Democrats' next political move

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Wednesday November 07, 2018 · 4:29 PM PST

2018/11/07 · 16:29

In addition to their legislative agenda in the House, and in the states, the one thing Democrats nationwide should do politically is to take on partisan gerrymandering and the Republicans’ efforts at voter suppression. While we may never know for sure, there were so many signs of Republicans trying to prevent likely Democratic voters from being able to cast their ballot in states like Georgia especially and elsewhere. Also, Democrats might have won more seats if district boundaries were drawn on nonpartisan bases. One thing Americans supposedly believe in is fairness, and the country might respond well to an honorable, public, and open effort to replace all of this partisan mess with right to vote legislation as well as nationwide nonpartisan redistricting.

Along with pushing for the National Popular Vote Compact, this could help the entire country in 2020 by ensuring that the vote is fair and equal for everyone.

Republicans who really want to stop Trump have one choice--become Democrats

tomfodw

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Monday June 18, 2018 · 9:28 AM PDT

2018/06/18 · 09:28

Susan Collins (R-ME) wants to retire a Republican. She says she wants Trump to stop separating families.

She can achieve only one of those wishes.

She can be a Republican, or she can try to stop Trump. She can’t do both. She has no influence in the Senate as an anti-Trump Republican. She has no influence in the Republican Party. She is irrelevant.

Worse than that, she is an obstruction. An extra Democrat in the Senate would have a genuine chance of helping stop Trump.

Is Collins sincere about wanting to stop Trump? Or is she just pretending, seeking publicity as someone who appears to want to stop him?

If she’s sincere, then she should become a Democrat. Or at least join Angus King (Ind-ME) as an independent who caucuses with the Democrats. Same for Flake and Corker. They’re all retiring, they’re all getting nothing from Mitch McConnell (the tax cuts they lusted for have already passed), they could genuinely serve their country by crossing the aisle.

It’s the only thing they can do to stop Trump. Nothing else they can do will make any difference.

Are they sincere, or only posing?

A modest question: What happens if Trump resigns?

tomfodw

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Friday December 15, 2017 · 4:59 AM PST

2017/12/15 · 04:59

I’ve been listening to Kagro in the Morning, David Waldman talking with Greg Dworkin, about how 2018 is looking to be a Democratic “wave election” because more and more voters are becoming fed up with Donald Trump and blaming the Republicans for standing with him. That seems evident to me, but I hope the Democratic candidates and strategists don’t rely only on that to drive their voters to the polls next November 6.

Because — what if Donald Trump isn’t there? What if he is forced to resign (or even, as unlikely as that seems, is impeached and convicted)? Neither will probably happen, but either could (especially resignation), and counting on his remaining in office to do their work for them is a risky strategy that probably won’t but possibly could backfire on them.

Democratic candidates need a positive message in addition to stoking anti-Trump (and therefore anti-Republican) anger. They have lots of issues and messages to choose from, and even if Trump doesn’t go anywhere, the more arrows they have in their quivers, the better.

And they really need to start preparing, NOW, for that just in case. Because November 6 is more than eleven months away, and as the cliche has it (with good reason) that’s a LONG time in politics.

Trump resigning could be the best thing for Republicans next November. It probably won’t happen, but Democrats should plan for the election as if he’s not going to be a factor. It will help them, regardless of what Trump does.

If Republicans really want to stop Roy Moore, here's how. (Note, I did say "if" and "really".)

tomfodw

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Sunday November 12, 2017 · 7:46 AM PST

2017/11/12 · 07:46

Republicans trying to undo democratically arrived at results they don't like or find inconvenient? (“Republicans Try to Block Moore’s Path as Candidate Denies Sexual Misconduct.”www.nytimes.com/...) Say it ain't so!

Seriously, if the Republicans are SINCERE about not wanting Roy Moore to win (and note, I said "if"), here's how they can do it:

Endorse and campaign for Doug Jones.

Period. Done.

Make it clear at every possible opportunity and in every possible venue that everyone in Alabama should vote for Doug Jones. Express their own intentions to vote for him. Denounce Moore and say that, this once, just this once, Alabama Republicans should join Alabama Democrats and Alabama Independents in rejecting the shopworn bigotry and religious intolerance and the newly revealed sexual perversion of Roy Moore. Say that this once, just this once, patriotism and civic duty require putting party aside and voting for the much better, infinitely better man, even though he's running as a Democrat.

But we know that's not going to happen. Nobody in the article cited above mentioned doing so as even a hypothetical possibility. Rather, they talked about write-ins and jiggering with the results of the primary and Alabama law by delaying the election to give them more time to get Moore off the ballot. Transparent chicanery, if that's not an oxymoron.

