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Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” was supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

Prediction: the gop will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

“woke” is the new caravan.

I’m starting to think Jesus may have made a mistake saving people with no questions asked.

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

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

American history and black history cannot be separated.

Republicans cannot even be trusted with their own money.

I really should read my own blog.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

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

Bark louder, little dog.

… gradually, and then suddenly.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

We need to vote them all out and restore sane Democratic government.

Innocent people do not delay justice.

You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2016 / Open Thread – RNC Wonders: Is It Over Once the Fat Man Sings?

Open Thread – RNC Wonders: Is It Over Once the Fat Man Sings?

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Look, it is known that Governor Christie likes the finer things in life. Now that he’s endorsed Mr. Trump, he can once again fly first class and stay in the yooogest, most luxurious hotels, with as much fine dining in world-class restaurants as the lap band permits. Not to mention another chance to blow his own horn at the nominating convention, this time in Cleveland — he can make a pilgrimage to The Boss’s exhibit at the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame, and he won’t even have to write up an expense account afterwards!

Mr. Charles P. Pierce, at Esquire:

… Christie and He, Trump have been running buddies for a while. They share similar temperaments and speaking styles. They both dislike Ted Cruz, which gives the two of them something in common with the rest of humanity. Christie kamikaze’d himself into Marco Rubio in New Hampshire, a move that benefitted He, Trump more than anyone else. And now, on the day after a debate in which the elite pundit class thought Rubio dinged Trump up worse than he’d been dinged all year, here comes Big Chicken to the rescue as the entire world echoes with the sound of thousands to TV cameras being swiveled back to the entertaining burlesque attraction of a vulgar talking yam…

Jim Newell, at Slate, “Chris Christie Is Marco Rubio’s Kryptonite”:

… We can consider all sorts of reasons for why Chris Christie endorsed Trump on Friday, one day after a Republican debate in which Rubio seemed to knock the billionaire back on his heels: promise of a job in the Trump administration, sidling up to the near-inevitable winner, stylistic similarities or a Tri-State penchant for brawling. Really anything could have motivated him, except for Christie’s stated reason that he believes Donald Trump would make an excellent president.

What seems most likely, on the guttural level that spurs an establishment governor to make a decision to support a figure like Donald Trump for president, is that he despises Marco Rubio and enjoys thrashing him. If he can’t do it through his own campaign anymore, he’ll do it through someone else’s…

Jamelle Bouie, also at Slate:

… [T]he horse race aside, Christie’s endorsement is breathtakingly cynical. For months, he attacked Trump for his ignorance and his bigotry, mocking his plan to ban Muslims from the United States. “We do not need to endorse that type of activity, nor should we,” said Christie during a December appearance on conservative talk radio host Michael Medved’s show. “You do not need to be banning Muslims from the country. That’s, in my view, that’s a ridiculous position and one that won’t even be productive.” It was part of Christie’s appeal as a moderate, reasonable Republican. Someone you could trust to appeal to all Americans and ignore the temptation of a hyper-nationalist demagogue.

Either Christie didn’t mean it, or his integrity is worth less than a modest chance at career advancement…

Reader Interactions

208Comments

  3. 3.

    Lamh36

    yo…talk about petty

    Marco Rubio who is like 12 years old in politic years telling Chtistie he has “a bright future” mahn even I would been like fuq u man

    After Christie dropped out, Rubio called the NJ governor, told him he had a “bright future.” nytimes.com/2016/02/28/us/…

  4. 4.

    shomi

    Just a friendly reminder to everyone that Cole used to openly express his admiration for Christie. Also Griftwald. You know damn well that neither of those things have changed.

    Nobody should forget that. This is a guy who supposedly runs a left wing political blog site. He doesn’t have the common sense to run a website about taking out the garbage imho.

  5. 5.

    scav

    My guess was along the lines of basic spotlight hogging but also a massive squid-ink burst of notoriety in order to drown out any simmering Bridge etc information bubbling up. So, perhaps all sorts of upsides for the morally / ethically flexible slippery butterball in question.

  8. 8.

    MattF

    And is anyone going to have a thought for poor little George Will? He hates Der Trump (not a conservative!) and devoted a column to praise of Christie. Poor George! Hahahahahahahahaha.

  10. 10.

    Ken

    Another possible motive I haven’t seen anyone else discuss.

    Might Christie have an interest in a pardon and\or squashing of certain awkward Federal investigations?

  12. 12.

    Corner Stone

    I guess every media pundit is obligated to repeatedly state Rubio bested Trump in the last debate but he did not, in fact, damage Trump. Both Rubio and Cruz tried their own lines of attack against Trump but neither of them did a lick of damage.

  14. 14.

    Trentrunner

    This whole thing is worth reading. But this stuck out to me:

    While still hopeful that Mr. Rubio might prevail, Mr. McConnell has begun preparing senators for the prospect of a Trump nomination, assuring them that, if it threatened to harm them in the general election, they could run negative ads about Mr. Trump to create space between him and Republican senators seeking re-election. Mr. McConnell has raised the possibility of treating Mr. Trump’s loss as a given and describing a Republican Senate to voters as a necessary check on a President Hillary Clinton, according to senators at the lunches.

    Man, these f*ckers.

  15. 15.

    beltane

    All these journalists fretting over Christie’s cynicism must not be from the NY metro area. Really, this is all shaping up to be one of the best mob movies ever. If some local Dems thought Trump had a realistic shot at becoming POTUS you’d see some of them jumping on the fucking bandwagon also, just like they did with Giuliani.

    Al D’Amato must be laughing his ass off.

  18. 18.

    MattF

    And as for motive, I think it’s been noticed that Christie is more than a little ambitious, more than a little attracted to the spotlight, more than a little convinced of his own virtues and abilities. He’s just, generally, a ‘more than a little’ kind of guy.

  19. 19.

    Amir Khalid

    It doesn’t seem to me that there was all that much political calculation for Chris Christie to do before deciding to endorse The Donald. “The Donald is all but certain to be the Republican nominee. Between now and election day — and who knows, maybe for four or eight years thereafter, the Donald will be the most powerful Republican there is. The sooner I start kissing up to him, the better.”

    @Trentrunner:
    “Guttural” has three syllables whereas “gut” has only one, and is thus three times better as a word. Especially now that there are no copy editors left at Slate to tell you it’s wrong.

  20. 20.

    Corner Stone

    I’m not sure where AlGiordano thought Christie was going next in politics? He didn’t have any bridges to burn with the establishment or *moderate* GOP.

  21. 21.

    rikyrah

    DA PHUQ?

    St. Louis Student, 9, Can’t Attend School Because He’s Black

    Edmund Lee, a third-grader at a charter school in south St. Louis, can’t attend the school next year because his family moved to the suburbs, from which, an archaic law states, black students can’t attend city schools.

