Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

The fight for our country is always worth it. ~Kamala Harris

It’s not hopeless, and we’re not helpless.

Cancel the cowardly WaPo and set up an equivalent monthly donation to ProPublica.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

So many bastards, so little time.

Everyone is in a bubble, but some bubbles model reality far better than others!

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

In my day, never was longer.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

The real work of an opposition party is to oppose.

I was confident that someone would point it out and thought why not me.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2016 / Friday Morning Open Thread: Legacy

Friday Morning Open Thread: Legacy

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Mr. Charles P. Pierce, “Lee Atwater’s Legacy”:

… It was the father of the Southern Strategy, longtime South Carolinian political boss Harry Dent, along with Atwater, who invented the South Carolina Republican presidential primary in 1980. Shrewdly, they both saw the centers of conservative power moving south and west, away from establishment WASP-ish Republicans like George H.W. Bush. At the same time, they’d noticed how blue-collar white Democrats in the industrial north had flocked to the campaigns of segregationist idol George Wallace, first in 1968 and then again in 1972, until Wallace was shot and nearly killed in a Maryland shopping center. They both felt demographic and political tides that were gathering themselves behind a new vision for the Party of Lincoln. At the time, Dent was working for the Bush campaign and, in South Carolina, Atwater had signed on with Reagan. At this point, the Republican race was still up for grabs. Reagan had lost in Iowa to Bush, and his win in New Hampshire was not a significant enough victory in the rapidly transforming Republican party. So Dent set up the South Carolina primary both as a breakthrough and a firewall for the Bush campaign. Meanwhile, Atwater was honing his chops that year by leaking a rumor that former Texas Governor John Connally was trying to buy black votes. And that was how the South Carolina Republican primary was born—in carefully calculating realpolitik and in dirty tricks…

What Atwater did was more than inject into Republican politics a modern form of strategic viciousness. With it, he injected an entirely new form of strategic unreality. From that has come the party’s inability to recognize or acknowledge the empirical. By creating an entirely new Dukakis in which his voters could believe, Atwater showed them how to build the bubble and to armor it against reality. The combination of strategic viciousness and strategic unreality has come full flower this year. We have Donald Trump, who is one ring of the circus all to himself, calling his opponents liars and Mexicans rapists, and threatening to sue Ted Cruz, who responds by telling Trump to bring it on, and that he, Cruz, would be happy to depose Trump in discovery personally. And Marco Rubio is telling people that the United States is at the edge of the abyss and that only he can restore it to its former glory. What seemed crude and nasty in 1980 has become sleek and edgeless and as common as milk now…

***********
As we gird up for the Nevada/South Carolina events, what’s on the agenda for the day?

Reader Interactions

206Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    Reposted from last thread.

    Kevin Drum linking to Buzzfeed

    From Donald Trump, asked on September 11, 2002, if he was in favor of invading Iraq:

    Yeah…I guess so. I wish the first time it was done correctly.

    That’s Donald being “loud and strong” against the Iraq War. For the record, his explanation is, yeah, he said it, but it was probably the first time anyone had asked him. But for sure he was against it a little later. Seriously. He was.

  2. 2.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    Joy Reid @JoyAnnReid

    Re Sanders saying race relations would be better under him than Obama: pivot to stats on black child poverty, police reform.

    Retweets 43 Likes 43

    He would never dare say he would be better on women’s issues than Clinton. Never. Yet he has no problem repeatedly saying he would be better on black issues than the man who broke the color barrier.

    There’s something really wrong with him.

  3. 3.

    Jon H

    Bumping from last thread and restating: Can we get some attention on Democratic Senate candidates/primaries/races? That’d be more useful, and perhaps less nerve-wracking, than endlessly discussing every little blip in the Presidential race.

  4. 4.

    Jon H

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: “would be better on black issues than the man who broke the color barrier.”

    You think his getting elected is sufficient? It did a lot for Obama’s earning potential. But it didn’t do much for underemployed or incarcerated black people.

    Reminds me of Jay-Z’s asinine statement that simply existing as Jay-Z was an act of charity.

  5. 5.

    NotMax

    What seemed crude and nasty in 1980 has become sleek and edgeless

    No, and no again.

    It is still crude and nasty. What is has become is the new standard, the very brand by which one party defines itself..

  6. 6.

    Jon H

    “Second GOPer today to tell me Team Bernie calling all NV voters, trying to get them to register Dem on Caucus Day.”

    How do they know it’s really Team Bernie?

  8. 8.

    Zinsky

    Lee Atwater had a deathbed conversion and realized the harm he did in getting Bush I elected. Karl Rove’s legacy is even more pernicious, in my opinion. He managed to package an alcoholic, cocaine-sniffing, draft-dodging, lazy ne’er-do-well who hadn’t held a real job the first 40 years of his life into a viable candidate for president. And even though Bush II lost the election by over a half million votes, Rove, Jeb! and Kathleen Harris, through treachery and deceit and five criminals in black robes, managed to steal the election for this imbecile, who went on to start two unnecessary wars and destroy the American economy.

  11. 11.

    Baud

    Vox

    The Circuit Court of Cook County in Chicago has agreed to hear a lawsuit on Sen. Ted Cruz’s eligibility for president — virtually ensuring that the issue dominates the news in the run-up to the South Carolina primary.

    I hope Juliana Margulies handles the case.

  12. 12.

    EconWatcher

    In this very weird year, it actually makes sense for Sanders to try his luck with self-identified Republicans. How many stories did we hear about people in NH who were trying to decide between Trump and Sanders? Hard for a 50-year old like me to grok that, but there it is. It may not be so different in other states.