So we know that they don't really want Moore to lose, they just want to be spared the embarrassment of this horrible man tarring all Republicans by association. But they don't the courage and decency to take the only step that might guarantee that option in an honorable way. So screw them. I almost hope Moore wins just to see what those fucking Republican shitbags do with him in their midst.

Naaah. Everyone down there, do the only right thing and vote for Doug Jones. If you know anyone in Alabama, please urge them to vote for Doug Jones. If you don't, please consider contributing to Jones's campaign. Thanks.

The Trump Colossus

tomfodw

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Thursday January 12, 2017 · 12:01 PM PST

2017/01/12 · 12:01

The Trump Colossus

Just like the Taj Mahal of Jersey fame

With glaring lights astride from shore to land

Here at my Tower eyrie do I stand

A mighty Trumpire that I give my name

To celebrate The Donald’s lack of shame

But more than that have I the future planned

To use the presidency to spread my brand

And focus far away the blameless blame

“Keep, Muslim lands, your terrorists,” cries I

With shouting lips. “Give me your wealthy, your white,

Your pussy that attracts my roving eye

The rest of you – get ’em out of here, tonight

Send these, the taco eaters, home to fry

I build my Wall beside the exit light

How stupid do the Republicans think we are? (Pennsylvania edition)

tomfodw

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Thursday December 19, 2013 · 7:32 AM PST

2013/12/19 · 07:32

I wrote Sen. Pat Toomey (R -- duh) to protest the way he keeps soliciting only negative stories about Obamacare as if nobody in Pennsylvania has actually been helped by it. I got a reply back from him (okay, from his office; same difference) that not only repeats his mendacious requests for negative stories only but adds a new lie: "To make matters worse, the newly uninsured - including many Pennsylvanians - are not able to obtain new coverage online because the ObamaCare website is not functioning properly."

tomfodw

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Friday October 25, 2013 · 11:25 AM PDT

2013/10/25 · 11:25

I live in Pennsylvania, so unfortunately one of my senators is Pat Toomey. Today I got an email from him requesting, "If you have lost your health care coverage, or have seen your rates rise because of the president's health care law, I encourage you to share your story with me." Not a mention of wanting to hear from people who have been helped by the Affordable Care Act, of course. Not even a hint that there could possibly be anyone actually helped by it as opposed to being harmed by it.

I can't believe how angry this makes me, this active rooting for the ACA to fail. But while I'm enraged by Toomey (and I wrote back to tell him), I'm sadly not at all surprised. I do wonder, however, if anyone else will pick up on this, including the press in Pennsylvania, and if anyone else other than me will object to it. Are Republican senators in other states pulling this nonsense, and are they getting any negative reaction to it?

Why I don't want the GOP to nominate a nutcase

tomfodw

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Tuesday February 15, 2011 · 11:54 AM PST

2011/02/15 · 11:54

To be honest, I don't care how beatable Sarah Palin might be in 2012. I know some liberals hope the GOP nominates someone totally crazy (and therefore, presumably, unelectable), and I sometimes relish the thought of them shooting themselves in the foot again by putting up the national equivalent of Sharron Angle or Christine O'Donnell against Obama. The problem with that is, the crazier they get, the less rational our entire political system gets. You may have noticed that the GOP did not learn anything from 2008 - in fact, they learned entirely the wrong thing. The way the party is now, George W. Bush might not be acceptable to them in 2012!

Not that there's anyone currently being talked about as a GOP candidate who isn't basically nuts, but I really wish there were. Sure, if they nominated an actually sane person that might diminish Obama's chances, but at least it might start the certain to be long and difficult process of rebuilding the GOP as an actually sane political party instead of a collection of ignorant zanies and cynical exploiters. Winning isn't everything - as some once-respectable Vietnam vet once wrote, "Country first."

Obama can fight just as well against the equivalent of Arnie Vinick as he can against Sarah Palin. He can hold his own against a tough but rational conservative. He doesn't need a lunatic opponent to win - and neither do we. Sure, it just makes his re-election that much more likely (although if unemployment is down next year he'll probably win no matter who gets the GOP nod), but it also makes the continuing derangement of our political discourse equally much more likely.

And, in the long run, that's a terrible thing for our country. We need to encourage the GOP to step back towards reality, not keep running away from it as fast as they can. And every crazy who the GOP nominates takes them a step further away, not closer. It moves the discourse itself that much further away from reality, making it tougher in the long run for anyone to maintain a civil, sane debate.

Okay, that doesn't seem to be on the menu, not anytime soon. And, given that the GOP seems determined to fully embrace the crazy (and there's nothing we can do to stop them), it can fairly be argued that we might as well try to use their insanity to our maximum advantage. But we don't have to like it - and we especially don't have to wish for it.

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