It's still pretty hard for our candidates to get right with BLM. Which is why I believe that constant engagement is required until they start listening.

Knee jerk reactions, or the incessant need to tailor their own message to a different message that BLM is sending is not listening, it's whitesplaining. And quite frankly, until the whitesplaining ends, activists need to persist. As I've said many times before, candidate supporters should welcome BLM protests, because as long as protestors care enough to send the candidates the message that Black Lives Matter and in a way meant by black people themselves, there's still the expectation that those candidates will eventually understand and finally respond accordingly.

But even today, I find the candidate responses, however perceived as sincere on their part, insufficient. So to me, it's easy to see why BLM activists still disrupt. For one thing, appropriation can occur. If activists are not available to reinforce their messages, in their absence, those messages can be warped and shaped by different agendas. That's a political reality that happens regardless of ideology: Politicians shape themselves into what they think the people want, even if the people want something different.

Now, it's still true that I haven't as yet chosen a candidate in the primary, I may never do that. I will however, support the one that we nominate, without reservation and in spite of how much I agree and disagree with them. I'm an avowed Democratic partisan, after all. What's the most important thing to me is to understand why I would support any of them as a nominee, despite of how much I disagree with them, rather than putting any one of them on a pedestal regardless of their shortcomings.

They're all better than Republicans, and that will always be in their favor.

Unfortunately, I have to deal with the things that make them problematic as well:

With Hillary, she has a very hard time accounting for the reasoning behind her and Bill's past policy decisions that has made life harder on the poor and on people of color. She has plenty of excuses and lots of justifications. But she also has an extremely hard time dealing with admissions about mistakes. Now, her defensiveness is quite understandable, because the Clintons have always been unfairly attacked by the wingers. It's much easier throw up a wall to defend against all criticism, rather than accept what's fair vs. the unfair.

The unwillingness to admit where one screwed up, especially in the light of fair and impartial scrutiny isn't a very likable trait to those who value humility. It looks just like arrogance. Yes, I do understand that our political landscapes rewards arrogance over humility, but we don't have to like it. If you want to understand what the source of her unfavorability is, that's the perception right there.

With Bernie, his problem usually comes up when he tries to match his own agenda to the message of BLM. Now, just for the record, I actually agree with him the most. But whenever I hear him address the message of BLM, he makes me cringe.

Bernie has this bad habit of inserting respectability politics into his messages. I'm sorry, but educated and employed black people are getting killed by the police as well, Bern. Yes, education and an improved economic outlook will also improve our overall picture, but how in the hell will that reverse centuries of white supremacist policies, conditions and ideas?

Bernie knows what he knows, which is all good for some, but he needs to know more. I do credit him for not clamming up and reacting defensively at the drop of a hat. Hopefully, he'll eventually get it.

With Martin, my problem with him stems from his tenure as Baltimore's mayor, when he aggravated the problem by adopting Broken Windows policies. If he's accounted for that shortfall, I really don't know. All I've heard him do was campaign against his primary opponents.

He has some serious skeletons in his closet, which led up to what happened to Freddie Gray. I need for him to be more accountable for that.

Now, with that being said, I'll also state that all of our candidates are ultimately redeemable, because we ALL have to deal with the Republicans in 2016, by standing up for the one that we will nominate.

However, at this point, I'm not interested in all the petty bickering between their supporters. I see both good and questionable elements in all three of our guys. Is there anything about any of them that's impossible to reconcile for me?

Surprisingly, no. I will stand up for any one of them against the GOPers, once we nominate.

Because, with our continued insistence, the liklihood that any of them will do the right thing while in office is greater than that of any GOPer.

Always keep your eyes on the prize.

Pressure WORKS!

No one, especially ANYONE running as a Democrat, should be immune. Give it to the Republicans as well.

Either you engage, or fade away. American politics tends to put you on the back burner whenever you stop engaging.

Engagement is a tacit expectation of performance. Not engaging you means that you're being ignored.

Our candidates should be glad that BLM activists are still making demands upon them.

They wouldn't want to know the reason why if those activists ever stop.

Arisen from his grave in South Cakalaka, we now present the Late H. Lee Atwater…



"With a grand total of 19 votes, this year's recipient of the Late H. Lee Atwater Award for Right Wing Evil goes to the entire moving accident known as The Whole Damn Republikkan Klown Kar"



"Also I'd like to take this time to award the Second Annual Richard Bruce "Dick" Cheney Lifetime Achievement Award for Right Wing Evil to Pig Boy Rush Limbaugh, for his life long dedication of wallowing in his own filth."






Happy Halloween!



See you all next year!

In case any of you haven't yet visited GD, I've posted my 9th Annual Late H. Lee Atwater Award for Right Wing Evil thread. Make sure to vote! Voting ends at Midnight tonight.

Yes, GD is a scary place to venture, even at this time of year. But this year's crop of evil right wingers are even more scarier!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027301196


The Rotting and Desiccated Corpse of the Late H. Lee Atwater

The Rotting and Desiccated Corpse of the Late H. Lee Atwater

Welcome to the event that makes your pre-Halloween celebration the joyous occasion that it is, you ghosts and goblins, you… The 9th Annual Late H. Lee Atwater Award for Right Wing Evil!

This year, with the election sea on upon us, we have quite a collection of evil actors too chose from, a bumper crop of Right Wing characters. Has there ever been a more horrifying collection of Scary Monsters right before an election season?

Why do I ask that question every year? They're always bad.

The winner will be announced at Midnight ET on Halloween, when the Rotting and Desiccated Corpse of the Late H. Lee Atwater will rise from his grave in South Carolina and over the award with his boney hands.

Last year's winner, for the third time in a row, was the "Two-headed beast known as the "Koch Brothers: "http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025738879 alone with the first winner of the Richard Bruce "Dick" Cheney Lifetime Achievement Award for Right Wing Evil, Richard Bruce "Dick" Cheney, his god-damned self. Let's give others a chance this year, shall we?

Here is your collection of walking, talking Creature Features for your perusal. Your vote will determine who receives this year's auspicious award. You nominated some of these evil bastards earlier and I added the rest:




Ted "Carnival" Cruz


Paul "Ayn Rand" Ryan


Chris "Crisco for Blood" Christie


Roger "Trump's Id" Stone


Bruce "Ruiner" Rauner


"Mad Doctor" Ben Carson


Donald "Baby Three-Toed Tree Sloth" Trump


Sean "Creature Feature" Hannity


Jeb "George Who?" Bush


Bobby "Piyush Who?" Jindal


The Whole Damn Republikkan Klown Kar

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2015/10/26/3715969/ben-carson-ridiculousness-continues/

Half the time Carson has no idea what he's talking about and the other half, he's saying the most ridiculous sounding bullshit that he can muster. If he actually thinks that he can get elected as president and function in office, he'd have to be the most delusional Klown in the Klown Kar.

I have my own theory about him: He's pretty much trying to out-crazy the craziest GOPer out there in order to pander for support... And it's working, of course. I believe that his ultimate goal really isn't to get elected at all, but to monetize his campaign for publicity and greasing the rubes in the long run. We can thank the Wasilla Snow Snooki for pioneering this electioneering scam. Carson's simply taking it to its next possible phase... By running his own "campaign," rather than hoping that some other Klown Kar driver would pick him to ride shotgun.

What's pretty freaking obvious that he's actually found the happy medium between popularity and un-electability, by spouting off his outrageous rhetoric.

Black conservatives are extremely adept at using pandering to white right wingers in order to line their own pockets, all the while, avoiding any actual responsibility whatsoever. I don't expect Carson to be any different.

https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton/status/659555444202070016