    Plus, if you were 15 years old when the Soviet Union collapsed, you’re 40 now. We’re long enough from the Cold War that socialism doesn’t seem to be so much a scare word anymore.

    None of this is to suggest that Bernie could actually win the general. But this election seems to signal some kind of realignment that may be with us for a long time.

  13. 13.

    Frankensteinbeck

    I’m not surprised that Sanders is calling Republicans. I take him at his word that he truly believes Trump supporters and racists (but I repeat myself) are motivated by economic insecurity. In turn, I think he is wildly wrong, and it’s one of the highest reasons I do not support him. Fighting inequality is great, but misunderstanding the roots of America’s problems will weaken his ability to fight them. It will – and is – also result in his not getting the nomination.

  14. 14.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    @Jon H: U must be a troll

    U-6 was 17.1% when Obama took office, it’s now 9.9%. Normal U-6 in an expanding economy is 8.9%.

    WASHINGTON — OCT. 6, 2015
    The Justice Department is preparing to release roughly 6,000 inmates from federal prisons starting at the end of this month.

    The release will be one of the largest discharges of inmates from federal prisons in American history.

    Mr. Obama’s action brought the total number of commutations he has issued to 89, exceeding that of any president since Lyndon B. Johnson. Mr. Obama has now commuted more sentences than the last four presidents combined.

    With the stroke of his pen, he will probably commute more sentences at one time than any president has in nearly half a century.

    Attorney General Eric Holder announced Monday that the Obama administration is formulating new rules that would give it, and the president, far more latitude to pardon or reduce the sentences of thousands of drug offenders serving long federal prison sentences.

    “The White House has indicated it wants to consider additional clemency applications, to restore a degree of justice, fairness, and proportionality for deserving individuals who do not pose a threat to public safety,” Holder said in an online video statement released midday Monday.

    “The Justice Department is committed to recommending as many qualified applicants as possible for reduced sentences,” he said.

    WASHINGTON – President Obama today signed an historic piece of legislation that narrows the crack and powder cocaine sentencing disparity from 100:1 to 18:1 and for the first time eliminates the mandatory minimum sentence for simple possession of crack cocaine.

    Nice try. Next.

  15. 15.

    Baud

    @EconWatcher:

    In this very weird year, it actually makes sense for Sanders to try his luck with self-identified Republicans.

    I agree. If Trump or Cruz gets the nomination, who knows what’s possible?

  16. 16.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @EconWatcher:
    Lying about whether you’re a swing voter is a great American tradition. The most partisan voters claim to be independents. There is no significant crossover between Sanders and Trump voters, just enough folks who like to think they would to make for easy anecdotes.

  17. 17.

    EconWatcher

    @Baud:

    I thought that show was poorly written and ill-conceived but I watched it anyway, until my wife made me quit, because–well–Juliana Margulies.

  18. 18.

    Baud

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    There is no significant crossover between Sanders and Trump voters

    My view is that anyone who says they are for Sanders or Trump is for Trump. But Sanders isn’t competing against Trump yet.

  20. 20.

    EconWatcher

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    I’m not so sure. I think there is no way to overstate the depth of anger people still (rightly) have towards banksters. And while I completely disagree, they may actually believe that Trump would stand up to banksters because he doesn’t need their money, and Sanders because he won’t take it.

    I may still be under the influence of “99 Homes,” which everyone on this blog should see immediately, if not sooner.

  22. 22.

    Baud

    @EconWatcher:

    I think there is no way to overstate the depth of anger people still (rightly) have towards banksters.

    The continued success of the Republican Party makes me question the depth of that anger.

  26. 26.

    Baud

    @BillinGlendaleCA: I’m confident I could easily take them. 45 states at least. The problem is getting the nomination, between all of the Establishment and anti-establishment forces trying to silence my message.

    That, and the constant site redesigns.

  29. 29.

    Mustang Bobby

    The GOP primary started out like a Coen Brothers movie. Now that Trump is tangling ass with the Pope, we’ve gone into either the Marx Brothers or Mel Brooks. Next stop: Tim Burton.

  33. 33.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @EconWatcher: And you think their anger with bankers will overcome their desire for racial hegemony to allow them to vote for a socialist who desires equality for all? This is where Bernie loses me. He really seems to believe he can take the heat out of their hatred by reducing economic inequality.

    “If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.”

    -LBJ

  38. 38.

    Anne Laurie

    @Jon H:

    How do they know it’s really Team Bernie?

    They don’t. That’s why I filed this under ‘Republican Venality’ — given the documented GOP history of ratfvckery, it could well be that they’re lying about Sanders campaign workers in order to make them look bad. (‘Dems in disarray!!!’)

    Presumably both Sanders and Clinton campaigns will be keeping a wary eye out for bros in Brooks Brothers polo shirts (or the LV sartorial equivalent)…

  39. 39.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    I love how a guy who’s been married 3 times cuz of multiple mistresses, owned c*sinos, openly lusts after his daughter in public, never goes to church, running on returning torture, and doesn’t even know “2nd Corinthians” says he’s a good Christian.

    It proves how evangelicals, who are overwhelmingly supporting him, are nothing more than bigots who try to cloak their hate with religion.

  43. 43.

    Baud

    @Anne Laurie:

    Presumably both Sanders and Clinton campaigns will be keeping a wary eye out for bros in Brooks Brothers polo shirts (or the LV sartorial equivalent)…

    Does Nevada not have same-day registration?

  45. 45.

    bemused

    @raven:

    Huh. He’s a sorry mess. I had forgotten Saint Joe had initially represented the anti-abortion nut who murdered a doctor, shooting him in the back outside a clinic.