    BY: STEPHEN A. CROCKETT JR.

    Posted: Feb. 26 2016 7:36 AM

    Nine-year-old Edmund Lee is a great student. He’s a third-grader at Gateway Science Academy, a charter school in south St. Louis. He’s been a student there since kindergarten, and he wants to stay there, but an archaic law on the city’s books won’t allow him to attend the school anymore because he’s black.

    Everything was fine as long as Edmund and his family lived in the city of St. Louis. But their recent move to the suburbs means that Edmund can’t attend his old school. Because of the way that St. Louis’ laws are written, suburban kids cannot attend city schools if they are black.

    “When I read the guidelines, I was in shock,” Edmund’s mother, La’Shieka White, told Fox 2 Now. “I was crying.”

    The law was passed decades ago and was meant to address school segregation.

    School officials told the news station that because it’s the law, their hands are tied, but they welcome revisiting the rules.

    White has launched a petition, asking lawmakers to take notice of her situation, adding that this isn’t just about her son, since she has heard from white students’ parents who were also unable to transfer to the school of their choice.

  23. 23.

    Corner Stone

    Not to mention another chance to blow his own horn at the nominating convention, this time in Cleveland

    I still wonder who in the Romney camp thought it would be a good idea to give Christie that platform. I think Christie spoke about himself for something like 16 minutes before he ever even mentioned the name “Romney”.
    That was a real time dumpster fire of a speech and I was blown away at how bad the Romney people were at politics. Eastwood and his empty chair, Ann and her “I love you women!” moment, then Christie’s self-aggrandizing speech.

  25. 25.

    Gindy51

    @Ken: I thought there was a little hanky panky going on when Trump’s son in law is getting $93 million in tax breaks for building some shit building in NJ. Might that be something to add to the equation?

  26. 26.

    MattF

    @Amir Khalid: Yeah, I remember when I had to tell one of my college roommates that the phrase ‘the fundament of the Church’ he used in an essay didn’t mean what he thought it did. That darned English language can get confusing.

  27. 27.

    beltane

    @Corner Stone: Mitt Romney doesn’t understand showmanship, Clint Eastwood’s avant garde performance art notwithstanding. This year’s convention will be different, Las Vegas brought to Cleveland courtesy of the Trump campaign.

  28. 28.

    Ksmiami

    The weird thing is that I don’t hate Trump or Christie the way I loathe/hate/despise/incur nausea with Rubiobot “Punk (TM)” and Cruz. Happy voting for Hillary like for reals, but Trump has done America a service by ripping off the facade of the GOP. There hasn’t been any decency in that party for years and they should just not be in the governing business since they hate it so much.

  30. 30.

    SFAW

    @rikyrah:

    Will the Coloreds NEVER stop trying to be treated as if they’re more than 3/5ths of a real person? Next thing you know, they’ll want to vote and own a house ‘n’ stuff.

  34. 34.

    Iowa Old Lady

    @Germy: In a John Grisham novel I recently read, someone talks too loudly and another character says “Lower your voice,” and the narrator tell us the loud guy dropped his voice several octaves. I’m guessing that wasn’t a deliberate joke. I did laugh though.

  35. 35.

    pamelabrown53

    @Lamh36:
    Lamb, I have an unnatural antipathy for Rubio. I do hope that Christie is his kryptonite. Mainly because he’s a teabagger weasel try ing to pass as “moderate”.

    This morning when Ann Laurie posted that hilarious drink menu, I thought Rubio as a “Shirley Temple”: fake drink from the 50’s geared to oldsters trying to make their kids feel adult.

  36. 36.

    SFAW

    @beltane:

    Las Vegas brought to Cleveland

    When I awoke this morning, it never occurred to me that I would see that phrase.

    Actually, pretty much every morning.

  37. 37.

    Major Major Major Major

    I was reading 538 this morning and I clicked through to the comments.

    Ugh.

    The gist is “blacks and olds aren’t real voters and Nate Silver is in the tank for Hitlery just like the rest of the media and pollsters are liars and I will never vote for that harridan of a warmongering neoliberal whore/skank, not that that would make me a bad Democrat or sexist.”

    “Now, to talk about her hideous clothing choices and how she’s obviously a lesbian, also something about Goldwater…”

  41. 41.

    BBA

    Last year I moved to what used to be Sheldon Silver’s district in New York. Sadly he was expelled from the Assembly before I had a chance to vote against the slimy, corrupt old toad.

    There are two effects on the Democratic primary process here:

    1. The special election to replace Silver will be held simultaneously with the New York primary, way out in the middle of April. This gives us lower-Manhattanites a reason to vote in a primary that’ll probably be decided by then.

    2. In case the primary isn’t resolved by then, Sheldon Silver may become relevant again. He was a member of the Democratic National Committee, and although his felony conviction automatically expelled him from the Assembly, there aren’t any rules like that for the DNC. All the DNC members are superdelegates, so if he was never actually removed from the DNC, he gets to go to Philadelphia (hopefully in a prison jumpsuit).

  44. 44.

    Redshift

    Once again, can we please can the fat jokes? Christie is odious, but being fat isn’t what makes him odious, and it isn’t a symptom of what makes him odious. There are plenty of fat people on our side, and by treating being fat as a moral failing to get a cheap dig at Christie, you’re being needlessly cruel to them.

    I’m well aware that the idea is endemic in this country that being fat is disgusting, a personal failing, and obviously caused by gluttony, but that doesn’t mean we have to perpetuate it.

  45. 45.

    smintheus

    Christie had no political future unless he endorsed somebody, which meant he’d endorse Trump sooner than later. A measure of how dumb pundits are that they’re surprised by predictable political hackery.

    @Trentrunner: I think Slate guy thinks it means “guttersnipe”. But it doesn’t.

  47. 47.

    Germy

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    someone talks too loudly and another character says “Lower your voice,” and the narrator tell us the loud guy dropped his voice several octaves. I’m guessing that wasn’t a deliberate joke.

    Dropped his voice several octaves? And then everyone in the room shuddered and voided their bowels.

  49. 49.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Iowa Old Lady: Meatloaf could find a way.

    Soooo I finally cracked, in my polite little way, on the Book of Faces. My buddies just keep sharing stuff about Bernie’s crowd sizes so I just had to post

    Look, I like Bernie. Just because I’m a Hillary supporter doesn’t mean I can’t give a little advice in good faith.
    Lines don’t vote. Crowds don’t vote. Bumper stickers don’t vote, yard signs don’t vote. If the Jeb! campaign taught us anything, money doesn’t even vote. PEOPLE vote. If you wanna win, go phone bank or canvass. Sharing this and thinking you’re winning is pointless wankery.

