Fighting Back against the Right Wing Political Machine

Since our other thread on Whither Democrats appears to be encountering the forum’s thread-length-event-horizon, we need a new thread for Liberals and Democrats to talk about pushing back and going forward.

To start things off, here is a truly fantastic political call to battle by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse. I encourage everyone to read the article.

Here’s a sample:

"We followed Republicans down the cap-and-trade climate road Republicans had invented, instead of using simpler methods to control carbon emissions—and Republicans savaged us for the complexity of the scheme Republicans had originally invented. We followed Republicans down the RomneyCare managed-market health insurance road to ObamaCare, instead of using a simple public option—and Republicans savaged us for the complexity of the scheme Republicans had originally invented.

We ought never to model the Trump administration’s ignorance, mendacity, corruption, partisanship, or eagerness to play to hatreds and resentments. But we can certainly learn from them that we don’t need to walk away from a fight. We can certainly learn that we don’t need to start on the other side’s terms, or quail in front of blowback (particularly scripted, artificial blowback). This needn’t sacrifice bipartisanship. We can be strong and play hard and be respected. Bipartisanship opportunities will actually be both more likely and more fruitful if we’ve played a strong hand well."

To jumpstart some discussions, here are a few things I distilled from the article:

1)If an issue is worth fighting for, fight for it, damnit.

Here’s the quote:

“I remember being told at the White House as I lamented their decision to walk away, “Sheldon, we’re just not going to take on any fights we’re not sure we can win.” Think about that attitude for a minute. If you only take on the fights you’re sure you can win, you’re gonna miss a lot of fights, and most of the important ones.”

2)Don’t just “respond” to lies, fake news, and right wing media BS, attack it.

Here’s the quote:

“Understanding and outing the network behind the “flying monkeys” is particularly important, because just responding to it with weaponized fake news of our own would be degrading to our democracy. Here particularly, we must expose their apparatus, not replicate it. And when we expose one, we expose all; because it’s the same crew behind packing the courts, denying climate change, running the dark money machine, and weaponizing fake news.”

3)Read the sections on “Being a Ridiculously Cheap Date”, “Being Disorganized and Incapable of Running Plays” and “Circular Firing Squads and Purity Tests”.

4)In particular, read the secton on “The Real Majority”.

I understand some liberal reluctance to organize nationally at a political/tactical level but we just don’t have a choice IMO.

And many of Whitehouse’s ideas are just no-brainers to me.

Thanks for posting this (I posted it in the center-right thread in hopes it would get some attention, but alas it did not.) It’s required reading IMO.

Posting a lengthy section here as it really captures the essence of the political climate and speaks to the efficacy of right wing attacks - and the nearly non-existent push back from Democratic leaders.

Which brings me to the third fight we declined to engage: In the wake of Citizens United, all that newly-unlimited political money swiftly found its way into dark-money channels. The most prevalent dark-money channels were probably illegal under IRS rules, and simple clarifications of those rules could have eliminated any doubt. Because the political use of these IRS-regulated entities was probably illegal, the dark-money outfits filed forms with the IRS that were often false, or at least materially inconsistent with forms they also filed under oath with state and federal election officials. This was all done in plain view.

Democrats controlled Treasury and the IRS, and also the DOJ, which ordinarily prosecutes false statements. The public hates dark money, and with good reason: it corrodes democracy. The law was on our side. And we had the power to settle any doubt through these agencies. But we did nothing. No rule, no regulation, no clarification; not even investigation of what the explanation was for the inconsistent statements made under sworn oath. A grand jury could have had a field day investigating that.

Not only did we walk away from this fight, we failed at the “teaching moment” this episode provided. We accepted the false Republican narrative that a wicked IRS was being used to hurt conservative groups—nothing else to see here folks, move along. Dark money has been the bane of our democracy ever since.

House Republicans made persistent efforts to press their narrative (later exploded by an Inspector General report), and to harass and intimidate the IRS Commissioner; repeatedly threatening impeachment, so that he would be unlikely to take on their dark money operation. Democrats left him to twist in that harsh gale.

Looks like Beto’s voting record in Congress might be a problem for him in 2020, at least when it comes to running for President.

If those votes are eliminators, then there won’t be anyone who represented Texas in congress getting the Dem nod for quite some time.

I guess you missed the part which says that, on some of these votes, the majority of Texas Dems in Congress voted the other way.

Sheldon Whitehouse was on Bill Maher tonight, saying some of these same things again. All the right things. That man needs to sing it from the mountain tops.