Writes John Nichols in "What the Next DNC Chair Must Do to Save the Party/Yes, pushing back against Donald Trump is essential. But to do that, the Democrats must turn themselves into a fighting force for economic justice" (The Nation).
The Dems need to be something substantial, not just opposition to Trump, and yet I think that Trump won by opposing the things the Democrats had been doing while he was taking a term off and regenerating. Is Nichols urging Democrats to go back to those substantive positions? Actually, no. He wants someone like Harris — Fred Harris — and "Harris wanted to identify the Democrats as the vehicle for raising people of all races out of poverty and to make the party the political wing of the working class." People of all races.The vote is today, and, as WaPo puts it, "The top two candidates in Saturday’s election are Ken Martin, the head of Minnesota Democrats, and Ben Wikler, the chairman of Wisconsin Democrats": "Ken Martin... is the front-runner entering the vote.... On Friday, Martin surpassed 200 public endorsements from the nearly 450 DNC members who will decide the race, closing in on the majority needed to prevail outright against his seven competitors. 'We are on a path to win tomorrow,' Martin said Friday at a news conference where he accepted the endorsement of a bloc of 20 DNC members representing U.S. territories. He added that he was 'working hard to make sure we don’t go to a second ballot.'"Wikler has endorsements from Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. I wonder if that's what Nichols meant by "a mere fund-raising complement to the party’s plodding congressional leadership." As for me, I'm rooting for Wikler because I knew him when he was a teenager and because, come on, Wisconsin over Minnesota.
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Not happening. The Dems are married to identity politics. And as Trump grows the economy, reduces inflation, cuts the federal budget, increases energy production and terminates the Green New Deal and DEI, the average voter will realize that the Dems have a failed ideology.
Minnesota is a failed state. Why elect that loser from MN. Did the Dems forget about the Floyd riots?
Sounds to me like they want more of the same and just pretend it’s something new and different.
Translation: Democrats are heading to 40 years in the wilderness.
We've seen the best they had to offer with Obama, and then we saw Joe Biden.
Lipstick on a pig. Nothing they propose is different from what they have been doing for decades. Color, race, gender(all 73+++) and Gramsci world view won't change.
They are using different words to describe the same old BS.
Either candidate is simply a party apparatchik who will promote the same old tired party line.
No one in the Dem party has ever read Orwell, or a history book.
The Dems need to put on a good drunk and hibernate for a decade or so.
I think I approve of either of them…
"When he was DNC chair and later as a presidential candidate, Fred Harris sought to create a Democratic Party that was recognized for its opposition to privilege. 'The fundamental problem is that too few people have all the money and power, and everybody else has too little of either,' he argued."
They're not opposed to privilege, or wealth, as witness Nancy Peloai, Elizabeth Warren, and even (yeah, I know) Bernie Sanders. Influential Democrats have, in aggregate, huge amounts of wealth and power, and their policies have magnified the regulatory state apparatus beyond anything rank and file Democrats would have imagined
Corporate greed and power pale in comparison to State greed and power, against which there is no higher authority for appeal.
Article: “His tenure in the late 1960s and early 1970s.”
Isnt that when they lost to Nixon twice, had to resort to an FBI coup to get Nixon out, and still could only win with a guy completely outside the DNC mainstream - and then only once?
JSM
The Dems need Paul Bunyan and His Axe
So from one Harris to another (Kamala to Fred).
"Ken Martin... is the front-runner entering the vote.... On Friday, Martin surpassed 200 public endorsements from the nearly 450 DNC members who will decide the race, closing in on the majority needed to prevail outright against his seven competitors. 'We are on a path to win tomorrow,' Martin said Friday at a news conference where he accepted the endorsement of a bloc of 20 DNC members representing U.S. territories. He added that he was 'working hard to make sure we don’t go to a second ballot.'"
And they call themselves "Democrats." More apt would be "Deciders "
It would be pretty amusing if the party that has embodied privilege for the past two decades elected as their leader someone who pledged to combat it…
Moving to MN in 1987, we stopped at LaCrosse. Sen. Proxmire was working a little bar in a shopping plaza, shaking hands. He expressed disappointment at anyone who wasn't from WI. Oh, a Hawkeye, a Gopher. I counted as a Gopher.
Over six years I scratched the surface of Big Ten sports. A promising quarterback graduated from high school in MN, then opted to play for WI. Treason. His reason? His girlfriend was enrolling at Wisconsin.
... and replace it with an absolute commitment to economic and social and racial justice that gives frustrated Americans something to vote for.
Have any of them considered that that's not what frustrates the majority of American voters?
These all seem like considerations for the candidate, not the party chair.
Hey - Dems - start with a Soros family shake-down. LOL.
It's surprisingly difficult to find out when the vote will begin.
Yep. That's it Democrats! Do the same thing you've been doing just with more cowbell! Oh, and appoint David Hogg as DNC vice-chair. Former Democrat voters will then be returning to the party in droves! GOP voters will quit their party en masse!