  50. 50.

    Kropadope

    @beltane:

    This year’s convention will be different, Las Vegas brought to Cleveland courtesy of the Trump campaign.

    I can’t wait for the part where Donald gets up on stage, ostensibly to accept the nomination, then explains to the Republican party for 15 minutes what sadistic sociopaths they are, tells them where to stuff the nomination, and drops the mike.

    The Republicans, unable to challenge Trump’s takedown, do the honorable thing and nominate Bernie for the GE.

  51. 51.

    Mai.naem.mobile

    Christie is aiming for the Sec of Transportation in the Trumpster administration. Hes going to make sure all bridges will remain open at all times.

  52. 52.

    KH

    It’s the year of working class and middle class revolt against the establishment, and Debbie Wasserman Schultz elects to put debates between Bernie and the establishment candidate on Saturday when no one will be watching.

    Mistermix decides he wants incrementalism and Richard Mayhew wants to protect his high-paying insurance gig. And of course the rich white ladies want to eliminate their personal glass ceiling.

    The rich white ladies and “virtue elite” (https://harpers.org/blog/2016/02/nor-a-lender-be/) of the Democratic Party decide to jam HRC down our throats, so instead of a New Deal coalition coming together around Bernie, we have the coalition coming together around Trump: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/431951/donald-trump-gop-future

    If you get out of the liberal cocoon, you can already see Coulter and Frum and Fournier and O’Sullivan and LePage and Christie and the Republican Party waking up and realizing they mustn’t blow this. So they will all line up behind Trump and take the election, as well as all the down-ticket elections.

    Cole (whom I respect) tweets a graph of a poll showing Hillary can beat Trump, but of course it’s based on “likely” voters, which you can forget about in a revolution year. African Americans will not be turning out like they turned out for Obama. (Even if they wanted to, the new voter id laws will take care of that.)

    And the numbers turning out in the Republican primary are way up (while of course Dem numbers are way down–a deliberate part of the strategy to jam HRC down our throats.

    But you guys keep making fun of Christie and “yuuuuge,” and keep counting on the Hispanics (who in Nevada turned out to vote for Trump).

    Mayhew, you’ll get to keep your job, which is all you fucking care about. And Mistermix, enjoy the incremental move to the right for the next 40 years as a once in a lifetime opportunity is once again blown by the Dems.

    There isn’t an amplifier on earth loud enough to convey the passion behind my big Fuck You to you.

  53. 53.

    Kropadope

    @SFAW:

    Will the Coloreds NEVER stop trying to be treated as if they’re more than 3/5ths of a real person? Next thing you know, they’ll want to vote and own a house ‘n’ stuff.

    It’s so awkward seeing people upset about the 3/5 compromise. If slaves counted as whole people while “massa” was still allowed to vote on their behalf, that helps the slaveholders, not the slaves.

    They would have been better off being counted as 0/5 of a person.

  54. 54.

    Mike J

    Jean-Marie Le Pen Verified account@lepenjm
    Si j’étais américain, je voterais Donald TRUMP… Mais que Dieu le protège

  55. 55.

    Amir Khalid

    @Redshift:
    I agree. Chris Christie’s major sins are greed and gluttony. It’s not his fault he looks like the consequences of those sins.

  56. 56.

    PIGL

    @MattF: I wish George Will a very, very long and healthy life. Full of shame, ignominy and regret that stings like a bullet ant.

  57. 57.

    oldgold

    Christie has an easy answer to explain his endorsement of Trump. It is that Trump, despite his faults, is far superior to Cruse or Rubio.

    Although I detest Trump, I agree that he is superior to Cruse or Rubio.

  59. 59.

    Scamp Dog

    @SFAW: nope, he’s right to use the apostrophe, since this “it’s” is the contraction for “it is”. The apostrophe isn’t used for the possessive “its”, unlike the usual possessive formation.

    Your uber-pedantic lesson of the day!

  61. 61.

    Mike J

    @beltane: He’s too busy with Brexit.

    Speaking of which, have you seen the Murdoch quote going around? He said that when he goes into Downing street, they do what he says. When he goes to Brussels, they ignore him.

  64. 64.

    Kropadope

    @KH:

    Mistermix decides he wants incrementalism

    Hey, newsflash, buddy, if either Democratic candidate is elected in November, all you’re getting is incrementalism. If you were a Bernie supporter who actually paid attention to facts and history, you would actually think this a good thing, as Bernie has shown himself the most adept candidate at pushing meaningful incremental changes.

    and Richard Mayhew wants to protect his high-paying insurance gig

    Hey, I don’t like the insurance industry, but that’s pretty fucking unfair. If you’re gonna attack Richard Mayhew, attack him for not being familiar with what Bernie is actually proposing. Actually, don’t do that, because you clearly haven’t dug into the substance beyond the pie-in-the-sky any more than Mayhew has.

    But you guys keep making fun of Christie and “yuuuuge,” and keep counting on the Hispanics (who in Nevada turned out to vote for Trump).

    Trump was the first choice among Latino Republicans. That’s like saying that Carly Fiorina was the first choice among female Fortune 500 CEOs (though I doubt this is actually true, but for comparison’s sake). You think the election is going to turn based on the majority of a minority of a minority?

  65. 65.

    Germy

    @srv: Another endorsement for Trump!

    Jean-Marie Le Pen ✔‎@lepenjm
    Si j’étais américain, je voterais Donald TRUMP… Mais que Dieu le protège !

  66. 66.

    pseudonymous in nc

    @KH:

    But you guys keep making fun of Christie and “yuuuuge,” and keep counting on the Hispanics (who in Nevada turned out to vote for Trump).

    Well, that’s one way to misread exit polling data if you want to appear really dumb.

    Go and have a purity pity party.

  68. 68.

    Kropadope

    @Germy: I never took French, but extrapolating from what I know of Latin and Spanish, I have come to a rough translation, “I’m a racist and I support how well racism is performing in the American election.”

  69. 69.

    Mike in NC

    Christie doesn’t want to be VP. He wants to be Attorney General or get a nomination to the Supreme Court.

  77. 77.

    nutella

    @Mai.naem.mobile:

    Not very much. The savvy trolls know that they’re immediately outed as a Repub when they include “cram [candidate or policy] down our throats” in their screeds.

    (edited)

  88. 88.

    MazeDancer

    Christie may be doing an effective demo of how lively he is as a speaker. So his fees go up on the speaking circuit. He is a natural politician. He can command an audience.

    Every time a cable channel donates more free air to Donald and Chris is on the stump, higher fees. So Chris may not have to wait til 2018 to be the ex-Gov.

  89. 89.

    p.a.

