General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: There Is No "Bernie Bashing". There's Reasonable Annoyance At His Insults & Unhelpful Comments [View all]JCanete
(5,272 posts)CORNISH: To that point, you write very specifically about policies, especially Republican policies that you feel have not worked for the middle class. But when you look at globalization deals like NAFTA, banking deregulation laws like Glass-Steagall, they were presided over by Democrats.
So what's your response to the citizen, the voter who says the Democratic Party has not held up its end of the deal to American workers?
WARREN: Well, I think - I think there's truth in that. Look, let's be blunt. Democrats have not always been on the right side of these arguments. And frankly, Democrats have not indicated, always, a willingness to wade in and actually to fight for the people who need it.
I think there is criticism we can levy at the democratic party, whether we are in it or not, and I personally have thick enough skin that I'm not going to have any hurt feelings for it.
The Democratic opposition to Gorsuch was fine...it was unsuccessful, but there were no tools in the Democrats arsenal to make it successful. But us Democrats do have an annoying history of not using everything at our disposal and then being surprised when the Republicans use the powder we kept dry for them. I'm glad you have no concerns about the Democratic party, now or previously, in its ability to be an effective opposition to the GOP over much of the last 25 years. In the face of the GOP always trying to ram through the worst most regressive legislation possible, I'm glad that you don't have a problem with us trying to finesse through incremental measures, when we should be scaring the shit out of them into coming to the table with the most lefty progressive rhetoric and policies possible, but I'm getting weary of our fighting style. I think we're losing the attrition war and have been for some time.
That's because money wins every time, in every domain. That's what it does, we just pretend like its not the main thing we're fighting, and that it hasn't dug its claws into our ankles and made us fight with a limp.
There's a reason why some of us think this issue has to be front and center, and why we are less inspired when we don't see that that is the case. I appreciate that Ossoff is fighting against corporate corruption. I appreciate that Spitzer was fighting corruption. But in Spitzer's case, when it came to money in politics, he did not see a problem. I don't know if we can afford the small victories and keep missing the forest for the trees.
But I'm glad Clinton had a whole page about coal workers on her website.