Why I left the Democratic Party

Talking about uprooting the ones enabling oligarchy and militarism. Party makes no difference in this scenario.

I agree, democrats can't just run on anti-trumpism. However, I honestly don't think they have been. I've been hearing actual ideas from democrats.

I think I understand, you would support any candidate who rejects big money and corporations and is anti-war, whether they run as an independent or a democrat makes little difference to you.

That's about it. I have other issues to consider, but, believe it or not, I am holding back some genuine concerns.

I figure who does the above will be more amenable to many issues I have on the burner.

If the "above" is "any candidate who rejects big money and corporations and is anti-war"

Then that also applies to Donald Trump.

Your position is not well thought out. It's not your only one.

“Ohio voters have made their voices heard and sent a clear message that they want a fair, transparent government that works for them,” says the League’s Ann Henkener.

How clear? Seventy-five percent of Ohio voters backed Issue 1, the reform measure designed to guarantee “bipartisan mapmaking, greater transparency and public participation.” The plan is not a perfect reform. It merely curbs gerrymandering, and allows partisan politicians to retain a hand in a process that should be run on a nonpartisan basis — and that should at least consider more democratic alternatives to traditional single-member districts and first-past-the-post voting.

But the Ohio plan, which will be implemented following the 2020 Census, has tremendous potential to create more competitive districts — and a significantly more balanced and representative congressional delegation.

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Watching this.

Getting rid of the first-past-the-post voting system is something that I could really get behind.

Conservatives won't let it happen though.

I've no objection to switching to something other than first-past-the-post.

I want to keep the electoral college though. I like the way it prevents local issues in large cities from influencing nationwide issues.

I even wouldn't mind seeing the electoral votes broken down by congressional district instead of by state.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/05/08/teachers-class-struggle-defiance-inspires-millions/

Excerpt:

The ongoing wave of unprecedented statewide teacher strikes has demonstrated in real time that working people retain the power to change the course of history and win major gains for themselves and worker class allies in their state.

Contrary to the corporate media’s efforts to portray these teacher mobilizations as a reaction to Republican Party cutbacks, striking teachers have documented with mathematical precision that the most intense attacks on public education, social services, and teacher pay began with the Great Depression of 2008 and were implemented under the Democratic Party administration of Barack Obama.

Under Obama’s reign, 2008-2016, trillions in taxpayer dollars were transferred from working people to the ultra rich corporate elite—the 1 percent. The nation’s banking institutions, almost all of which were technically bankrupt or nearly so, were bailed out to the tune of trillions of dollars, as were the associated insurance companies, giant corporations, and mortgage entities, public and private.

In the course of President Obama’s eight years, millions lost their homes, college tuition skyrocketed along with unprecedented student debt, wages were frozen or cut, pensions gutted, education funding crippled, part-time “flexible” low-wage service sector work exploded, and 2.5 million immigrants were deported, while expenditures for privatized-for-profit prisons soared. At the state and federal levels, capitalism’s decision makers sought to resolve their inherent contradictions at the expense of workers.

Teachers take class-struggle road

The accumulated frustrations, anger, and resentment over this seemingly unending across-the-board assault on working people found its initial and confused expression in the 2016 election of “outsider” Donald Trump. Corporate America’s Hillary Clinton was the obvious target to express the mass hatred generated by the Democratic Party. It didn’t take long, however, for the reactionary “moron” Trump, whose poll ratings have dropped to historic lows, to show the mass of working people, teachers in the Republican “Red States” included, that there are no saviors in either of the twin parties of capitalism.

Democrats, get off your ass. If you don't talk issues instead of ridiculing and talking Trump hate 24-7, if you don't be real progressives, Trump will get reelected.

Robert Reich
3 hrs ·
This morning I phoned my friend, the former Republican member of Congress.

He (laughing): Shall I reserve a seat for you in Oslo?

Me: No way Trump gets the Peace Prize.

He: What if Kim gets rid of his whole damn nuke program because Trump scared the sh*t out of him?

Me: Even if Trump becomes Pope, it won’t stop the blue wave.

He: Be careful, my friend. Trump’s approvals are rising.

