Progressives (Liberals)

Warren and Biden Blow Off Big California Weekend
Bernie Holds Court

LONG BEACH, Calif. (AP) — The decisions by Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren to skip a weekend gathering of thousands of fervent California Democrats less than three months before voting begins have frustrated and puzzled some party leaders.

But they have offered a chance for their rivals to capitalize on the absence of two front-runners at the gathering that serves as an unofficial kickoff of the final sprint to California’s March 3 primary, which offers the biggest delegate haul of any primary or caucus.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in particular could benefit from Warren’s absence as the two battle over the party’s most progressive voters, many of whom were galvanized to become more involved in official party politics after Sanders’ 2016 bid. Sanders’ campaign has already hired 40 staff members in California, far more than any of his competitors, and is treating the state as comparable to early voting states like Iowa and New Hampshire.

“The senator makes it clear that the state is his priority,” said Jane Kim, the campaign’s California political director and former member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

The convention stage will give candidates a chance to address devoted Democrats who are the backbone of the party, who are coveted for their votes as well as potential volunteers and donors. Mail-in ballots for California’s primary will begin going out to voters on Feb. 3, the same day as the Iowa caucuses.

The main event is a Saturday night presidential candidate forum hosted by Univision, the Spanish-language television station, featuring Sanders, California Sen. Kamala Harris and six others. Several other lower-polling candidates, including former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, who just entered the race Thursday, will address delegates in the morning.

1 Reply

@revelette3,

revelette3 wrote:

People who see everything in shades of black and white only never realize there are all kinds of shades in between.

Personally I am proud to own up to being an establishment democrat who has voted and agreed with democrats my whole adult life. I don't believe in punishing the wealthy of this country but neither do I believe the wealthy should give the rest of us the shaft. There has to be a middle ground between both extremes of thought. That middle ground is more reality based in the democrat party than the activist think. Which is probably why Biden has been holding his own despite people thinking he is past his prime to be the kindest about it. It is after the primary which has me worried. I'll vote for whoever wins, Sanders, Warren or Biden. I just worry we have will 2016 all over again with same disastrous results.

What the self-named social media “activists” don’t seem to realize, or at least they never provide response to, is the reality that attempts at sweeping, paradigm-changing, “revolutionary” policy change will run up against an opposition that is just as motivated.

They don’t realize - or they are attempting to ignore - that the only scenario in which Bernie (or Liz but not so much) might possibly march their proposals victoriously -unaltered -to ratification is if Democrats somehow capture both the senate and the presidency. They don’t acknowledge this undeniable reality. They’d rather pontificate their purity tests and browbeat anyone who has any degree of difference with their white knight.

1 Reply

@snood,

Quote:

They don’t realize - or they are attempting to ignore - that the only scenario in which Bernie (or Liz but not so much) might possibly march their proposals victoriously -unaltered -to ratification is if Democrats somehow capture both the senate and the presidency.

And manage to impeach and replace a significant number of federal judges — reaching right up to the Supreme Court.

1 Reply

@hightor,

hightor wrote:

Quote:
The Chinese regime is, without question, tyrannical and deliberate violators of human rights. They cannot be defended by any decent person.

And I haven't defended them.

Quote:
I won't say hightor is defending them, but his "practicality" argument about people who are actually fighting tyranny (unlike Antifa thugs and Resistance morons) is very disappointing.

So, what do you think will happen in Hong Kong?

I think that there is a 40-60 chance that there will be a violent crackdown by Mainland Chinese inserts into the Hong Kong police. Depending upon the scale, there will be (I hope) an international uproar. I would like to see as much international outrage over China's practices as there was against South Africa's. I won't for the following reasons:

1) China's economic influence
2) A residual immunity from criticism by the Left
3) The Chinese tyrants are yellow, not white; their victims are yellow, not black, and they are not attached in any way to 18th & 19th Century colonialism

Quote:
Over history, a great many people have consistently shown that they value freedom for their people over their own lives.

A great many more people died for much less.

Your point? Wouldn't you rather lose your life defending the freedom of others than just about any other reason other than defending your loved ones?

1 Reply

@hightor,

hightor wrote:

Quote:
They don’t realize - or they are attempting to ignore - that the only scenario in which Bernie (or Liz but not so much) might possibly march their proposals victoriously -unaltered -to ratification is if Democrats somehow capture both the senate and the presidency.

And manage to impeach and replace a significant number of federal judges — reaching right up to the Supreme Court.

Shhhhhhhh!!!