    Issue: yesterday my ipad started locking on headphone jack even after the headphone is removed. restart reactivates the speakers. i don’t see anything in settings i can adjust.
    advice?

  93. 93.

    Chyron HR

    @KH:

    I’ll give the Sanders campaign this much: Just 4 hours after one of their unpaid shills melted down and started screaming that black votes don’t count because they’re too stupid to support Sanders, Tad Devine has already assigned a new volunteer to harangue us into voting for The Great One. That’s a quick response time!

  94. 94.

    MBunge

    I think this election is going to drive me insane. I know I should look at Trump and be repelled but when I compare him to Cruz and Rubio I can’t help but conclude that, even with the anti-Latino stuff, Trump is probably a better person and would be a better President.

    Mike

  99. 99.

    MattF

    @MBunge: Think of the R candidates as denizens of concentric circles of Hell. Cheney is at the center, frozen solid, chewing on Cruz and Rubio. Trump is some distance from the center, but still damned.

  105. 105.

    Corner Stone

    “Unlimited abortion on demand until the moment of delivery”.
    WTF is Cruz talking about. He is such a POS.

  106. 106.

    Germy

    @Mike J:

    I’m guessing #65 of the funnies thread this morning.

    It’s like when undercover cops used to try to infiltrate SDS meetings wearing bell-bottomed jeans but were given away by their black patent leather wingtips.

  111. 111.

    Germy

    Connie: Oh, you’re perfectly safe, Professor, in this boat.
    Wagstaff: I don’t know. I was going to get a flat bottom but the girl at the boat house didn’t have one.
    Connie: Well you know, Professor, I could go on like this, drifting and dreaming forever. What a day! Spring in the air.
    Wagstaff: Who, me? I should spring in the air and fall in the lake?
    Connie: Oh, Professor, you’re full of whimsy.
    Wagstaff: Can you notice it from there? I’m always that way after I eat radishes.

  113. 113.

    Keith P.

    “Donald Trump likes to sue people; he should sue whoever did that to his face,” Rubio then added.

    I’m starting to like this Rubio guy.

  117. 117.

    Germy

    Donald Trump blames Trump University legal woes on ‘hostile’ judge who ‘happens to be Spanish’

  118. 118.

    Applejinx

    While still hopeful that Mr. Rubio might prevail, Mr. McConnell has begun preparing senators for the prospect of a Trump nomination, assuring them that, if it threatened to harm them in the general election, they could run negative ads about Mr. Trump to create space between him and Republican senators seeking re-election. Mr. McConnell has raised the possibility of treating Mr. Trump’s loss as a given and describing a Republican Senate to voters as a necessary check on a President Hillary Clinton, according to senators at the lunches.

    I called this. They would rather govern against Hillary Clinton, than for Donald Trump (to the extent that these guys even want to govern at all: they are trying to trash the joint but leave pork in the barrel for themselves).

    As for coordinated Sanders twitvertism, I saw nothing to indicate that when I was inside the winning NH campaign, and some evidence it was scorned. We called our shredder/trash-paper room the ‘Twitter activism room’. It’s garbage. If you think you see that happening and it’s out of the Sanders campaign you’re projecting, or getting fooled by any of the Republicans who are more than happy to do that stuff. You don’t think Cruz lives for this sort of thing? They want to weaken Dems by dividing them.

  121. 121.

    dmsilev

    @Applejinx: It makes sense from McConnell’s perspective. If you think that Trump is a near-guaranteed loser, switching to “hedge our bets” mode is only sensible. Whether or not it would work is a different question.

  122. 122.

    Keith P.

    @Applejinx: Pretty amazing strategy for Mitch – hope that voters will sweep Hillary into office over the GOP candidate while simultaneously keeping a Senate that is pledged to stop her at every turn. But I guess that’s the best option they’ve got.

  123. 123.

    D58826

    @Keith P.: It seems like there is an ongoing argument on twitter among the GOOPERS about the best way for ROBOMAN to show that the Donald is a con man and a fraud. Now every time I think the GOP has hit peak stupid they take it to the next level. If it takes a Rubio one liner to tell you that Trump is a fraud then you have been living on another planet for the past yea, are brain dead or maybe both. It should have been obvious to anyone with an IQ greater than dishwater than Trump is a con man and carnival barker. Now what is surprising is that he has been able to tap into the legitimate anger and fear of many people who feel that the party bigwigs are willing to take their vote one day every 4 years and then screw them the rest of the time.

  125. 125.

    Keith P.

    @D58826: Those two are going to have to be physically separated at some point. Trump is feeling he can get away with more and more (catch him now trying to physically intimidate a protester?), and Rubio’s starting to come down to Donald’s level on the insults. It’s incredibly unpresidential and embarrassing, but I swear, we’re gonna see Donald jab a finger into Rubio’s chest, it’s gonna get swatted away, and then all hell will break loose.

  127. 127.

    Baud

    @Keith P.: The next GOP debate will be nothing but a series of “Yo Mama” jokes.

    It will sadly be more upscale than what we’ve seen so far from them.

  129. 129.

    dmsilev

    Reproduced from the comment thread on that NYT article:

    Dr. Frankenstien frantically nailed the planks into place, trying to seal his laboratory off from the rest of the world.
    What would happen if the Monster got out? What if people realized he had created it?
    The pounding from the inside increased in intensity. The Monster roared. It sounded like “Yuge!”
    Dr. Frankenstein wondered what that might mean, then resumed hammering on the nails.
    But the door gave way and the boards he was trying to nail in place began to bend under the Monster’s fists.
    Rage. That is all the doctor saw in the contorted, strangely orange face of his creation.
    “Yuge!”
    Splinters began flying from the boards.
    Dr. Frankenstein turned his back and ran. He’d go to the House. There, at least, he’d be safe doing nothing.
    When the questions came, the doctor would deny everything. He’d blame his neighbor, Mr. Obama.
    Yes, that would work. That would deflect attention away from his own nefarious activities, spread over the preceding decades, that had led to this catastrophe.
    It was now up to others to deal with his Creation.
    He wished them luck.

    Heh.

  131. 131.

    dmsilev

    @Baud: Simian dominance rituals. Maybe we can replace Trump with an orangutang at the next debate and see if anyone can tell the difference. The ape will probably be more coherent, that’s for sure.

  132. 132.

    Chyron HR

    @Applejinx:

    Speaking as a Sanders campaign staffer who came to this site to shill for Bernie, I categorically deny that the Sanders campaign is sending staffers to this site to shill for Bernie.

    Well, that’s settled, then!

  133. 133.

    Baud

    @dmsilev: It’s funny, until you realize that, at the last debate, Trump was the only one of the top three to commit to “letting the good ones back in” and “not letting people die in the street.”

