John Nichols at
The Nation explains how
Elizabeth Warren Steps Up for Populist Politics:
Democratic insiders have been slow to embrace the populist campaign of South Dakota Senate candidate Rick Weiland. As we noted this week on TheNation.com Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, has dismissed the Democratic candidate for South Dakota's open US Senate seat as "not my choice." Washington observers point out that "the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee routinely leaves off its competitive list, the seat of retiring Sen. Tim Johnson, D-SD." And there will not be a lot of corporate cash flowing to Weiland, who says his first act as a senator will be to propose a constitutional amendment declaring “that the votes of all, rather than the wealth of a few, shall direct the course of the Republic, Congress shall have the power to limit the raising and spending of money with respect to federal elections.”
But Weiland, a veteran congressional aide and advocate who formerly headed the South Dakota branch of the American Association of Retired People, has mounted a high-energy campaign that has already seen the candidate visit more than 300 of the state's 311 towns with an old-school populist message. “I was born here. I grew up on this land. It was ours because our democracy kept it that way," he says. "Today our democracy is being bought by big money and turned against us. To feed their profits we lose our jobs, our homes and our farms, our kids’ education, even our health, and the Congress they have bought looks the other way, or worse."
Democrats who "get" that their party must embrace a people-centered grassroots politics if it is to be viable in 2014 and beyond are starting to take notice.
US Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, has given Weiland a strong endorsement—hailing him as a "smart, experienced, bold progressive." She's urging support for his campaign today as part of a national appeal circulated by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, with which the senator has worked closely. "Rick led South Dakota’s AARP and federal emergency management in his state, and he worked as a top Senate aide," says Warren, whose own populist campaign of 2012 dislodged Republican Senator Scott Brown. "He is campaigning actively on campaign finance reform and taking back government for hard-working everyday people." [...]
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Blast from the Past. At Daily Kos on this date in 2005—Dog whistle politics:
Over the past few weeks, a new expression has entered the Westminster lexicon: dog-whistle politics. It means putting out a message that, like a high-pitched dog-whistle, is only fully audible to those at whom it is directly aimed. The intention is to make potential supporters sit up and take notice while avoiding offending those to whom the message will not appeal.
We saw the Republicans employ that in 2004 to some degree. For example, Bush's puzzling debate diss of the Dred Scott decision left the vast majority of people scratching their heads, but the anti-abortion movement knew exactly what he was saying. It's Religious Right code for attacking Roe v. Wade.
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Tweet of the Day:
On
today's Kagro in the Morning show, today's morning Twitter buzz: Colbert; Cheney joins the parade of self-exoneration, House intel chair Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) retires. Also out of MI, a story of corruption charges by Dems against Gov. Rick Snyder (R). But first: a five-alarm chit-chat alert, including basketball, the Mason-Dixon line & Dolly Parton. More on "Chesapeake Energy's $5 Billion Shuffle," the amazing story of how to make money out of thin air when the system happens to set up just right for you to steal it! And if owning the government & the courts doesn't do the trick, what about buying the news, as one source says Chevron did in Richmond, CA?
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