Wednesday, June 21, 2017

Georgia 6 and the future of the Republic

What does Democrat Jon Ossof's loss to Republican Karen Handler foretell?

True, he was not a strong candidate, but neither was she.

Millions of dollars were spent by both sides. Didn't make a difference for either.

Are there some districts that are immune to voting for Democrats (even if it was close).

The comforting notion that the Democrats are going to take the House in 2018 looks to me like it's going down the rabbit hole. 

Democrats Seethe After Georgia Loss: ‘Our Brand Is Worse Than Trump’

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/21/us/pelosi-georgia-ossoff-democrats.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=photo-spot-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news


 

22 comments:

  1. This was a travesty. That the Democratic party could not muster up a stronger candidate than Ossoff is crazy. Worse, the Dems are letting the GOP grab the prevailing narrative thread, that government is bad, liberals are violent (that's why they love Muslim extremists), and that the rest of the world is out to screw us.

    Bernie taught Our Young People what Democratic values look like. Whether they will be so disheartened during the next four years that they become apathetic remains to be seen.

    The way the House's health care plan is being reworked is really weird.

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  2. And here is President Trump's tweet this morning:

    Democrats would do much better as a party if they got together with Republicans on Healthcare,Tax Cuts,Security. Obstruction doesn't work!

    I agree that obstruction doesn't work, but the Dems (and some Republicans) have been shut out of the health care bill process. So far, they haven't obstructed anything.

    Maybe I've been watching too much "House of Cards," but I wonder if the GOP wants their bill to fail. They know the bill is crap and won't work. So they can continue to let Obamacare fail in some states and blame Democrats rather then coming up with any workable plan, which they can't agree on in their own party, much less with Dems. As our president noted, who knew health care was so complicated???

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  3. Interesting post-election the story that Pelosi and "her San Francisco values" loomed large in the ad war. I have come to admire her stamina and like her more than I once did. But it's clear that "San Francisco values" are never going to win south of the Mason-Dixon line.

    Stealth Health care Bill...very weird. How much is being pinned on moderate Repubs...They'll cave except for Susan Collins and maybe Lisa Murkowski and that's all Mitch McConnell needs. Of course, they'll have to go into a reconciliation conference with the House. And by then, how many states will be without insurers? Craxy...

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    1. "San Fransisco values" is code for godless gays and fellow travelers, no? I'm sure it plays that way in the precinct in question.

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    2. Check out Ann C's link to Douthat..There are some other issues for "SF values," including immigration.

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    3. San Francisco values include such things as progress, diversity, inclusion, tolerance, opportunity, etc. Definitely anathema in many parts of AmuriKKKa.

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  4. I contributed $4 to Ossoff. After that the Dems and Ossoff sent me endless emails and phone calls for more money for this race. At one point I wrote back and told them of my own money problems. No one responded and the asks for money continued unabated.

    I recall Bernie would not endorse Ossoff as a "progressive" - wonder if that had an effect.

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    1. Being tagged as a "Berniac" would have been even worse for Ossoff than as a follower of Pelosi and San Francisco Values.

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  5. The Democrats are continuing to hope that Trump will implode and take the Republicans down with him. They are not offering any alternative.

    Trump could implode if he got involved in a real foreign disaster; however his unpredictable foreign adventures could unite the country behind him. It was scary how many Democrats and media people united behind his Syrian bombing episode.

    The young people whom I met who were for Bernie expected to have to wait 8 years for a candidate. They presumed Hilary would be in the White House that long. I don't think that lackluster Democratic candidates and issues are going to turn them out any sooner.

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  6. Trump is right to this extent: The Ds have no message. They just proved that not only can you not beat somebody with nobody, Ds can't even beat nobody with nobody.

