear that their party is not the one those dipshits should look for anyway. Meanwhile, we should be drawing attention to the numerous abuses that ICE is doing as the foot-soldiers for this outlaw Administration, and say "America is not about putting 2-year-olds in cages and making them testify in immigration court."

Speak to VALUES. Say "we're better than this" and speak out against corruption and corporatism. It will ring true, and gain more votes than it loses, especially from the "Independents" that we are told are the key to any election.

There must be something about the Coasts that make these types sound this foolish. Maybe because these ex-GOP suburbs are some of the few places in America where people are comfortable enough that they can afford to balance their interests between some more bucks in their pocketbook or their belief in science and a decent society.

But that's sure not true for much of the rest of us - we're just trying to pay our bills and hang on to what's left of democracy in light of the mess that the GOP is making of our state and our country. And that's why these Coastal Third Way types need to be kicked to the curb (or at least out of the decision-room) for a long time if Dems actually want to get back in power in most parts of America.

We are in a time to grab people in the gut, and validate to them that this shit is unacceptable. And it's not going to be fixed by playing nice with the bad guys and trimming a few things around the edges, while letting the unacceptable shit continue to rot our state and our country away.