0 Replies

@Finn dAbuzz,

Quote:

I would like to see as much international outrage over China's practices as there was against South Africa's. I won't for the following reasons:

2) A residual immunity from criticism by the Left

Do you really think a significant number of left-leaning people around the world think of China as a progressive, left-leaning state? Its record is abysmal on women's rights, freedom of expression, treatment of prisoners, the environment, regional relations — and on and on. If there's any pro-China sentiment I think it's more of a feeling that, as a third world developing country we might be expected to extend it a little slack. Obviously, it's not a third world developing country so I don't think that particular sentiment holds water. And there may be some leftists who adopt the "enemy of my enemy" approach and see the country as a counterweight to the USA but I don't believe you'll find that many leftists who think the country is immune from criticism because it's seen as a socialist paradise — it isn't.

Quote:

Wouldn't you rather lose your life defending the freedom of others than just about any other reason other than defending your loved ones?

That opportunity has not been offered to me. My point is that many more people have died in support of their tribe, religion, nation as hapless victims of mass hysteria than as willing martyrs for the cause of freedom. It's typical to label any fallen soldier as a "patriot who gave his life for the flag" but most combat deaths happen to people who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Or, as Patton put it, "The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his."

2 Replies

@Lash,

Biden can't afford a plane ticket, meanwhile Yang spent another million on ads.

1 Reply

@hightor,

hightor wrote:

Do you really think a significant number of left-leaning people around the world think of China as a progressive, left-leaning state?

There certainly might be some - we've got some small Maoist "parties" here in Germany.
But when looking at those in the parliaments: according to Die Linke ("The Left", a really left party in Germany) China is not a democracy, but a dictatorship, not a truly open market economy, but a capitalist country.
The SPD (centre-left) has strong contacts with Hongkong (our foreign minister just met Joshua Wong, an "act of disrespect" according to the Chinese government.

0 Replies

@hightor,

Quote:

Good piece, although you must've known the predicable reactions it would attract from the peanut gallery.

There was a niggling suspicion that lurked in the back of my mind.

Edgar and Lash represent a contingent in the Sanders crowd who prefer the emotional kick from their passions and raging certainty over anything like a sober analysis of what is actually real and achievable. It's an appeal to magic little different than religious extremisms and it comes with similar claims to epistemological and moral superiority. And, like with such religious extremists, there is often a severe delineation between good (us) and bad (everyone else). I like edgar a lot but what I've just written applies. It's a bit different with Lash as she manifests a constantly refreshed and inexhaustible supply of personal bile.

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@Brand X,

Quote:

Biden can't afford a plane ticket...

It was a pretty widely held belief that Biden's initial status as front-runner was because of name recognition and that his numbers would decline as the primary campaign developed and voters became better acquainted with other candidates.

1 Reply

Lash as she manifests a constantly refreshed and inexhaustible supply of personal bile.
Signature
"I spend a lot of time working with the conservative press to make sure that we're all thinking alike and talking alike." - Grover Norquist "FOX NEWS actually DO provide more news and less indoctrination" - foxfire

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Blatham ingests the daily centrist negativity and figures why support a person who tries when we could sink in the morass of why even try.

3 Replies

@hightor,

It was and still is my belief.

1 Reply

@edgarblythe,

I think you're mistaken if you believe every critique of the current manifestation of progressive activism represents "centrist negativity". It wouldn't take much for me to be a real Sanders supporter — just an admission that much of his program will face a difficult time and that people shouldn't expect any rapid transformation to democratic socialism. It's the numbers, edgarblythe, the numbers.

0 Replies

@Lash,

I voted for Hillary in the 2016 election. You and Edgar dident and so helped elect Trump. In my book that makes you both republican operatives. So I will continue to post my ignorant asshattery to ladylike republicans like you and Edgar.

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Sorry. My tablet said it dident send the first post.

0 Replies

Samie T. Rex
@babaosamie
·
6h
Speaks volumes that Obama decides to scold the left. Yes, the people trying to make school lunch debt-free for example, are the real enemies here 😒

1 Reply

#TooFarLeft is trending #1 as a big push back against Obama.

0 Replies

@Brand X,

And, true.

0 Replies

@edgarblythe,

Quote:

Blatham ingests the daily centrist negativity and figures why support a person who tries when we could sink in the morass of why even try.

I once asked georgeob if he believed that Christianity was the one true faith. He responded in the affirmative. I didn't continue on to debate this as I knew where it was going to end up. He held a notion that was, by its very nature, unavailable for serious reconsideration.

I'll actively support Sanders if he's the nominee (as I've said many times before and as Obama stated in his talk noted above). Sanders vision is not that much different from mine and the reality of what the GOP has become entails that we all proceed in such a manner.

As regards "negativity", I do have some. I am not, for example, going to build a long ladder, throw a dairy cow over my shoulder, and haul it up to the moon to make a stunningly original art emplacement. I'd like to. I really would but I don't see how I get it done.

0 Replies

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