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  7. Two other op columns in today's NYT are worth reading. It seems that moderate-ness in the US has simply disappeared. Two parties of extremes and the days of cooperation and compromise seem long gone.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/21/opinion/in-search-of-the-american-center.html?em_pos=small&emc=edit_ty_20170621&nl=opinion-today&nl_art=2&nlid=79541265&ref=headline&te=1

    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/21/opinion/where-did-we-the-people-go.html?em_pos=small&emc=edit_ty_20170621&nl=opinion-today&nl_art=3&nlid=79541265&ref=headline&te=1

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    1. Thanks Anne C: First link to a Douthat column. Sobering about problems of both Repubs and Dems. About Dems:
      "On immigration, for instance, public opinion had actually become modestly more liberal in the years leading up to Trump — but the Democrats are now almost an open-borders party, so even modest skepticism about immigration tends to push voters toward the Republicans. On abortion, where public opinion has been stable, Democrats have ditched their old attempts at moderation, undercutting the gains that secularization and the liberal turn on other culture-war issues should have naturally delivered them. And the party’s base has no patience anymore for the kind of careful triangulation that Bill Clinton practiced on issues like crime and welfare policy, or for the then-Democratic voters who were reassured by it."

      His explanation of the chart he's describing is clearer than the chart.

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  8. TB: "Ds can't even beat nobody with nobody."

    You said it. I know you'll forgive me: harking back to my Chicago childhood. Back then, a nobody couldn't run for anything, if they hadn't served a 20 year apprenticeship in the precincts of the Democratic Party. And even then, they had to wait for a vacancy.

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    1. I think you had to kiss the first Richard Daly's ring in a midnight ceremony in a graveyard, too. That guy was a piece of work. I miss him and Mike Royko.

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    2. Right. For all of their foibles (not necessarily vices), they knew their people and they knew what they were doing. And for all its racism (I think Chicago is still the most segregated city in the country), Chicago has trained and elected more African-American politicians than any other city in the country...and not just Obama.

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    3. Ya gotta love Royko for saying things like this: "It's much harder to be a liberal than a conservative. Why? Because it is easier to give someone the finger than a helping hand". (http://www.azquotes.com/quote/876078)


      Here are some more of his: http://www.azquotes.com/author/12724-Mike_Royko

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    4. Haha! Jimmy, I never heard that one. Royko used to appear in the Detroit Free Press. His series about Frank Sinatra sending his goons over to hassle him were priceless.

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  9. Here is an unfortunately now uncommon collaborative effort of a Democratic and a Republican governor to develop a health care compromise. The governors are John Kasich of Ohio and John Hickenlooper of Colorado. Worth reading; whether it can influence the process is another question.

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  10. Handler won by six points when her predecessor won by twenty points. And this was against a complete unknown and after the GOP spent something like 40 million on the election.

    This was a heavy red district that went Republican in 1979 and has done so ever since.

    Politics is about learning. What the GA election did do was show that the Democrats could raise tens of millions in small donations nationwide (the Republicans mostly used PAC money) for a local race. They showed that they could make a significant dent even with a total unknown.

    The GOP showed (and this is what is really important to them) that they could run a winning candidate despite and not because of Trump. Handel avoided mentioning his name throughout her campaign. For myself, I am hoping that this Republican victory tells the Republicans and Senators that they can continue in their destructive ways. Because Trump the "maverick" has been selling out his base all along. The GOP just doesn't see it yet.

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    1. The small donor strategy is very important. That was the most impressive part of Sanders campaign.

      What we small donors need is some vetting mechanisms so that we can make better decisions about what candidates to support, especially if they are in districts far away.

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  11. Republicans should be breathing a sigh of relief, not taking a victory lap over the Georgia outcome. As other people pointed out, it is a very red district and the Democratic candidate wasn't the strongest. (As a Democrat myself, even I would think twice about voting for a political neophyte and a carpetbagger.)

    But I think the Democratic party has lost its way. Working people really have been left behind and people in poverty have much less opportunity to climb out of it today. One party plays to them by telling them either overtly or subtly that their problems can be blamed on those weaker than them (today its the Mexicans and the Muslims), the other tells them to blame the more powerful- the corporations and the 1%.

    If a real populist came along and genuinely focused on the needs of ALL of the struggling people here and put together real proposals for jobs, health care and education, that candidate would go far.

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  12. Think you can tie yourself in knots and never figure out why this happened. Until Congress and/or every state moves to non-partisan drawing of districts, we will continue to deal with the Republican tilt that has little reflection on how folks actually vote - e.g. Clinton got 3 million + more votes but Trump won hundreds of districts.

    Why?

    http://www.pressreader.com/usa/the-dallas-morning-news/20170625/281552290865734

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