Robert Reich: The dysfunction today is that Republicans can't govern and Democrats can't fight.
Instead of “left” versus “right”, think of two different core competences.The Democratic party is basically a governing party, organized around developing and implementing public policies. The Republican party has become an attack party, organized around developing and implementing political vitriol. Democrats legislate. Republicans fulminate.
In theory, politics requires both capacities – to govern, but also to fight to attain and retain power. The dysfunction today is that Republicans can’t govern and Democrats can’t fight.
Donald Trump is the culmination of a half-century of Republican belligerence. Richard Nixon’s “dirty tricks” were followed by Republican operative Lee Atwater’s smear tactics, Newt Gingrich’s take-no-prisoners reign as House speaker, the “Swift-boating” of John Kerry, and the Republicans’ increasingly blatant uses of racism and xenophobia to build an overwhelmingly white, rural base.
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Democrats know what to do – House Democrats passed a comprehensive coronavirus bill in May, and several Democratic governors have been enormously effective – but they’ve lacked power to put a national strategy into effect.
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Very Good:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/aug/16/us-election-democrats-republicans-trump
= new reply since forum marked as read
Joe says "That's a lie!". No "my opponent seems to have his facts mixed up." Or "That doesn't seem accurate."
Call them "LIES"!
Calling someone a liar is using fighting words.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=13916068
And about this sad attempt at getting a rise out of me..
You want to pet the little crocodile. I want to make shoes.
Combo projection, ad hominen and strawman... a threefer!
We're all supposed to get with the program and bash the leadership, because if we do that, then they'll magically start making Trump do what they want!
And if you don't agree lockstep with all the rants, YOU are guilty of groupthink!!!!
Now don't you feel silly?
Why am I not surprised?
(BTW, "Some of us have to work for a living" is the usual exit line that I hear from RWers when I point out the faults in their rants about Democrats.)
Maybe you should send a long letter to Pelosi explaining how weak, smug, cowardly, undisciplined and what a big failure you've decided Democratic leadership is, and maybe she'll hire you as a consultant so they can learn how to get Trump to do what we want.
That should pay the big bucks!
Let us know what she says.
You still have not specified what it is that Dems are not doing that you want them to do... other than nastier rhetoric.
You've been asked this several times, and don't seem to willing or able to answer.
Why? Because it's easier to bash than it is to come up with some actual things that we could be doing differently - without the WH and the Senate?
be "better."
Yes, you are not Democratic leadership, and don't have the information, nor the expertise to know that are and are not options. And that they aren't pursuing the most effective options available to them at this time. N
You just think that they you have the 'genius' to pronounce that they are incompetent, and have other options for action that you... can't really name. You are not Speaker Pelosi, and you don't have the knowledge, current inside information, access to experts that you can't name but just KNOW are failing, because things suck right now, and you know that they could be much, much better, but can't say how... exactly. You need to place blame somewhere, and it's apparently not on the GOP for using the system that they were able to hijack in January, 2017. You think that the constitution clearly gives the minority party in the House power over the the GOP run executive branch, Senate and DOJ, and that Pelosi is just not smart enough to understand it like you do.
And you seem to think that you are the only one here who understands what the horrific consequences of Trump getting his way are. That doesn't show much respect for those here, does it?
Got it.
which no one else here apparently has... and anyone who disagrees with her, let alone asks for any sort of clarity for the rage at our leaders, is apparently not a "stakeholder," and needs to just shut up because we are "quashing dissent." So there.
43. BTW, I am a stakeholder in the Democratic Party
I’m biracial, female, and a part of the LGBT community. I am directly affected by the Democratic Party’s successes and failures. I have a right to complain.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=13916473
such as the one in 2010, is likely to favor the other party. Pelosi and that nebulous "Democratic establishment" was blamed, of course by Reich and others of a mind. Then he trashed her and Democrats again by saying, "Don't expect much from Pelosi and Dems because they are in the pockets of corporations" when they won back the House in 2018...
But this is just is what made HRC's victory in the electorate even more amazing, considering that the same dynamic occurs after one party has held the WH after 8 years, they are statistically unlikely to keep it - which is one reason so few Democrats ran for POTUS in 2016.
White men especially tend to avoid running in elections where the chances are long, or the winner will be dealing with a horribleor difficult situation. Women and POC usually step in then, because the funding and media that would usually go to the white male candidate would be available to them. When the women/poc candidate doesn't win, then the white men can talk about how 'flawed" they were, and how we shouldn't make that mistake again... And when they do win, the white men that didn't run get to snipe from the sidelines that the leadership sucks at dealing with the horrible situation, and preserve their own record of "success."
Theresa May is a prime example. HRC is another. In the alternate timeline where HRC won, the Brogressives are trashing her for her "corporate" cabinet choices that skewed female and POC, how slow/how overreactive she was to start lockdowns during the pandemic in January and the unacceptable loss of life of 20,000 people before getting it under control in May, her unacceptably slow expansion of the environmental regulations, and tax hikes for the wealthy, her misguided emphasis on "identity issues" in talking so much about police brutality, the services for immigrants at the border, and her obsession with abortion.... etc, and Riech would be right there leading them.
Of course if they did it with any more passion, they'd be called "shrill."
How about Adam Schiff? Ted Lieu? Heard of them? Did you see Kamala Harris in the Kavanaugh hearings? How about Mazie Hirono?
Personally, I thought Obama had great passion, but didn't need to yell, scold and wag his finger to express it.
What are we not doing that you think we should be doing?
