Democrats In The Wilderness

Are you arguing for smaller government?


Democrats return to leadership is simple:

1) Make law abiding American citizens priority #1. No more wasting time arguing over illegals errrrr I mean undocumented errrrr I mean errrrr what was the discussion again? Too much devils advocate, let's get down to the issue and that is holding people accountable for their actions: undocumented means illegal. There is no shortage of immigrants waiting patiently for their opportunity. Also: stop defending criminals. That parade of mothers at the DNC was a major turn-off

2) Secondly you are either in favor of political correctness/safe zones/trigger warnings OR free speech.

3) Lay off the celebrity endorsements. Most of us hate celebrities, why would we follow their political opinions? When you find yourself in bed with Hollywood - you made a wrong turn along the way.....


Make these three simple changes and Democrats will steal back many of the "first time Republican voters".

 

Lol man this is some bad analysis.

 

Too simplistic? Illustrates how badly Democrats have lost the simple plot. Some straight forward changes and out of the wilderness.

 

The thing is that Obama was already doing a good job of not coddling undocumented immigrants. 2.5 million deportations and a significant decline in illegal immigration. As a Democrat I also support policies that try to eliminate illegal immigration. I just think the solutions are the opposite of what Trump is doing. First of all, I think this needs to be done through immigration reform in Congress. And yes, part of that is a path to citizenship for some people who meet certain criteria. And instead of picking fights with Mexico, we should be cooperating with them. Mexico was already doing a much improved job of securing their own Southern border with our help. And attacking the Mexican economy is absolutely the opposite of what we should be doing. Having a strong Mexico is in America's best interest. As for the cartels, the solution is the opposite of what Trump is doing. If you want to weaken the cartels, you go after their funding. Stopping the war of drugs would be a fatal blow to the cartels. Legalizing prostitution would kill their sex trafficking business. And comprehensive immigration reform would destroy their human smuggling business because it would create the legal pathway for the people that our economy needs to get here.

Government has no place in deciding what kind of speech we use. If some people want to be politically correct, it's their right. Personally I prefer more straightforward politicians, but this is a stupid thing to include as a party policy.

Again, it's a free country. Celebrities can say whatever they want. It shouldn't be too hard to tune it out. If it bothers you so much, maybe you're the problem.

 

The stupid is strong in that one, for certain.

 

Inferior culture ...

 

So Nancy Pelosi was being interviewed by Anderson Cooper and her answer to one question is very telling. She was asked who are the leaders of the Democratic Party. This was her answer :

She lists two people who are currently retired from politics? Never mind that the word 'leader' is in her title.

The House of Representatives is the best equipped political body to lead the Democratic Party, even from a minority position. An entire country of Democrats is relying on her to show that leadership. The fact that more than 100 Democratic reps voted for her to lead is both shocking and disappointing.

http://thefederalist.com/2017/03/22...-democratic-party-is-picks-obama-and-clinton/

 

Why is Nancy Pelosi still the House Democratic Leader? She keeps getting re-elected, why?

 

Because Democrats are obsessed with seniority and waiting your turn. They're too docile to lead. They never challenge each other over anything. They're mostly representing safe gerrymandered districts which doesn't encourage change and fresh ideas.

 

She is a rep for San Francisco right, why does she keep getting voted in, if the Berniebros/sis part of the party really want change, getting someone to challenge her in the primary should be one of their top goals, do to her what the Tea Party did to the Cantor guy (the former Whip of the house, I may have the wrong name).

 

One thing is that she cares for other elected Democrats and is a prodigious fundraiser for them.

 

So she basically buys her way into the leader position, nice job Democrats.

 

No, she helps other Democrats get elected, and they're justifiably thankful.

 

Well that is what I said, but in harsher words. Money is very important in politics, perhaps the most important thing.

 

I don't think it's a thing that requires harsh words, I guess.

 

But not enough other Democrats, which presumably is important to at least some of them.

 

This could not be further from the truth. You make it sound like she's bribing other Democrats so she can be leader. She's leader because she has tenure. She's been a congresswoman since 1987, and has been a member of the DNC since 1976. She's the first female Speaker of the House. She knows politics, how Washington works, and she knows what it takes to help people get elected. While Democratic politics are often about working your way up, she's definitely done that. She's earned her position.

Money is incredibly important in politics, but what she does is gather money from the base to send down ballot to get other Democrats elected. She raises money for the Democratic cause. She's not pocketing the money herself and living high off the hog.

 

I think this is the key. When she was Speaker, she had a powerful ability to get bills passed. Contrast that to the recent Republican leaders. It's clear why she is repeatedly voted Speaker or Minority Leader. That doesn't mean she should be leader of all Democrats, but you can't get any agenda passed if you aren't a good cat herder first.

 

The problem with Pelosi is not money. The problem with her is that she's on an 8 year losing streak. She came in with the anti Bush wave, and since then it's been loss after loss after loss.

I'm not tired of her personally as much as I'm tired of her shitty results in getting things accomplished.

 

I don't understand what you mean by her shitty results of getting things accomplished. Her job isn't to force everyone to get onto the same page. Her job is lead cat herder in Congress. She doesn't overlord the DNC and she can't force Dems to abide by certain policy positions.

The DNC allows its participants to think for themselves and have different viewpoints. It's why they appear so disjointed. They follow politics how it was designed to be: to have differing viewpoints. The Republicans follow the party line on everything. Some are more hard line than others, but there's a clear path and everyone follows it, and if you are a Republican, you will tow the party line. The Republicans have an agenda and if you're a Republican you will fall in line. If there's one thing I envy about the Republicans it's that they are incredibly organized and fall in line. They're not wishy-washy. The Democrats all spend most of their time arguing amongst each other while the Republicans just go out and win. If you want to know why she has "shitty results in getting things accomplished", it's because the Dems have allowed the members of their party to differ on many viewpoints. It's great if you're part of an actual democracy with democratic ideals, but that's not the current political climate.

 

Being speaker or minority leader is absolutely a results oriented position. And not just in the context of elections, although there is a responsibility there as well to focus on policies that get your members reelected. But also in the context of strategy. How to outflank Republicans, how to lay traps for them and how to reach across the aisle when appropriate.


I don't mean to make the Pelosi issue black and white. I agree with other posters that she is a very selfless and inclusive leader. By all accounts an overall nice person. But her skills at being a donor whisperer is a double edged sword. Here's an article on the topic from 2012 : https://www.washingtonpost.com/blog...bc92fee603a7_blog.html?utm_term=.5e5eb8b0f019 450 fundraising events in one year. That's 1.25 events per day. This next quote is telling :

“You have to give us money so we win and don’t have to ask you for money.”

That is a message Democrats having telling us for decades, and we're still at square one. We're still doing 450 private exclusive fundraisers per year for the wealthy, and we're not any closer to getting corruption out of politics. The definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results. At some point if we can't reform all of Washington, let's at least start by reforming our own party.

 

Here's a pro Tim Ryan article that summarizes my point a little more eloquently than I can : http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry...ave-the-democrats_us_583c78a8e4b000af95ef2627

 

Republicans do a pretty good job at vilifying female leaders and worse of all we all tend to buy it to some extent.