  51. 51.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    Per capita income rose 26.8% during the Kennedy/Johnson years and the unemployment rate was a meager 3.5% the day MLK was murdered.

    there’s a lot more to bigotry than economics.

  54. 54.

    Keith G

    In regards to South Carolina, Donald Trump has been brilliant. He has perfectly completed the tactic of attacking the enemy’s supposed strength.

    The brave and righteous former Commander in Chief George W Bush was supposed to waltz into South Carolina and buck up his brother chances, however Donald Trump flattened W like so much roadkill.

    By the way, why are the Nevada caucuses becoming tighter than they should be?

  55. 55.

    Jon H

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:

    The unemployment rate for African-Americans is 8.8. That’s U-3. So the U-6 equivalent number for black Americans would probably be about 16.

    The unemployment rate for whites is 3.9.

    It has improved a bit since Obama took office, but it’s still double the rate of white people.

    And yes, it’s nice that 6,000 people are getting out of jail a bit early, but that’s after Obama has been in office for 7 years. Other than that he’s commuted sentences of 89 people. Which is nice for those 89 people, but is like a drop in the ocean.

  57. 57.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @OzarkHillbilly: True, though he didn’t think the inner city of many American cities would get burnt down(I’m reading Nixonland). He was really puzzled why after the VRA and CRA there was rioting.

  61. 61.

    Mustang Bobby

    @Baud: @Baud: I can’t decide between Cape Breton in Canada or St. Kitts in the Caribbean if Trump wins. It gets chilly in the Maritimes, and on St. Kitts, they drive on the left (not a problem; I’ve owned RHD cars). Maybe we can get the Canadian Parliament to annex the Florida Keys…

  63. 63.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Jon H:

    The unemployment rate for African-Americans is 8.8.

    The trend is downward and that’s below the historical average(the only time it’s been lower is in the late 90’s and one quarter around 2006).

    The unemployment rate for whites is 3.9.

    Actually it’s 4.1.

    ETA: I’m not saying the rates are acceptable, but I do think you’re painting an overly grim picture.

  68. 68.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Baud: The pope has his wall, tRump just wants his own(just like the both have gold thrones, h/t to Colbert).

  73. 73.

    Betty Cracker

    @Keith G: He really has done a masterful job of playing the rubes and skewering the rivals. I caught a little bit of Trump’s CNN town hall appearance late last night, and one of the selected audience members was a GWB dead-ender who confronted Trump about the Iraq War truth bomb he (Trump) dropped during the last debate. What a specimen this audience member guy was — all tremulous with outrage that someone would dare criticize W; he’d have been a good German circa 1939. Anyhoo, Trump tap-danced around the bit about Bush knowingly lying, but he sounded like a dKos diarist on the stupidity and continuing fallout of the Iraq War.

  77. 77.

    Betty Cracker

    @Jon H: My guess is the vast majority of readers who don’t live in a given state don’t give a shit about the state-level primary races. After the primary is over, I’ll definitely post something about the race to snag Rubio’s soon-to-be former US senate seat in FL.

  80. 80.

    Baud

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    Instant Baud is gonna get you
    Gonna knock you right on the head
    You better get yourself together
    Pretty soon you’re gonna be dead
    What in the world you thinking of
    Laughing in the face of Baud
    What on earth you tryin’ to do
    It’s up to you, yeah you

    Well we all Vote Baud!
    Like the moon and the stars and the sun
    Well we all Vote Baud!
    Ev’ryone come on

  87. 87.

    Keith G

    @Betty Cracker: in actuality, I’m not a real big fan of humanity when considered as large social groups. We are a whole lot closer to The Lord of the Flies than any of us might actually wish to acknowledge.

    Trump is likely the best US political operator to date in his ability to tap into that. The pundit class that has continually underestimated him have done so because they refuse to look honestly at the content of American society. To be fair, however, it’s not just American society. Humans are still rather brutish when you get right down to it

  88. 88.

    Princess

    A thread where we could share what is going in our local state races would be a great idea. I think in IL Tammy Duckworth is going to win the Dem primary and I think she’ll crush Kirk. It hasn’t got much attention, but last time I heard, Kirk won’t say whether he thinks Obama should nominate a new SCJ or not. That’s a tell he is scared.

  90. 90.

    magurakurin

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    “If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.”

    yeah. this. And also this movie clip.

    just an old man that was so full of hate that he didn’t know that being poor was what was killin’ him

    I got more respect for Clinton when I saw her talking to the BLM folks. What she said about “not being able to change hearts” but instead focus on changing laws and enforcement, that made a lot sense. It isn’t inspiring…not at all…because the world actually isn’t a very inspiring place. But it’s right, what she said, and the only way to go about it.

  92. 92.

    Elizabelle

    Good morning all. TGIF.

    @Baud: re GMA speculating on Biden to the Supreme Court: give me a break. Can’t we find a confirmable octagenarian?

    Dog save us from the morning idjits. Who came up with that one?

    And am I hearing that Morning Joe is taking on Pope Francis?

    That’s punching a bit above weight, is it not? I wonder about the wisdom, as it were, of taking on the Pope. Tomorrow, an Opus Dei Catholic, the late Mr. Scalia, will be interred 6 feet under. Am sure he was horrified at the elevation of Francis.

    Conservative Catholics are probably already voting Republican, but non-conservatives probably have Francis’s back, because he’s a breath of fresh air to a moldering 19th century (at latest) Church that needs reform and a return to its actual mission.

    Also, I’d love to see Francis hold firm on his remarks about (implied) contraception and the Zika virus.