  134. 134.

    Keith P.

    The last few days have been like a fine wine, aged patiently under proper conditions for 30+ years. Finally, the bottle has been taken out, dusted off, and is currently being decanted. Cheers!

  135. 135.

    Ruckus

    @D58826:
    TRump has been a con man for all of his adult life. That he is being a successful con at right wing politics surprises you? That’s all the rubes have been looking for, they don’t actually care about governing, they care about having their egos fed. TRumps con is feeding that. It’s all he has and all they want. It’s a match made in…… PT Barnum’s memory.

  141. 141.

    Scamp Dog

    @Corner Stone: that actually is the rule, even if it seems off. Not the way things would be done if English followed self-consistent rules, but languages grow and accrete without anybody really being in charge.

  144. 144.

    dmsilev

    @MattF: Well, they’re already throwing metaphorical poop at each other. Would it be so surprising if the metaphor becomes reality?

  145. 145.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    @rikyrah:

    Nothing to see here, move along. It’s the economy stupid – my BernieBro FB feed just had clickbait floating really old white guy Noam Chomsky as the Secretary of Education in Bernie’s admin, because that would be really revolutionary or some such stupid shit.

  151. 151.

    sdhays

    @Kropadope: I don’t see what’s awkward about being upset about the 3/5ths compromise. Since before the founding of the United States of America, the vast majority of Americans believed that people from Africa (or their descendants) were sub-human. When drafting the US Constitution, the Founding Fathers finally hammered out an explicit quantification of just how sub-human these people were: 3/5. They codified it into the central governing document of our country, thus explicitly endorsing the reasonableness of this idea.

    When the Constitution was ratified, lots of people were counted in the Census and used to attribute representation in Congress without having the right to vote – basically anyone who wasn’t a man with land and at least 21 years old. This is still true – the Census counts immigrants and citizens who are not yet of age to vote (there’s a Supreme Court challenge currently pending on this subject).

    It’s true that the argument for counting slaves, who in all other aspects of law were essentially cattle, in order to apportion representation in Congress was pretty perverse and, as a purely political issue, 3/5ths was a better outcome than having them count as full persons since such an outcome would only have further empowered their explicit oppressors. But it still comes down to the fact that the idea of African-descendants being sub-human – 3/5ths of a human – was written into the DNA of this country before it was founded, and it’s still an idea which continues to haunt us.

  152. 152.

    Jeffro

    @Kropadope:

    I can’t wait for the part where Donald gets up on stage, ostensibly to accept the nomination, then explains to the Republican party for 15 minutes what sadistic sociopaths they are, tells them where to stuff the nomination, and drops the mike.

    I’ve thought/fantasized about this periodically for months…

    “…it was easy, you slack-jawed morons…all I had to do was keep you all riled up, spout ‘Make America Great Again’ every two minutes and you were putty in my hands. Remember when I poured that water bottle out and threw it over my shoulder, saying it was Rubio? Pure WWF, you dummies…and you ate it up, every bit of it…”

    Never happen, but nothing would or could EVER top it if it did.

  153. 153.

    D58826

    @Applejinx: Put on your forward looking goggles – do you thinkl the Bernie folks will rally behind HRC if she is the nominee in the same fashion that the HRC/pumas rallied behind Obama in 2008? And I would serious hope the HRC folks would do the same if Bernie is the nominee. Serious question not trying to be snarky.

  154. 154.

    D58826

    @Ruckus: I’m not surprised that Trump is a con man. As I asked on an earlier thread I was never sure if he started this just to create a new summer reality show or if he thought he could actually pull it off. I’m just surprised that the GOP poohbahs think they can take him down by pointing out that blindingly obvious fact to the rubes this late in the game. .

  155. 155.

    D58826

    @Keith P.: Well look on the bright side when they lose in the fall both of them will have a promising new career with the WWF pro wrestling circuit. They would fit right into the con.

  158. 158.

    Mr Stagger Lee

    Saw the CNN clip of a young man wearing a “Trump Endorses KKK” shirt also with a Yellow Star of David with the word “Juden”. Trump wanted to jump off the stage a nd stomp him. While the person was whisked away Trump wished the days when the police would responded faster. (I guess the protester taken to a place and tuned up a bit)

  159. 159.

    eemom

    I wish to weigh in with those on this thread who have noted that, loathsome as Trump is, he’s still LESS loathsome than Cruz, Rubio and the other also-rans. Aside from their various flip flops on immigration, there is not one of his hideous “proposals” that they’re not 100% on board with. And they, unlike him, are committed to those things; there’s simply no way of knowing what Trump would actually do as God forbid president, because everything he says is made up as he goes along.

    I could be wrong, but I also think it’s possible that Trump does possess a shred or two of human decency inside all that bluster — e.g., that “dying in the streets” exchange the other night. There is NOT a shred of human decency in any of the rest of them — of that I’m certain.

    All of which is to say, I’m not sure I get the fact that some of the “OMG Trump must be stopped” hysteria is coming from the LEFT. There is absolutely zero chance of the republican party putting forth a less horrific candidate…..only a less obvious one.

  160. 160.

    Jeffro

    @Mr Stagger Lee: I sure hope it does not happen , but I keep getting this feeling – and the feeling is stronger every day – that before this thing is over there is going to be some serious violence at a Trump rally.

    That is going to be quite a moment in American politics, media, and history.

  161. 161.

    benw

    @D58826:

    Put on your forward looking goggles – do you thinkl the Bernie folks will rally behind HRC if she is the nominee

    My anecdotal evidence is that even the most wildly enthusiastic Bernie supporters I know are going full-Dem in the general. Fuck 3rd party and fuck staying home. Clinton vs Trumpubiocruz is pretty clarifying.

  162. 162.

    D58826

    @srv: It’s a well known fact that Obama assassinated Lincoln. He was dressed up in white farce with a John Wilkes Booth mask on. :-)

  163. 163.

    Calouste

    @srv: I should be surprised that such badly written garbage makes it into the “paper of record”, but I am not.

    Btw, fuckface, you left out a little bit:

    The Trump uprising is first and foremost a Republican and conservative problem:

  164. 164.

    Redshift

    @Corner Stone:

    “Unlimited abortion on demand until the moment of delivery”.
    WTF is Cruz talking about. He is such a POS.

    I had C-SPAN on briefly this afternoon, and they had a Rubio speech where he was declaring “in a world that is more dangerous than ever before, why has Barack Obama shrunk our military?”

    Nice job of packing two lies into one question, asshole, and laying bare the conservative strategy of “you should be very afraid and let strong daddy project you.” And he still managed to come off as whiny instead of tough.

  167. 167.

    Johnnybuck

    @eemom: I agree with you. I have no idea what the man believes, but I know exactly what the other gang of four believe.

