The Next DNC Chair: TOM PEREZ WINS, makes Ellison deputy chair

[MasterJedi]

Not wanting people whose views on all but a few issues are diametrically opposed to those of a party inside said party = "purity tests". OK, then...

What part of "we aren't Democrats and don't want to be part of your party but have to work with you as you're the only other alternative" is hard to understand? In the end though as you've said we're awful and shouldn't be allowed to work with the Democrats so you'd prefer Trump, we get it, not that hard. Rather have it fully your way and lose than get some of what you want now but help crush Trump and the deplorables.

[heatcharger]

Not wanting people whose views on all but a few issues are diametrically opposed to those of a party inside said party = "purity tests". OK, then...

Slicing up Democratic electorate is a recipe for permanent Republican rule. I thought this was abundantly obvious.

And if Democrats are to win elections in the future, they need the MasterJedis of the world as a part of the coalition. The demographic trends of this election was not a one-off event.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Who care. The DNC chair isn't the leader of the party and their power is greatly exaggerated by the Bernie people.

Obviously not you. It's not just about leading it's being transparent about where funds are going. Perez has been the only candidate that has refused to be interviewed.

This isnt a public election. Why would he need to get interviewed?

You don't want another DWS do you?

I don't think DWS is a racist, so he wouldn't be another DWS.

[Shadows]

Nomiki is a very nice woman. She interviewed the coal lobbyist Harrison, the crazy woman Jeemu something & she was very nice to both. She interviewed Buckley, Ellison & she gave a fair chance & promoted all of them.

Perez is also running as a divider, he is only here to stop Ellison. Many of his votes are lobbyist DNC members who want to keep buying influence. And his slogan was stolen from HRC, progressive who gets stuff done, what is that sh*t? Ellison can's get stuff done? He refuses to answer any question about the divide among Bernie & HRC wing & ignores the progressive left.

Ellison is a grassroots organizer & it will be a shame if he is denied only because the establishment wants a stooge!

[MT Treasurer]

I for once welcome the fact that people like MasterJedi are fleeing the GOP and becoming Democrats. It makes the Republican Party much less awful, and there's still enough sane Republicans left.

[Antonio the Sixth]

"we aren't Democrats and don't want to be part of your party but have to work with you as you're the only other alternative"

Fine, then shut up about internal Democratic politics and let people who actually share the Democratic party's values choose their leaders instead of shilling for the establishment.

And if Democrats are to win elections in the future, they need the MasterJedis of the world as a part of the coalition. The demographic trends of this election was not a one-off event.

Democratic candidate sells out the working class in order to chase rich conservative suburbanites and blows an unlosable election in the process. Clearly the solution is to sell out the working class and chase rich conservative suburbanites more!

[MasterJedi]

I for once welcome the fact that people like MasterJedi are fleeing the GOP and becoming Democrats. It makes the Republican Party much less awful, and there's still enough sane Republicans left.

Yeah, we're not becoming Democrats. We're working behind the scenes for the collapse of Trump/tea partiers. It'll happen by itself with your overreach but we'd not leave a burnt out husk of a party in its wake.

[MT Treasurer]

I for once welcome the fact that people like MasterJedi are fleeing the GOP and becoming Democrats. It makes the Republican Party much less awful, and there's still enough sane Republicans left.

Yeah, we're not becoming Democrats. We're working behind the scenes for the collapse of Trump/tea partiers. It'll happen by itself with your overreach but we'd not leave a burnt out husk of a party in its wake.

Oh, I'm not a fan of Trump, but going back to the Bush years (which is what people like you and probably even Trump want to do) would be even more awful.

[Green Line]

I for once welcome the fact that people like MasterJedi are fleeing the GOP and becoming Democrats. It makes the Republican Party much less awful, and there's still enough sane Republicans left.

Yeah, we're not becoming Democrats. We're working behind the scenes for the collapse of Trump/tea partiers. It'll happen by itself with your overreach but we'd not leave a burnt out husk of a party in its wake.

Oh, I'm not a fan of Trump, but going back to the Bush years (which is what people like you and probably even Trump want to do) would be even more awful.

Are you crazy?  Whatever happens over the next 4 years is going to be much, much worse than whatever Bush did.

[MasterJedi]

"we aren't Democrats and don't want to be part of your party but have to work with you as you're the only other alternative"

Fine, then shut up about internal Democratic politics and let people who actually share the Democratic party's values choose their leaders instead of shilling for the establishment.

And if Democrats are to win elections in the future, they need the MasterJedis of the world as a part of the coalition. The demographic trends of this election was not a one-off event.

Democratic candidate sells out the working class in order to chase rich conservative suburbanites and blows an unlosable election in the process. Clearly the solution is to sell out the working class and chase rich conservative suburbanites more!

Basically it's "we need to get as liberal as possible so nobody will support us but our base and then be SHOCKED when we lose and determine we just need to be more liberal". That arrogance that you've always had is your greatest weakness and it's probably the left's greatest weakness in general too. Go down with the ship over compromise. It's what my fiancé deals with the toddlers she works with, get nothing over compromising and getting something which is better in the long run.