  94. 94.

    Iowa Old Lady

    @magurakurin: The writer Iris Murdoch talks about becoming “good” from the outside in rather than from the inside out. You force teachers to stop hitting school children with sticks and after a while more people are horrified at the thought of hitting kids with sticks. Or you encourage them to do it so those kids learn their lessons and it becomes acceptable.

    Which is why scorning political correctness is a problem. It becomes an excuse to let your id loose.

  96. 96.

    Elizabelle

    Better than discussing Republicans this fine Friday: a working dog.

    This makes me want to go to Amsterdam and lose something at the airport.

    I love the last frames of this video. Go, KLM!

  97. 97.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    @Jon H: Obama inherited a 7.4% gap btwn white and black U3 and has shrunk it to 4.5% as of Feb 5 ( a 39.1% reduction).

    Of course there’s no gap btwn blacks and white in Vermont, cuz there’s no blacks. Maybe that’s why Sanders and his supporters are so bad at math (or more likely, good at lying).

  105. 105.

    Kay

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    That whole thing is so clownish. Kentucky has lost the plot. They have somehow managed to make the people who serve the public much more important than the public. Is there no one who says “hey- what is it you’re supposed to be doing as a clerk? Is this about you, this job?”

    They don’t even have to go to “religious freedom”. They need to call them all in a room and read them their job description. It’s really not about the county clerks of Kentucky expressing themselves. Keep it simple- what were they hired to do? Do that.

  108. 108.

    WereBear

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: Here is what he said:

    Asked by PBS debate moderator Judy Woodruff if “race relations would be better under a Sanders presidency than they’ve been,” the Vermont senator replied, “Absolutely.”

    “Because what we will do is say, instead of giving tax breaks to millionaires, we are going to create millions of jobs for low-income kids so they’re not hanging out on street corners,” he said. “We’re going to make sure that those kids stay in school or are able get a college education. So I think that when you give low-income kids, African-American, white, Latino kids, the opportunities to get their lives together, they are not going to end up in jail. They’re going to end up in the productive economy, which is where we want them.”

    He’s not attacking President Obama. He’s saying there’s plenty of room for improvement in the lives of low income kids, who are disproportionately people of color.

    Which is true, is it not?

  110. 110.

    magurakurin

    @WereBear: uh, he’s implying that Obama gave tax breaks to millionaires rather than try to help black kids. Bernie is like the Jedi Master of Passive Aggressive Dickishness.

  111. 111.

    Elizabelle

    @ Baud:

    Obviously, it’s a KLM ad. But why do you think it’s a fake? Beagles are agricultural inspectors; why couldn’t they help (with human assistance) in lost and found? They make great airline ambassadors, anyway. Work cheap.

    Used to read my nephews a book about Jackpot of the Beagle Brigade. A four footed customs hound.

  113. 113.

    Chyron HR

    @WereBear:

    He just can’t stop himself from circling back to, “The only thing summarily executing African-Americans under color of law is economic inequality.”

  115. 115.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    @WereBear: first of all, Obama didn’t give tax breaks to billionaires.

    He ended the Bush tax cuts for the rich. He raised the capital gains tax from 15% to 24%. He raised the Medicare tax on rich people 4.7% and cut their deductions. No biggie.

    Second, what makes him think blacks are hanging out on street corners? Stereotypes, much?

    But of course he’s not attacking Obama. Nah. He only joined Trump in 2012 in calling for the ouster of the first Black President. That’s all. No big deal. No different than those who wanted to oust Jackie Robinson from the Dodgers and send him back to the Negro Leagues.

  116. 116.

    OzarkHillbilly

    “People can agree with Barack Obama, you can disagree with Barack Obama,” Sanders said. “Anybody who doesn’t understand that the kind of obstructionism and hatred thrown at this man, the idea of making him a delegitimate president by suggesting he was not born in America because his dad came from Kenya.”

    Sanders noted that his father was born in Poland but that “no one asked me, whether I’m a citizen or not.”

    “What’s the difference? Maybe the color of our skin,” he said.

  117. 117.

    WereBear

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    “If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.”

    -LBJ

    I know that quote, lived in the South, and utterly agree. So what is the answer? Self-esteem classes for poor white people?

    I know, as Democrats, we are trained to see nuance. And that, IMHO, is part of our problem. Bernie has lived a single message, but that does not mean his brain contains a single cell. Heck, hammering a single message gets out the vote.

    I don’t make the rules. I simply observe them.

  118. 118.

    Chyron HR

    If only Tamir Rice had been part of the “productive economy”, he’d still be alive today. Preach it, Bernie.

  119. 119.

    rk

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:

    He would never dare say he would be better on women’s issues than Clinton. Never. Yet he has no problem repeatedly saying he would be better on black issues than the man who broke the color barrier

    I just read that Clyburn endorsed Clinton because he’s a corporate shill and what has he ever done for African-Americans? Also we need to get rid of democrats who’ve been around for 20 years or so as they’re bought and paid for and are a part of the corrupt system.
    Next I’ll hear that Bernie would have been better than MLK during the civil rights movement.

  121. 121.

    Elizabelle

    @magurakurin: I have to wonder about the wisdom of that tactic. Might have been better to have an obvious disclaimer in the original ad.

    Because my thought is “what else is KLM lying about?”

    Anyway, do love the video. And there’s no reason they couldn’t have a beagle deliver lost items (or be there to entertain/comfort kids and other travelers).

    Maybe fake ad precedes actual beagle employee.

    (It’s also possible that Dutch speakers would have realized it was a joke ad. A lot can be lost in translation.)