I fully endorse this strategy!
Sounds like the same failed socialist ideas in a new package. Instead of pushing for “economic justice” featuring government bureaucrats running the economy (into the ground), how about focusing on economic growth? That radical conservative JFL noted that a “rising tide lifts all boats.” Instead of government doing better at everyone else’s expense, why not getting out of the way and letting people prosper? The answer is simple - Democrats want the government to control the economy and themselves to control the government.
There is no such thing as a grassroots Democratic organization. You can tell that by the names they choose.
America's principal mottos are "E Pluribus Unum" (out of many, one) and "In God We Trust". And the Democrats not just don't support them, they directly oppose both of them. The country has caught on to that and there is nothing the Democrats can do, no slogans they can come up with, to rid normal Americans from their revealed true beliefs and principles.
I hope Ben wins, just because of the connection to the hostess. The chatter I heard favored the MN guy, but Ben seems more impressive, IMO.
I don't think I will get what I want, and that is a party mostly conservative on cultural/social matters, but one that is willing to cut gov spending and raise taxes to balance the budget. Oh well.
They need to create and sell an ideological product that simultaneously has intense moral urgency and extremely broad appeal. That's impossible, absent mass hysteria. Uh-oh. Here comes mass hysteria.
Wasn’t Fred Harris like half a Commie? Or am I confusing him with someone else?
The best Fred Harris story is his rumination on why he came in 4th in the 1976 New Hampshire primary, after running a strongly populist campaign: "I campaigned for the little people . . . and I guess they just weren't tall enough to reach the voting levers." I believe he also, perhaps apocryphally, called for stools to be placed in all voting booths.
I had a peculiar memory lapse just now. For the life of me, I couldn't remember the last name of Kamala Harris' running mate.
I could only come up with "Tim" and "Governor of Minnesota." I even thought of Tim Kaine before I finally remembered "Walz".
If Tim Kaine is closer to the top of your mind than the sitting Minnesota governor who was your party's last VP candidate, perhaps Minnesota isn't the most compelling model to follow.
We need to set goals for federal budget deficit in 2025,2026,2027,2028. Withhout goals and accountability, balanced budget will never happen.
"...and replace it with an absolute commitment to economic and social and racial justice ...."
There's that word again, they keep using it. I do not think it means what they seem to think it means, and neither does the prevailing sentiment.
'The widespread diffusion of economic and political power ought to be the express goal—the stated goal—of government.'
No matter what the problem is, the solution is always MORE SOCIALISM.
The Dems throw the term "justice" around, but never really define exactly who has been wronged and by whom, and who should pay. I doubt their answer would be attractive to most voters.
Wikler is supported by the old guard? yick.
Per Wiki: "Harris remained active well into his final years. In a 2023 interview, he expressed support for President Joe Biden, saying concerns about Biden's age were unfounded..."
It's time to put women back in charge again, is the message.
They think a commitment to "social justice" is the ticket to electoral success? Ha.
I live in Minnesota and I hope Ken Martin wins, because he won't have any idea how to deal with a media landscape that allows dissent from his smelly orthodoxies. He's never had to win over the local media, because they are eternally in the DFL's pocket. He'll perform as well on the national stage as Tim "Knucklehead" Walz did.
Sounds that way to me, too. They’re completely invested in the grift. What they’re really looking for is an animatronic Fred Harris. For the bullshit butter on the voracious corruption.
Which one of these candidates vocally opposed the Hitler name calling strategy? That will be the best candidate.
What’s impressive about either one?
from wiki:
"his campaigns were populist and centered on what he called "economic democracy". He also supported abortion rights, desegregation busing, and disbanding the Central Intelligence Agency."
and, again, from wiki:
"Economic democracy is a socioeconomic philosophy that proposes to shift ownership and decision-making power from corporate shareholders to a larger group of public stakeholders that includes workers, consumers, suppliers, communities and the broader public."
so; half a Commie? i don't know; but a COMPLETE Socialist
"That's it Democrats! Do the same thing you've been doing just with more cowbell!"
Beat me to it.
Wanted: Better puppet who can learn the lines, and seem more authentic to the struggle.
Sounds like Martin is the Tim Walz of DNC chairs. Of course, so does Wikkler. Based on performance, I would hope for Wikler- he managed to lose his state to Trump.
yep! the GLORIOUS early '70s! Those were the days!
Do you Remember?
in '72 the Dems were SO DOMINANT that they WON Massachusetts by nearly a 120 THOUSAND votes!!!
"sweep the pablum of past messaging aside.... and replace it with an absolute commitment to economic and social and racial justice that gives frustrated Americans something to vote for.
He says they need to sweep the pablum of past messaging aside and then immediately repeats the past pablum.