[Green Line]

The Democrats just need to get back to being a working class party for all Americans.  Fight for the little guy in Laredo Texas and Youngstown Ohio.  Somewhere over the last 8 years the Democrats decided that it was preferable to divide Americans up into racial groups and wait for one of them to die off.

[MasterJedi]

You don't really hear much about skills/technical/trades training either. Go for raising taxes on the rich and then re-investing that money back into retraining people into the other trades in the blue collar areas where manufacturing is leaving. The skilled trades are without people needed. Spending on actual infrastructure, etc. Jobs are there, but you just have the "coal is done, the manufacturing jobs are gone" but never saying what they want to do. Need to give the people hope and a vision. It's why they'll choose "we'll bring the jobs back" even if it's not true, Trump was at least telling them something would be done.

[Fusionmunster]

Just vote. Fight with each other all you want, but just vote. Too much is at stake for ideological purity to be placed above all else. When Trump is gone and the things that democrats hold dear are no longer threatened, then we can work on the finer details, but right now just vote for the person with a D in front of their name. I don't want to have to hear about women dying from back alley abortions or gays getting denied service or dreamers getting deported, okay?

[Antonio the Sixth]

Just vote. Fight with each other all you want, but just vote.

...I assume this isn't directed to me?

[Fusionmunster]

Just vote. Fight with each other all you want, but just vote.

...I assume this isn't directed to me?

Anyone who can read.

[Maxwell]

Regardless of how relevant the role of DNC Chair is, I think it's a bad sign for the party to continue to protect every single role top to bottom for their own favored talent instead of letting newer voices into the process. I like Tom Perez truthfully, he seems like a good guy with policy smarts and behind the scenes skills. But like it or not, the DNC Chairmanship is a public role with implications on how someone approaches the job, and I think the Perez Chairmanship wouldn't be much of a change from the years of Wasserman Schultz or Brazile, where the Democrats plunged for the pockets of Corporate America to really no avail. There needs to be some sort of change where Democrats cut off reliance on Corporate America and push for a more grassroots, individually funded approach, and a strategy that reflects that shift in terms of which races to target. I've cooled on Ellison a little bit but I think he's still my guy for that reason.

[Virginiá]

I think Democrats/liberals would be wise to avoid the same issues that have plagued the GOP. You need to be able to compromise, and not expect everything to come together exactly as you want it all at the same time. Sometimes incremental progress is really all you can realistically get, and sometimes you can move faster. I'm not sure if this is possible if we are advocating purging everyone who dissents on more than a few issues.

I'm curious to see how the party deals with all of this over the next 4 years. This seems like a pretty critical time for the party and American politics in general.

[Maxwell]

The current party leadership has signaled that they do not want to hand over the reigns to anyone who isn't dyed in the DLC wool. There needs to be healthy discussion within the party that ultimately leads in some changes, not just continuing of the same DLC people in charge.

I don't even disagree with the idea that compromise sometimes needs to happen, but I think the leadership style that we've been using has not been working, where we are so eager for compromise that we begin with an already compromised vision to the other party that has absolutely no interest in negotiation. I mean, there is the real potential that everything that we did in 8 years under Obama is going to get repealed in 4 years under Donald Trump.

It's a critical time in the party because it's a critical time for the party to re-arrange. Obviously we aren't going to shake everyone out of the party but the fact is when something doesn't work you figure out what's wrong and you change it.

[Virginiá]

It's a critical time in the party because it's a critical time for the party to re-arrange. Obviously we aren't going to shake everyone out of the party but the fact is when something doesn't work you figure out what's wrong and you change it.

Yes, I can agree with that. Quite frankly, I'm sick of corporate friendly Democrats myself. Such friendly policy has gotten us nowhere but to a point where income inequality is suffocating and corporate culture has evolved into a cancer on our society. Clinton was probably the last presidential candidate of that old mold I will lend a hand to. She campaigned on what was essentially an extension of Obama in many regards, and I think Obama fell well short of what was needed. We need at least one party in this country who will take on a system that is intent on cannibalizing itself & society for short-term gain. Personally, I expect the next Democratic president to begin a wave of trust busting where necessary, and to refocus the party's goals on effectively limiting the concentration of corporate power.

That being said, some of the things being said by fellow liberals (not necessarily on this board) do scare me - various comments that appear to hold a "I'm sick of this and we will not give up an inch this time" vibe. Hell, Shadows on here has been openly advocating purging any non-liberal from the party (which would destroy it). You can see other troubling behavior from places like Daily Kos, where front page posts openly advocate obstructing everything and anything, no matter what, because Trump is this and that, etc etc. That kind of behavior in general is toxic and will have undesirable side effects on our party.

I see parallels to what is happening with conservatives, and I don't want us having some purity war between ourselves. This is how it starts. We lose one or more important elections, a rising force different from the old guard finally gets the upper hand, and after years of decrying the flawed ways of the old guard, various groups set out to get rid of them, except maybe they don't all have the same idea of what is unacceptable and inevitably you begin getting this narrow ideological vision with no room for anything else, because others blame "that" as the problem. Let it go on long enough and that behavior becomes entrenched among various factions.