  122. 122.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud: I read that she’s unemployed as of April after they have completed shooting what will be the last season of The Good Wife.

  123. 123.

    gvg

    @WereBear: He is falling for racist broadbrush
    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: Here is what he said:

    Asked by PBS debate moderator Judy Woodruff if “race relations would be better under a Sanders presidency than they’ve been,” the Vermont senator replied, “Absolutely.”

    “Because what we will do is say, instead of giving tax breaks to millionaires, we are going to create millions of jobs for low-income kids so they’re not hanging out on street corners,” he said. “We’re going to make sure that those kids stay in school or are able get a college education. So I think that when you give low-income kids, African-American, white, Latino kids, the opportunities to get their lives together, they are not going to end up in jail. They’re going to end up in the productive economy, which is where we want them.”

    Also he assumes race relations are all about economics. They aren’t. Some of our most prosperous times have been really racist. It’s a different problem. The two problems feed off each other and both kinds of people use the other but it’s actually just different.

    Look right now how the supposedly religious right is ignoring that trump is not a sincere Christian. That’s because a significant portion of that group is really just racist who were dressing in religious words. I wonder how the sincere are reacting to finding out how many of their kindred are hypocrites?

    This is why Sanders upsets me so much. I have seen so much more clearly how deadly racism is during the Obama years and I need justice. It’s time to push on this while it’s being exposed on cell phone video’s before we become blase’ again. The income inequality is an issue also and the banks unsafe continuing behavior but Sanders to me clearly doesn’t get racism. I also doubt his judgement on the banks since he is making such an obvious mistake on racism in spite of his experience and how obvious it is.

  124. 124.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    Doug Adams @DougNBC

    NBC confirms Rep. Jim Clyburn will endorse @HillaryClinton Fri morning in Columbia. Hillary campaign in release calls it “momentous”

    Doesn’t Clyburn realize Sanders would be the first Black President?

  126. 126.

    WereBear

    @gvg: Look right now how the supposedly religious right is ignoring that trump is not a sincere Christian. That’s because a significant portion of that group is really just racist who were dressing in religious words. I wonder how the sincere are reacting to finding out how many of their kindred are hypocrites?

    Sadly, the more fundamentalist the Christian, the less they want to do with humanitarian messages, taking care of the poor, and social justice. You know who are the most Christian? The Unitarians.

    Republicans are all hypocrites. Trump is their hero. There is no dissonance with them on that point.

  127. 127.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @WereBear:

    Bernie has lived a single message, but that does not mean his brain contains a single cell.

    Bernie seems to think solving this one issue will be a cure all for everything that ails America, all while ignoring the most basic aspect of human nature: The desire to look down on others. We all have it, we all do it, we just tell ourselves that we are doing it for the right reasons, unlike those Republican assholes over there.

    hammering a single message gets out the vote.

    Yes it does, and it is what is lacking from Hillary’s campaign, that one single unifying theme.

  128. 128.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud: In college, we had a name for that – “pulling it out of the whacko hat”. So much more polite than saying they pulled it out of that other place.

    I love me some Joe Biden, but I don’t think he has the gravitas for the supreme court. (By previous standards, since not many of the right wingers on the court have any at all.)

  130. 130.

    WaterGirl

    @Princess: Surprised to hear that Kirk hasn’t said a word on the supreme court issue. He’s usually one of the first republican senators to say something crazy. He must be scared. God help us if he is elected again. It’s bad enough to have one disgusting creature as governor; we don’t need one in the senate.

  131. 131.

    FlipYrWhig

    @OzarkHillbilly: How often has there been “one single unifying theme” for a presidential run, though? Even for the eventual winners. What was Bush’s? What was Bill’s?

  132. 132.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    Washington (CNN) Bernie Sanders, in an interview with BET, accused Hillary Clinton of cozying up to President Barack Obama in order to pander to African-Americans.

    ***
    “Hillary Clinton now is trying to embrace the President as closely as she possibly can. Everything the president does is wonderful. She loves the president, he loves her and all that stuff,”

    She’s been as loyal as you can possibly be to Obama during the last 8 years. Campaigned for him hard after she lost in 2008.

    I don’t know why he thinks it’s fake.

  134. 134.

    TallPete

    @gvg: There is nothing racist about anything Sander’s said in that quote. How the fuck is anyone going to talk about income inequality with out being accused of racism? Sanders and HRC do not strike me as being very far apart on the issues of race.

  135. 135.

    Kay

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    The persecution complex is really the worst part of fundamentalist religious people. I just have no patience with it. The minute they get up there and start explaining why they are being discriminated against I can feel myself turning into “mean boss”. It happens in workplaces. They become all about the people who work there, but we shouldn’t be encouraging it. It’s been wild for me to watch because the clerks here make themselves invisible almost as a point of pride. They weigh in on nothing. You couldn’t get them to comment on something that was filed in that office if you paid them, because being discrete and bland and without opinions is part of the job. It’s the culture in that office. They smile and say nothing.

  138. 138.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kay:

    The persecution complex is really the worst part of fundamentalist religious people.

    It surely gets my hackles up every time they tell me I have to live by the values espoused in their work of fiction.

  141. 141.

    japa21

    @WaterGirl: Kirk is toast. Going after Duckworth and saying she has no understanding of terrorism and that he does was really stupid.

    He never was the moderate he was said to be, he only played one on television. I think his stroke really impacted his ability to filter his words. He has said some really stupid stuff that earlier would probably have never come out of his mouth.

    I love Rauner’s recent diatribe: “Pass a budget that I like and also screw unions, teachers and the poor, or give me the power to make my own cuts to the social safety net and pensions.” Oh, “And do it quickly!”