  168. 168.

    Redshift

    @benw: Not to mention that when asked directly, they each made clear they have great respect for the other and consider them vastly better than any of the Republicans. When Bernie is campaigning for Hillary in the general election, or vice versa, only the most butthurt of supporters will be able to stick with an attitude of taking their marbles and going home.

    (Hey, my spellchecker recognizes “butthurt”! I guess I have been hanging around here for a pretty long time!)

  169. 169.

    Calouste

    Rubio is trying to take on Trump by borrowing a line about “Hair Force One”. I assume Trump will come back with something along the lines of that he will start paying attention to Rubio and his flopsweat when he actually has won a primary.

  171. 171.

    Mike J

    @Calouste:

    Josh Marshall Verified account @joshtpm

    Already campaign roadkill, Rubio gave Trump his ultimate victory today when he decided to rebrand himself as trash talking Trump Jr

  174. 174.

    Corner Stone

    I am completely over tired of Brian Williams trying to make inside joke after inside joke bullshit. Shut up, fabulist.

  175. 175.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @SFAW: Actually, the original was correct: “it’s” is the contraction for “it is,” while”its” denotes the possessive. Now back to my pedantic lurking. Carry on, dear virtual BJ friends….

  176. 176.

    Redshift

    @eemom: I think they’re dangerous in entirely different ways. Cruz and Rubio are horrible (about equally) from a conventional policy perspective. Trump may well not pursue some of the standard awful conservative priorities (though who knows?), but he’s dangerous because he has an openly violent and nativist cult of personality, which would be horrible in entirely different way if he were actually to become president. I honestly don’t think it’s possible to predict which would be worse.

    I think it will be better for us overall if he wins the nomination, because he provokes such a visceral reaction in both directions (at the campaign office today, one of the phone bankers was remarking that the most common response from uncommitted voters about who they favor is either “Trump” or “not Trump!”). But I don’t hear any liberals saying Trump must be stopped from getting the nomination. Do you?

  177. 177.

    D58826

    @Johnnybuck: I agree also. Trump is much more his own creation so he doesn’t owe a lot of political debts to the crazy wing of the GOP like Cruz and Rubio or Kaisch who is much more the establishment guy. He would also would not be a indebted to the money-men since he is one himself. He would find it easier to go off-script and maybe, for example propose improving Obamacare rather than repealing it on his first day in office. Still a risk I would rather not take.

    I saw a twitter link on how to apply for a Canadian citizenship if the GOP wins in November. Good that someone is planning ahead.

  178. 178.

    Applejinx

    @Chyron HR: Um, I used to post here as Jinxtigr. I am the one Angry Black Lady liked for posting a simple and coherent explanation of how chaos theory applied to global warning. Now you’re just getting silly. I’ve probably been here longer than you.

  179. 179.

    Johnnybuck

    @D58826: Oh hell no! He is completely unqualified to be President, is a complete loose cannon beholden to no one.
    I’m still holding out that he’s a complete fraud.

  181. 181.

    Redshift

    @D58826:

    Still a risk I would rather not take.

    Yeah, I’d rather not play out It Can’t Happen Here in real life just to see how it ends. I’d like to think my fellow citizens are better than that, but I don’t trust them enough to bet my country on it.

  182. 182.

    Ruckus

    @Jeffro:
    @D58826:
    Considering where/who dRump came from and his life up till now, I’m thinking it isn’t a game for him. Like anyone with his type of personality, he believes his own shit, and that his shit doesn’t stink. How could it, it’s so much better than everyone else’s. He is a con man with no one left to con in his line of business, he’s burned most of the bridges and gold plated his name on the ones left. This is his last hurrah, conning the rubes. Remember that he is positive that he is better than everyone else so he’s positive that he can do this simple job of being president. So when the greasy old poop powers that be decide that they can’t live with him they will be out of luck, unless they manipulate the election to get their desired robot put in place.

  183. 183.

    Applejinx

    @D58826: I don’t know. I see a shitload of people not willing to take the long view. I am doing my level best to fantasize scenarios where electing Hillary wouldn’t be horrible, encouraged by about 3/5s of the Clinton people here (those that are not happier considering me an alien robot from Bernie Planet and as unreachable as an ardent Cruz voter, which is super insulting really)

    If I can picture these Hillary-okay scenarios then so can others. They invariably require her looking to her legacy and paying attention to what the hell is happening out there, and in fact leading the DNC, who seem to be made up of that 2/5 that think ‘anyone not with us, or saying mean hurtful things, are ENEMIES and unreachable’. That is madness in this political climate, and yet they keep being the ones running things.

    There’s some chance people will rally behind Clinton even if she (or her people) remain adversarial. I honestly think Clinton tries way harder than her friends to, to reach out. FFS if she’s willing to yap at evildoers, that’s pretty freaking human (well, canine, but you get the idea). That’s really going out on a limb to sell the idea ‘I WILL SO go after evildoers and liars’.

    Bernie will try as hard as he can to win, but he will not run third party and if called to support Clinton, he will express to his people two things: one, that they need to stay aligned and strong as a third wave in American politics, and two, that they need to throw their weight behind the Democratic nominee in such a way that the Dems REMEMBER who delivered the election. This is not a coalition to walk away from, and nobody on the Bernie side plans to go back to sleep, or to put much stock in the DNC being much use, especially in midterms.

    That might be confusing for people: delivering a Dem victory, but decrying Democrats. I can only say look at the alternatives. Our bench sucks too, if this is the best we can do.

  185. 185.

    eemom

    @Redshift:

    he’s dangerous because he has an openly violent and nativist cult of personality, which would be horrible in entirely different way if he were actually to become president.

    Totally agree with this. And I think it is why, after 7 years of despicable and unconscionable Hitler/Nazi analogies, there’s finally one which needs to be taken seriously.

    Again, the fact that he’s totally unpredictable is the key. The only thing we know for sure is that he’s a megalomaniac.

    But I don’t hear any liberals saying Trump must be stopped from getting the nomination. Do you?

    I’m hearing a generic “OMG Trump must be stopped”, without specification re nomination or general election. Basically, a visceral horror of President Trump that causes folks to abandon cool headed political calculation.

  186. 186.

    D58826

    @Applejinx: to borrow from an lamented Sec. of Defense – you go with the candidate that you have not the one that you would like to have.

    @Johnnybuck: I agree he is completely unqualified but a loose cannon can slide left as well as right. The only way I would be comfortable with a Trump presidency would be if he and I were the only two people left on the planet and I had a large cup of coffee laced with hemlock!!!

  187. 187.

    debbie

    I wonder if the Republicans saw this coming when they decided not to act on an Obama Supreme Court nomination.