Anyway, yes, I advocate new leadership, new strategy and a more liberal direction just like others, but I don't want us to develop bad habits in the process - habits I already see popping up more and more. We still need moderates and in some places, somewhat conservative Democrats, to remain viable across the country.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Just vote. Fight with each other all you want, but just vote.

...I assume this isn't directed to me?

Anyone who can read.

I can read, but I can't vote.

[publicunofficial]

It's a critical time in the party because it's a critical time for the party to re-arrange. Obviously we aren't going to shake everyone out of the party but the fact is when something doesn't work you figure out what's wrong and you change it.

Yes, I can agree with that. Quite frankly, I'm sick of corporate friendly Democrats myself. Such friendly policy has gotten us nowhere but to a point where income inequality is suffocating and corporate culture has evolved into a cancer on our society. Clinton was probably the last presidential candidate of that old mold I will lend a hand to. She campaigned on what was essentially an extension of Obama in many regards, and I think Obama fell well short of what was needed. We need at least one party in this country who will take on a system that is intent on cannibalizing itself & society for short-term gain. Personally, I expect the next Democratic president to begin a wave of trust busting where necessary, and to refocus the party's goals on effectively limiting the concentration of corporate power.

That being said, some of the things being said by fellow liberals (not necessarily on this board) do scare me - various comments that appear to hold a "I'm sick of this and we will not give up an inch this time" vibe. Hell, Shadows on here has been openly advocating purging any non-liberal from the party (which would destroy it). You can see other troubling behavior from places like Daily Kos, where front page posts openly advocate obstructing everything and anything, no matter what, because Trump is this and that, etc etc. That kind of behavior in general is toxic and will have undesirable side effects on our party.

I see parallels to what is happening with conservatives, and I don't want us having some purity war between ourselves. This is how it starts. We lose one or more important elections, a rising force different from the old guard finally gets the upper hand, and after years of decrying the flawed ways of the old guard, various groups set out to get rid of them, except maybe they don't all have the same idea of what is unacceptable and inevitably you begin getting this narrow ideological vision with no room for anything else, because others blame "that" as the problem. Let it go on long enough and that behavior becomes entrenched among various factions.

Anyway, yes, I advocate new leadership, new strategy and a more liberal direction just like others, but I don't want us to develop bad habits in the process - habits I already see popping up more and more. We still need moderates and in some places, somewhat conservative Democrats, to remain viable across the country.

I agree with you in that the party needs Blue Dogs and moderates to be viable. However, there is a very widely held feeling that progressives are represented nowhere in the current party leadership. The closest thing is Nancy Pelosi, who is a solid progressive but comes off as very out of touch with the common voter.

The only Dems in Congress I fully believe should be primaried out of office are Feinstein, Carper, and Menendez (for non-ideological reasons) Hopefully both retire this cycle so it doesn't come to that.

[publicunofficial]

A lot of Bernie's excitement didn't come from him being a progressive. It came because he was actually proposing new ideas. Bold ideas. That's the main thing lacking at the top of the Democratic Party, boldness.

Schumer + Pelosi are fairly liberal, but they're not out to change the world. They're not visionaries, or idealists. That's often a good thing for leaders to have, but the consequence is that the base feels like their leaders don't really care about the ideas they say they support. There's no sense of urgency.

[Antonio the Sixth]

A lot of Bernie's excitement didn't come from him being a progressive. It came because he was actually proposing new ideas. Bold ideas. That's the main thing lacking at the top of the Democratic Party, boldness.

Schumer + Pelosi are fairly liberal, but they're not out to change the world. They're not visionaries, or idealists. That's often a good thing for leaders to have, but the consequence is that the base feels like their leaders don't really care about the ideas they say they support. There's no sense of urgency.

Exactly. And that's a big deal. The US needs new ideas. The world needs new ideas. The recipes of the past just haven't been working for the mass of the people.

[publicunofficial]

A lot of Bernie's excitement didn't come from him being a progressive. It came because he was actually proposing new ideas. Bold ideas. That's the main thing lacking at the top of the Democratic Party, boldness.

Schumer + Pelosi are fairly liberal, but they're not out to change the world. They're not visionaries, or idealists. That's often a good thing for leaders to have, but the consequence is that the base feels like their leaders don't really care about the ideas they say they support. There's no sense of urgency.

Exactly. And that's a big deal. The US needs new ideas. The world needs new ideas. The recipes of the past just haven't been working for the mass of the people.

Precisely. The moderate position, of both parties, is usually the status quo. When only the radical left/right are actually creating new proposals, of course people will gravitate to them.

The left largely wants a national health service, legal marijuana and an end to the drug war, a de-escalation of America's role as "world policeman", stronger protections for unionized labor, and a near complete overhaul of America's education system top-to-bottom. Now find me a Democrat in office outside of Madison City Councilman who's a strong advocate for all of those things. That's the left's problem.

[The Other Castro]

Quite the admission here from Perez:

Dave Weigel ‏@daveweigel  37s38 seconds ago
Now in answer mode, Perez criticizing DNC in 2016: "We failed to be transparent. We failed to make sure we didn't put a thumb on the scale."