    As I have said before, every Dem candidate should push the message that a vote for my opponent is a vote for Rauner. Doesn’t matter what level. And even better, at the Congressional level, a vote for my opponent is a vote for whoever the GOP candidate is and a vote for Rauner’s policies to go national.

  142. 142.

    japa21

    @TallPete: It is not talking about income inequality that is racist. Nor is anyone, as far as I can tell, calling Sanders racist. They are saying, rightfully so, that he talks as if solving the issue of income inequality will solve the racial issues in our country. This is pure nonsense, and I say that as I white male getting ready to retire in a few months.

    He appears to be oblivious to the real issue. Whether he is or not is another question, but that is the message he is sending to a lot of people, and not only POC.

  143. 143.

    Bobby Thomson

    @NotMax: that’s kind of the point. Donna Edwards, for example, is narrowly behind in a winnable race but is being ignored by all the Bernistans, who will then complain that Democrats always nominate corporate tools.

  144. 144.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Jon H: I was looking at Larry Sabato’s Senate projections yesterday (I think he leans right, but I was looking for a quick summary). He lists IL and WI as flipping blue, FL and NV as toss-ups, and OH and PA as “lean R”. The one that really surprised me was he lists AZ as only “leans R”. I would’ve thought McCain was pretty safe. He has no D to R flips.

  145. 145.

    WaterGirl

    @japa21: I can’t even bring myself to say or type the governor’s name, which helps give me insight into how people (who loathe him and what he stands for) respond to Barack Obama.

  146. 146.

    TallPete

    @FlipYrWhig: Bill Clinton’s theme was “putting people first” which apparently meant mandatory sentencing guidelines and tough on crime measures.

  147. 147.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Betty Cracker: Those are slogans or sound-bites, though, not “one unifying theme.” I’m sure Hillary Clinton will have a slogan. George H.W. Bush didn’t run on the overarching theme of not raising taxes. He ran on experience and continuing what his more charismatic predecessor started. Then he slimed the other guy. Then he won. Michael Dukakis said “It’s not about ideology, it’s about competence,” which I guess is a unifying theme, but a pretty shitty one. I’m not sure theme/no theme has been all that important to determining who wins.

  148. 148.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Bobby Thomson: And I keep saying that Iowa should be Ground Zero for down-ticket Bernie-ism, and the few people I know in Iowa haven’t told me that there’s anything obvious happening along those lines. If the point is to have a POLITICAL REVOLUTION, because Bernie can’t do it all on his own, get out there and do it, no?

  149. 149.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @FlipYrWhig: Or New Hampshire, where Maggie Hassan is (last time I checked) neck-and-neck with Kelly Ayotte, Tea Bagger and the Shemp to Lieberman’s Curly in the Senate’s Neo-Con Stooge caucus.

  150. 150.

    Bobby Thomson

    @rk: I gotta tell you, after a shaky start in 2012, Rove is getting really good value for his ratfuckers this year.

  151. 151.

    TallPete

    @japa21: Sanders has never claimed that solving income inequality will solve all the race issues. That claim is nonesense. However it is the issue that would have the largest impact if addressed.

    What is the difference between HRC and Sanders on this issue? I can find nothing of substance. Neither can leading voices on this issue, like T Coates.

  152. 152.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @FlipYrWhig:

    “It’s not about ideology, it’s about competence,”

    I think that pretty well sums up Hillary’s campaign, and it’s not good enough. People want to be inspired and the best “slogans” are unifying themes.

  153. 153.

    FlipYrWhig

    @OzarkHillbilly: Like I said, George H.W. Bush ran as Reagan’s successor and as Guy With Long Resume (sound familiar?), and he got elected through the power of negative campaigning and a solid economy. It wasn’t because he had a better or more unifying theme. I think the only presidents who got elected through inspiration in the modern media era were Kennedy, Reagan, and Obama. Hillary Clinton isn’t one of those. (I think Hillary’s slogan is “Forward.”) But most presidents aren’t. MAYBE Bill too, the theme being not the economy but youth.

  154. 154.

    muddy

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:

    Of course there’s no gap btwn blacks and white in Vermont, cuz there’s no blacks.

    On the local news recently they said it was over 7% and had changed a lot even in the last 5 years. I realize this is not one of the higher numbers but it’s not none.

  155. 155.

    muddy

    @FlipYrWhig:

    How often has there been “one single unifying theme” for a presidential run, though? …. What was Bill’s?

    “It’s the economy, Stupid”.” Hillary should break it back out.

  156. 156.

    japa21

    @TallPete: When asked why race relations would be better under his Presidency he answered solely in economic terms. He has not, to my knowledge, done a lot of talking about the more pernicious issues of race.

    And how, may I ask, would solving the economic inequality issue have the biggest impact on racial issues? You are talking the same way he is.

  158. 158.

    rikyrah

    Latest Polls from SC:

    . Fox News published these results late yesterday:

    1. Donald Trump: 32% (down from 35% in December)

    2. Ted Cruz: 19% (up from 14%)

    3. Marco Rubio: 15% (up from 14%)

    4. Jeb Bush: 9% (up from 5%)

    4. Ben Carson: 9% (down from 15%)

    6. John Kasich: 6% (up from 1%)

    NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll

    1. Donald Trump: 28% (down from 36% in January)

    2. Ted Cruz: 23% (up from 20%)

    3. Marco Rubio: 15% (up from 14%)

    4. Jeb Bush: 13% (up from 9%)

    5. Ben Carson: 9% (up from 8%)

    5. John Kasich: 9% (up from 1%)

  161. 161.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    @muddy: yeah, but they didn’t jump from 1.2% in 2014 to 7% in 2015. Not unless aliens landed in really big flying saucers. And Census bureau will always supersede a tee vee pgrm.

