New: Last month, a group of moderate Democratic consultants, campaign staffers, elected officials... (EDITED)

[demmiblue]

EDITED to include the following:

Mark Harris
‪@markharris.bsky.social‬

What's not mentioned in this excerpt is that this was sponsored by Third Way, a think tank that is singlemindedly devoted to convincing Democrats to cut the left out of the party. God knows the DNC has its problems, but it's misleading to frame this as a mainstream Democratic conference.

March 2, 2025 at 12:53 PM

What's not mentioned in this excerpt is that this was sponsored by Third Way, a think tank that is singlemindedly devoted to convincing Democrats to cut the left out of the party. God knows the DNC has its problems, but it's misleading to frame this as a mainstream Democratic conference.

— Mark Harris (@markharris.bsky.social) 2025-03-02T17:53:17.105Z

adamwren.bsky.social
‪@adamwren.bsky.social‬

New: Last month, a group of moderate Democratic consultants, campaign staffers, elected officials & party leaders gathered in Loudoun County, Virginia, for a retreat where they plotted their party’s comeback.

We got their takeaways. t.co/bEwlg4jbtM

March 2, 2025 at 11:41 AM

New: Last month, a group of moderate Democratic consultants, campaign staffers, elected officials & party leaders gathered in Loudoun County, Virginia, for a retreat where they plotted their party’s comeback.

We got their takeaways. t.co/bEwlg4jbtM

— Adam Wren (@adamwren.bsky.social) 2025-03-02T16:41:31.706Z

[regnaD kciN]

1. Predictable...

[Phoenix61]

2. Moderate Dems? How about right leaning Dems. nt

[regnaD kciN]

6. Because we need to get "small money" out of politics...!

[alarimer]

3. Bullshit

So they held a retreat in the RICHEST COUNTY in the US and decided Democrats should get out of "elite circles". You first.

And "far-left" is never defined. It could be radical environmentalist or (more likely) people advocating for the poor and disadvantaged.

Moving away from small-dollar donors just mean more billionaires and other mega-donors. Don't small donors represent more of the people?

I fucking hate these people, whoever they are. What they want is for the Democrats to be the new Republican party. Fuck that.

[demmiblue]

4. I'm not a Dem strategist, I'm just a historian who studies the historical relationship between the grassroots far right

Seth Cotlar
‪@sethcotlar.bsky.social‬

I'm not a Dem strategist, I'm just a historian who studies the historical relationship between the grassroots far right & the GOP, but the strategy laid out below is exactly the strategy that the "moderate" elites in the GOP pursued in regard to the Buchanan/Palin/Tea Party insurgency. Worked great!

"Let's see where all of the energy and enthusiasm is out there in the electorate these days, and then very intentionally run AWAY from it and TOWARD the constituencies that are hostile to our party and the segments of the populace who are most likely to vote for us." Sounds like a winner!

March 2, 2025 at 12:42 PM

[dalton99a]

5. And they lived happily ever after

[Voltaire2]

7. 'dominance of small donors'

That right there says it all. They want the party to be the party of the 'good billionaires'.

This is so infuriatingly clueless and predictable. The left of the party, first of all, is so far from 'far left' that in most european countries it would be considered a center-right faction. Secondly, the center-right party establishment ran the presidential campaign, hand picked the candidates after getting rid of Biden, and the left was, as usual, shut out of any role in the campaign other than be allowed to support it.

[Solly Mack]

8. Anyway to get them to answer some questions?

Define:

Patriotism

Traditional American imagery

Specify precisely what is meant by:

Ideological purity tests - what ideology/ideologies exactly.

Explain how small dollar donors might not align with the broader electorate.

What topics are considered "far left". List all considered far left.

What are the elite circles?

What makes them elite?

What makes a "real" community real?

Conversely, what makes a community unreal?

Why, exactly, the examples listed? (gun shows, churches, tailgates)

List the failures of large cities regarding governance.

Just curious.

[GPV]

9. Neolibs do love to triangulate.

[demmiblue]

10. Important factoid: What's not mentioned in this excerpt is that this was sponsored by Third Way, a think tank that is...

Mark Harris
‪@markharris.bsky.social‬

What's not mentioned in this excerpt is that this was sponsored by Third Way, a think tank that is singlemindedly devoted to convincing Democrats to cut the left out of the party. God knows the DNC has its problems, but it's misleading to frame this as a mainstream Democratic conference.

March 2, 2025 at 12:53 PM

What's not mentioned in this excerpt is that this was sponsored by Third Way, a think tank that is singlemindedly devoted to convincing Democrats to cut the left out of the party. God knows the DNC has its problems, but it's misleading to frame this as a mainstream Democratic conference.

— Mark Harris (@markharris.bsky.social) 2025-03-02T17:53:17.105Z

[spanone]

11. What's this 'far left' bullshit?

[Nanjeanne]

12. Third Way is so damaging to Democratic Party messaging and branding.

[ananda]

13. AFAIC, moderates belong in the Ninth Circle of Hell.

Fuck them!

[keep_left]

14. "Local restaurants"?! Oh, boy, I can't wait for another CNN feature...

...on the "economically anxious" MAGA chuds that spend their idle days at "Fred's Typical Ohio Diner" waiting for the way-too-credulous reporters to show up.

MAGA chuds apparently believe that the President has a big red button on his desk that says "Make Economy Gooder" that he refuses to push. And of course, Trump will definitely be the President who will push that button--which in his case will be right next to the "Bring Diet Coke" button, I suppose...

...if the economy is so rotten and everyone is broke, how is it that so many MAGA chuds are able to sit idle at "Fred's Typical Ohio Diner" all day waiting for Steve Doocy to show up and interview them about the crappy economy?...I guess you could call this the Schrödinger MAGA economy, where chuds can complain about how they apparently want a USSR-style market...yet the economy is firing on enough cylinders that the chuds can still find enough coins under the mattress to make it to the diner for a few bon mots with Steve Doocy...

https://democraticunderground.com/100219814545#post18
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100219539729

And here's the original "Fred's Typical Ohio Diner" (see panel #5).

[dalton99a]

16. +1

[bronxiteforever]

15. This is third way bs trying to ruin us

In other words they want us to lose so these people can

[Celerity]

17. Trying a re-hash of the Third Way/DLC/Problem Solvers type of corpo-friendly centrism is a disastrous way to go now.

It also is rich to see them whinge about purity tests, when they are some of the biggest purity testers in our party.

Their Third Way purity test of true import:

No one in the Third Way-defined so-called 'left' needs to remain in any sort of substantive power in our party in any capacity, and hopefully as many (as is possible) of said 'left' are purged from Congress and elsewhere.

[Renew Deal]

18. Democrats already did the first one.

The convention was full of red, white, and blue, and no one cared. Also, republicans are fully aligned with Russia and it didn’t hurt them.

[BannonsLiver]

19. Interesting

🤔

[yardwork]

20. OFFS. They just don't get it.

They think showing up at gun shows is going to get voters to support Democrats?

This is exactly the wrong approach.