Race or class: the Dems can’t have it both ways. Are they really going to choose a white guy living in an Oklahoma trailer park over JayZ and Beyoncé?
This is exactly what the DNC decided to do in 1996. In fact, I have little doubt John Nichols wrote precisely the same article about it for The Nation at the time.
Then the army of donors funding the professional activists who actually ran the DNC back then went back to doing precisely the same divisive identity politics.
Now that Wall Street openly runs the DNC, rather than using NGOs as their proxies ... well, I predict nothing will really change, again.
I waited all through all 5 months of Kamala Harris's campaign for Fred Harris's name to come up, but no dice. And now, he finally pops back into view. His wild Commanche wife LaDonna ran for VP with Barry Commoner and is still with us. Johnny Depp is her "adopted son," but she wasn't able to straighten the boy out, since he was already almost 50 when she welcomed him into her home.
This is a very cynical age when people don't believe all the political "pablum." Talk about "social justice" is very much a part of the "pablum" people don't believe. FDR and LBJ were exceptions, even aberrations, in American politics. Democrats will come back into power eventually, but they're most likely to do so as a managerial, "neoliberal," Jimmy Carterist or Bill Clintonist party. Trying to force New Deal II or Great Society II isn't going to work unless the country is hit with some crisis much worse than 2008 or 2020. None of that is going to convince the Nation though.
(Well we’re going down) Going down a hard road
(Just don't know) Don't know where we’ve been
(But we do a lotta talkin’) we’re-a-talking 'round in circles
Can't even see ‘round teh bend
Race hustlers stand around us
We’re lost and all alone
Can't tell the bad from the good
We’re out in the woods
We’re lost in the woods
Interesting phrase - "economic and social and racial justice." What does it mean? Does "economic justice" appear in any of our charter documents - the Constitution and Amendments?
"As for me, I'm rooting for Wikler because I knew him when he was a teenager ...".
You really are a fundamentally unserious person. You would like to think that people are all fundamentally decent, once you just get to know them. The evidence is thick on the ground that this is far from true, but you would like to believe it. So you do.
Dear DNC, shove your economic, social and racial justice where the sun does not shine. Stop pitting one group against the other to keep all in a rage against the other and try working for equality. Remember, justice is just the exercise of existing law tempered with mercy. At least that is how my professor in my Military Justice class in college defined it. If you do not like the existing law, work to repeal it and pass a better one.
Ben is probably at an age when you can't just pat him on the head and ask him to behave himself. Talking to his mom most likely won't work either.
Precisely.
They must do something different.
But the different thing they must do is what President Trump is already doing.
So the question they must ask themselves is:
Do our “values” take priority in which case we’re willing to be out of power.
Or is being in power the thing we treasure most?
In which case we have to change our values. And that means not just pretending to change values. Voters know the difference.
I'd like to hear from the resident Leftists here about the proposed strategy of doubling down on these bromides and thinking that's going to be an easy sell to the American public.
Tangentially, the football game program must be before 1934. It wasn't until then that Minnesota adopted the "Golden Gopher" moniker.
Here is a 1929 medley of the fight songs for the Big Ten as it existed then. There are numerous pics of game programs that are just great. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WlBpQWmubc
Indeed. Thursday, I was waiting for an appointment, and I overheard a very left wing resident of Charlottesville, VA (True Blue) opine on the phone that, the reason Trump won was because the US was too racist to vote for a black woman. I almost LOL'ed.
The GOP in this state voted for Winsome Sears for Lt. Governor, and, later this year, will vote for her for governor. Ms. Sears is a Marine, and a black woman.
Minnesota Democrats: the only state where the Dems are nuttier than California Democrats. Remember Minnesota put tampons in the boy’s room. Minnesota gave us Tim Walz. It gave us the $250M feed the hungry fraud. Good job Democrats. Besides that dude looks an awful lot like a white male. WTF Minnesota?
Leopard. Spots.
"economic and social and racial justice ...." Just a reminder that if you put a modifier in front, you are no longer talking about true justice.
There's criminal justice- the law. All the rest is pablum, and creating laws to try to create someone's vision of them leads to injustice.
if you put a modifier in front, you are no longer talking about true justice.
Qualified justice anywhere is injustice everywhere in a discretionary, class-selective judgment and affirmative action (e.g. nepotic justice) are toxic residuals of DEI (i.e. institutional, systemic racism, sexism, genderism, etc).
“I got it! New idea, guys! Let’s call Republicans racists!”
One of my pet peeves: misspelling pabulum.
Paul Bunyan! That makes sense, I was wondering why Stalin was riding a bull.
h/t Leon Russell
Since I was old enough to vote in presidential elections GOP has won 6 and Dems 6 if count 2000 as a tie. Dems recovered from Civil War and GOP from Great Depression. The Dems will figure out a winning formula again. I
DNC folks don't understand that white beta males from Minnesota don't sell well to voters in the other 49 states. Wow, what a strange choice this is.
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