Me: Yeah, from the sewer to a toilet. He’s gonna be a huge problem for Republicans this fall.

He: Let me tell you something. Voters aren’t hearing a damn thing from the Dems. Nada. Zilch. If your party thinks it can win by sitting on their duffs and spouting anti-Trump crapola, they’re wrong. You think average Joe and Jane really think Dems are standing up for them? (He laughs.) Pelosi and Schumer? Give me a break.

Me: Doesn’t matter. We flip 24 seats, we retake the House. And 23 Republicans are trying to defend seats where Hillary won. Should be a cinch.

He: Don’t bet on it. And you can forget the Senate.

Me: Whatever, Trump won't make it to 2020. If Mueller doesn’t skewer him, the Stormy Daniels stuff will.

He: You still don’t get it. Mueller and Stormy won’t lay a glove on him, and I’ll tell you why. He’s a jerk but he’s shaking things up, and voters like that. Every time he takes a dump on somebody important, they cheer. Whenever he skewers another sacred cow, they applaud. The more offensive he is, the more people say “this guy is real.” Doesn’t matter what Mueller finds or what a porn star says. Trump is Teflon.

Me: Whatever happened to your prediction that the GOP would dessert him once they got their tax bill enacted?

He: I wasn’t paying attention to the Trump coalition.

Me: What coalition?

He: Trump has pulled together the white working class and the moneyed interests of America. No one thought it possible. It’s the new Republican Party. Racist, anti-foreigner, deregulation, tax cuts. Reagan on steroids. Unbeatable. If he wants a second term, he gets it.

Whether Trump is reelected, whether there is a blue wave in the midterms (and whether it results in Democrats taking control of one or both houses), and whether Trump wins the Nobel Peace Prize are all independent questions.

Trump is definitely going to be reelected. The Republicans are going to hold the White House for 20 years. The others, who knows.

I'm afraid Robert Reich is correct on Trump getting a second term. It's because our economy is doing very well with our GDP growth at a little under 2%; good by world standards. It doesn't matter that Trump's ideas about a border wall that'll cost tens of billions to build and maintain, his racial bigotry, and all his lies doesn't count for beans. He has so many character flaws, it's impossible to keep count.

It’s amazing that the Democrats would rather lose than adopt Bernie’s platform. They’d win if they did.

They did accept a lot of Bernie's platform in 2016, they have accepted more since then.

For someone to go on about Bernie Sanders you sure have been sounding less like him everyday on these threads and more like a Trumpie cheerleader.

I have a freedom Bernie doesn’t. I can say exactly what I think in this virulently partisan climate and not have to explain it for the rest of my life in the media.

The plan to coax NK to denuclearize is moral (mostly) and finally stepping away from bribery.

I hate the bribery plan and I hated it before Donald Trump was even on the political radar. If you expect me to act like I hate a better plan just because I hate Trump, I’m just not dishonest enough to do that.

I hate bribery. I hate the trillion dollars our government says it’s ‘lost’ because I know these shady deals are one way our money was ‘lost’.

I strongly prefer the plan Pompeo described.

Only a virulent partisan would try to frame that as being a cheerleader. I’m merely able to assess the current political reality dispassionately, and you are not. You and most everyone here are slaves to your high partisan emotions.

I refuse to go there with you on NK, I already posted about it this morning. As far as your vague bribery charge, too vague.

It is not merely that issue, it is every single issue which comes up, you land on the side of Trump.

Take the McCain comment by the White House aide. Sanders has said the WH needs to apologize. You even questioned if the aide even said it.

Bernie Sanders blasts White House for not apologizing for McCain comment

That is just one example and not the best. I leave to others to make their opinion and leave it at that.

So, you think Bernie Sanders only says stuff on TV about Trump because of the "virulently partisan climate" but if he had the freedom to speak truthfully, he would speak as you do? Do you hear yourself?

How the Korea thing plays out, from Trump's meeting on, is where the proof of failure or success lies. It won't be long before we all see, so I no longer care about guesses. I prefer that Trump prevail in this instance than to have the kind of war the world has been dreading.