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The States. It's 10th Amendment or bust!

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Kepler said:
You're getting as passive aggressive as Fish's cranky grandmother. All that's missing is phrasing your posts in the form of leading questions and adding some twee "no?" at the end like a Dartmouth Review mouthbreather. :p

But I digress. Let's talk about '18. I haven't actually seen the DCCC or DSCC announce a coherent plan for putting a dent in this kunckledragger hellscape other than bromides about "competing everywhere." Is there any sort of new idea animating those folks, or is this a slog it through and hope for Trump Hate campaign?
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You know, for someone who went to SUNY-Ithaca, you sure care a lot about the Dartmouth Review. I could share plenty of actual stories, but the reality is for every *** hat like convicted felon Dinesh D'Souza, there were a couple dozen staffers who just wanted to get together and drink on the dime of some old rich white guys.

And the liberal answer, the Dartmouth Free Press, was complete shiat, at least while I was there.
 
Re: The States. It's 10th Amendment or bust!

unofan said:
You know, for someone who went to SUNY-Ithaca, you sure care a lot about the Dartmouth Review. I could share plenty of actual stories, but the reality is for every *** hat like convicted felon Dinesh D'Souza, there were a couple dozen staffers who just wanted to get together and drink on the dime of some old rich white guys.

And the liberal answer, the Dartmouth Free Press, was complete shiat, at least while I was there.
Click to expand...

It's just a stand-in for "a really dumb piece of garbage." The Washington Times would suffice as an alternative. And IINM DR also gave us P. J. O'Rourke who wrote a few funny things before his shtick got older than Dennis Leary.

If you were involved with it I'll relent. I had no idea or anyway no memory of that. Not at all a personal slight.
 
Re: The States. It's 10th Amendment or bust!

Kepler said:
Let's talk about '18. I haven't actually seen the DCCC or DSCC announce a coherent plan for putting a dent in this kunckledragger hellscape other than bromides about "competing everywhere." Is there any sort of new idea animating those folks, or is this a slog it through and hope for Trump Hate campaign?
Click to expand...

I would love for Democrats to have more of a platform than "we empathize with the oppressed and downtrodden." Someone really needs to explain to people how D policies would improve people's lives.

First of all, what kind of person with any kind of ambition and self-respect would voluntarily "identify" as "oppressed and downtrodden"? If you are trying to expand your base, you need a positive message.

Second of all, I think people are starting to see through the standard rhetoric:
-- "we care more about blacks than anyone else"
-- "we care more about the LBGTQ community than anyone else"
-- "we care more about women than anyone else"
Two problems with that approach:
-- whether you are black, female, or LBGTQ, you are still motivated by economic issues. Symbolism takes second priority over pocketbook.
-- how can you reconcile conflicts between blacks, women, LBGTQ if you are supposed to be the exclusive protector of each one? It is sort of like when kids grow up and realize that, hey, mom and dad can't love each one of us more than all the rest of us. If you go around telling everyone they are special, then no one is; that's just basic common sense.

and again, outside the base, income inequality is not an issue over which you can expand beyond your base, unless your plan to solve income inequality is to get better jobs for regular people. I know it motivates the true believers, but as you are discovering, you don't have enough core true believers to win elections. you need to appeal beyond the race/class divide rhetoric.

We need a good, vigorous debate between two parties who each advance programs that benefit the majority of people; right now both parties are trying an "us against them" approach which will always repel at least as many people as it will attract.
 
Re: The States. It's 10th Amendment or bust!

Kepler said:
You're getting as passive aggressive as Fish's cranky grandmother. All that's missing is phrasing your posts in the form of leading questions and adding some twee "no?" at the end like a Dartmouth Review mouthbreather. :p

But I digress. Let's talk about '18. I haven't actually seen the DCCC or DSCC announce a coherent plan for putting a dent in this kunckledragger hellscape other than bromides about "competing everywhere." Is there any sort of new idea animating those folks, or is this a slog it through and hope for Trump Hate campaign?
Click to expand...
Maybe Rover wants to talk to you about his girl's claim that it was really all Obama's fault, and some of these stories in which all the local D chairmen are bitter that Obama starved their organizations of funds and volunteers because he wanted to form his own Obama For America committee, whatever in the he11 that is.
 
