The Nation is reporting today on the “Ideas Conference” held Tuesday by the Center for American Progress (CAP) at The Four Seasons, invite only, and $1000 a head to attend the Progressive Party afterwards. CAP’s president is Neera Tanden, a very close Hillary Clinton ally and no fan of Sanders.
The press materials for the conference proclaimed it would “bring together national leaders of the progressive cause,”
Yet, no Bernie Sanders, a founder of the Progressive Caucus and most popular politician in America? There was Elizabeth Sanders, Keith Ellison, Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, Kirsten Gillibrand, Jeff Merkley, Susan Rice, Tom Daschle — all of them apparently putting forward genuine progressive policies. According to Neera Tanden these are the new generation.
The audience was primarily donors to the think tank, as well as CAP’s professional allies across DC and representatives of some grassroots organizing groups, including Wall of Us, Town Hall Project, Action Group Network, Men for Choice, New Leaders Council, Action Alliance, Rise Stronger, Run for Something, 5Calls.org, Democracy Labs, and Flippable.*
And Kos was there to do his new sad schtick,
Daily Kos founder and self-appointed “granddaddy of the resistance” Markos Moulitsas drove the point home when he huffed during a panel about “that grassroots Bernie thing” and how it was a detriment to the party.
What a joke. Dems have learned not a thing. The guy who wrote a book about crashing the gates to the tired, dim establishment is now huffing about “that grassroots Bernie thing”.
The Dem professional “Left” does not want to rock their gravy train with those grassroots rabble rousers who might make the Party really focus on bucking their corporate and elite ties that hamstring their “Ideas”. Yet this “brain bank” of the Professional Democrats somehow thinks that repeating the same ways that have left them in elected office wasteland will restore them to the pinnacle that they think they are so deserving.
Update:
The Nation has corrected their story :
*A prior version of this article quoted Markos Moulitsas referencing “that grassroots Bernie thing.” Other news outlets reported this quote as well, but it appears Moulitsas said “grassroots burning thing.” We have removed the reference and regret the error.
My sincere apologies to Markos for attributing this quote to him when he did not say that. On my end, it was easy to believe he had said the Sanders slight at CAP given his well known history of doing this at DailyKos. I believe that by his words and actions, Markos has been a major actor in fanning the flames of division at least at this site.
I still believe it was incredibly tone deaf to have a progressive meeting at The Four Seasons with a $1000/plate social function.
Amongst the future of the party — 18 to 30 yo’s —Sanders was clearly the favorite in the primaries. Maybe the Party should pay attention to his message that attracted this demographic as they are the future.
As I said in the comments below, I want Democrats to win. I don’t like living under GOP rule (live in NC). I think Democrats have to change to win and I am very concerned they have not learned the necessary lessons to win a majority. Just blaming the grassroots, or Sanders or the Russians doesn’t cut it. Hopefully the Trump Admin trainwreck will help gain seats in 2018. But we need more than a horrid GOP to run on.