    Dow wusses out.

    Will the GOP be too proud to change their tune (which fat man is singing this song?) or will they let corporations twist in the wind?

  188. 188.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    ICYMI – Kevin Drum – Liberals need to back off on the Trump love:

    No liberal wants to see a conservative in the Oval Office. Not Rubio, not any of the others. But there’s a difference between accepting an ordinary member of the opposition party and accepting a fatuous clown like Donald Trump. The former will enact lots of policies we hate, but that’s democracy for you. We’ve been through it before and we’ll go through it again. The latter is a mockery of everything democracy stands for.

    Even if you assume that Marco Rubio might be more technically destructive of liberal policies than Trump — an unlikely but admittedly possible outcome — Trump would be more destructive of the very core of liberalism. If we’re willing to accept bigotry and belligerence and just plain inanity — along with the small but genuine chance of a something truly catastrophic taking place on his watch — just for the sake of maybe getting a slightly better outcome on a few liberal policies, we really ought to just hang it up.

    Yup.

    I hope Rubio and Cruz stick around and batter Trump for many months to come. Weakening the Teabagger Party is something that we can all agree on, I hope.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  189. 189.

    D58826

    @Applejinx:

    I am doing my level best to fantasize scenarios where electing Hillary wouldn’t be horrible,

    Well if Hillary is the nominee I hope you and your fellow Bernie supports realize that no matter how bad a Hillary presidency might be (and I emphasize might) it will be orders of magnitude worse if the GOP wins.

    By 2018 let alone 2020, Bernie’s third wave will be starting from a political world of 1870 and not 2016. A world with Obamacare might not be as good as one with single payer but its a darn sight better than a world with no unions, no minimum wage laws, no EPA and clean air and water, and no OSHA. Want to see a world that the GOP will create look at the coal mines exploding in China or the building collapses in India, etc. Poisoning people in Flint will be just the opening round of the GOP march backwards.

  190. 190.

    Applejinx

    @D58826: Boy, ain’t that the truth. We are doing our level best to run with Bernie in the belief that he’s the best option for a real ‘throw the establishment out’ type of year. If we can’t win the primary it’s evidence of how tough Clinton is, plus evidence she’s listening as if she was only trying to run 2008 again she would never have got this far. She IS working at it, working super hard. We want that…

    At least we’ll have the blessing of a repugnant opponent! :D

  191. 191.

    WaterGirl

    If I were a candidate on the republic side, I wouldn’t drop out at this point. There’s too much crazy not to think that anything could happen, so I would stay in.

  193. 193.

    D58826

    @Applejinx: I’m old enough to remember the ‘clean with Gene’ movement in 1968 and the bitter disappointment when it didn’t happen. The next step was ‘dump the hump’ which is exactly what happened and we got Nixon. Any one want to fantasize about the SCOTUS nominees that 8 years of old Hubert would have given us???? . Going down in flames doesn’t help anyone. You have to live to fight another day even if that means taking only a small step now. It does’t lend itself to soaring rhetoric but sometimes that is the best you can do.

  195. 195.

    Ruckus

    @Applejinx:
    Maybe it’s that you seem to constantly write like a berniebot, that the world will come to an end if Clinton is elected. In this comment you write, “I am doing my level best to fantasize scenarios where electing Hillary wouldn’t be horrible.” This probably doesn’t enlist supporters for you from those that prefer Clinton over Sanders. You seem to have bought every piece of conservative bullshit of the last 30 yrs. So the pushback may not be all that uninvited, even if you don’t think it is.
    Now I will say that both Clinton and Sanders are not ideal candidates, but they are who we have and as I believe you have stated both are so far ahead of any of the conservative candidates that there is no choice but to elect them. In my decades of voting they are both actually pretty decent candidates but it is still not all that difficult to have a favorite between them. Just remember, it HAS to be one of them in Nov. Any other choice will be a disaster. So why not at least not inflame those endorsing not your choice? Work for your choice but by giving their positives rather than a negative campaign. We need those that lose the nomination to stay in our camp and vote.

  196. 196.

    Applejinx

    @D58826: I would rather speculate on how GOOD a Hillary presidency might (repeat, might!) be, for practice.

    One thing about it, if we intend to turn her toward our way of thinking and away from the circles she’s been moving in for decades (as they ALL do, with Bernie stubbornly being the exception), we cannot do it by being poo-flinging monkeys. We gotta show positive things for her to emulate, which she can do more cautiously. I see some evidence of that but the proof will be when/if she’s in the White House, trying to win re-election.

    Which will begin immediately, so let’s keep our messages real clear. No more NAFTA. It seemed right at the time, but it failed the country even as it made a few well-connected people wealthy. She has GOT to do better than the Republicans at siding with the electorate, and backing it up. Seems possible.

  198. 198.

    Steve in the ATL

    @O. Felix Culpa:

    I see that the pedants among us were ahead of me (delightful) and pointing out correct use of the subjunctive (swoon).

    There is no shortage of pedants here. If we aren’t enough for you, LGM is even worse. Or better, depending on your predilection.

  199. 199.

    Applejinx

    @D58826: 1968 was the tail end of a long, long period of Democratic control: ‘Camelot’, even. It was the initial wave of a right-wing swing that only began with Nixon and persisted through Reagan. Right now it’s the opposite: while Obama’s been amazing, in practical terms Republicans have continued to hold the country, as they’ve done since Reagan.

    Just as 1968 (my birth year!) was the signal for a decades-long swing to the right, so 2016 can and will be the signal for a decades-long swing to the left. For fuck’s sake, we’re pretty close to running an old avowed Socialist for President, and many polls suggest he has a better shot at winning. Rightwing conservatism has shot its bolt for now, because evidence of what it does when too extreme is all around us, too recent to ignore.

  201. 201.

    Applejinx

    @Ruckus: I’m more interested in macroeconomics than anything else: if you want me to warm to Clinton, remind me of social justice, racial justice, these things that might be helped by economic recovery but really need stronger leadership than Bernie provides for them.

    Anytime I’m really taking a dark tone about Hillary, it’s almost certainly because I think she’s too insulated from people’s lived experience in 2016, and it’s almost certainly about economic issues. Or it’s the honesty thing and I don’t see that as so horrible an accusation: practically nobody in politics is the least bit honest, Clinton is possibly more honest than Trump for all his posturing and way more honest than anybody else save Bernie, for whom that is a fault as much as it is a virtue (if he had a bit more ‘pander’ in him, he wouldn’t alienate people like he does).

    I wish I spoke for more people in that: I see a lot of them acting like people accuse ME of acting, making her out to be some tyrant schemer. She’s just a working American politician. They all do stuff that’s awkward to explain.