Re: The States. It's 10th Amendment or bust!

FreshFish said:
I would love for Democrats to have more of a platform than "we empathize with the oppressed and downtrodden." Someone really needs to explain to people how D policies would improve people's lives.

First of all, what kind of person with any kind of ambition and self-respect would voluntarily "identify" as "oppressed and downtrodden"? If you are trying to expand your base, you need a positive message.

Second of all, I think people are starting to see through the standard rhetoric:
-- "we care more about blacks than anyone else"
-- "we care more about the LBGTQ community than anyone else"
-- "we care more about women than anyone else"
Two problems with that approach:
-- whether you are black, female, or LBGTQ, you are still motivated by economic issues. Symbolism takes second priority over pocketbook.
-- how can you reconcile conflicts between blacks, women, LBGTQ if you are supposed to be the exclusive protector of each one? It is sort of like when kids grow up and realize that, hey, mom and dad can't love each one of us more than all the rest of us. If you go around telling everyone they are special, then no one is; that's just basic common sense.

and again, outside the base, income inequality is not an issue over which you can expand beyond your base, unless your plan to solve income inequality is to get better jobs for regular people. I know it motivates the true believers, but as you are discovering, you don't have enough core true believers to win elections. you need to appeal beyond the race/class divide rhetoric.

We need a good, vigorous debate between two parties who each advance programs that benefit the majority of people; right now both parties are trying an "us against them" approach which will always repel at least as many people as it will attract.
Click to expand...

I can't believe I'm saying this, but this is an excellent post.

Liberals win elections when they do exactly what you are recommending: connect the economic realities of the two parties' contrasting policies with the rhetoric of expanding opportunity.

My ideal Democratic candidacy is you take the hard-nosed, unsentimental economic message and put it front and center. Then get a charismatic empty-headed front man like Reagan to go out and deliver the spiel. The lofos vote for him because they can have a beer with him, but we still get the right policies.
 
Re: The States. It's 10th Amendment or bust!

Kepler said:
You're getting as passive aggressive as Fish's cranky grandmother. All that's missing is phrasing your posts in the form of leading questions and adding some twee "no?" at the end like a Dartmouth Review mouthbreather. :p

But I digress. Let's talk about '18. I haven't actually seen the DCCC or DSCC announce a coherent plan for putting a dent in this kunckledragger hellscape other than bromides about "competing everywhere." Is there any sort of new idea animating those folks, or is this a slog it through and hope for Trump Hate campaign?
Click to expand...

Obviously I'm kidding about the Dice Man stuff but adding ",no?" to a phrase works every time!

DNC or whatever doesn't need anything more than "Trump sucks" at this point. No white papers, books, or novels. Dems have a huge problem in being clear and concise. Their platform is halting or reversing to the extent possible everything Trump. Also putting Impeachment on the table. That's it. He's giving them so much fodder (budget, Trumpcare, environment, etc) everything else gets crowded out. Besides, its not like they could enact free college tuition with him in the WH anyway. Stay away from detailed new policies.

Mind you, I'm not sure Perez and crew are doing this by design or are lucking out. Recall the last successful Dem mid-term in 2006. It was a simple message: "we're done with the Iraq war" that IMHO they stumbled into when Murtha went off the reservation on his own. In the ensuing couple of days Dems had their usual limp wristed response until both the public rallied to the message and messenger and Murtha himself neutered Dick Cheney with the "I like it when people with 5 deferments question my patriotism" comment that even the lapdog war-cheering media couldn't ignore. However, they did have excellent recruiting that year which paid off when a lot of Goopers got caught up in scandals. Recruiting seems to be going well this time around too. Lets not make this too complicated.
 
