Democrats are hanging on by a fraying thread, yet some people in and out of the party seem hellbent

[Stinky The Clown]

on opening big fissures, sewing seeds of discontent, and championing division.

These are NOT ordinary times.

I fear we will once again get one party rule. And with Trump, that could very well be the end of the country as we once knew it.

As my grandmother used to counsel us kids: Pazienza.

[PoliticAverse]

1. "Democrats are hanging on by a fraying thread" - did you miss the 2018 Congressional election ?

[pangaia]

2. Have you missed events since then?

The entire country is hanging on by a thread.

In fact, the entire world.

[PoliticAverse]

3. Since Democrats captured the House in 2018, Republicans can't get anything passed...

without compromising.

[CrispyQ]

4. We were the ones that compromised on the emergency bill last week.

McConnell won't bring House bills to the Senate floor for a vote. I don't see what your optimistic outlook is based on.

[PoliticAverse]

6. That bill passed the Senate 84-8. It was already a compromise. n/t

[pangaia]

8. They don;t need to 'pass' anything to destroy the country.

trump, putin, saudi arabia, kochs, and all the american fascists are doing just fine without them.

[PoliticAverse]

9. They had the best chance when they controlled the Senate and the House, but...

they couldn't even repeal the ACA.

The OP was about Democrats "hanging on by a thread" though, not that things are going downhill in the country.

The public isn't becoming more enamored of the Republicans which is why Democrats recaptured the House.

If it's a party that's in trouble, it's the Republicans.

[pangaia]

12. Democrats hanging on by a thread is very well directly tied

to the destruction of the country. That is my point.

[Honeycombe8]

5. The primary season is the season of disagreement. It's ALWAYS been this way.

One could say that's the purpose of the primary season. It's not a big deal.

People and candidates are making their positions clear. Esp without a clear Pied Piper in the bunch of candidates.

It's more concerning that there isn't a clear Pied Piper. There's your problem. Not the free expression of ideas about where the Party is headed or should be headed, or which health care idea is best. I do have a problem with even HINTING that the Democrats will do certain things that I know at my core American voters will not go for. That's self-defeating, IMO.

But in the end, once there is a nominee, the Democrats will come together, for the most part, behind him/her. There is no evidence that in-fighting during the primary season has ever hurt a Democratic general election candidate. In fact, we had better know what the Republicans will use to attack, and what better way to get a peek during the primary season?

[emmaverybo]

10. All we have to do is mosey over to a few Republican social media and online news sites. We

don’t need to participate in inflammatory attacks that trade in misinformation and put our own candidates in as negative and insulting light as possible under the guise of tough vetting.

When a poster does nothing BUT wage negative attack campaigns, posts little on issues without
turning the debate to a candidate attack, posts little or no positive comments on any choice unless to lob yet another pointed attack on that one candidate, and does this several times a day—that is not vetting.

Debating a candidate’s view, even an overall agenda—too centrist vs. too progressive—or a debate strategy seems productive to me. Obsessively and aggressively pursuing a candidate’s perceived
weaknesses as a raison d’être for the majority of one’s posts is something else entirely.

It is easy to find out how Dems will be attacked as the opposition is doing it now. Joining that
opposition is not needed. Alerting us to it is a different fish entirely.

Smearing vs. vetting

Joining oppo. vs. alerting

[Honeycombe8]

13. Much ado about nothing, IMO.

I just disagree. This is the way the primary season is. There is no evidence that this is harmful, for Democrats.

It's been said that Democrats are like cats in a room full of rockers. We are raucus and spirited by nature, and since we have a big tent, we are naturally fighting amongst ourselves more than Republicans are.

I HAVE seen the unfair attacks, and it's disturbing. But that's hard core politics for you. I'd prefer that not happen, and I'm not going to vote for people involved in that sort of tactic. But that's the way it has always been, will always be. There's nothing to indicate it harms the eventual nominee.

[emmaverybo]

15. Fair enough. NT

[Demit]

7. Dissent is the healthy exercise of democracy.

Being afraid of dissent is not a very good indication of the strength of our political system.

[Boomer]

11. Yes! Thank you!

Too many people are upset by vigorous debate. Disagreement is not the same as an attack, and confusing the two concepts only weakens our side.

[trev]

14. Thank *you*.

The word "disagreement" has somehow been transformed into "denunciation." I don't know why. One of the pillars of traditional Democratic "big tent" politics is the ability to question exactly where each candidate stands. The Republicans don't do this, because, by and large, they don't permit dissent within the ranks. All their candidates look the same (literally, in fact). We have true choices, and we should be able to point out the differences between candidates in order to make that choice a wise one.

[Demit]

16. I've been thru 4 election seasons here now, on DU, and I've never seen such open attempts

to suppress discussion. Content is ignored, and instead we get ad hominem attacks, automatic accusations of nefarious motives, lectures that we should only say nice things about the candidates—it's all faintly authoritarian, and definitely illiberal.

Fear drives it, as always. I hate to think that Democrats would take on the attributes of Republicans out of fear.

[trev]

18. Yes. We don't need to be them.

We're better.

[pecosbob]

17. The Overton Window moved right for almost forty years

Last edited Sun Jul 7, 2019, 03:13 PM - Edit history (1)

Trump has managed to push it back further to the left than it has been since the seventies IMO, simply by exposing the GOP agenda for what it is, what it always has been...naked authoritarianism. We have momentum. We are taking back governorships and state legislatures in many of the battleground states that were swept away during the Tea Party years. We have States finally talking action on minimum wage hikes and living wages. We have solidarity, even though the pundits and those with an opposed agenda would say otherwise. We have local governments across the country refusing to cooperate with this administration on implementation of their unconscionable immigration policies.

In announcing his most recent analysis, Stimson wrote: “The annual estimate for 2018 is the most liberal ever recorded in the 67-year history of Mood, just slightly higher than the previous high point of 1961.”

In an interview last week, Stimson, a retired professor of political science who lives in Chapel Hill, said the liberal shift resembles the public mood on the cusp of the 1960s, “That’s where the electorate is. It’s like the time of Kennedy and Johnson. They are going to respond more warmly to policies from the left.”

Indeed the shift is so strong that Stimson said that if the national election were held today, Democrats would win the presidency and both houses of Congress. However, the positive sentiment for Democrats, he said, could be offset somewhat by the quality of candidates and ingrained voting patterns in red states.

While I believe the majority of American people want change, I realize we as Dems have to outperform our opponent by a twenty-five percent margin because quite frankly, they cheat...whenever and wherever they can, as we've seen in Presidential election cycles since 2004.

As an avowed leftist I've valued the campaigns of left leaning politicians for pushing the political discussion to the left. Ironically, I'd be the first to admit that right now we really don't need anyone pushing us to the left...Trump has redefined many political terms and even redeemed many that were formerly proscribed in Dem circles as being too far left. Neither do we need any plainclothes Problem Solvers trying to frighten us toward the center.

We can hash out policy later...really. For those that want to wage battle on behalf of their preferred candidate damning the cost perhaps should consider redirecting their energies into GOTV efforts instead of arguing with other Dems over what color robes the choir should wear.

https://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/article232317082.html