    I let pass, upthread, a bunch of talk about how Bernie wouldn’t explain his vote not to close Gitmo. Of course he lives to explain at length, and did explain all those things, and the deal with Gitmo was they were gonna move it onto US soil and not change a thing. Dealbreaker right there. But people will call that ‘voted not to close Gitmo’. You always have to deal with crap like that if you’re in politics.

  202. 202.

    D58826

    @Applejinx: No more NAFTA. It seemed right at the time, but it failed the country even as it made a few well-connected people wealthy.

    And that is THE problem. It seemed like a good idea at the time. A lot of things seem like a good idea when they are passed but turn out not to be. Hillary is being criticized for the ‘super predator’ comment even though the full quote has her limiting it to a small number of people not all black youth. She wasn’t the only one using that phrase in 1996. The crime bill that has turned out so bad had bi-partisan support. It even had a lot of support in the African American community since it was their communities that were bearing the brunt of the crime wave. Heck Bernie even voted fore the bill. I suspect he figured that it was 70% good and 30% bad so he would take what he could get. Politics is the art of the possible. The question is has Hillary learned from her (and Bill’s) mistakes. They both have said that they now regret supporting the law and want to move in new directions.

    The year 1968 has another lesson – the disappointed ‘clean with Gene’ rebels did throw the establishment out. They made a lot of improvements and opened up the process. The result was George McGovern and that didn’t work out so well either. I’m not trying to draw an analogy between McGovern and Bernie, the times have changed to much for that but ‘throwing the establishment out’ doesn’t always get you to a better place. I just lean toward get in and fix up the parts that aren’t working rather than burn it down and start from scratch. I suspect there are a lot of ‘establishment’ folks who are just as disgusted with doing things the old fashion way as are Bernie’s supported.

    This year’s election is going to have to be a defensive one for the progressive vision. Keeping the WH in 2016 will let you move to the state and local level and begin to make changes there. The democrats have to start taking back state governments and reversing the gerrymandering that will see the House in teaparty hands till 2022 and maybe even 2032. A GOP lead SCOTUS will gut what is left of the union movement in this country and will eliminate a major source of money and GOTV support on election day. Gerrymandering will continue. A conservative court will probably go along with the idea that election districts should be drawn up based on voters rather than people, which will tilt the playing field even further to the right.

    Hillary might not be the answer to a progressive’s prtayer but if she can draw a line in the sand and begin to reverse the teaparty gains then that is progress.

  203. 203.

    D58826

    @Applejinx: Yep it is rather amazing that

    old avowed Socialist for President

    has gotten has far along as he has. Almost as amazing as that AA guy with the funny name living at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave right now.

  206. 206.

    Nate Dawg

    @Applejinx: If you want to do something to actually change the path of the country, you start forming the Tea Party of the Left–right now.

    This party will

    a) Protest the President’s actions in a loud obnoxious way, garnering media attention and attracting fellow travelers

    and

    b) Threaten Democratic incumbents in “safe” districts with well-funded primary challenges from the left

    and

    c) Be the LOUDEST voice in the room on a few pet issues by flooding Congresscritters with letters, emails, phonecalls, salt bags, you name it!

    That’s really it. That’s enough.

    We don’t need occupations of public spaces. We don’t need meaningless interruptions at public events. We need strategies that actually threaten our politician’s ability to win re-election. That is why the Tea Party has been successful and BLM and Occupy haven’t.

    Get IN the tent, and then make a LOT of noise. That’s the way to make progress in the U.S.A.

  207. 207.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @D58826: A quick overview of the lessons of four Presidential elections applied to the Sanders campaign:

    1968: The more conventional components of the antiwar movement rallied behind the candidacy Senator Eugene McCarthy (D-MN) who came within 5% of the incumbent President in the NH primary; LBJ dropped out, RFK jumped in but was assassinated the night he won the CA primary; at the Democratic convention in Chicago the regulars made VP Hubert Humphrey the party’s Presidential nominee while the Chi-town cops beat & teargassed “clean-for-Gene” young folks in the streets. The antiwar movement went home & sat on its hands during the general election. We got Nixon for the first time. I was a college freshman.

    1972: After the GOP ratfuckers took down leading contender Ed Muskie (D-ME), antiwar candidate George McGovern (D-SD) accumulated enough convention delegates to win the nomination. The regulars put up Humphrey as their last-ditch choice & put their hopes on a floor fight at the convention to revoke the unit rule for the CA delegation & thereby deny McGovern a majority. The McGovern forces upheld the unit rule & won the nomination, whereupon the regulars said, Much good may it do you–we’re going home to throw our $$$ & manpower behind downticket races. When the regulars sat out the Presidential race, we got Nixon again.

    1976: Peanut farmer, evangelical Christian, former nuclear officer in the US Navy & one-term Governor of Georgia Jimmy Carter came out of nowhere to win not only the Democratic nomination for President but the Presidency itself…& practically from the instant he & wife Rosalynn got out of the limo to walk the route of the Inaugural Parade, the national media began a ceaseless denigration of the Administration as a bunch of bumbling rubes & imbeciles, & his attempts to rally the American people behind energy conservation were ridiculed.

    1980: The hostage crisis & oil embargo triggered when Carter allowed the refugee Shah of Iran to enter the US for cancer treatment–a morally decent but geopolitically unwise decision–damaged him to where party regulars coalesced behind Ted Kennedy in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to deny him renomination. With GOP operatives actively colluding with the Khomeini regime to keep the US hostages from being released before the election, Reagan won a decisive victory in November.

    The morals I draw from the above thumbnail history:

    1968: When insurgents demand purity from establishment candidates & sit the election out, the Party & the Nation both suffer. (Or do you think President Humphrey wouldn’t have been a better & more progressive President than Tricky Dick?)

    1972: When the party regulars lose out to an insurgent Presidential candidate, they have the option of tending their own gardens & letting the national ticket fend for itself, & while limiting their pain causes the Nation to suffer.

    1976, 1980: When a Party outsider becomes President but fails to develop ties to the regulars, s/he has few defenders against the constant sniping from “insiders” that can produce an ineffective & abbreviated Presidency.

    My heart is with Sanders & “democratic socialism”–but my vote is going to Clinton. Among other things, the “Democratic socialist wing” of the Democratic Party has no bench. IMHO Bernie needed to have started preparing for this run by laying some electoral infrastructure in place at least 5 years back. As it is, the closer he comes to winning the nomination, winning the Presidency, & ultimately disappointing everyone who wants their personal pink socialist unicorn yesterday (I don’t blame the young’uns–I’m looking at the Bolshevik Babies of 1950, the old farts who ought to know better leading them off the cliff) the nearer he gets to wrecking the brand for another generation–after which it will be far too late. YMMV.

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