  163. 163.

    Chris

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:

    It proves how evangelicals, who are overwhelmingly supporting him, are nothing more than bigots who try to cloak their hate with religion.

    I have been saying for years that if every time you see the word “evangelical,” you mentally replace it with “segregationist,” you’ll get a much better understanding of the demographic and its voting patterns than if you paid attention to any of their interminable screeds about Jesus.

    The religious right was always the Dixiecrats with a bad makeover.

  168. 168.

    Chris

    @magurakurin:

    just an old man that was so full of hate that he didn’t know that being poor was what was killin’ him

    Lots of good moments in that movie (I love the one where the local businessman, who later turns out to be the head of the KKK chapter, says that “international banking cartels” are behind communism, perfectly captures the bizzaro-world that these people live in to this day). But it got a lot of flak for portraying the FBI as anti-Klan crusaders, rightly so, IMHO.

  169. 169.

    DesertFriar

    @Elizabelle:

    Tomorrow, an Opus Dei Catholic, the late Mr. Scalia, will be interred 6 feet under. Am sure he was horrified at the elevation of Francis.

    Well to be precise, he requested in his will to be cremated. And that’s the irony.

    Mister “Originalist” (let’s get back to what was originally meant in the law and not from activist judges) wants to do something which was; up until 1963, a MORTAL sin in Canon law.

    One would think that he would have wanted to go back to what the early bishops from the 1st Century wanted.

  170. 170.

    muddy

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: If a number came out in 2014 then the counting took place some time before that? As I say it was on the local news (WCAX), because it was so recent it may have been a story about Bernie and black people in Vermont? I did not take notes as to methodology. As I said, they noted that it had changed a lot in the last 5 years. Maybe your source has not caught up. More likely it’s in between the two (you know, statistics). No one came door to door recently counting my household. I don’t know where they derive the numbers in either case.

    WCAX is a good station, I know you don’t like Bernie but there’s no need to disparage the local media, which is vastly superior to national media for reporting properly in my experience of them. FFS “tee vee prgm”?

    I will say anecdotally from looking around myself it’s really remarkable how quickly the numbers have changed. I don’t live in the more populated area, and just a few years ago I could literally go months without seeing a black person. It is a rare day now that I don’t see several. When they said the number I was not amazed or taken aback, altho if pressed for a number I might have said 4% (calculated by the eyeball-gut method).

    When you start with a really low number then it does not take that many people to double it or whatever. Besides the %age being low, the absolute number of people is also low. It doesn’t need to be a vast horde of folks immigrating.

  171. 171.

    SiubhanDuinne, Annoying Scoundrel

    @Betty Cracker:
    @muddy:

    I don’t think “It’s the economy, stupid” was ever (or ever meant to be) a public slogan for WJC. That was a sign Carville or Stephanopoulos or someone put up in the campaign “war room” to keep his top staffers focused. As TallPete noted, it was “Putting people first.”

  172. 172.

    Paul in KY

    @Baud: Agreed. I have certainly lied at times & was consciously doing it. Was the question about public remarks/testimony or was it assumed he meant ever in your life?

  174. 174.

    Paul in KY

    @Baud: I would like him to nominate someone quickly. Times a wastin. They had to have some contingency scenarios for when a vacancy appeared.

  175. 175.

    Paul in KY

    @Kay: The thing about taking the names off is that probably most all clerks want to have their name plastered on everything. Free advertising & all that…

  176. 176.

    Bobby Thomson

    @Paul in KY: there’s a process. First he has to stroke senators by asking for their input. Then he has to do interviews, even with people who currently are federal judges, to make sure nothing has changed.

  177. 177.

    gwangung

    @TallPete:

    Sanders has never claimed that solving income inequality will solve all the race issues. That claim is nonesense. However it is the issue that would have the largest impact if addressed.

    Total bullshit.

    NOT GETTING KILLED would have the largest impact. Next would be equal treatment under the law.

    You need to remember that it’s been the racist application of laws and programs, from government programs to unions to law enforcement, that are so salient in the black community.

  178. 178.

    Paul in KY

    @WereBear: Convince the poor white dude that he IS NOT better than the best black person & then show him how the rich (white) people having been playing him for a fool.

    Turn that anger where it should be.

  179. 179.

    FlipYrWhig

    @SiubhanDuinne, Annoying Scoundrel: OK, but nobody said, “I had mixed feelings about that Bill Clinton, but then he said ‘Putting People First,’ and suddenly I knew what he was all about, and I liked it.” Supposedly that’s what Hillary’s lack of a “theme” is preventing from happening. That’s also why I’m not really buying it. Obama had the power to make people feel “I want to be a part of that.” So did Reagan. So did JFK. Almost nobody else does. Sanders is trying it–good for him. The fact that Hillary Clinton isn’t, or when she does it’s about gender, which people have misgivings about for some reason, isn’t really IMHO a major factor in her public image or standing in public opinion polls.

  181. 181.

    Paul in KY

    @Chris: Oh yes, I remember Stalin’s speech at the 18th Party Congress where he lauded International Banking Cartels as the vanguard of Marxist-Leninism. Studied it in college I did.

  183. 183.

    Paul in KY

    @Peale: Well, the other side is convincing him that he is better & we see where that leads. Gotta try something else, IMO.

  186. 186.

    J R in WV

    @Elizabelle:

    If you’re talking about a dawg returning something that was left in a KLM plane cabin, it’s a fictional commercial with a well trained actor of a dog doing his bits, spliced into a heart-warming fictional commercial.