Re: The States. It's 10th Amendment or bust!

SJHovey said:
Maybe Rover wants to talk to you about his girl's claim that it was really all Obama's fault, and some of these stories in which all the local D chairmen are bitter that Obama starved their organizations of funds and volunteers because he wanted to form his own Obama For America committee, whatever in the he11 that is.
Click to expand...

I would really be wary of any story that starts with "CNN reports that Hillary Clinton said" and leave it at that. They aren't exactly known for the accuracy of their reporting over the last 20 years, particularly when it comes to her.
 
Re: The States. It's 10th Amendment or bust!

Rover said:
DNC or whatever doesn't need anything more than "Trump sucks" at this point. No white papers, books, or novels. Dems have a huge problem in being clear and concise. Their platform is halting or reversing to the extent possible everything Trump. Also putting Impeachment on the table. That's it. He's giving them so much fodder (budget, Trumpcare, environment, etc) everything else gets crowded out. Besides, its not like they could enact free college tuition with him in the WH anyway. Stay away from detailed new policies.

Mind you, I'm not sure Perez and crew are doing this by design or are lucking out. Recall the last successful Dem mid-term in 2006. It was a simple message: "we're done with the Iraq war" that IMHO they stumbled into when Murtha went off the reservation on his own. In the ensuing couple of days Dems had their usual limp wristed response until both the public rallied to the message and messenger and Murtha himself neutered Dick Cheney with the "I like it when people with 5 deferments question my patriotism" comment that even the lapdog war-cheering media couldn't ignore. However, they did have excellent recruiting that year which paid off when a lot of Goopers got caught up in scandals. Recruiting seems to be going well this time around too. Lets not make this too complicated.
Click to expand...

Yep. I agree with all of this.
 
Re: The States. It's 10th Amendment or bust!

Handyman said:
So you assume that 10% of the people dont know who one of the most prominent members of the DFL Party is (who happens to head the 2nd biggest city in the state) and WE are making assumptions? Yeah about that...
Click to expand...
Perhaps, but in 2013, Coleman got a whopping 23,875 votes (out of 30,518 cast) in a city of 295,413 at the time, so I'm not so sure 10% is a bad guess.
 
Re: The States. It's 10th Amendment or bust!

A followup to a post from a few weeks ago:

Consider: In 2011, the top 357 households [in CT] accounted for 11.7 percent of the state's income tax. At today's tax rates, that means $3.2 million a year in state income tax alone from each of those families — and the billionaires are not in the top 400, they are in the top 10....[two billionaires alone] personally made $2.05 billion last year."
Click to expand...

7% of $2 billion is $140 million.

Connecticut’s income tax collections plummeted at the end of April leaving Connecticut with a gaping $5.2 billion hole in its budget for this year and the next two fiscal years.

Revenues are down about $413 million this fiscal year, and another $597 million and $865 million in fiscal year 2018 and 2019, according to the latest estimates.
Click to expand...

"revenues are down about $413 million."

This "laboratory of democracy" should be a warning sign to other states not to follow the same pathway.
 
Re: The States. It's 10th Amendment or bust!

The plutes are always going to find a way to pay the bare minimum under the current system - trusts, shell corps, state residency, fancy deductions, offshore accounts, accounting loopholes, carefully planned charitable donations, etc. You name it, and there are smart lawyers and accountants who know how to set it up.

Cut the bulk of the special breaks, the intricate exemptions/deductions shenanigans, and end the excessive legal structuring of private wealth that creates trust fund babies. Make everyone pay full boat at the current bracketed rates, on all personal income. While we're at it, since corporations are legally people per SCOTUS, they should be paying those same rates.
 
Re: The States. It's 10th Amendment or bust!

I'm at Mayslack's in Minneapolis and there's a giant framed story by Jim Klobuchar on the wall.
 
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