What options are open to us "offensively" without the Senate, and with Trump holding veto power?
If you're going to demand change, you need to articulate what that change you're demanding consists of.
Thought so.
Madame Speaker Nancy Pelosi, is as smart if not smarter than any of them, and any previous Speaker. Heard of her?
Or did you find a sale on Strawmen?
OK...
Perhaps the person who you quoted cares what you have to say about that quote. Why don't you take it up with them?
In the meantime, when you have the experience, smarts, skill and resources that Pelosi does, get back to me on what those options she's ignoring are.
that is possible to do? Other than yelling at debates and speeches, I mean. Other than nastier rhetoric.
Especially without the Senate?
Who of "us" do you think is fighting, if "not enough" are?
Last edited Sun Aug 16, 2020, 06:52 PM - Edit history (1)
Next.
And... since you seem to think that anyone who disagrees with you is in "groupthink"
Who's wanting everyone to think like them and not dissent? Who says that any dissent from one's rants is "groupthink?"
Who's trying to dominate threads with "our do nothing Democratic leaders are weak, cowardly and undisciplined" rants?
any actual examples of things you claim the Democrats are failing to do that YOU SAY they could and should be doing.
If you demand that they change, but won't articulate what it is that they need to be doing instead, it's just venting and ranting and looking to encourage others to join in.
And yes, Madame Speaker is as brilliant as any of those historic figures you claim are smart, unlike current Democrats.
Why would you even want to be a stakeholder in a party that you believe has such cowardly, dim and do nothing leaders?
You couldn't even bring yourself to admit that Gore and HRC won, and had the WH stolen from them. I'm a stakeholder and I knew that...
The job of the politician is policy, and wonks are experts. The job of an activist is activism. Politics is 80% administrative. Activists don't always make good politicians, and vice verca. The metrics of success and the timelines are different.
The Democratic Party is a Political Party. MLK was an Activist. LBJ was a Democratic politician. Neither could do the others' job effectively, but they partnered. The skills needed for each are quite different. Confusing them would certainly lead to unrealistic and mistaken expectations. But I think you're more interested in venting than learning about that. You don't seem to know what you want, only how Dems are "failing" to be what you want... I don't understand why you even post on Democratic Underground, other than to have an audience of Democrats to join in your outrage and anger at leadership.
Others, who you remind me so much of, no longer post here.... for various reasons.
Again, just kvetching with no actual examples of what you expect they should be doing.... you just seem to want company for venting about "do nothing Democrats."
Have you seen the dragging of the DNC on twitter for having Kasich speak at the Convention?
Those "reeking" credentials you described were possesed by all those Democrats you pined away for as being "courageous" - LBJ, FDR, Carter... and incidentally, AOC and Bernie Sanders as well. Are they also "smug and out of touch?" That whole demonization of education as "elitist" sounds very much like a GOP talking point.
If you expect success in everything anyone does, you aren't being realistic. And yes, one can take pride in effort when the goal is not acheivable.
Sorry to hear that about your father. That doesn't sound like "discipline" or "dedication" as much as unhealthy beating up of oneself for falling short of perfection. Do you suggest that Pelosi wear a hair shirt or walk on glass when Trump doesn't do what Democrats want? Would that be adequate self-flagellation to indicate "dedication and discipline?"
Only repetitions of claims that Democratic leaders are NOT SMART like Democrats of old, they're NOT FIGHTING TRUMP AT ALL, they're LOSERS and they're doing EVERYTHING WRONG - and nobody here seems to understand that Trump is a DANGER to women and POC!!!!
That's about it.
For someone who's been on DU such a short time, their posts seem so very, very familiar for some reason. I can't place where...
I'm thinking of long ago, back in 2016, with all the "conscience voters" and the people who complained about being silenced. They went off to form their own discussion board. What was its name?
weak to specify what it is that they are refusing to do.
Accusing those who call you out on simply ranting with no real reason why "Quashing dissent" is a...
There's dissent, which is informed and respectful, and then there's...
And trying to convince people here on DU think that the latter is the former is naive, at best and insulting at worst.
You're welcome.
it's the New Moon or something around here. 
Good to see ya!!!
I know you had been busy busy busy! 
Good to see you, BRDS.
I think Reich did a Rip Van Winkle and fell asleep under a tree after 2016, effectively missing what happened in 2018 and after.
He also ignores firebrands like Lieu, Swalwell, and even Waters who directly attack the scum of the GOP scum that Reich oddly throws up his hands about by manufacturing a false choice that ignores actual "fight styles". The fact that Nancy Pelosi is SOH, a fighter that he mentions, but oddly dismisses.
The below is what needs to be in every one of his Editorials rather than caving to the "both sides" nonsense that the media apparently insists he will only be permitted to write about in "opinion" columns - something that the RW loons would never concede to.
Link to tweet
TEXT
@RBReich
McConnell's Do-Nothing Republicans blocked a fair impeachment trial, a SCOTUS nominee, the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, and nearly 400 other bills passed by the House.
Now they're adjourning for August recess without delivering desperately needed relief to the American people.
4:02 PM · Aug 14, 2020
By not directly attacking the GOP in the big media outlets, he essentially caves to the perception that "Congress is doing nothing", which sweeps Democrats, who HAVE been busy passing bills, into the "do-nothing"/"not-fighting" bullshit characterization that he has decided to run with, apparently because he is not an effective "fighter" (making his whole schtick nothing but projection).
There is only
Agree with Reich OR
One believes that "Democrats are perfect?"