    I was very disappointed when I learned it had no shred of truth, people are evil making an unsuspecting dog perform in such a false video. I’m sure the dog worked very hard and had no suspicion that he was involved in such a fraud by his people!

  187. 187.

    ruemara

    @WereBear: He’s tying race relations to economic improvements. He’s summing up the whole of my lived experience as somehow due to me lacking education and a job. Please, for the love of all things, don’t give this a pass. It is OFFENSIVE. The problem isn’t me or people who look like me. He is reducing black America’s problems to we have kids hanging out instead of working. If this was a republican, you’d shake your head at the tone deafness.

    @rk: Have you seen Ben Jealous’ statement? Holy cow.

  189. 189.

    Emma

    @ruemara: I don’t understand why this is such a difficult thing to understand. There are economic components to discrimination but IMO, they’re not really the most important. Yes, a better economy would change things, but I don’t have a clue how if would help events like Ferguson.

  190. 190.

    ruemara

    @Emma: It’s because it’s nicer to not consider that this person you think you know because he says things that feel right in your gut; he has a massive mental block, a prejudiced view that isn’t in alignment with who you think him to be. Yeah, I said it. He has a prejudiced view. It is paternalistic, reductionist and sadly, replete throughout the campaign.

    Black people have problems because they don’t have jobs and education. It’s the bankers, not our toxic human history of racism. It makes people feel a lot better to say it’s just being misinterpreted. No, it’s not. We’re not dumb noble savages. We’re people just like you, except browner who have to deal with a culture where we are told to our faces we aren’t worth as much, due to our brownness.

    And even the ones who seem to be on our side in the struggle for equality, then step forward, shove their foot so far down their throats they can kick their own asses, because they have to condescend and repackage stereotypes of what ails us instead of fucking listening. That is Bernie Sanders.

    The only kudos I can give to Hillary Clinton is that at least, she’s heard what communities of color are saying and she is responding to them directly. Nothing sexy, no slogans, but plans that have people nodding their head because it sounds possible.

    Telling us the problems of race relations would be fixed by kids having jobs, Jesus.

    And spare me about what if it’s not Hillary.

    Either is better than the outright evil of the GOP. I’ve worked in business for a long time. If you think I don’t know how to work for the people who think I’m inferior, you have another think coming.

  191. 191.

    chopper

    @FlipYrWhig:

    oh, totally. IA and NH should be ground zero for the great revolution, yet turnout isn’t much to write home about except on the gooper side where it’s huge.

    i think bernie needs to clean out the carburetor. that usually works.

  192. 192.

    gwangung

    The only kudos I can give to Hillary Clinton is that at least, she’s heard what communities of color are saying and she is responding to them directly. Nothing sexy, no slogans, but plans that have people nodding their head because it sounds possible.

    I think people should realize that is a bare minimum. It’s not such a high bar to clear that it deserves wild hosannas.

  193. 193.

    NR

    @OzarkHillbilly: Quiet, you. You’re interrupting the circlejerk. Bernie is a Klan member who hates Obama and all black people. Get on board with the Goldman Sachs-approved talking points already.

  195. 195.

    Elie

    @chopper:

    This is huge. For Bernie to win his revolution — and for the Democrats to feel confident of winning, we have to get the same turnout we had in 2008 and 2012. You are right — so far not so and that is Yuge. The numbers unfortunately are on the Repub side.

  199. 199.

    Ksmiami

    @ruemara: I was honestly shocked and honestly horrified at the “streetcorner” quote – I mean how old is that stereotype? How completely wrong and offensive – One of my best friends after college was routinely pulled over FROM the McKINSEY CONSULTING parking structure because LAPD jerkoffs couldn’t believe that he owned his BMW. Bernie seems really clueless about the day to day reality of most POC/Female Americans and his temperament is brittle (as I would expect for someone aged 75+). No, it’s not his fault he lived in a white corner of America for years, but he seems to have not evolved.

  201. 201.

    agorabum

    @Jon H: black incarceration has dropped significantly and Obama prevented another great depression. What is that, chopped liver?

  203. 203.

    Plantsmantx

    @rk:

    Next I’ll hear that Bernie would have been better than MLK during the civil rights movement.

    Ben Jealous has already told us that Sanders marched where MLK was afraid to march.

  205. 205.

    mclaren

    I have been cold-calling for Bernie Sanders’ caucus in Nevada and the instruction page I was given told us specifically not to do this.

    If someone is for the GOP, we simply say “Thanks and have a good evening” and mark down that person as for the GOP in the computer app. If the person is for Hillary we say the same thing and mark that person down as Hillary supporter in the app. If the person is a Sanders voter, we mark that down.

    Only if the person is undecided are we instructed to direct that person to berniesanders.com to find out more about the candidate.

    And if the person doesn’t know where the caucus is being held, we’re told to direct them to nvdemos.com for that info.

    But that’s it.

    Don’t know where these people are coming from who are trying to push Repubs to register as Democrats. I have done a fair amount of calling for Bernie in Nevada now, and we were never ever instructed to do that — in fact, just the opposite.

  206. 206.

    mclaren

    @Mustang Bobby:

    The GOP primary started out like a Coen Brothers movie.

    This is true!

    JEB BUSH: “It’s gettin’ so a businessman can’t expect no return from a fixed fight. Now, if you can’t trust a fix, what can you trust? For a good return, you gotta go bettin’ on chance – and then you’re back with anarchy, right back in the jungle.”

    VERNA: “That’s you all over, Jeb — a lie and no heart.”

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